2 years 21 weeks

Big transitions this week--Zack started his new daycare/preschool this past Monday! It's a bigger place than the family daycare he was in, with about 50-some kids in 5 classrooms. He's in the Honey Bear room with other 3, 4, and young 5 year-olds. The first day both Rob and I dropped him off. We talked with his teacher, Miss Carol, for a bit, then said goodbye to Zack. He briefly looked up from the toys that he was playing with, said "Bye bye" and went right back to playing. We had been pretty sure his transition would be pretty easy, but this was more than we'd hoped for! The rest of the week has been like that--he runs to the door when we get there in the morning, and I have to practically drag him away in the afternoon. The teachers have been impressed with how friendly and sweet he is, how well he's transitioned, how helpful he is. Needless to say, we're quite pleased--both with how well he's doing and with our decision to move him to this daycare!

And the best part? He's EXHAUSTED when he gets home.

Before school.

After school.

When we get home, he has to chill out on the couch for a bit while he has a snack. By the time dinner is ready, he's jumping up on his chair, eating every bit and asking for more (in contrast to last week when I had to practically wrestle him to eat anything). He's asleep as soon as his head hits the pillow at bedtime. And he's been sleeping later. Woo hoo!


We tried out a new pizza place in Silver Spring last weekend. It was a lovely evening, so we sat outside and had amazing pizza, good wine, fabulous tiramisu, and great service (they were clearly trained to deal with kids--a big plus!). But the best part? It's near the train tracks. In thinking about it, while Zack loves trains, he probably hasn't really seen a real one except for the Metro. So when a freight train went by, Rob took Zack closer so that he could really see it. Talk about making a little boy's day! I'll never forget the look on his face when they walked back to the table. "Mommy! CHOO CHOO! HEAVY CHOO CHOO!" he sputtered, eyes as big as saucers. Priceless! And he talked about it all weekend.


This past weekend I got around to making desperately-needed new covers for the couch pillows (see picture above for what they look like). I spread out on the dining room table to cut the fabric, and Zack set up his drawing shop next to me. He wanted some of the cut-offs, so I handed them over.

This is what he did with them, all on his own.

He made train tracks.



And when these tracks didn't get him where he needed to go, he asked me for some more.

Sure thing, Bean.

A Sure Sign You're Delusional...

...would be when you dress your 2+ year old little boy in a white linen (albeit washable) shirt.

(Just for the record, the mustard, chalk, colored pencil, and other miscellaneous dirt all came out. And those eyes? Those eyes continue to be our downfall.)

2 years 19 weeks

Hi.

Zack and Rob were jamming last weekend.

It wore him out.


Sunday after lunch Zack was busy doing something or other, so I decided to get out the roll of brown paper and start working on a pattern for a skirt that I wanted to make. I settled down on the floor and started to draw. After awhile he found me, and seemed to think it it was pretty cool to draw on this roll of paper stretched out on the floor. I saw this as an opportunity, and moved the paper into the office where I was going to start cutting out fabric. He kept bugging me to have some pens (that's what Mommy and Daddy use, so why shouldn't he?), but pens lead to a lot more laundry and cleaning when placed in his hands. I suddenly remembered that we had a package of colored pencils, so I searched for those, and lo and behold! They were considered just as cool as I hoped they would be! He hunkered down on the floor and started drawing, and I settled in next to him and started cutting. As you can see, he takes his work very seriously. In addition to drawing, he discovered that when the paper was on the rug, he could poke his pencil through the paper to make holes. He continues to think this is a pretty cool activity and last night we all sat on the floor and drew. It was a lot of fun!



We went for a walk after dinner. Which means a run for Zack. Unfortunately it also meant a crash and scrape for him, as well. He got a really good, bloody scrape on his knee. This meant that he had to be carried home (It's rather difficult to carry a sweaty little boy on a hot and humid evening--he just starts slipping right out of your arms!), and then there were tears in the shower when we cleaned it because it stung. He wasn't sure about the whole band aid concept, so I put one on Bear Bear first, to show him how much it helped make the boo-boo feel better. That worked pretty well, but Mommy still needed to get a band-aid after that, too. Just for good measure. I also thought that it might help in the future if he had band-aids that he picked out himself. So yesterday I let him pick and Curious George was the winner. Of course, now we're on a roll, and Bear Bear needed 2 more band-aids once we got home.

