1 year, 23 weeks

If you look very closely, you'll see a rabbit outside in the grass, above Zack's head.

This rabbit was outside eating munching grass while Zack was eating his dinner the other night. Zack spotted it and thought it was pretty cool. Then he started pointing to his toy basket--to his bunny rabbit, which he's holding in this picture. What I think is pretty cool about this is that even though he doesn't play with this stuffed animal much, and it certainly doesn't look much like the rabbit outside, he made the connection all on his own. For the next several nights, he also kept looking out the window, looking for his dinner buddy, but the bunny hasn' t been back since.

The little master is also a big fan of getting wet. The other night it started raining after dinner, one of those lovely summer rains (Don't fear--there was no lightening involved). He noticed that it was doing something out there, so I asked him if he wanted to go outside. Of course he did. It took him a few seconds to adjust to all the water falling out of the sky, but he clearly decided it was pretty cool.

He's also a big fan of "helping" to water the plants. At first he'd just stick his hand in the spray of the hose, but he's since gotten bolder and will now walk in the spray face first. Over, and over, and over again.

Unfortunately, I keep forgetting to bring the soap outside.

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The words keep coming. As do the tantrums. They're not horrible, but there's definitely a lot of frustration going on right now. We can usually avert them by acknowledging what he wants and his frustration, then redirecting him. It's also helpful that he understands "Nighty night", so a lot of things go nighty night when it's time to move on to a different activity, or if he's got something that he shouldn't have anymore.

He's started to sing along to things now, to his toys that have music or to the radio. Hopefully he'll take after his Dad when it comes to playing music and carrying a tune and not to me!

1 year, 22 weeks

We thought he was old enough...

...for the keys to the horse.

1 year, 21 weeks

Could someone tell me where this little boy came from?


He's been running around our house lately, putting things here, taking things from there, eating sticks of string cheese all by himself.


And I'm just not sure where the baby went and where this little boy came from.

He sits on things now. This makes going down the stairs an all-day event because he has to sit on each stair as he goes down.

The windows we have in the new room are the perfect height for him...

...though never for very long!


He's just started putting things together and in other containers, which is a nice change of pace from deconstructing everything. But it also means that the remote may end up in the sink, or the new tupperware containers I bought may end up in the garbage.

He loves playing with a set of aluminum coasters that were my grandma's. He stacks them, unstacks them, puts them back in the china cabinet, rolls them on the floor (they make a neat noise).


"Let's go" is a favorite phrase of his, and he's got "up" and "down" down pretty well. He asks for cheese and water. He's still eating well, particularly if it's fruit. He understands more and more every day. Now he knows that when we wash our hands we go into the bathroom, get up on the stool, splash in the water, dry off, and get down.

He loves to be outside, and needs to pick lots of flowers while he's there. He'd love to help his daddy in the garden, too, but that doesn't always work as well as one might want.

It's all very tiring.

1 year, 20 weeks

Roar!

(He's vicious, you know. )

Happy (Belated) Fourth of July!

Hope you had a yummy one!

1 year, 19 weeks

Last week was a crazy week--Rob travelled, I was running a workshop, Grandma and Grandpa came down to watch Zack....and then we got sick. Woo hoo! Good times!

We're on the mend now. Zack got the least of it and, in fact, may have been plagued by forthcoming teeth rather than the ague that Rob and I got hit by.

Last weekend we broke out the wading pool for its inaugural run. Guess who was wet before he even got in it?



We were surprised that he was as wary about actually getting in it as he was, given that he loves taking baths and going in big pools. He really clung to me at first and didn't want to stand in it. But once our neighbor Cecelia came over to get in on the fun, he warmed up entirely and enjoyed it as much as we thought he would. We've got pictures of that on Rob's camera, which we'll download soon.

I was cleaning up after dinner one night and turned around to see this:

He sat himself in the booster seat and pulled over the foot stool (yes, Deb, that's the one I made in shop!). I thought it was just too cute!

Later I caught him sitting like this:


I'm not entirely sure how that worked, but extricating himself involved landing on his nose.

He's fascinated by the grill. And you can kind of see his new buzz cut here, too.

Can I also just say that while I've never been a huge fan of shoes made by Keen, I'm absolutely smitten with them in miniature?

A closeup of the cuteness....

...and a better one of the haircut.

