Stacking up

In addition to starting to occasionally walk (or just standing up in the middle of the floor and swaying), Owen has started stacking blocks -- and then energetically scattering them while saying "bah!". This has unfortunately coincided with Zachary rediscovering these same blocks and wanting to construct bridges and such from them at the same time. Ah, brothers. But regardless, Owen has impressively gotten stacks six or seven high.

Big step

Nobody can deny that Owen's "tucked in leg"-style crawl is super adorable:

But today he topped it by, just in time for Meh's birthday, taking his first true unassisted steps! And impressively, he didn't start from holding onto a chair or anything; he just stood right up in the middle of the room, smiled at mommy, and headed the one or two steps in our direction necessary ot make it. No capture on the camera as of yet, though here's a video from soon after.

Since Meh's birthday proper will be tomorrow, which is a late workday for her and orchestra for me, mima and papa came over tonight to surprise her with balloons (the boys were pleased, with Owen pointing and saying "bvvvv!"), decorations, and a very tasty dinner! I supplied the dessert, a surprisingly decent flourless chocolate cake. Happy happy birthday pretty wife!

Who Let the Dogs Out

What a difference a night (and a change of venue) makes! Tonight we went to the second Passover seder at the home of friends K & J (and their daughters N and A). Other than an early faceplant going headfirst down their fun play slide, Z had a fabulous time. He interspersed playing and running around the house (generally while singing "Dayenu" or the first question and a half of "Mah Nishtanah") with sitting very politely at the table next to mima and across from us, smiling while eating (ahem) non-passover cookies and crackers. Ah well.

Beyond an encore of the one page haggadah and plague-themed finger puppets (courtesy of grandma), one of the highlights of the evening was the point where, while Zachary and many of the kids were off playing, several hundred pounds of pooch (K & J have both a black lab and a burmese mountain dog) came hurtling into the seder. They'd been outside, but Zachary apparently decided it was a good idea to let them in. He was still standing at the door and smiling when the dogs were ordered back outside - silly man. And yes, it did happen one additional time a little while later; really I think he just liked to see how quickly the dogs could fly in and then back out of the house.

Owen turned into a pumpkin fairly early into the proceedings, so Meh and he headed out somewhat earlyish. And many of the other kids in attendance (this seder had a fair number) fell apart towards the end. But Zachary was in a fabulous mood from the beginning to the very end, and we even had a nice father/son drive home together listening to some of his music and singing along with "Hands are for Clapping". Such a good Passover man!

In other news, while he's always had fun with us covering his eyes and then saying "peekaboo", Owen has discovered the joys of self-initiated hide and seek. Here's his new favorite spot:

Why is this knight different...

Happy Passover! Tonight we hosted a seder for friends and family. Unfortunately friend S ended up being sick, so her husband D was only able to stay for a moment and drop off some of foods they'd made; we at least made them up a takeout container, but hope she feels better soon! Anyway, we still had a packed living room and a nice convivial seder. Plus we got to use my (in)famous one-page haggadah, which hopefully made the evening a bit more duration-appropriate for our several younger guests -- though Owen was pretty much down before things even started. Meanwhile, Zachary has been practicing the Four Questions for the past few weeks -- really he only gets through the first question and a half, them loops back to the beginning, but still it's quite impressive and extremely cute. Alas, when we got to that part of the seder, he got all shy and ducked out -- though he did smile at everyone while we sang it together. A little ways into the actual festive meal, Z had a bit of a meltdown, and soon joined O in upstairs sleepy land while we wrapped up a very tasty and hugely varied dinner and dessert. Meh once more outdid herself with sheer quality and variety, and our guests all brought epic amounts of homemade gefilte fish (thanks mima and papa!), yummy kugels, roasted vegetables, charoset, wine, and even a tasty faux ice cream made of halva. It was wonderful to fill the house with friends, food, and tradition - and of course the leftovers certainly won't hurt as we work through a week without breads!

