Sunday Update

Tonight is a big night. Zack's gone from 0 to potty-trained in a month, and we have been at the point of only using a diaper during the night. Well, tonight he insisted that he wear his underwear to bed, so we'll see how it goes. He's got access to the bathroom, and everything he needs. I'd say odds of success are at 50%.

Also Zoe who is now 3.5 months old and 11 lbs, has developed a cooing sound that sounds bit like a wookie. I thought at first she was gargling spitup, but she's consistantly done it for the last day or two. I wonder which side of the family the wookiness came from.

Zadie is doing well too, still a half-pound lighter than her sister, she's still more fussy, but more actively alert. Her wide blue eyes are entrancing. We still can't figure out Zoe's eye color yet, it still looks like a dark grey.

Future Shock

Mom was explaining to Zack today that since he's gotten so good at pooping in the potty, we will no longer be giving him little cars as presents for success, we are instead moving to stickers. Mom said something like "In the future, you will get stickers."

And Zack replied "I don't poop in the future, I poop in the potty."

First Joke

We got the Cars DVD today and were watching it in the car. Zack and I were later talking about the characters.
"There's Doc Hudson," I said.
"He not silly. They're not silly." said Zack
"What about Mater? He's a silly tow truck," I said.
"He's not silly, he's Darth Mater. Hee Hee Hee. That's funny" Zack said.
I couldn't help but laugh too.

First Anatomy Lesson...

I was giving Zack a bath today and was leaning over the tub. He was staring at my chest and said, "What's that?"
Being a mom that wants to be honest, I said, "Those are my boobs."
Zack says, "You have two." He pointed at each of them "One, two."
"Yes..." I said.
"What's that?" he said pointing again.
"My cleavage?" looking down to see what he was pointing to.
"Boob package. It's a package for boobs."
I laughed, "Yes, it's called a bra! It is like a package for my boobs!"

Strong preferences

Zack has expressed opinion in the past when asked about what clothes to wear. But now he's starting to proactively demand what he wants to wear. Last week, he wanted to wear his boots to school during a warm day. And the other day he wanted to wear red shorts. BTW, red is his first official favorite color.

We tried teaching a knock knock joke to Zack today. It ended up a bit like this:
Me: "Knock knock"
Zack: "Who's at the door?"

Broken Arm?

Zack fell in the hallway and had a minor bump against the floor, banged his arm against the wall and was whimpering a bit. He came to me, holding his arm. I kissed his arm (which was fine, just a bruise) and then he said to me,
"I need some batteries for my arm"
"Why?" I asked puzzled.
"Because my arm doesn't work."
Jen and I couldn't help but laugh.

Zack's Little Finger

At dinner today, Zack peeked his finger over the side of the table and said, "hi." Thus began a long conversation between his finger (named Zachary) and mine (named Mommy Finger). He put his finger under the table and said, "I'm hiding." Then he stretched his arm away from me and said, "I'm far, far away." His hand went up in the air, "I'm flying!" and it dunked into his milk "It's cold!" The cutest was when I showed him how my finger could dance and wiggled it around. He said, "I can't, I have no feet." Then I asked if his finger would like some lasagne and he explained, "I have no hands." When my finger crept up and threatened to steal a grape, he said, "You can't, you have no hands." We went to have a bath and his other finger joined, "We're going swimming."

I figure as long as it doesn't start saying "red rum" then it's all OK. ;-)

What's on your left shoulder?

Zack surprised us tonight with that question as I walked into the bathroom where he was getting a bath. On my left shoulder was his blankie, but I was surpised as how accurate he was given I was facing him. For the past few months he's been uncanny in his right/left accuracy which amazes me because I distinctly remember having to ask my sister which was right/left when I was around 6 or so.