He was drawing at his table the other night while I was getting dinner ready. He came into the kitchen to show me this drawing, telling me without any prompts that it was "Papa, Mama, and Baby." This is the first time that he's identified what he's drawn, and I suspect it was inspired by his recent interest in the book The Three Bears. It's hanging on the fridge now.


I am very happy to very quietly and non-celebratorily tell you that he has been going to bed much more easily the past few nights. A baby sitter even got him to sleep with minimal fuss on Saturday! After getting advice from some other people, we tried just telling him that he can go to sleep by himself, that he's been doing a great job sleeping in his BBB, tucking him in, then leaving. The first night Rob had to go back in and put him back in bed, but since then he's been doing great! Now if we could only do something about the 6 am wake up time.....

So it looks like we may be in the market for a new couch. Rob has been having Zack watch a video downstairs in the morning while he takes a quick shower. Zack seems to have gotten bored with the videos we have because yesterday morning he decided he needed more excitement. So he climbed up on the chair (like this). Normally he pulls out a rubber spatula or something like that. Yesterday he pulled out the (new! full!) bottle of balsamic vinegar. The bottle that we put a pour top on to make it easier to pour. The bottle that is now empty because its contents are now on our carpet and couch. At least we have carpet tiles, so that part was easy to clean. The couch? Not so much. It's in the frame, in the cushions, and our living room smells like salad.

Good thing he's cute.

2 years 18 weeks

Baby, it's hot outside!

Mother Nature apparently got the message that it's officially summer and cranked up the heat! It's 10:30 am and 91 degrees with about 150% humidity. Whew!

That does not stop our little guy however! It may slow him down a smidge (he wanted me to carry him part way on our walk yesterday afternoon. Just what I was hoping for on a 90 degree day--to hold a sweaty 2 year old!), but it certainly doesn't stop him.

He definitely prefers cool food, like sushi. Didn't you know, wearing your sushi makes it even cooler?


He eats Mom-made chocolate chip cookies. I didn't get a picture of him with chocolate smeared all over his belly. (Hmmm...I see a theme here, with the wearable food...)
He helps Dad wash the bird poop off the car. He carried out the bucket, soap, and sponges, scrubbed the car, and helped rinse it off.




He likes to watch videos of himself in action.

It was time for the Tupperware drawer to be cleaned out and reorganized.


He's rediscovered the train set that Papa made for him. He still needed help putting the cars together the last time he played with it a few months ago. When he pulled it out a few days ago, he was hooking them together like an old pro.

"Thank you, Papa" (He says this nearly every time he plays with the trains.)

He looks like a big boy.

He uses the new pool that Daddy got for Father's Day.



And not related to Zack at all are our hydrangeas this year. Three feet of snow seems to have agreed with them, as they are filled with blooms and were above our window sills before a storm flattened them a bit. They make me so happy every time I go by them!

Happy Father's Day!

A greeting from master Zachary to his beloved granddads! Have a great Day!

2 years 17 weeks

Just a few pictures to end the week.

We've given him the "job" of watering the plants. As you might imagine, there's often as much water on him as there is in the garden, but it keeps him happy. It took him about 2.3 seconds to realize that it's lots of fun to spray Mommy with the hose. You should see the gleam he gets in his eye before aiming at me!



He likes to jump and run and climb and fall. Often these activities are done on his parents.

When we got him his new bed, we couldn't resist getting this little chair for him, too. I'd put a video on for him one afternoon so that I could cook dinner. When I looked in, I caught him chilling out, like this.


Other times he chills out like this.