Changing of the Guard's Pajamas

While my Europe trip was mostly running around catching trains, flights, taxis, and subways, I did get a morning off to do some shopping. I picked up an excellent cookbook recommended by friend J, which is not yet available here -- Meh has already made some fabulous meals from it, and we've both enjoyed some of the divergences of cooking language ("blending" in the UK is apparently "whizzing") and metric conversions. Of course I restocked our depleted tea collection. And on the morning of my flight, I hopped over to the Royal Mews to pick up these excellent pajamas (pyjamas) for Zachary. Sorry, no bearskin hat this time. The collar is a pretty snug fit for our big American heads, so Meh may need to do some surgery on it to make it easier to get on. But such a cute little royal solider man; we anticipate he will be fully engaged for the royal wedding in a few weeks.

Facial recognition

I got back from the UK yesterday evening, clearing customs and picking up my car just in time to get home for Zachary's story time (Owen was already asleep). Z was up at his typical early time, and we got to have some good snuggles together - definitely good to be home! But when Meh brought Owen downstairs and he saw me, there was no familiar open-mouthed smile; he retained his shy reserved self. After a little bit I was able to get him to crack a little grin, but there was definitely the possibility that he didn't recognize his own daddy at first sight. Oh no! But never fear, today we get some father/son catch up time; Meh has work, so the boys and I will be figuring out things to do on a dreary overcast day while I fight the jet lag.

If the shoe fits

We're still recovering from our trip to DC, but I'm already packed for another trip; I head to Europe later tonight for a week of meetings and a conference. But we did have a lovely family day today, heading to the mall for some shopping and lunch. The main stop on the shopping trip was for shoes; Zachary had once again outgrown his, and we decided it was time for O to get his own first pair of actual non-soft-soled ones. Z ended up choosing a pair that was identical to the shoes he'd had before his current pair ("want blue shoes"). Owen thought getting his feet measured was funny, but wasn't as much of a fan of actually trying on these toe movement constricting things.

He is, however, most certainly a fan of mommy's cooking and baking:

District Tourists

Though Zachary was a frequent flyer seemingly from the moment he was born, Owen had yet to take an airplane -- that all changed this week, as we visited bubbie, Aunt I, and Uncle S in Maryland for bubbie's 91st birthday! Packing for four is slightly more challenging than even three, though in the end I think we had just about the right amount of clothes (particularly with a load or two of laundry thrown in at Aunt I and Uncle S's house). Zachary got to try out his new wheely suitcase in the airport, and had a great time riding it around. We also left plenty of time so the boys could enjoy themselves at the very mall-looking play area -- where they had the run of the place for part of the time, only occasionally needing to share it with other kids.

The flight itself was decent; Zachary was very excited to be back on a plane and actually took a great nap. Owen took a shorter nap and mostly just got bored despite a flurry of toys and foods. On the plus side, the plane snack packs were perfectly appropriate for both boys, with cheese (Owen tried to eat a giant cheddar wedge) and fruit. When the plane landed, Zachary smiled at me and said "one more time!"; he only got sad when we had to get off the airplane.

With the time change, we got into DC very late, then had to go grab the rental car, wait for them to sort us out, install the car seats, and then get mildly lost trying to get to our hotel -- we ended up dumped at the end of a freeway into downtown D.C., whoops. But by 12:30 or so, we were at the hotel and ready for sleep. Alas, it was a single bed (I'd asked for two doubles), and nobody was interested in trying out the sleep tent some friends had graciously loaned us. Suffice it to say, sleep was a bit elusive, though on the plus side, everyone did sleep until 8 am (5 am back home).

Uncle B and grandma also came in for Bubbie's birthday, and we all met up the next morning at Aunt I and Uncle S's house. It was Bubbie and Owen's first meeting, and they seemed to get along famously. Zachary said hi to everyone, while Owen was fascinated by "Minnie dog" (and her water bowl, and really any moderately off limits area; he spent much of the morning practicing climbing up the carpeted staircase. We all had a really nice day together, including a nice dual stroller walk.
The rest of the trip was nice (other than the sleeping -- the second night we discovered just how thin the walls of our hotel were, as our neighbors apparently had a party, and kept loudly giving driving directions over the phone as more and more people arrived) -- we took the Metro into DC and took the boys to the National Museum of Natural History, where Zachary and Owen had a very fun time looking at all of the dinosaur bones. From there, we walked over to the National Cherry Blossom Festival, which featured some stunning... flowers? Foliage? Anyway, the boys enjoyed the walk along the tidal basin, and even let mommy stop off and pick up some gifts along the way. We met up with Bubbie and Aunt I for dinner that evening (graciously picked up once more by Aunt I).