Zack quote of the day "The Space Shuttle does not have a penis"

Questions about the baby

I had a funny conversation with Zack recently about one of his baby sisters I was holding and soothing while sitting on the couch.
Zack said, "Can I touch her?"
I said, "Yes"
"Can I see her tummy?"
"Yes" as a lifted up her shirt for him to see
"Can I kiss her?"
"Yes"
"Can I see her hair?"
"Yes"
"Can I take off her hat?"
"Yes"
"Can I touch her hair?"
"Yes"
"Can I run my car up and down on her head?"
"Umm...No"

Gracks Family 2.0 (and 3.0)

Gracks Family 2.0 (and 3.0) was released on August 23, 2006, ahead of the expected September launch date. Lead developer Jen Grant (userid= "mom") pushed both models live within a span of 5 minutes on Wednesday afternoon.
Subsequent testing on the live systems for the 48 hours after launch was successful, development was verified, and the new family was checked out of the Sequoia Hospital version control system on Friday. The new family version is home and adjusting to its new look and feel. Fortunately mom is equipped with an Intel Dual-core Infantrino processor for parallel feeding.




Technical Specifications:
Model Name: Zoe Margaret Stack
Release Date: August 23, 2006 12:33 pm
Style: Laptop
Operating System: Female
Processor: One hungry tummy
Memory: None yet, but expandable
Storage: So far, unlimited capacity
Software: SleepThruAnything, CryLouderThanMySister
Display: Blonde hair, dad's face, and closed eyes.
Length: 18.5 inches
Weight: 5 pounds 15 ounces
First Words:
#include
main() {
printf("Hello World!\n");
}

Model Name: Zadie Elizabeth Stack
Release Date: August 23, 2006 12:38 pm
Style: Laptop
Operating System: Female
Processor: One hungry tummy
Memory: None yet, but expandable
Storage: 2 fluid oz. Limit tested, exceeded and reboot required many times.
Software: BornToSuck, CharmingSmile
Display: Brown hair, mom's face, and active alert eyes.
Length: 18 inches
Weight: 5 pounds 11 ounces
First Words:
class FirstWords {
public static void main (String args[]) {
for (;;) {
System.out.print("I want a pony! ");
}
}
}



About the Gracks family:
Founded on September 6, 1998, the Gracks family is a Silicon Valley-based dual income (usually) nuclear family with three silly children and one cute dog. The Gracks family is a leading provider of creative family diversions and used diapers. Early investors include Grant Pacific Ventures and the Stack Capital Partners. The Gracks family is headquartered in Redwood City, CA.
http://gracks.blogspot.com

Scrambled Eggs and Rrrawwwrrr!

The other day for breakfast at grandma and grandpa's, zack was doing dinosaur impressions but was also hungry, therefore he requested some "scrambled eggs and rrrrawwwrr!" for breakfast.

Cute stories abound

So I have been keeping a list of cute stories that I wanted to remember to blog about. Well, I've finally got a few moments and here they are!

Friendly to everyone
One of Zack's favorite people is Clark who lives across the street. Clark and his friend Adam were outside throwing a football around and Zack saw them through our front window. He whoops, runs to the window and yells as loud as he can "HI CLARK!" then he pauses and says, "HI OTHER KID!"

To each his own
Sometimes Zack wakes up early and crawls into bed with us. One morning, he crawled into bed and saw the pink and yellow blankies that Andy and I both still have under our pillows. He then very carefully picked the pink blankie and said 'mommy' pushing it to me and then took the yellow blankie and put it near Andy's face and said
'Daddy.' Then he curled up with his own blankie as if all was right with the world.

And they all fall down
Earlier this year when Zack was new to his bed, we heard a THUNK one morning and then Zack crying. Andy leapt out of bed like it was on fire, started to run and then took a nose dive on the carpet his limbs flying everywhere. After asking if he was OK, I went to check on Zack, who was fine, but had gotten caught up in his sheets and rolled off the bed. As we got back into bed, I asked Andy if he had tripped on something - a toy maybe? Nope, he just slipped and fell. Like father, like son I guess. Later that day, fully awake, I realized how funny it was.