He'll be starting a new preschool in a few weeks. To help him adjust, he and I have stopped by to meet his teachers and check things out for a little while, just so he can get used to it. On both occasions, I was impressed all over again with the teachers and the facilities--I'm so glad that they had room for him this year. His teacher, Miss Carol, has been there for 28 years and clearly loves kids. They've made it very clear that it's their job to make him comfortable with the transition and to make sure he's happy there. However, I don't really think we'll have any problems with that. Both times we went, he marched right in and made himself at home. The first time he was won over when he discovered a Thomas the Tank Engine in his classroom that's bigger than the one he has at home. I actually thought there might be tears when I tried to get him to leave!

He's sort of doing better in his Big Boy Bed--some nights are better than others. Unfortunately, he seems pretty set on waking up at 6 am.

His language development is just amazing. New words everyday, putting new things together, talking about what's happened. At bedtime he's started to prefer reading to us instead of us reading to him. He has a book that has pictures of lots of different animals, and we go through it, page by page, so that he can name all the animals, or ask us what they are. He knows most of them, and seems to spend extra time on the pages with insects and spiders on them. I'm not sure how well this bodes for what I find in his pants pockets some day!

Speaking of which, did I mention that he tried picking up a slug the other day? He's very interested in bugs, and I try very hard to control my "ew" reactions (though I do tell him it's a bad idea to try to step on honey bees). However, when he came to me with his fingers out saying "Mess, mess" and I realized what that mess was....Let's just say that slugs are where I draw the line in terms of controlling my "ew's." Blech!

He's a Big Boy now

So the big news in the Spotts-Malootian household is that the Mini Maloot has graduated to a Big Boy Bed (hereafter referred to a BBB).

Here he is guarding his precious cargo at Ikea.

It took Rob awhile to put it all together. Actually, I'm sure he'd like me to tell you that it took him 6 hours. At least he didn't come down to the last couple pieces only to discover that a crucial part was missing!

Zack had to get right in there and help.

Zack was SOOOO excited by his BBB. Even before Rob finished it he wanted to go in and check on the progress, and he'd get in the frame and jump around with joy. He proudly tells people about his BBB, and when I tell him it's time to read books before bed, he proclaims "in my Big Boy Bed." Absolutely!


Unfortunately this enthusiasm hasn't translated directly into sleeping well in the BBB. He's been going through a bit of a procrastination phase when it comes to going to bed anyway, and this seems to have been exacerbated a bit by having free reign to his room. While I don't mind that he wants to play a bit before going to sleep, I don't really need to feel the need to accompany him while he does this. Which is the way he'd like it to work. He's also been waking up way too early (even by his standards) and wanting us to sleep with him or to come into our bed. Which is sort of alright, but not really. I'm hoping that this is just the way this transition is manifesting behaviorally for him, and that once he gets used to the change, he'll go back to normal. Or at least go back to acceptable.

I do have to say that once he's asleep, he sleeps solidly. And he's been doing really well with staying under the blanket and not ending up in strange positions.

One of the reasons that we decided it was time to get him a BBB was that he was running out of room in his crib--what, with him being rather long, and with the menagerie of trucks and stuffed animals that need to accompany him to bed. It seems that Rob and I got it wrong. He needed a BBB so that he could bring more paraphernalia with him to bed. Before Rob even finished putting it together, Zack was lining up his trucks next to the frame. And once the mattress and sheets were in place, in went all the stuffed animals and even more trucks. Whatever works!

2 years, 14 weeks

So I've got some catching up to do. We've had quite a busy couple weeks that involved Zack seeing just about everyone related to him.

It started out with Grammy Leslie coming down to stay with us on her way both to and from Florida. She had a great time seeing him and he loved the extra attention.


Then we headed up to Connecticut for Rob's Aunt Angie's 75th birthday party, where he saw most of Rob's mom's family--Nonni, Nonno, his aunts, uncles, and cousins, as well as a lot of other extended family. We also seem to have turned a corner in terms of his sleep away from home. He wanted nothing to do with the pack-n-play, so we had him sleep in one of the two double beds in the hotel room, packing pillows all around him. He did great! Though one night Rob looked over and didn't see him, only to find him snuggled up on the floor with his blanket and Bear Bear. We have no idea how he got on the floor, but no harm was done whatever method he used. The weekend was lots of fun and it was great to see everyone.