For our last full day in the area, we decided to explore Bethesda. There was an interesting-looking Playseum that turned out to likely be Zachary's favorite part of the whole trip. They've apparently solicited all of the local Bethesda businesses to set up miniature play "shops" in what was originally a bookstore. Zachary saw the fire truck and it was all over from there, he just kept checking out various stores and having a blast. Eventually both boys even ended up in a car together, playing very nicely together. After a tasty family lunch, we tried to have nap time back at the hotel (failing), and then tried to have dinner with Bubbie one last time (also failing, the boys finally did fall asleep in the car). Bright and early this morning we were off to the airport for the return flight -- Owen had a slightly rougher time on the way back, though mostly again just needing constant entertainment. Both boys did so well on a cross-country trip, we were so proud of them; but we all agree, there's no place like home, and it's good to be back!

(Full set of pictures from the trip here.)

Toeing the Line

Wednesday was a good friend's birthday, so Meh took her out for a lovely tea while I watched the boys. Z had gym class, so I was happy to be able to attend for the first time. It's a combination of running around, tumbles, balance beam, and other activities. Owen had a great time climbing around the lobby making eyes at the other parents and playing with toys, and Z clearly had a great time skipping, tumbling, and playing.

A possible explanation for Zachary's frequent wakeups over the past few days: a fever on Friday sent him home from school, and Saturday morning he had the eye goops. Sure enough, we took him to the doctor and he was diagnosed with both an ear infection and pinkeye. Meredith had the foresight to ask the doctors if they could check out Owen as well, but Z had a rough time and O wasn't showing any symptoms, so we ended up bailing. Naturally, the next morning O had the same eye goops, and another trip to the doc and pharmacy later, we had matching bottles of everyone's favorite pink antibiotic. The boys' response to the medicine has been pretty diametrically opposed: Zachary hates it, generally ends up crying, and we doubt if he's actually swallowing even a tenth of it. By contrast, Owen smiled, clapped, and signed for more after I gave him his dose this afternoon.

On the plus side, it seems to be working - both boys seem markedly better today (though Z wasn't quite ready for school). We hope everyone's back to 100% soon; we've got a flight to catch in a few short days!

The sound of two teeth gnashing

Yesterday was Owen's 1-year doctor's appointment. He's already doing many of the things that the doctor and his "report card" indicated were to be looked forward to in the weeks/months to come. Here are the stats for the tiny (but tall) man:

Weight: 21 lbs, 13 oz (25-50th percentile)
Height: 31" (75-90th percentile)
OCF: 18" (25th percentile)

The only minus to the 12-month checkup is the set of shots; last night at bath time we removed three separate silver sparkly holographic bandaids, and he had a rough night sleep-wise, waking up several times. Though on the plus side, he did end up sleeping for the final round until 7:30 am. Meh noticed that he was grinding his teeth a bit when she went in this morning -- which means of course that he suddenly has two teeth. Congrats O! Zachary in the meantime had a few nightmares and ended up having daddy snooze time. While it's sad to hear him crying at night, it's pretty adorable to see him standing at his door, whispering "daddy, snuggle" before climbing back into his cozy bed.

Owen's been more frequently interested in checking out the piano lately. Here he is exploring his minimalist side.

Universal tooth

Owen continues to impressively eat a variety of foods that one would think you'd need at least two teeth to deal with. Yesterday I gave him a little bit of raw carrot, and he chomped on it amiably for quite a while. Granted, he kept working on the same piece (and occasionally taking it out to examine it), but you can't fault the effort.

He also continues to show great interest and engagement in the camera (as well as anything else we use to interact with him, as well as of course whatever Zachary happens to be playing with):

Free standing

Owen's latest accomplishment: standing up without any furniture-provided assistance. Meh saw him do this several times yesterday, and then during bath time he kept trying to demonstrate his newfound skill to me as well. Hooray, but please remain seated while in the tub!