While I say this every week, he's still growing like a weed. He just keeps doing more and trying more. He's trying to jump now, something I'm pretty sure he picked up in daycare given the accompanying sound effects. He's also trying to climb up on chairs and sofas, with mixed success. This seems to have been motivated by me telling him he couldn't have a glass that was on the table. He then turned right around and tried to climb up on the chair. I'm quite sure that he'll be dancing on the table soon.

Did I mention that he's started testing us? Yep, that's definitely starting. Some days more so than others.

He's got more words: apple, banana (more of a 'nana), let's go, cheese, book, shoes, Mama (LOVE that!), Dada, Whoa, peek-a-boo. There's a word for water that doesn't sound like either "water" or "agua" but is the same whenever he asks for his cup. He understands a lot more now, too. When I say it's time to go upstairs, he heads for the stairs. He heads for the back door when we say we're going outside. He can get in and out of the open door by himself--he's working on figuring out the door knobs.

He loves books. He'll sit for quite a long time just pulling them out of his book box, looking through them, pulling more out. He's also started bringing books to us, wanting us to sit him beside us and read to him. We like that a lot.

1 year, 17 weeks

June 15, 2009---a day that will live in infamy, hereafter forever known as the Day of the Great Toilet Paper Massacre.


Luckily, the culprit...
...was caught red-handed.

1 year, 16 weeks

A few weekends ago Zack charmed the cashier at Trader Joe's and got a balloon, his first, for his efforts.

Obsessed doesn't even come close to describing his affection for this thing, even if it did shake his world view a bit when he let it go and it went UP rather than down. He carried it with him all day and pitched a fit when we tried to take it away for meals.

It went everywhere with him.


It finally popped later that night, surprisingly with no tears.

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One of the best things that Silver Spring did when it rejuvenated itself was to put in a fountain in the center of downtown.

During the summer it draws kids of all ages. We took Zack for the first time this past Sunday. We weren't sure about it at first, since he was the youngest kid there. Silly us--he held his own.



These were all taken before he got a face full of water. He felt the need to inspect one of the fountain openings up close and personal--and then the water came out. All he did was sputter and cough, though--no tears! And he went right back in.

After our fountain experience, we went and got ice cream. Yummm!

1 year, 15 weeks

Long time, no post. Things have been busy, and by the time I get home I just haven't had the energy to crack open the computer and post.

But rest assured, we're all well. And now you'll get 3 weeks worth of pictures all at once.

Over Memorial Day, we met up with our friends Deb and Shawn and their girls Kayla and Haley to camp in Cape May. What a relaxing long weekend with fabulous weather! Zack had a blast--what more could he want but sticks in the campground and sand on the beach? I have to say he's such a little boy--he was dead set on burning himself, either by camp fire, grill or citronella candle. (You'll be happy to know he was thwarted in his efforts.)

He loved the beach.



He's got his dad's feet.

He loved the pool...

...but it tired him out (this was taken about 5 minutes after we put him in the carrier and started walking back to the campsite. Out like a light!)

He had fun with my yarn.

He had fun with his buddies (this is Kayla).


But he completely missed out on some fabulous people-watching opportunities on the Wildwood boardwalk.

He was cute.


The reason for getting together, aside from seeing some really good friends, was to celebrate all the kids' birthdays--to have an Unbirthday Weekend. It's never easy for us to get to each others' kids' birthday parties, so we decided to stop feeling guilty and just celebrate all together on a totally random weekend during the year. We had cupcakes and presents and it seemed to work out really well.


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Aside from his travels, Zack is just one busy guy right now. Someone recently asked me what his favorite toys were and I had to laugh. Aside from his bear, I think we could get rid of all the rest of his toys for now. He's happiest with the contents of the tupperware drawer and with the beaters for the mixer.

He's also very good at playing "Tornado"--in about 5 minutes flat he can have the dirty laundry strewn about, tupperware all over the place (I find it everywhere), and the paper recycling "reorganized". I'm surprised that he left the dish towel on the oven! See him peeking around the corner there at the laundry basket?


His words include "bear" (for his stuffed bear), some variation of "woof woof" whenever he sees or hears a dog or a picture of a dog, a variation of "meow" and "quack quack", "ball", "keys", which sounds a lot like "shoes", and the ever-favorite "uh-oh", which we hear an awful lot of. He's got a word for "belly button" and knows where his is.

He's still his happy-go-lucky self and imitates all sorts of things we say and do. He makes all kinds of funny faces, and we share jokes now. For example, the first time he touched my belly button, his hands were freezing and I let out some sort of "woo hoo" or "ah HAH". Now he touches my belly button, throws back his head and says "Ha Ha Ha".