Big brother back seat driver

Big brother back seat driver
Originally uploaded by Drumbone

Sent from my iPhone

9 year anniversary cake

9 year anniversary cake
Originally uploaded by Drumbone

Chosen by our 3 year old.
Sent from my iPhone

Baby squirrel rescue

Baby squirrel rescue
Originally uploaded by Drumbone

Sent from my iPhone

Zoe losing her morning nap

As further proof that the twins really are different from each other, Zoe has dropped her morning nap before she's turned 1. She also wakes up before Zadie. So it just seems like she doesn't need as much sleep as Zadie. Zadie was the fussy one when trying to go to sleep swaddled as a newborn, but ironically, she's done very well with her naps. So our stretch of keeping the twins on the same schedule has finally broken. We will try and get Zadie to lose her morning nap within 4 weeks to realign them and get them ready for daycare. But in the meantime, it's gonna be hard with the girls being on different sleep schedules from 10am to 3pm. Zadie naps at 10am and 1:30pm, and Zoe naps at noon.

Zack's a Fish, Zadie's a Dog, and Zoe's a...Raspberry

Zack turned a corner in swimming class two weeks ago, where he became very comfortable holding his breath and keeping his head underwater for a while. This lead him to improve by leaps and bounds in class since he's not worried about his head staying down. We even went diving for things on the bottom of the pool with him, and while i helped him go down and come back up, he couldn't get enough of it! Now the problem is keeping him swimming on the surface because he wants to be underwater now.

Zadie is the master walker now and can walk around the house without falling down. She has taken a fascination to the dog water and food bowls, and will grab food and try and eat it or splash her hands in the water if we aren't careful, or even go after dog chew bones. The dog doesn't seem to mind, but...uh...we do.

And Zoe has been turning on her best raspberry imitation over the past few weeks. Zack now calls her the Putt-Putt Monster for the sounds she makes with her lips. She seems very happy letting out the bronx cheers whenever she feels like it.

Tooth count:
Zadie: 7
Zoe: 2

More bath fun

More bath fun
Originally uploaded by Drumbone

Sent from my iPhone

Rub a dub dub

Rub a dub dub
Originally uploaded by Drumbone

Sent from my iPhone

Fun at the park

Fun at the park
Originally uploaded by Drumbone

Sent from my iPhone

Mohawk from side

Mohawk from side
Originally uploaded by Drumbone

Crazy hair day

Crazy hair day
Originally uploaded by Drumbone

Zackasaurus

Zack was asked what he would say if he were a dinosaur for a class project. Well, instead of "Rrrawwrr!", he took it as a cue to explain the answer in detail, which the teacher recorded. Here's what Zackasaurus said:

"T-Rex. He looks like a dinosaur. He is green. They are all different colors of T-Rex. I am a red T-Rex. I'm a big T-Rex. I'm smooth and I have sharp teeth. I eat meat and other dinosaurs. I live in a T-Rex house - it's just a plain house. I have dinner and have snack - that's all. I fit in big, tall houses. I'm gonna make tall tall houses up to the sky and the volcano will be next to the other T-Rex's house. I have 65 neighbors - some speak Spanish and some speak English. I have an owie right here - but my owie on my knee is going away. I would have other T-Rex friends, but I'm not a dinosaur. I'm just a person. I'm a T-Rex. I'm all done."

Zadie's first steps

She took her first 2 steps yesterday and I actually got it on video! I need to capture it and upload it and will do so hopefully later today

Zoe walks and Zadie talks

I've been lax in my blogging duties lately and need to catch up. The biggest news is that as of a week ago Zoe is walking. On the day she turned 11 months old, she took her first set of unaided steps. This is interesting because Zack did the same on the day he turned 10 months, and Zoe was born a month early, so Zoe and Zack have started walked at physically the exact same time. I wish we had good video, but she never seems to want to walk when we have the camera ready. and Zadie, not to be outdone, now waves and says "Hi" when new people come into the room, she's also babbling a very wide range of sounds and noises, and pointing to things as she says them. The interesting thing about Zadie is that she had been consistantly a month behind Zoe in doing things for the first time (except for getting teeth), but at around 10 months she hit a development spurt within a two week period to catch up to Zoe and even pass her on things like verbal development.

This week Zadie is super-fussy, perhaps because tooth #5 is coming in, and Zoe's new favorite activity is putting toys and things into and taking toys out of my mouth. Is she trying to feed me?