Today I finally assembled our new toy/puzzle/book-holding cabinet that Meh had excellently chosen from our favorite Swedish flatpack store. Zachary even helped me hammer in a couple of dowels, though both boys preferred the actual packaging for entertainment.

With the cabinet complete, Meh has started the reorganization, and it's already such an improvement over the many piles and stuffed glass door cabinets in the family room. At last we can see all of the books that we've (or at least they've) been totally ignoring! The funniest part was when Zachary started to "clean up" by pulling vehicles out of the cabinet and putting them back in their old pile in the family room. He thought it was really funny when we explained that the cabinet is the new place to park the fire truck.

Get packing

And just like that, Owen demonstrated another skill for dinner on Sunday.

Owen's actual birthday (as opposed to his observed one) did end up including some fun singing and play time despite our busy schedules. Zachary celebrated with his own new 'toy': in preparation for our upcoming trip to visit bubbie, he got his very own ride-on suitcase. Here he was giving it a spin:

We're looking forward to getting to visit with bubbie, Aunt I, and Uncle S -- and grandma is flying in too! But still a tad nervous about the long flight (thankfully direct) and sleeping arrangements when we get there. Time to hunt for hotels!

Happy Birthday (observed)

Owen's first birthday falls on a Tuesday this year. Alas, between our various hectic schedules (including his - he's got swimming lessons during the day), we'll probably have all of twenty minutes to celebrate with him on his birthday proper between dinner and bathtime. So we opted to have his official party on the preceding Sunday -- as in, today. The unofficial guiding principle for birthdays is apparently to invite a number of friends equivalent to your age; we broke the rule a bit by having two guests: mima and papa.

Meh of course was in charge of the festivities and outdid herself once more. Working in an entirely new direction from a theme we used for Zachary's first birthday, she created an excellent dual-toned batch of cupcakes with a special birthday message.

We particularly enjoyed brainstorming a few objects that start with the letter "O", which Meh expertly piped as chocolate:

Like his brother before him, Owen wasn't really into the cupcakes themselves, though he did gobble up quite a few of the chocolate piped letters and decorative objects. Zachary meanwhile enjoyed eating a pile of strawberries that we'd placed adjacent to (what we felt was) an alluring cupcake on his plate. But the rest of us enjoyed the tasty cupcakes, and everyone enjoyed singing happy birthday and helping Owen blow out the candle.

Still unbelievable that he's already a year old! So many new and exciting things going on for him every day, and it's so fun to see him discover the world and smile, eat, laugh, pick up, put down, or occasionally spit up on it. While it's still technically two days away, happy happy first birthday tiny man!

Back in time

I got back late last night from a productive but exhausting conference. This morning, Zachary was up at his usual 5 am, and when I went to get him, he quietly whispered "Hiii daddy!", as if surprised that it was me and not mima or mommy that had come to fetch him. Incidentally, apparently the mima/mommy combo had gotten a little too complicated for Zachary while I was gone, so Meh has become "mama". We'll have to see if that sticks, particularly since I'm still daddy. Anyway, huge huge thanks once again to mima for staying with Meh while I was gone and helping take care of the boys -- I think the boys particularly enjoyed the bonus mima time!

And there was plenty new in Owen's world as well. First, he started making noises while pushing cars around. You can possibly just make it out (under Zachary's whining in the background):


He also started cracking himself up trying to say the word "bubbles":

In general we're noticing him trying to say words (or at least their first consonant) while pointing at objects; "buh" might mean book, ball, or if it's "buhhhh", balloon. Cute tiny man!

News worthy

For Valentine's Day this year, both Meh and I unfortunately had full days of work. Rather than try for a remote bouquet delivery, I opted to get Meredith a fun (and only mildly embarassing) gift of a singing valentine, where a local barbershop quartet went to her work and sang her a few songs in front of the apparently delighted patrons! She really liked it, and apparently it made an impression on the witnesses as well, as multiple friends and family members pointed us at the bottom of the "rants and raves" page of this weekend's Seattle Times. I'm glad everyone enjoyed it so much, and am just sorry I didn't get to hear the singers too!