When we got back, Grandma and Papa were already at our house, ready to take care of Zack all week while daycare was closed. We'd told Zack that they'd be there, but you should have seen his face and exclamation of amazement when he saw first saw them! He had a great time with all of the individual attention he got that week. He helped Papa do all sorts of stuff in the yard (thanks lots for doing all that stuff, Papa!), went on walks, did lots of drawing. Grandma and Papa enjoyed their time, too, though I'm pretty sure they must have gone home and slept for two days straight!


The Friday of that week we left to go to Pennsylvania to go camping with our friends Deb and Shawn and their two girls, Kayla and Haley. This was our annual Unbirthday Weekend, where we celebrate the kids' birthdays all together. What a great weekend! We picked a great campground, had great weather, and had lots of fun. Zack just loves Kayla and Haley, and he had lots of fun with them. We took lots of walks, the kids collected caterpillars as pets, and just relaxed.




While Zack did eat one cupcake, another night he passed up a cupcake in favor of grapes! I'm not sure I've ever heard of a kid doing that before!


He loved their dog, Amber, and still talks about how Amber would give him kisses. He gave her kisses, too, and was really good about petting her.


All of us went to play miniature golf one evening. Thankfully, we were the only ones on the course because it was....well, let's just say that herding cats would have been a more organized activity. The girls sort of got it, but Zack ran and picked up everyone's ball after they hit it. Then as he was going under one of the miniature covered bridges to get a ball, he misjudged, conked his head and fell backwards. He recovered quickly.

We tried it again the next day, and Zack got the idea a bit more. Though he kept heading the wrong direction.

Feeling confident after our trip to Connecticut, we didn't even take the pack-n-play with us. We started talking up sleeping in a Big Boy Bed early the day that we got to the campground. He didn't really take a nap, which helped later in the evening. We went through our routine at bedtime, and though there was a little resistance, he finally decided that he did want to sleep in the Big Boy Bed. I laid down with him until he fell asleep, and then he pretty much slept through the night! By the next night, he was ready to jump in his BBB even before he had his jammies on. He also did great at taking naps. We're thinking that maybe we need to make the most of this momentum and switch him to a BBB at home, too.

He's been talking up a storm, putting several words together to get his point across or to tell us about things that have happened. If he's asking us to do something and we're not quite getting it or are taking too long, he'll take our hand and lead us where he wants, putting our hand on the door knob when he wants to go outside, for example.

And outside is where he loves to be! Digging in the dirt, taking walks around the block, looking at bugs, picking flowers, "mowing" grass with his lawn mower, blowing bubbles. We're going to have a tough time this fall when it starts to get cold and dark! He has his own watering can and is able to use the hose to fill it. The first can-ful will make it onto the plants, but as time goes on, more and more water ends up on Zack. Ah, well. He's happy and he won't melt.


He loves trucks. And cars. And tractors. He's got what seems like a bazillion small vehicles everywhere in the house and he has to be carrying around at least one at all times.

He's also very helpful (except when he's being 2 and contrary). He wouldn't leave the plunger along the other night as we were getting ready for a bath, so I put it outside the bathroom door and closed the door. I'd forgotten about it, but after the bath and getting jammies on, I hear a "Mom, see". He'd put the plunger back where it belongs and wanted me to see.

He started washing the bench the other day, of his own accord. (Note the trucks in his hand.)

A bit of background--our neighbor Ed (married to Cecelia) lost an eye a little while back (this is relevant, really). The other day Zack found a sheet of eye stickers, which he was sticking on the fridge and other places. Cecelia watched him for a few hours and took him over to her house for awhile, where Zack proceeded to put eye stickers on the fridge, where eyes were on some magnets. And on Ed's glasses, right over his missing eye. And Ed has kept it there.