Toilet Fun

I wish I had a picture of what happened - it was both cute and shocking - but if I did, it would have meant that I wasn't doing my job as a parent in stopping what I saw as soon as possible. I came home around 6:30 right when Jen was leaving so in the transition as I was tending to Zack, the girls crawled off down the hall. I then heard a sound coming from the bathroom that sounded like the dog was drinking water out of the toilet loudly. I didn't think much of it until I saw the dog in the living room and realized the girls were doing something. When I went into the bathroom I saw Zoe and Zadie both happily standing at the toilet bowl each with one hand on the rim and one hand smacking the water in the bowl both with huge happy grins on their faces. Fortunately the water in the toilet was clean, but they both earned themselves instant baths. And we need to make sure Zadie especially doesn't think to try and tip herself in to get a drink. It's time for latches on the toilet seat! Funny, Zack never was interested in the toilet and we never needed to do anything to thwart him when he was a toddler.

Ultimate Time-Out

I've got to keep track of the bad as well as the good. Zack has seemed to turn a corner in not behaving well. Yesterday after a great day of fun, he didn't want to leave our friends house, was warned numerous times, then hit his mom and once strapped in the car, hit his sister next to him, and lost all privileges for the day. He was put to bed (against his will) at a new record: 5:45pm. After much screaming he passed out for a while. He was able to wake up, regroup and eat dinner and get ready for bed with mom around 8:30pm and earn back his book-reading privilege. This morning went well, but he seemed to break down again when I dropped him off at daycare, which he hasn't done for a very long time. We'll see how it goes, hopefully he can behave better for his grandparents who arrive for 2 weeks tomorrow.

First attempt at harmony

Curses to my camera for cutting out too early (or perhaps for some, not early enough)

Family at the Gym

Here another video of the family at the My Gym in Palo Alto (great place BTW!)

Time-outs a plenty

A new record for time-outs was made tonight. A whopping 6-minute timeout was earned by Zack along with a revocation of book-reading privees and an early bedtime for multiple infractions that included spitting milk, multiple screaming, kicking dad, throwing bath toys, and generally just being a frumpy face. All of this meant an early bedtime for mom too...

Where do we sleep?

Zack has a fever and went to sleep early in his bed. At some point he then got up and relocated to our bed and Tobey followed. Now that we are ready for bed, there doesn't appear to be any room left...

Zadie dances the pole

For the first...and last...time.

Hidden night vision twins cam

So what do twins actually do in their crib at night after we put them to bed and walk away? I tried to hide myself in the corner of the room with the lights out to capture what they do, it's pretty interesting. I was hidden for the most part but had to come out a few times to rescue the pacifiers.

How a 3-year-old thinks

Zack swung his stuffed animal cat named Polly around and it hit his sister Zadie.
I said sternly "Zack! Be careful! Don't hit your sister with Polly. Polly has hard shoes that could really hurt her." Zadie didn't seem to mind as it was just the soft part of the cat that hit her.

Zack said, "OK." So he went and got a smaller stuffed animal and walked over to Zadie and whacked her hard across the back with the toy. Zadie cried in shock and pain, and before I could say anything to Zack, he held up the smaller toy to me and said, "See, this one is soft!"

I guess I need to be more specific in my instructions to him in the future...

ZackyCam

Zack steps behind the camera for the first time and records his first video. I think he's getting the hang of it, but for those prone to motion sickness be warned, there are some jittery scenes...

9 month checkup

The girls got their 9 month visit today. No shots! Horray:
Zoe:
Weight-17 3/4 lbs, 30%
Length-28 1/4 in, 75%
Head- 70%
Teeth- 2 bottom just coming thru

Zadie
Weight-17 1/2 lbs, 30%
Length-27 1/2 in, 50%
Head- 70%
Teeth- 4, her top 2 just came thru

Both girls are crawling quickly, standing on their own, walking with hand support and we think any day either one of them will take their first unaided step.
Zadie has been very very chatty lately and the baby babble from both is getting very cute. I'm going to try and record more of that audio.
Zadie is a great sleeper, she goes right down for naps and sleeps soundly, the only problem is that sometimes she gets hungry around 4am and if we go into the room and she sees us, it is all over. She'll throw a fit if we leave.
Zoe still is erratic in sleeping, she would rather entertain herself in the crib doing new flexibility moves rather than sleep, and she gets about an hour less of sleep a day than Zadie.
Their personalities are still different. Zoe is very interested in things and Zadie is very interested in people and faces. They sometimes wrestle, but it is usually just Zoe rolling over or grabbing Zadie, and Zadie doesn't do much to respond except by just crying. I have a feeling that will certainly change over time. Overall they are two very happy girls!