The joy of a thousand mattresses
We went shopping for a new mattress and Zack made friends with two other little boys - Justin 5 and Brandan 7 who were also waiting for their parents. All three of them would squeal and jump on the matresses. Zack chased them around as they would jump from bed to bed pretending he was a monster trying to catch them (he wasn't big enough to jump from bed to bed). He also climbed up on one of the beds pointing "shark!" to one of the corners of the room and began jumping with them. It was clearly more fun than even going to the park. Who knew that shopping for a new mattress was so much fun?

We have a jumper! and a new game

Zack has taken to jumping off things in the last week. At the park he's jumped off ledges onto the sand, some ledges even 4 feet up! I was shocked, but he seems to love it. Yesterday he climbed up on a 2 step ladder i had set up and jumped (up!) and then down the 2 feet onto the hardwood floor. It's a bit worrysome since we're not sure if he knows his limits, but Zack has been measured and careful so far.

Also Zack made up a new game this morning and named it himself. He called it "Peek-a-ball". He would go into the front living room with two rubber balls, raise them high with his arms and throw them up in the air, and then run around trying to find them as they bounced all over the hardwood floor. He looked at me and said "Daddy, I'm playing Peek-a-ball!"

Strawberry Patch

Here's a great shot from the strawberry fields in Watsonville were Zack was happy to pick (and eat) the strawberries

scary sharks

While in San Diego, we attended a birthday party with our friends Becca, Eric and their little ones Retta and Jack. They had a huge blow up slide, jumping thing, but when Zack crawled through one of the parts there were sharks. Here he is saying 'scary, scary, get me up' and we told him to punch the sharks so they wouldn't be scary anymore.

At the theater

On a whim, we went to the Children's Theater production of 2 little pigs in Palo Alto. The same company that I took summer classes with, the same theme song sung before the show "The Children's theater is lots of fun" and the same guy running the program! Zack seemed to enjoy the dancing kids, the singing and the play itself. He clapped at the right times and commented on where the big bad wolf was a couple of times. But, given that he's related to me, I was not surprised when he stood up in the middle of a scene (we were right in front) and said "I want a cupcake."

Silly stories

So it's been a while since we've posted, so the silly stories have been piling up! So we're going to try to remember all of them...

Zack has now watched the movie Madagascar at least 8 times on the DVD in our new minivan (or vinivan as zack says). As it turns out he's been talking about it in school and at one point his teacher said 'well I guess I ought to see that movie too.' Zack became very serious and said "you may come to my car and watch it anytime."

Because it's summer, Zack has been going to bed late and getting up early (a couple of times at 5 in the morning!). If we've left his door open, he comes running into our room and says 'wake up time!' while we sleepily try to explain that the sun hasn't even come up. Of course, that isn't very effective when the sun actually comes up at 6am and Zack yells "the sun! I see the sun!" One morning he came in with the duck whistle, walked all the way around to Andy's side of the bed and then blew it as loud as he could QUACK! There are also mornings where we have left his door closed, so after playing for a few minutes in his room, he'll knock on his door and call for us to let him out. And, of course, we often let him in our bed in the mistaken assumption that we might convince him to go back to sleep (never happens). One morning he jumped on me and after saying 'don't jump on Mommy' I realized I needed to give him something TO do - this is called re-direction and the daycare has taught us to use it. So without a better idea I say "go jump on Daddy, Zack." ;-)

More to come as we recall them...

red popsickle

red popsickle, originally uploaded by Drumbone.

Working Together

I dropped off Zack at school today and needed to bring along a new pack of diapers. Zack got out of the car and immediately saw his friend Justin getting out of the car too. After they gave each other a hug, Zack wanted to carry the pack of diapers. But Justin was a step ahead of him and opened up the gate for Zack and then once inside the building, Justin put the security card on the pad to unlock the door and then he opened the door for Zack. All Justin's dad and I had to do was walk behind them and chuckle at how two boys who aren't even 2.5 yet can work together and complete this task. I guess I don't need to walk Zack into school anymore...

Traps, the boy wonder

They say Buddy Rich started at age 2 also...