My guys

2 years 12 weeks

We've been very bad at taking pictures lately, so here is just a verbal update.

He's very interested in falling. Literally. He likes to fall off the bed--he thinks it's funny. He likes to pull us off the bed so that we fall. This is great fun. His toys fall. When he's doing something that requires him to concentrate on his balance, he tells himself "Don't fall."

He's been able to open the refrigerator to get cheese sticks for awhile now. The other night, while I was occupied doing something else in the kitchen, he opened the fridge for cheese. I was in the process of telling him that he couldn't have cheese just then because it was almost dinner time--as I turned around, there he was, standing on the egg carton (yes, it was full) that he'd pulled out of the fridge and placed on the floor so that he could get a better look inside. Apologies for no pictures (though it did cross my mind)--I could only really think of cleaning raw egg off of the carpet. Remarkably, all the eggs were intact. And one does have to admire his ingenuity.

He reads along with us when we read Brown Bear, Brown Bear. He's also very enamored of the Dr. Seuss Foot Book. So enamored that he wants us to read it to him again...and again...and again.............

The other Sunday afternoon he decided that he only needed to nap for about 35 minutes. Which means that I only napped for 35 minutes. Then he was all ready to go outside in the 88 degree heat and humidity. I was not so enthused about this idea. Luckily, I remembered that we have a wading pool, which worked out perfectly. He was content to play, completely contained, in the water for nearly 2 hours (yes, we slathered on the sunscreen), and I could sit there with him just soaking my feet in the pool. I suspect that the pool is going to get a lot of use this summer!

The next night after we got home from daycare, we went outside and he was looking at the pool. I had just looked down after saying we weren't going to go in the pool tonight, when I heard a splash. Oh yes, he was standing in the pool, fully clothed and in his sneakers. "Pool!" he says with a grin.

While I was blowing up the pool on Sunday, a white cat came through the fence and started looking at me and meowing. Zack, in his typical all-animals-are-my-friend way, walked up to it. The cat hissed at him, and did so whenever he got anywhere near it. This did not please me, particularly since I'd never seen the cat before, so I went about shooshing it away and telling Zack that the cat wasn't happy so he should stay away from it. The cat clearly wanted something from me, so getting rid of it some doing. It finally left, no harm done to anyone or anything. But Zack remembers this. When we go outside, he goes to the place where the cat came through the fence and opens his mouth wide (like the cat did when hissing), then starts making a very gentle meowing sound. Then he goes to the side of the fence where it left and looks for it. It's really quite sweet.

He now wakes us up in the morning by calling to us.
Mom.
Dad.
Mom.
DAD.
Mooo-ooom!
Mom!
Daddd-DY!
When we enter his room, he's standing there with a big grin on his face, holding his items of the day (e.g. bear, motorcycle, penguin) and bouncing up and down.

He's very interested in what we do when we get food ready for a meal. He pulls his stool over to the counter to look. He wants to help, so I've started letting him do some small things, like pull handfuls of shredded cheese out of the bag to add to a bowl of eggs before they go in the frying pan. He's also started getting out his own fork and spoon from the drawer and taking them along with his plate of food over to the table, which makes him so proud. He also puts his own ice in his cup.

He knows the letter O and that it stands for Octopus.

I’m so proud of how brave he is. This coming from the mouth of someone who has always been incredibly shy and afraid to take risks. He isn’t afraid to go up to people and talk to them. He tries to play with other, bigger kids at the playground. He navigates a pool like he was born in the water (well, he almost was. And he is a Pisces). At an outfitting store the other weekend, he was dead set on traversing the stone-studded bridge that customers use to try out hiking boots. And he did it. I spotted him the first time, but after that he did it all on his own, a number of times. He took it slow, and he told himself “don’t fall.” And he did it. He’s not afraid to explore, he’s not afraid to try new things, he’s not afraid to laugh and make a joke. He’s not afraid to make mistakes and test limits. I hope that he keeps this, I hope that it stays with him.