Learning the Wave

The girls have fun showing off their waves today. Check out the video:

Family Hike

When the going got long and rough on Yosemite, I had to hike with all 3 kids, here's how I managed the additional 80 pounds of kids.

SciFi Story

Zack made up a place and a little description while talking with his grandparents tonight. It goes a little something like this (summarized): There is a planet that is far far away called Nascoplat that has a blue sun and red sky and yellow water. The people are called Jibber-jabbers and they make silly noises. However there are no trains, cars, planes or boats on Nascoplat.
We were going to discover their mode of transportation, but then Zack's attention turned elsewhere. We may never know how the Jibber-jabbers got from point A to point B...

Baby signing time

We've started to watch some DVDs some friends gave us because the girls can start responding now, and guess who is addicted to the videos? Zack! Zack didn't seem to remember the hand signs he learned 2 years ago, but was very attentive to the video. He'd even correct some of the kids in the video that make signs slightly different than the correct way.
Zoe is already signing "milk" and Zadie is starting to catch on.
Also for those of you waiting to hear, Zoe hasn't taken her first steps yet, although she is constantly on her feet now and can free-stand. Only a matter of days...will she take her first steps before turning 9 months old a week from now?

Bottle Math

We go through a lot of formula now. The oversized formula cans at Costco have 1Kg of formula powder and each 8oz bottle requires nearly 35g, so that gets us 30 bottles per can. However with twins that drink at least 3 bottles a day each, that means a can only lasts us 5 days. So $110 of formula that I just spent on 4 jumbo cans is only going to last us 3 weeks. That's about $35/week on formula for twins at just under $1 per bottle, which seems like a lot, but I'm sure Jen would say that it is totally worth it not to have to breastfeed them anymore.

As a side note, I have now figured out how to bottle feed both twins at the same time. Failed attempts include: having both sit in high chairs (sitting upright isn't the most comfortable for them), having Zack feed one of them (he's got an attention span of 10 seconds), and feeding them separately (causing one to throw a fit while waiting). The trick so far is to sit on the floor with a baby on the outside of each of my thighs leaning back. This way they can't see each other and get distracted, and I look like some crazy type of gunslinger with upside-down bottles at each hip.

First Cooperation?

I really need to have the video camera nearby. So, one of the funniest things to watch with twins is the battle over a single pacifier. If they are sitting near each other, one will pull it out of the other's mouth with a "pop" and put it in her mouth. Then the other will reach out, grab it and and pull it back out with a "pop" and put it back into her mouth. This continues back and forth, and usually (and surprisingly) without either one getting too upset. Well this morning we had another pacifier battle, but this time after a while, Zoe took it out of her own mouth and reached out and gave it back to Zadie. It seemed as she thought this was more of a game rather than a posession battle. Is this the first step in cooperative play?

First Day Swimming for the Girls

Today we took the circus to the pool and started lessons for all 3. Zack gets a private lesson at the same time Jen and I both have the twins in a "mommy and me" swim class. Well, both girls did very well, even better than Zack's first time at the same age of 8 months. They each went completely underwater at least a half-dozen times and remerged just fine. Zoe would give a concentrated look of disapproval at times, but Zadie would quickly go back to grinning ear-to-ear. Zack worked on diving head first today, and it was very cute to be in the pool with the girls and look over to see him standing on the edge of the pool in a diving position with arms outstretched waiting for his teacher to help him dive in head first.

Zoe just pulled herself up to standing all by herself today. I think she'll take her first steps when she turns 9 months. And we'll probably have to get a helmet...

Active Imagination

Zack was in rare form after dinner tonight and was excitedly explaining how he wants to be Superman/Batman and fly around. I recorded the end of his story, and you can hear it by pushing the play button on the GarageBand podcast widget at Tales from the Crib. If you think he sounds excited here, the first half that I didn't record was even more dramatic, and very cute.

Crawling and Teeth!

Boy, it's been a while, but the updates will be coming more frequently now I promise. Zoe has been crawling for a month! She is an active little one, and will be skipping the chubby-baby phase because she is moving around so soon. She started crawling right when she turned 7 months, which is 2.5 months earlier than Zack. She's also standing well and taking some steps with assistance. Zack walked at 10 months, I think she will walk at 9 months (and she was even born a month early)

Zadie is now crawling too now, except she mostly goes backwards. But she got her first 2 teeth about 3 weeks ago! She's been great at eating solid food and taking naps. She's a little more chubby than Zoe, but that may melt away when she starts crawling forward.