My mommy

We were in Tahoe for a few days with Grandma and Grandpa Grant and my mom was trying to explain to Zack that she was my mom - or mommy's mom. Zack looked puzzled and said slightly defensively:
"My mommy is my mommy. My mommy is nice. She is my friend."
Let's hope that's still true when he's 16.

I Love...

I was putting Zack to sleep after a fun evening of playing in the backyard and across the street and frolicking on the bed. I tucked him in and said to him "Good night Zack. I love you." He looked at me and replied, "I love....I love...I love pie! Can I have some pie?"
That's what I get for getting my hopes up. :-)

day home with mom

Well, zack has a rash-like thing that turns out is nothing special, but they won't let him into daycare until they're sure it's not contagious. SO - it's a day home with mom. A few highlights:

As I was working on my email, I heard Zack opening Tobey's food container and then take a cup and pour it in Tobey's bowl. So I helped him and explained to him how helpful it was for him to feed Tobey.

Then later I hear something outside and I go out to find Zack with his box of cheddar bunnies and Tobey and his food dish sitting together. Zack says: we're having a snack! I say: like a picnic? he says: yes! Tobey's food in there (pointing to his bowl); zack food in here (pointing to the cheddar bunnies box. I asked: Can mommy have some zack food? Zack says: Mommy's food is inside.

No picnic for me I guess!

Then later, I had a conference call and I went outside to take it. I've asked Zack a couple of times if he was ready for his nap and he seemed reluctant. So I figured he could play a little while longer and then I'd put him down for his nap late after my call. Well, I hung up the phone and the house was strangely quiet. No one in the family room or living room... but there he was asleep in his bed in his room. All by himself! (luckily I had already taken off his shoes!)

A star is born

So today, Daddy asked Zack to help him out making a silly 'commercial' with Daddy's friend Dorian. It was a bit of a struggle getting 4 2-4 year olds plus 1 baby to cooperate although the directions were in general easy as they really just had to pull out all the toys from the shelves of this day care center as fast as possible. Chaos insued (as was hoped for) and even some real tears fell. Taking advantage of the situation, Daddy and Dorian realized that crying might work great for the 'commercial'. So Mommy said, 'zack - can you show us your sad face?' and zack immediately pouted his lower lip out. Then Mommy said, "zack - can you cry' and Zack began to cry in the most authentic manner possible - it helped that he'd been crying just a bit earlier for real - and it was like method acting at it's finest. We laughed at how real it was and then shocked all the rest of the parents in the room by saying, 'Now laugh' which made zack stop immediately and begin to chirp out a silly laugh. Truely - an actor in the making.

Afterwards, Zack said to me, "I'm a star!"

I suppose if Andy and I want to quit our jobs we could always focus on Zack's career...

No more crib

Two weeks ago we got Zack a big-boy bed, which is in fact quite big: it's a bunk bed! We moved it into a new bedroom and tried to transition him to it, but it was too exciting for him and he wouldn't fall asleep. It wasn't until last weekend when my parents were in town that we made the big effort to encourage him to actually sleep (not play) in his new bed. It worked and now the crib is no longer used. We've been a little nervous about him falling out of bed because there are no more railings like the crib had, but we've checked in on his movement and he's kept himself tucked in. Except, one night I checked in on him around 1am, his comforter was mostly on the floor and he was sprawled out in the middle of the bed sleeping on two books, so he must have tried to do reading by the light of his nightlight. The key we found out is to eliminate toys from easy reach in his new room. It's only a matter of time when we will be woken up by him pouncing on our bed once he figures out how to open his door.

hockey fan

hockey fan, originally uploaded by Drumbone.

Big News

I'm now part of the initial start-up team for a mobile services company called Mozes. Our beta service, which we just launched last week, I thought would be the perfect way to make an announcement. try texting "bignews" to 66937 on your mobile phone and see what comes back to you.

Cold Turkey Day 2

Day 2 was far easier. Although Zack did ask for his pacifier and tried to smile and look cute and ask in a variety of ways, he really only got upset when I told him that he couldn't sleep in the big bed because Mommy had work to do (true - but I also was hoping for a better night's sleep). He whimpered and called out and cried for about 10 mins or less and then fell asleep. I'm thinking tomorrow it will be even easier.

