Finally...

It only took us one and a half days, three planes, and an unexpected overnight in Chicago (there are certainly worse cities for an unexpected overnight, to be sure), but we are finally in Santa Fe for our first vacation sans Zack. Grandma and Papa are keeping him busy (or, more likely, the other way around) while we're gone, so we know he is in good hands. By all accounts he is behaving better for them than us, so we can relax.

Though we must admit, we do miss that sweet little face just a smidge. 

Mother's Day, Part 2

A few days prior to Mother's Day, I'd found out that life-sized replicas of the cars from the movie Cars 2 were going to be making an appearance in our very own downtown Silver Spring on Mother's Day. Well, Zack loves the Cars, so I knew we had to go. What I hadn't realized is how staged it would be--we waited in line for 50 minutes, got our picture taken with all the cars, and.....done.

Zack got really upset that he couldn't go up to the cars (that is a pretty big tease), so we told him we'd come back after lunch to say goodbye to them. This seemed to work, and off we went to our fave pizza place, Pacci's. What a treat to be able to sit outside on such a gorgeous day! We had an extra surprise when neighbors walked in soon after we did, so we got to enjoy time with them, too.

All in all, it was a lovely weekend spent with my family--I couldn't have asked for a better gift.

Oh no, not at all.

His hands weren't dirty. No way.

(Yes, we did march into the bathroom immediately after this picture was taken.)

Mother's Day

 

Mother's Day weekend was just lovely. I got to spend a lot of time with my two favorite guys. On Saturday, we went to the Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival. Zack wanted to come home with a goat....

...but settled for an alpaca (see below). He LOVED it. He loved looking at all the sheep, watching the shearing, eating lamb sausage, checking out all the people. He was super gentle petting the sheep and he just loved those little angora goats in the picture above. He had a busy day. But according to him, he wasn't tired. 


Here he is about 2 seconds after that declaration....
 

We went on another adventure on Sunday, but I'll save that for the next post. 

Playing Catch-up

Aside from the news alerts, its been awhile since I've posted about the little guy, so I guess I've got some catching up to do.

Zack and I survived all of Rob's traveling in the month of March, and we even went on an adventure on one Saturday. He and I took the metro downtown (that is excitement in and of itself) and went to the National Galleries of Art. I thought he might like looking at all of the modern paintings and the huge Calder mobile. He did, but (a) it's very difficult to explain the concept of art and it's corollary "do not touch" to a 3 year old, and (b) he kept asking where the fishies were. He wanted to go inside of the Andrew Goldsworthy installation (he has a point, it would be pretty cool), he walked across what I think might have been a piece of art, but I'm not entirely sure (the problem with modern art), and a few statues may or may not have been touched. He loved all the stairs in the East Wing. Then we headed over to the West wing; he loved the light installation in that tunnel, as well as the fountain. The cafe is between the two Wings, and he asked if we could sit down. So we got a treat, rested for a minute, and he decided he liked donuts.
 
Then onto the West Wing. The big hit there was the fountains and the sculpture galleries. I let him throw coins in the fountains, which he got a big kick out of and sent him off looking for more fountains. (Later my brother told me that coins in the fountains are the bains of the conservators existence--oops.) He was interested in all of the sculptures in the sculpture gallery. He paused at one of Diana, who was half nude with a drape across her. He commented that she just took a shower and had a towel wrapped around her. I which I could have gotten a picture of him staring at the statue of Mercury but I wasn't quick enough. He commented that the statue was (very obviously) a boy and he was wearing a hat. Then onto the third and final fountain. After he threw a coin in the fountain, knocked over one of the flower pots around the fountain, and then picked a flower, I decided it was time to go before they kicked us out. But not before he touched one more statue. Sigh. Then it was onto Teaism where, thankfully, there is a koi pond on the lower level (so he got to see his fish). After eating (well, I ate. He looked at the fish), we headed home on the metro. We had a great day, and he's a trooper, as he walked the whole day--no stroller for him anymore.

The weekend of Rob's birthday we made an impromptu trip to see our friends Mark and Judy. Aside from just having a great weekend filled with good food and good friends, on Sunday I went with Judy to see the Barnes Foundation before it moves in July, and Rob, Mark, and Zack went to the Camden Aquarium. Zack was in heaven--he kept talking about all the sea life that he saw. He still talks about it now, months later.

