1 year, 36 weeks

Last Saturday was a little rough. Rob was away, it was rainy, and Zack had the sniffles and wasn't sleeping well. After waking up very cranky from a not-very-good nap, I decided that we might try something new. It worked. He was totally amused by seeing doggies on the TV and he forgot his crankiness.

He was also amused by me whacking my head on the windowsill. I much prefer the former rather than latter form of entertainment, I have to say.

Things got better from here on out, if not primarily because I remembered the joys of Motrin.

Sunday dawned much better, complete with an appearance by the sun! This was perfect timing as we had a Halloween party to go to.

Zack was one of his favorite things--a dog.

The best part of the costume? The tail wags when he walks!

That's him being shy and afraid of jumping right into things. Or not.


He loved the bat balloons and kept walking off with them.


One of the boys was dressed as a soccer player, complete with soccer ball. When Zack saw a couple older boys playing soccer, he got so excited and ran right over to them. And then picked up the ball and started walking away with it. I had to intervene and apologized to the boys, saying Zack didn't understand yet. The one boy said, "He doesn't understand because he's 1." Yeah, that's pretty much it.

We had a little parade and then all sat on the stone wall. The younger kids all had a look of "what are our parents doing to us now?"

Zack was quite happy to play with the other animals...I mean kids, too. That's a lion next to him.

This whole thing took place about 10 minutes from home, but he fell asleep almost as soon as we got in the car to head home! He had a much better nap that day!

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On other and assorted topics, he has a new phrase that just cracks me up. When he wants to go somewhere, especially outside, he marches to the door, saying "Let's go......Hut 2, Hut 2." The first time he said that I nearly fell over from laughing so hard!

And, I think he might be working on having big feet. That's no optical illusion--his feet really are that big compared to mine.


I hope all you ghosties and ghoulies have a Happy Halloween!

1 year, 35 weeks

Hi there.
Zack would like to show you his new vest, fresh off the needles. The entire time I was knitting it, I was convinced it was going to be huge. Yeah. Not so much. Clearly my brain has not caught up with how much he's growing. A pair of pants that fit him about a month ago are now officially too short. Sigh.

Dad got him a balloon when they went grocery shopping last weekend. If he could sleep with a helium balloon (or, more accurately, if we'd let him sleep with a helium balloon), he would. Balloons are just the coolest thing!


Didn't you know, bananas taste better when your feet are on the table?

Maybe that's your problem, Grandpa. You haven't been eating bananas in the proper position!


And these impish looks you see here? We get those A LOT lately.

Here he is in action. Unfortunately, the film ends a bit prematurely because the camera's memory card filled up, but I think you can get the idea.




He now gets up on his chair at the dinner table all by himself. He was ignoring books for awhile, but now has a renewed interest. He'll grab a book or magazine, climb up onto the couch or the bed and just sit looking through all the pages. Last weekend we sat on the couch for a good 30 minutes looking through a book, him pointing out things he had words for ("banana," "quack quack," "woof woof," "ball," "balloon," "hoo hoo hoo (monkey)") and he'd point and say "Whasis? (What's this?)" for things he didn't know. He doesn't have to be looking at his books, either. He's perfectly happy looking through a clothing or furniture catalog pointing out the dogs and what not.

He seems to be having some night terrors again. He'd had mild ones before, during growth spurts. But wow, last night he had a doozy. And he's got a set of lungs on him, let me tell you! I feel so bad because there's not much Rob or I can do until he snaps out of it. I hope that whatever is developing in his brain right now if finished quickly!

The other night we were outside before dinner and we ended up popping into Ed and Cecelia's house to say Hi. (Well, actually what happened was Cecelia was outside at the same time, took Zack by the hand and led him inside, and I followed.) While Zack was making himself at home, he discovered their phone and started dialing. It started to ring on the other end and rather than place a call to Zimbabwe on Ed and Cecelia's dime, I took the phone and hung up. Or rather I tried to hang up. I hit the red button, which on our phone stops the call. Turns out that's not universal. On Cecelia's phone the red button is the emergency button that automatically calls 911. The same button that I was hitting repeatedly trying to hang up. I finally realized what I was doing and really hung up. But the 911 operators were doing their job and called back. They weren't convinced by Cecelia telling them that all was OK. Oh no. They needed to send an officer out to make sure that everything was OK. It was at this point that I started digging a hole to bury myself in. Zack and I stuck around to help explain things, but it was taking awhile. Just as I decided to head home, we noticed that the patrol car had parked at the corner. I opened the door just as the officer was about to knock, at which point I think I jumped about 10 feet in the air. Thankfully the officer was very understanding of the situation and even ran the lights on the patrol car for Zack. The moral of the story? Beware the buttons of red!