Tomorrow I head to San Francisco for the annual Game Developers Conference -- I skipped last year due to a certain tiny man's arrival (picture at left). :) While I'll be kept very busy with three presentations and too many meetings to count, it's going to be hard to be away from Meh and the boys for the whole week. Thankfully Mima is going to be staying over and helping out - huge thanks to her in advance, and here's hoping the number of 5 am wakeups are minimal.

Sign up

The snow has returned! Thankfully it's been mostly a dusting at the house, which is enough to entertain Zachary but not enough to pin us at home. In other news, Owen is doing all sorts of new and exciting things lately. The words (or at least syllables) continue to sporadically appear. Here's a video grabbing his frequent favorite:


He's also decided he wants to try to climb the stairs. Thankfully he's stuck at the first step, but will try and try (often while saying "up!"). Time to bust out the safety gates again...


He's also started signing "milk!". It's particularly cute when I'm giving him a bottle, he'll stop drinking, look back at me, and sign while smiling. Meh says it's as if he's saying, "Look! We're having milk! Milk!!!". And lastly for today (sorry, lots of videos!), he's gotten into giving people big bear hugs, particularly if they happen to be at his height, like a certain older brother:

Who ya gonna call?

And the milestones keep on coming for both boys. Zachary is doing better and better with pottying, even going standing up as long as there's a step stool handy. And Owen has begun to actually "play", as in make-believe. He was eating pretend food (and sharing some with mommy) the other day, and yesterday began pretending to talk on his toy phone. Mommy caught this video:
And a shared milestone - while I've seen both boys laugh at me (er, hopefully with me?), today they really actually started laughing with each other and sharing a clapping game. Super cute, super silly:

Tip your waiters

We've been having a busy weekend with grandma and J! The boys have had a great time playing with them; Zachary even told what might be his first self-created "joke":

The only minus was that Owen appears to have forgotten how to take a nap; he'll get very sad and worked up if I try to put him down, even if he's rubbing his eyes and about to conk out in my arms. Hopefully it's just a brief phase, but for now it's pretty exhausting all around! Yesterday while Meh worked, we took a walk around everyone's favorite Seattle market, had a tasty lunch (at a table Zachary picked out!), and even visited the local architectural landmark masquerading as a library. Zachary had great fun riding the escalators all the way up to the top floor.

Mima and papa graciously had us all over this morning for a super-tasty brunch (featuring some extra decadent chocolate chip french toast). Owen promptly decided to make some music:


The afternoon was a bit more challenging -- after doing some arts and crafts with Zachary (which of course involved him somehow getting marker on his face), and with Owen once again nap-free all day, we opted to take a walk around our neighborhood and over to the elementary school. The boys loved getting some fresh air, though Zachary had to potty (and wonderfully announced it!) and we had to make a bit of a dash home, before heading right back out to friends J & S in the city. Owen finally fell asleep on the drive, and I successfully transferred him to the ergo. But when we got into J & S's house, Z had a total meltdown tantrum and wanted to be up as well. I ended up carrying around both boys (Owen at least stayed asleep just long enough to qualify for a "lousy" nap) in varying states of sadness while S gave grandma and J the grand tour. The boys had travelling dinner on the way home before a brief bathtime and bedtime. Whew!

Grandma and J head home early tomorrow morning - we had a wonderful time with them and hope they had a fun visit!

Balance of power

Owen has several new favorite activities - he's gotten quite good at putting things into (and taking them out of) containers. So once he has gotten past the first round of chowing on food at a restaurant, he'll switch gears and just focus on picking up and putting back. Perhaps more amusing, he's gotten into balancing objects on top of each other; again, with the love of food, this most frequently manifests as him picking up food, putting it onto the lid of his sippy cup, bringing the sippy cup toward his mouth, and slurping the well-balanced food off the top of it. Silly tiny man!


Grandma and her friend J are here to visit for the weekend. While Z was at school, Meh, Owen, and I picked them up at the airport and headed to lunch at a tasty spot we hadn't been in ages. O enjoyed some french toast while the rest of us got caught up. In the afternoon, we all had some good quality hang-out time back home, and grandma helped out with bath time too. Tomorrow night they've graciously offered to babysit so Meh and I can have a pre-Valentine's date -- hooray!