We went to New Jersey again over Easter to visit Anita and David and all the rest of the Malootian family for Easter and Mark's birthday. Zack had a great time playing with his cousins and taking part in his first Easter egg hunt. He did a great job of sleeping in the hotel, sleeping in his "Buzz bed" two out of the three nights, and sleeping soundly at that. He was super sweet and gentle with Dave and Anita's dog, Bourbon.


Rob scheduled a meeting in Princeton for the Monday after Easter, so that he wouldn't have to make the drive again later in the week. Zack and I set off on another adventure in the Princeton while Rob was at his meeting. We saw statues, sat in a chair outside of Design Within Reach and took funny pictures of ourselves and got coffee and a treat. All the while he kept saying that he wanted to be on an adventure, while I responded that we were on an adventure. "No, we're not." So I asked him what he needed for it to be an adventure. "Fishies." Uh oh. I had no idea where we were going to find fish. So we went to a yarn store instead. He was doing a great job in the store while I looked, and then the owner showed him a basket of blocks, which kept him perfectly content. I started talking with someone else in the store and she asked if I needed something els to pass the time--she suggested the Public Library, which had a great kid's section, with toys and fish and.......Wait--did she say fish? She did say fish--she said they had a large saltwater tank. Woo hoo! 

So off Zack and I went to the Princeton Public library---which, holy schmoly, is absolutely gorgeous! And there were fish. As he was looking at the fish, I asked him if we were now on an adventure, and got a resounding "yes." So now I know that all good adventures need to include fish. It was getting close to the time we had to go retrieve Rob, so I told him that we needed to start saying goodbye to the fish.
           "Bye, Nemo. Bye, Dory. I going now. I going to see my Daddy," waving all the while. 

Aside from all our adventures, things are going quite well. Zack is excited that it's warm, so that he can go outside and ride his tricycle and dig for bugs. I think the dirt factor is going to increase exponentially this year. He's grown up so much, physically and cognitively. He's doing really well with counting, and when we tell him that he needs to eat 3 (or 4 or 5) more bites of his dinner, he knows how many that is. His vocabulary is increasing as well, with longer and more complex sentences and thoughts coming out of his mouth. He is very interested in emotions, pointing out what different characters in his books are feeling, telling us that he's mad at us or that he's happy, etc.

And his imaginative play has just taken off. He acts things out with his stuffed animals, he pretends that dinosaurs are coming, and that monsters are busy fixing the holes in the roads (and because they're busy doing that, they are too busy to come to our house). He re-enacts scenes from his day with his animals and his trucks, using his toys and other objects in novel ways. I love listening to him. He's a very good Daddy to his animals, and he wants to show us this by saying "I rub him gentle", "Bear-Bear is cold. I keep him warm" (as he hugs his bear to him), "Bear-Bear has a boo-boo. I kiss it better." Of course, all this happens after he's just scrunched Bear-Bear into a ball and thrown him across the room.

Of course, he is also testing limits in new ways--negotiating, talking back to us, etc. But for the most part he continues to be a sweet little boy who loves to have fun.

Action shot

Quick news report

A longer post will be forthcoming, but Zack had a major accomplishment this weekend--he can now pedal his tricycle all by himself! When he realized that he was moving on his own power, well, the look on his face was just priceless. The concept of looking where he's going rather than to the side, in back of him, up at the birds flying in the sky, etc. still eludes him (thank goodness we got one of those trikes with the long handle on the back!), but I'm assuming that will come eventually. Hopefully sometime before his 16th birthday. At any rate, I can't imagine that it will be long before he's going full speed ahead, like he does with everything else. 

What was that? You wanted pictures of him on his tricycle? Are you kidding? I'm too busy trying to keep him on the sidewalk to take any pictures of him pedaling! You'll have to settle for these instead. 

A rare....

....but brief, sighting of the elusive Husbandus Roberto malootianus. 

 In spite of heroic efforts to tame this rare beast, he was soon off into the wilds again.

It's time...

...to recommence evening walks.

ALERT: This post is full of parental blather about offspring potty training.  Yes, I am becoming that parent. Consider yourself warned.

I haven't really talked about our potty training endeavors lately. Maybe I'm afraid to jinx things, who knows. But after reading the book Diapers Are Not Forever a few weeks ago, he has wanted to be all underwear all the time.