AND - I forgot to mention yesterday morning's adventure in Mom's bathroom. I had some work to do for the folks in Europe and wanted to get out an email before leaving for work. So Zack took this opportunity to pull out a tampon from the basket in our bathroom, unwrap it and run around the house playing as if it was a mouse. Squeak, squeak...

Cold Turkey, Rocky Baby and the Big Bed

Well, the time has come. Mom has insisted that Zack go cold turkey without the pacifier. After Zack slept in our bed on Sunday night and I spent all night hearing the difficulty he had breathing through his nose and inability to let go of the pacifier to BREATHE better, I have decided he will sleep much better and get more oxygyn if he doesn't use the pacifier anymore. Dad's away - ha! - so he can't protest and cold-hearted mom is ready to battle it out.

It wasn't so bad, he whined a bit, cried a bit and then asked to sleep in the big bed with mom. Given that I have already made him a little upset by not giving in, I felt it made sense to let him sleep with me. And besides, Dad's gone, there's lots of room!

So as I'm tucking him in, he says, 'sing mommy?' (how can I resist that!) and I sing Rockabye Baby (not being able to think of any other nighttime song - but what a weird song... babies falling out of trees?). And Zack says 'more rocky baby?' So I sing it again... and again... and again... until the both of us fall asleep together. So cute!

Now, for those of you who remember being pregnant, you often wake up at night. So everytime I'd wake up I'd peek over at Zack. At first, he had his head on the pillow, but then it was down at the bottom of the bed, then he was diagonal and one time had scoot over so that his head was flopped over the edge (I pulled him back that time). But the best was when I heard: rustle, rustle, thump and then giggling from the floor. I popped up, ran over and Zack had rolled off the bed and onto Tobey's bed - barely missing Tobey himself. For some reason, instead of the crying as one would expect, Zack was giggling and looked like he was just going to go back to sleep right there on the dog bed. Well, I put him back in bed and created a pillow baracade so it wouldn't happen again.

Finally, this morning, Zack suddenly flips his head around and looks me straight in the eye and giggles again. Wham - awake. Just like that. Of course, it was only 6am...

Pancake Transport

While having pancakes on Saturday morning, Zack was getting full and then got a little adventurous. He would take a bite out of a pancake and then bring his cup of water to his mouth to drink except he would spit out the pancake bite into the water. He did this a few times exclaiming, "I put it in there!"

On an amazing scavenger hunt note, the other day zack was playing with his toy trains and then walked to his room and exclaimed "Turn ite, turn ite" (turn on light). When we came in and did, he went over to a small dresser and located a face for one of the trains that had been missing it. He gave the train and face to me and said "fix it daddy" I coudn't find the face previously it had been missing for over a week, so he must have seen it, and then knew right where to go when he found the "broken" train again. I was quite amazed.

Random snapshot

SnapShot of Zack at 2 years 1 month and 2 weeks.

Favorite book: Go Dog Go
Favorite TV show: Bob the Builder
Favorite food: Oat-e-mail for breakfast. Yogurt and Cereal Bars
Nap time: 12:45-2:45
Bed time: 8:00pm but often babbling or listening to his crib music until 8:30 or 8:45.
Wake time: 6:45am still solid sleep thru the night, thank goodness.
Fussy times: when it is time to stop playing and eat dinner, when it is time to stop playing and take a bath.
Potty update: The most progress we have so far is when he stands in the bath, he sometimes says he wants to potty and we hand him the bowl and he'll pee in the potty bowl while standing in the water.
New Language tricks: Zack is using similie a lot. He has said "We are going faster, like a racecar" and, referring to his blanket toss, "I throw it like a baseball".
He also likes saying words over and over and slightly modifying them to get to different words, like "Thanks...Fanks...Fank...Fit...Toes Fit"