1 year, 34 weeks

Last weekend we went for a walk at Brookside Gardens. Autumn is very distracting for Zack because there are LEAVES!!!! That need to be picked up!!!! So we'd be zooming along and then come to a screeching halt because a particular leaf caught his eye.



He likes to pick up leaves, pods, and horse chestnuts at home, too, where he puts them in his bucket and carries them around.

He has mastered the slide at the playground. There is a slatted ramp (rather than a ladder) that he's gotten very good at climbing, and then he goes down the slide all by himself. He's rather proud of this accomplishment.

We went to a different playground the other weekend where the slide did have a ladder. He got the hang of that pretty quickly, though needed a little help. This skill quickly generalized to our fence at home, which he now tries to climb when he sees that our neighbor, Cecelia, is outside. He climbs up, she grabs him, and then he goes and explores her yard. So far, he only seems inclined to do this if she's outside. If she's not outside, he looks at me and says "Where's Cessy?"

The past few days haven't been very conducive to being outside, but he's still got energy to burn. After dinner he goads us into chasing him. And really, to hear him laugh like he does, I'd do a whole lot more than chase him. There's nothing like his wonderful laugh.

He's started putting two words together. "I sit" when he wants to get up in the chair. "Where cheese?" when he's left his piece of string cheese somewhere. "There cheese" when he's found it.

He has also become a procrastinator when it comes to going to bed. He needs one more stuffed animal, one more trip downstairs, one more swipe at brushing his teeth. And then he sits in his crib playing for awhile. And then screams when his objects of affection have jumped out of the crib--which they seem to do on a regular basis.

And what are his objects of affection? These guys, right here.


Bear is the ring leader and has been for awhile. Fox was recently re-discovered at the bottom of the toy basket and is now one of the Chosen Ones. And as of the beginning of the week, this book also has to be in the crib when it's time to go to sleep and is often toted around. There are other items that are carried around as well--he'll often hand me things to carry downstairs for him, so that his hands are free to maneuver the stairs--but these are the necessities. He's starting to practice things with them. He offers Bear cheese before he himself takes a bite. Bear and Fox give each other kisses, and give Rob and me kisses, too. He lets them drink from his sippy cups. We have to draw the line at Bear washing his hands and getting a bath, though.

I'm somewhat convinced that he's only excited to see me when I pick him up from daycare because he knows I'll be taking him home to see Bear, who gets a bigger hug and kiss than I do.

1 year, 33 weeks

Zack is making a guest appearance at the other blog this week. Go check him out.

1 year, 32 weeks

I'm not quite sure what happened but we didn't take many pictures the past few weeks. But things have certainly been happening. Our little guy keeps growing and developing and amazing us. I'm constantly shocked at how much more he understands than I realize.


This morning he banged his finger while I was putting him in the carseat this morning. He held his hand, said "Ow" and held his finger out for me to kiss. It was apparently 2 kisses worth of Ow.


This evening we were upstairs. I was putting together an under-the-bed box, and he was putting a toothbrush in another box. He decided he needed to check out what I was doing. I told him the box would go under the bed. He immediately squatted down and looked under the bed. I think he may have been disappointed in finding only dust bunnies.


He can follow two part instructions. He will pick up his water bottle and put it on the table when we're getting ready for dinner. He throws his diapers away. He heads right to the bathroom when I say it's time to wash his hands, then carries his stool over to the sink, and puts it back when he's finished.

He is enthralled by putting things in containers and taking them out again. And putting them back in. And taking them back out. Ad infinitum. For example, when I saw Deb last weekend she gave me my birthday gift early--a lovely necklace. Little did she know that she was also giving Zack the best gift ever--the gift bag and card board necklace box, complete with the artist's card. He saw it sticking out of my bag as soon as I walked in the house and was then occupied by it for ever. Take the box apart, put the pieces in the bag. Take the pieces out of the bag, put them just so on the tissue paper. Put them back in the bag. Rinse, lather, repeat.


He knows what the telephone ringing means ("Helloooo!"). He's even realized that Rob has a different ring on my cell phone than other calls ("Daddy!"). He's figured out what the doorbell means, too.

He's very affectionate, giving kisses to his bear, to his fox, to dogs that he meets on the playground. After I bring him into bed with us in the morning, he crawls over me, starts giving Rob lots of kisses and, of course, says "Hellooo!"