As an aside, if having a child has taught me anything, it's taught me the power of books. 

This was to the point where he pitched a fit one morning before school, so I said to myself that we'll have to take the plunge sometime, and put undies on him. His teachers were so excited for him and he was obviously proud--as indicated by him telling EVERYONE.

Aside #1, little boys in tightie whities might just be the cutest thing ever! 

He didn't make it all the way through the first day, but he's made it through just about every day since then. His teachers are really good about sticking to a schedule, so they're really helping him succeed. He's had a couple accidents once we get home, but I think we've figured that out.

In order to help this all along, Rob and I decided that we'd stick close to home last weekend and really work on getting him trained at home. We planned on taking him to the potty every hour. And had about 4 accidents before noon on Saturday. We just looked at each other, absolutely perplexed. We're intelligent people, Zack had been doing so well at school, what in the world were we doing wrong????? So I googled potty training and read that a lot of people start by taking their kids every 20 minutes or so, and start working up to longer stretches. Ooops. So we regrouped, and decided on every 30 minutes. We also started using a kitchen timer, telling Zack that the buzzer meant that it was potty time. This strategy worked much better---no accidents, and no arguments about going to the potty (since the buzzer was telling him to go, not Mommy or Daddy). A random reinforcement schedule of M&Ms also seems to help.

The big test was the other night when Zack asked to go get pizza for dinner. I said that sounded great, hiding my anxiety about him having an accident at the restaurant. We went to the bathroom when we first got there and then also after we finished eating. He did great! He wanted to be in the stall by himself (OK, I know you're an independent kid, but could we slow down a sec?), gave running commentary about the woman's feet in the next stall (where did I put that shell to crawl into?), and pooped on the potty!!!! I wish I could have recorded his expression when I'd peek in to see how he was doing--just a big grin and shaking his head no, and I'd duck back out. A couple minutes later, I'd peek back in and same thing. Then all of a sudden there was an "I pooped, Mommy!" He was so proud of himself.

So we seem well on the way to having a big boy in our house.

Just ask him. He'll tell you.

Ipe Bear-Bear Blanket

If you were knitting something, and a boy with eyes like these asked you if what you were knitting was a blanket for Bear-Bear (Most Beloved Animal in All The Land), what would you say? I said, “No, but would you like me to knit one for you?”

“Yes.”

“What color would you like?”

“Ipe.” (Translation: White).

I didn’t hop to it, and was asked several times if I was knitting a Bear-Bear blanket. I finally started two nights ago.

“What color would you like?” (Never hurts to double-check.)

“Ipe.”

“Is this color OK?”

“Yes.”

“Would you like it bigger than the one you already have?”

“No.”

I cast on and knit a few rows, then checked in with him.

“Is this size good?”

“Yes.”

And last night I finished the first thing that Zack asked me to knit for him. And this morning I asked him if it was okay.

"Yes. Take it to Balwyn and Elena?" Translation: Can I take it to school with me?

"It's still wet, but it'll be dry by the time you get home tonight."

"Ok. Bear-Bear sleep with it tonight?"

"Absolutely, Buddy."

Update: I was informed the other night that the new blanket could not directly cover Bear-Bear because it's "not very soft. The old one is soft." Which is true, the new one is wooly wool while the old one is softer. However, he still says he likes the new one and needs it in bed with him, so it's still a success in my book. 

We survived.

I'm not sure he's perfect yet, but we survived Zack's 3rd birthday party. There were about 10 pre-schoolers and 2 babies, along with parents. The general consensus was that Rob and I were brave and that the party was a success. Zack got a big kick out of having his friends from school show up at his house, which was just what we were hoping for. He also had a lot of fun with Grandma and Papa and Uncle Geoff. He was very sad to see them go.

"Nirvana is coming. The mystic portal awaits."

The next weekend, our friends Deb and Shawn came down with their parents and their two daughters. What a great weekend! We even had a beautiful, warm Sunday so that our visitors from the North could soak up a little sun and warmth to take home.

Zack helped me make cookies for the weekend. He cracked the egg, poured in the flour, and added the chocolate chips. He stole a few for himself, which he lined up on the counter, all pointed the same direction, before he ate them.

Play-doh was a big hit for all the kids.