When mom is away, the boys will play

Jen is travelling for a few days for work and Zack and I had a fun weekend.
* I picked him up to carry him in a flying manner to the changing table and he said "Super Baby!" I don't remember having said that for many many months.
* Zack likes to play a computer game that tickles Elmo. I dressed him up in his Elmo branded clothed on Sunday, and during our car ride to the store, I heard non-stop giggling from the back seat. Zack, wearing an Elmo shirt, was literally tickling himself to tickle Elmo, and it was non-stop giggling the entire ride.
* Zack made up his first song at dinner. The Neemee Neemee song. It goes "Neemee, Neemee, NeeMee......NeeMee NeeMee NeeMee...(giggle)" It sometimes became "Nemi Nemi Nemi"
*I had a heck of a time getting him to eat his lasagne and apple sauce. I was just met with crying. He finally asked for yogurt, so I gave him some, he took a few bites, and then happily ate everything else. Go figure.

Pachinko

Zack finally discovered the Pachinko machine I had been hiding in his closet all along. I was waiting for the right time to introduce it to him and I guess it is now. The balls are just smaller than marbles, so I'm making sure he only plays with it when I'm around. He was of course very fascinated with launching the balls and watching them bounce down. The interesting thing is that he spent more time looking at the back of the machine and all the mechanics of how the balls are sorted and channeled. He found out how to manually release groups of balls at once and found that to be very rewarding. I was periodically empying the tray at the bottom back into the top, and they he said he wanted to do it, and ended up doing a good job and not spilling too many. This is going to prove to be a captivating toy, I know i've spent many many hours with it too.

Funny Blogging Video

Here is a funny 30 sec video made by Dorrian Porter about kids and blogging. Check it out.
http://www.blip.tv/file/1642

Father Son Smackdown

The stitches came out today, and Zack was very brave. He got his first two sugar-free lollipops today. One for getting into the room (which he later bit into while the doctor was in the room and said "It's crunchy" prompting a look of awe from the doctor), and one for getting the stitches out. His cut is healing nicely, and the same could be said for my nose. It is easy to forget the dangers of the small sharp fingers of a toddler. While kissing his tummy, he tried to block me with his hand, caught a finger in my nose and hooked it hard enough to cause it to bleed for about 5 minutes. He follow that up a day later with a headbutt to the bridge of my nose. So after 5 days, Zack (with a black eye and stitches) and Dad (with a bloodied, swolen nose) appear to be even.

That's what you get for jumping on the bed!

Tonight we had our first trip to the ER! It was sad but exciting, and everyone's fine now. Zack was jumping and flopping on the bed at grandma and grampas and didn't realize the perils of a headboard, because there isn't one at home. well he hit the edge of the headbord pretty hard and split open the skin on the side of his left eye. We had a nice long cry as we put some ice on it, but it was big enough to go into the ER. So grandma, grampa, Zack and I piled into the car and went to the hospital (that grandma ironically works for). Zack was pretty calm throughout the waiting period and on the gurney. He was in his PJ's so he was pretty cute. We read many books to him in while they prepped the room, but when they started wheeling in the tray for the stitches he started to get nervous. And unfortunately we had to put him in a "papoose" which is a restraint that keeps him totally immobilized. This was terrifying to him, but I was right there with him while they spent the 5 agonizing minutes of putting in the 4 stitches. He was very very brave. When they finished, we all said "all done!" "horray!" and we released him from the papoose, and his demeanor instantly changed. He stood up and smiled, and the crying was all done for the rest of the night.

One observation: In our ER room, all the immediately available tools/bandages/materials were in a large stand-up Craftsman tool box on wheels. It looked like someone wheeled it in from an auto shop. Although I have to imagine it is functional and cost effective, costing only $200 whereas a medical cart would cost much much more.

4 stitches

4 stitches, originally uploaded by Drumbone.

in the ER

in the ER, originally uploaded by Drumbone.

Cracker Hat

Zack decided to wear a bag of goldfish crackers as a hat. Notice how Tobey is watching him VERY carefully...