We usually go to the park or go outside for a walk after I pick him up from daycare. The last walk we took was about an hour long and we went all the way from the back door to the front stoop. There were SOOOO many things to look at and to put in our bucket, take out of our bucket, put back in our bucket, dump over our head--leaves, horse chestnuts, tulip poplar pods. There were ants crawling on the sidewalk. There was a stoop to sit on. It was a good walk.

We joined the local YMCA, mostly so that we'd have a place to take him swimming and to start lessons. Rob took him for the first time last weekend and said that he had a blast. We may have a fish on our hands.


His appetite is as good as always. The past couple days he's been doing really well eating off of his plate and out of a bowl without dumping anything on the floor (I'm sure I just jinxed that.). He's pretty good at stabbing food with a fork, but we're still working on the spoon. He hasn't quite figured out that he can't turn the spoon upside down on the way from the bowl to his mouth.

He's got 4 molars, the 4 front teeth on the top and bottom, and is working on all 4 canines.

We got him a potty, so that he could start getting used to the idea. Here's what he did the first time it was in the bathroom--he marched right in with a book and sat down.


He's a bit of a problem-solver, too. He carries stools to different locations so that he can reach things.


It's getting harder to take pictures of him, both because he moves so much and because he's interested in the camera. The other night we were sitting on the floor and he had to inspect the camera.

So I tried to show him how it worked by taking a picture of his bear. He was pretty fascinated by the way the picture showed up on the camera and then wanted to see the other ones that I'd taken.

1 year, 29 weeks

What?! This isn't where you store your colanders?


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Zack got his first invitation to a birthday party, which was held last weekend at a kid's gym. He was a little overwhelmed by it all, until he realized there were balloons and balls and running involved. Then it was OK.

He likes shoes and has figured out how to put them on.

Well, I never said they were his own shoes!

I get this look a lot.

Last weekend we went for a little hike. After taking a nap...

... he was ready to hit the trails. The grade of the trail was as steep as it looks in the picture, and he navigated it quite well. His only problem is that he doesn't really pay attention to where he's going, so tree roots jump out at him. But Rob and I were pretty impressed with how nimble he's getting.

Vacation

We put up our feet.

We walked on the beach.

We found seaweed.

We explored.

We met our first lobster.

We were king of the hill.

We ate ice cream with gusto.

We dressed funny.

We were amazed by the bees and butterflies.

We went swimming.

We went to the aquarium, were enchanted by the fish...

...and had skates and rays touch our hands.

We had fun.

1 year, 26 weeks

We did come back from vacation, honest. And there will be a lot of photos to share, once we get a chance to catch our breath. In the meantime, here's a little preview of how much fun Zack had. We really had a hard time keeping him out of the pool (literally--he'd walk right in). But boy did he sleep well!

1 year, 25 weeks

Just a few random things.

The other morning I was looking everywhere for Zack's other shoe. I finally found it here, in the china cabinet. Can't imagine what I was thinking that I didn't look there first.


He's started wanting to use a fork, though he may be a smidge unclear of the concept, in that I'll give him the fork with pasta on it, he'll take the pasta off with his other hand, put it back on the fork, then put it in his mouth. But he's doing pretty well with it. When he isn't using the fork to stamp the tortellini on his forehead, that is.

Along those same lines, increasingly food is becoming a thing to explore as well as eat. This is the scene after I gave him the blue container of Cheerios. He immediately found his red cup, sat on the floor, and started transferring.

Last weekend he must have sat and played the guitar for a good 20 minutes after watching Dad play. He was very gentle and careful with picking and strumming.

He's also becoming very interested in helping. "Helping" being a relative term, as you can see from this picture where he was helping me unload the dishwasher.

Over the weekend he was with me when I swept the back stoop. He then took the broom and started sweeping things, too. The next day he spied where we keep the broom, wiggled himself next to the dryer to get it, pulled it out, and then proceeded to sweep the kitchen and dining room.

He recognizes the sound of airplanes in the sky now, and stops to listen. We haven't been able to see any yet (too high, too many clouds). He also is very interested in birds--watching them, chasing them, saying "tweet tweet".

He counts "one, two, three". Not that he really knows what the numbers mean, but he knows that something will happen on "three" because we'll often count before picking him up, going down the stairs, etc. He's working on "uno, dos, tres" at daycare. He also likes to sing the ABC song with me. He's got the first bit of the tune down to the point where I know what he wants to sing when he sings it, but he doesn't have the letters down. He loves "This little piggy..." and will try to get us to do it by playing with his toes.

We're looking forward to heading up to Connecticut on Friday for some beach and relaxation. I'm sure we'll have lots of pictures to share when we get back!

1 year, 24 weeks

I don't know what it looks like at your house after dinner, but this is my view while I'm cleaning up the dishes.