And while I'm updating, here are a few pictures from the snow in January.

On other fronts, Zack had started wearing big boy underwear. It started with a book we got him for his birthday, called Diapers are not Forever. He wanted to wear underwear to school the next day, so we figured we'd try it. His teachers were very excited and supportive. He's been doing really well with it--the past two days he's had no accidents while at school. He's very proud of himself, as are we.

Countdown to perfection

This title comes from someone's belief that 3 year old boys are perfection. We'll see about that. 

We had our first parent-teacher conference the other week. We got a glowing report on our little guy--he's performing as expected, progressing as expected, he is a happy, social little boy, he likes to help everyone in the class clean up when it's time (wait---were they talking about Zack? They might have been confused there). He's on-target with potty training, but they suggested he might be ready to push it a little bit and try underwear. He's doing appropriate pre-reading behavior like sitting and looking and "reading" lots of books. (Sidenote: before bed, he hands me a book and tells me to read it while he's reading another one). One of his teachers commented that he was very smart---with a tone in her voice like we might be in a lot of trouble. All in all, they are happy having him in their school, and we are very happy to have him there.

He's showing the first signs of understanding gender. We were doing something in the kitchen the other night. All of a sudden he put a dish towel on his head (like hair. Sound familiar, Mom?), and said "Zack not a boy. I a girl." Then he put it on my head and said "Mommy not a boy, Mommy a girl."

His pronunciation of some words is changing, usually making him easier to understand. Usually. Unfortunately, the morphing of his pronunciation means that "octopus" sounds exactly the same as "applesauce" so context clues are still quite useful. He's got lots more expressions that he throws in here and there, like "Know what?", "Lookit, Daddy", "Not yet", "Try to get me", and ending sentences with "...,right?"

He's also getting much clearer about expressing his opinions of things (of which he has many. Opinions, that is). He's getting very good at telling other kids "Don't X me"---you can insert push, hit, etc. for X. We're happy about this, as more often words are replacing him hitting/pushing/biting back. This also means that as I guide him out of the drugstore so that he doesn't run into someone, he'll say (very loudly) "Don't hit me, Mommy!!!"

He went to his first two birthday parties last weekend and had a lot of fun. Rob took him to the bowling party on Saturday--there was much to report when he got home. I took him to our neighbors' daughter's first birthday the next day, which was also a big hit.

Last night after I turned out Zack's light at bedtime, I realized that I had to go back downstairs for something. While I was down there, I popped a chocolate in my mouth. Of course, Zack wanted to know what I was eating.
A cough drop.
Can Zachary have a cough drop?
No, they're not for kids. Besides you're not coughing.
See, I coughing, I sick. Can I have medicine? 

 
It's seems like there must be much more I'm leaving out, but this is all I've got for the moment. He continues to be a very busy boy, who loves trucks, Play-doh, animals, rockets, and dinosaurs. He thinks of others ("Mommy have cake, too"), and uses Please and Thank You on a regular basis. He's got a crazy sense of humor and loves to laugh. And he doesn't miss a thing.

Maybe he does have a chance of being perfect in less than a week. 

Time is relative

I was one of many chaperones on Zack's recent class trip to the Baltimore Aquarium. When they first gave us the itinerary, I thought that it wouldn't be enough time to do anything. Two and a half hours for lunch, a dolphin show and exploring??? But as we were boarding the bus to head home, that seemed like plenty of time, particularly when spent in the company of about 35 pre-schoolers!

It also gave me a new-found appreciation for all of Zack's teachers. I'm planning on nominating them all for sainthood.

It was so much fun to go along on the trip. I talked to him about the trip as I was getting him dressed that morning, and I told him I was going to go, too. His face lit up at that, and he incredulously said "Mommy's going to go see the fishies, too??!!" like that was the coolest thing ever. Then for the entire 15 minute trip to his school he sat in the back saying "Going to see the fishies? Going to see the fishies? Mommy, going to see the fishies?"

He had a blast. He was excited about being on a bus. He was excited about seeing the dolphin show (though 25 minutes is too long for his age group), he was excited about the rays, sharks, fish, eels, and turtles we saw. He really spends time looking at things, too, to the point where I kind of had to keep him moving so that we could get through the exhibit and not miss the bus. Every now and then he'd see a fish by itself and he'd say "The fish is talking." I asked what it was saying. "Mommy, mommy, where are you???"