First Lipstick Experience

Well it was bound to happen at sometime. Yesterday Zack discovered mom's lipstick containers under the sink in our bedroom, and I walked in to find him with two different shades of red, one on his cheek and one on his upper lip. (they were very light, so a picture wouldn't have captured it well) Fortunately he didn't know how to twist up the lipstick or else his art creation would have been much more grandiose. I cleaned him up and put away the lipstick, but sure enough, he got into it again this morning. I didn't see anything on his face so i thought nothing of it, but put the makeup out of reach for good. Then after I got to work I noticed my khakis. I've got two nice red streaks on them, so I guess he had put the lipstick on his fingers this morning and grabbed my pantleg as we were getting into the car. Jen is out of town on work, so I'm blogging this as proof that if she finds lipstick on my clothes, she won't get too suspicious. :-)

2 Year Update

Well he had his 2nd birthday party past weekend, and while it was fun, I think that we underestimated what over a dozen toddlers will do to our house. I think we'll do it smaller next time. Someone jokingly suggested never invite more kids than the age of the birthday boy. Zack had a period of 30 min where he wasn't too happy, because it was the first time that many other kids were playing with his toys, and he was initially trying to protect them.

Here are the latest stats:
Weight: 32 pounds. 90th percentile
Height: 34.5 inches. 90th percentile
So he's still on the large size, time to move away from whole milk! He's safely wearing 3T clothes.

Zack is running, jumping, and starting to hang on bars for a few seconds. He's shown an early interest in skating, and a strong interest in soccer and kicking balls. His favorite toys are toy cars and trucks. He can spend time doing independent play well. He likes dancing to music, playing drums. Doesn't like art so much, but enjoys reading and being read to. He is very chatty and likes to talk a lot. We've lost track of how many words he knows. His pronunciation is quite good except for not using "L" and "S" at the beginning of words. He can correctly say "Yellow" but not "Little"; he will say "Ittle". He can say "Tobey's Ball" but not "Star"; he will say "Tar". He is getting better with colors, but our doc said that may not fully develop until age 3 or 4. I had thought that since there are toys for infants and toddlers to teach colors, that color recognition and ID was instantly developed in the early months.

His sleeping is still very regular from 8:15pm to 7:00am. with a 12:30-2:30 nap. Although recently, he's been getting sleepy around 11am and will sneak a cap nap if he's not engaged. He still uses a pacifier, which he used to call "Patter" but now says "Pacifier", but only at night. He hasn't shown much interest in using the potty now that we got one, we'll see how that goes. Our doctor said not to force it too early with boys. The bit of mischief he's been doing has been in occasional rough treatment of the dog usually by trying to kick him, which doesn't really bother the dog as much as us.

So off we go into "'Nother" year!

Birthday Cake!

01152006.jpg, originally uploaded by Drumbone.

New Toys

We are back from a week vacation over Christmas in Puerto Vallarta. We went with Jen's parents and we had a great time. More pictures and stories will be forthcoming, but for one of the highlights, check out Jen's amazing gallery of Humpback Whales photos we took on our whale watch!

Some of the highlight of what Zack got for Christmas were a pair of skates and all the safety equipment. These skates are sooo cool. they look line in-line stakes, but they have lateral stability, they fit over any shoe, and one of the wheels on each skate have 3 settings: it can lock in place to help with walking, only roll forward for learning to skate, and free roll for when the skate can go forwads and backwards.

Also, since he had shown some promise and interest on my drumset, we found a deal on a 4 piece starter drumset for him, and he loves it. It comes with stickers of colored shapes on each drum and cymbal, and flash cards you can show the drummer to get him to play the drum that corresponds to the flash card. This works surprisingly well. Today we mixed things up, I would show him a flash card and tell him "soft", and he would play that drum soft. Then I'd show him another card and say "loud", and he would play that drum loud. But, after doing this for a while, Zack wanted to reverse the process and took the cards from me, and said "Daddy's Turn" and showed me some of the shapes and said "loud" and "soft" while I was at the drums. It's funny that he enjoys the role-reversal as a part of learning and playing!