And just for the record, Zack was the only one on the trip who NEEDED a fork to eat his pizza, so his fingers didn't get dirty. He wouldn't eat anything otherwise. 

I tried taking pictures but was pretty much foiled because (1) I was using my phone, (2) I forgot aquariums are dark, and (3) Zack moves too fast. So imagine him as cute as ever, just in front of a bunch of tanks of fish.

We'll definitely have to go back as a family to spend more time.

Who would have guessed...

..when I made this stool in junior high shop class, that one day my little boy would use it to help his Daddy?

We're all just getting over the flu this week, so no pictures. If any pictures had been taken, they would have been destroyed post haste, because we were not a pretty bunch.

Rob succumbed first, than I. We were hoping Zack would be spared, but he woke up with a fever on Wednesday. We were sure he was sick when (a) he slept until 9:30 am; (b) about an hour later, after coming downstairs for breakfast, he said he "wanted to go to sleep in Mommy Daddy's bed pweeeeeeeez" (and then slept for 4 hours); and (c) did not want ice cream. I am happy to report that he had ice cream and pretzels for dinner tonight, so he's on the mend. As are the rest of us.

His ability to express himself had increased exponentially lately. Unfortunately, it's taking the forms of direct orders to us, something we really need to figure out how to curb. For example:
"Don't moisturize me, Daddy"
"Mommy clean up toys NOW."
The ever-favorite "I don't liiiiike it" accompanied by "I don't waaant to."

When he gets particularly obstinate, time-outs do seem to work. Last weekend he started bossing me around, then hit me when I picked him up. So I plopped him on the stairs for a few minutes. Oh the tears! Oh the lip! But it made an impression. The next day in the car, his bear, then his cheese were alternately hitting him, and he was telling them "No hitting, it's not very nice. Time out." I could barely contain myself in the front seat, but was also glad to know that perhaps he was paying attention to me.

I shouldn't paint this picture of a naughty little boy because he really isn't. He tends towards very polite, voluntarily using 'please' and 'thank you.' He can occupy himself with his blocks or trucks for quite some time, and is starting to get much more complex in his play, having his toys talk to each other, and pretending that objects are something they aren't. He himself often pretends he is a cat or a dog and we're supposed to pet him and pick him up like a pet. He loves the kitchen that he got for Christmas, spending a lot of time cooking pasta, serving food to us, and pretending to make a mess by "spilling" the cups on the floor. He also likes to work on puzzles.

The most fascinating part of his development right now is his counting. He can count from 1 to 10, finally without leaving anyone out, and he will count everything. But it's his concept of numbers--or really, lack thereof--that is interesting. On one level he understands counting, but doesn't understand that it should represent a fixed quantity. So he'll count his fingers once and come up with 5, and then be perfectly fine with counting them again and coming up with 7--equally proud both times of how well he counted.

He's starting to recognize some letters. For example, he looked at a bowl of macaroni and cheese and said "C's!" And he seems to recognize "Z, for Zachary." In general, he recognizes letters as different from other symbols, and calls the whole lot QRS.

He's remembering emotional events more clearly, bringing them up later and talking about them. For example, the week after we got back from the Christmas holiday, he had a couple rough mornings when being dropped off at school, crying, and telling us not to go. In the evenings, he would talk about how Zachary cried, how he didn't like Daddy leaving, how Mommy came to get him. And he tied it into his memory of a little boy who was crying at the babysitting at the YMCA one Saturday morning. It was that little boy's first time with the babysitters, and he was missing his Mommy and Daddy. And oh, wow, does he remember his younger cousin Ella taking his trains and cars at Christmas time! Every time he sees her picture he recounts how she took his trains, that it wasn't very nice, and that he hit her on the head.

He's been developing some concept of monsters. There is a lot of "Monsters are coming" and "Shadows are coming," particularly around bed time. He seems fascinated by the idea, and creates games around it, but it's also something that scares him a bit. Before bed, we go through a ritual where I ask him what he can say to the shadows, and he says (very emphatically) "Shadows, don't come here and don't scare Zachary and Mommy and Daddy!" This seems to satisfy him and make everything OK.

Christmas

Happy New Year!

Here are a few pictures from our Christmas adventures.
We wish everyone all the best in the new year!