How I woke up today

All the kids woke up early (before 6:30) so I fed them all and brought them all into the living room to chill and watch 30 min of TV while I fell asleep on the couch. I woke up to a punch in the face from Zack. Apparently he he didn't want me sleeping anymore. So he got an instant time-out. But after the time-out when I asked him about what he did and why, I said "It's never ok to hit anyone in the face". And his reply was "except for when they say it is ok". I guess he thought I gave him the permission at some point earlier. It's one of those things that I end up laughing about later in the day, although it didn't seem so funny at the time.

Zack's First Auto Accident

Yesterday was an eventful morning. Zack and mom were driving to school in the minivan in the carpool lane when the two cars in front of them collided. Jen stopped in time but the car behind her didn't and they got rear-ended. Fortunately no one was hurt at the time (although the whiplash took 24 hours to set in and is now quite bothersome for Jen) and what is more amazing is that the car sustained no damage at all. The bumpers aligned and did their trick, and the back gate of the minivan still works just fine. Horray for the Toyota Sienna!
Zack's reaction: Upon turning the car and the DVD player off after being hit, he simply said, "Turn the movie back on!"

What was even more odd about this situation was I was on the scene within a minute in the other car completely by accident (no pun intended). I took the highway to work (which i never do) because i had an errand that morning, I got on the highway and saw it immediately start to slow down. I thought, oh boy, there must be an accident. Little did I know that Jen and Zack were involved in it a half-mile ahead of me. Jen then called my phone telling me what had just happened, and then a minute later, I passed by them and pulled over and stop to help. I'm glad Jen called me and alerted me, because that would have been incredibly strange to pass by the accident unknowingly and suddenly see my wife, child, and car involved.

Super Duper

Zack has decided today that his new name is Super Duper. And he's referring to himself in the third-person. He's got a pet elephant that he has renamed Super Doo-pah to go on adventures around the house with Super Duper.

Zadie and Zoe got their first taste of solid food today! Zadie looked like she's been waiting for it all her live and took to the spoon very easily. Zoe was good too but a little hesitant.
BTW, they are now 6 months and they aren't swaddled anymore. Zadie goes to sleep very easily, and surprisingly it is Zoe that has to cry it out for 15 min or so at night.

Zadie Rolled Over!

Just the other day, Zadie rolled over, and back again! It took her a month and a half longer than Zoe, but she got there. Zadie is now noticably bigger than Zadie, which I attribute to the face that Zeo is mostly sleeping through the night, and Zadie still gets 2 big feedings in the night.

I want to see the bimbo play

I was giving Zack and the girls a music appreciation day by playing some old-school Phish (yikes, is the mid-90's old school now?). Zack was listening to the song Character Zero off Billy Breathed. After the song was over he starting singing the chorus as "I want to see the bimbo play". I couldn't contain myself, too funny. For those of you who aren't familiar with the song, the chorus is "I ought to see the Man Mulcahey"

Zack 3 year checkup

I've been meaning to write a 2.5 year update for Zack, and then whammo, he turned 3. I'll give the qualitative stuff shortly, but for now here are the numbers.

Zacky Stacky
Height: 39.5 inches (90%)
Weight: 37.5 pounds (90%)

So for the family, this means that he is a 4T, not a 3T, in clothing size.

So Zack, while large for his age is at least well-proportioned. :-)
At the doctor's, he got his blood pressure taken for the first time, and when he was told it was like blowing up a balloon on his arm, he seemed at ease.
He also got a hep B shot which he quickly recovered from when he got the bandaid. Overall very healthy and happy!

Zoe slept through the night!

First time she went from 7pm to 7am! Actually she probably fell asleep around 8pm because she was crying for quite a bit, but she lasted all this time on having taken just 4 oz during her last 6pm feeding. I'd rejoyce more but the fact that Zadie still wakes up twice means that we don't gain any sleep with Zoe's feat, but it is a step in the right direction!

Zacky Einstein

Who needs Baby Einstein videos when Zack is more than willing to play with baby toys in front of the babies?

Zack comments on love

Check out video of zack at the coolest new parenting site Maya's Mom.

And then check out this hilarious video response to Zack's video

4 MonthTwins Update

Wow, I'm really behind on the updates, so here comes a whole bunch.

While the twins just turned 5 months old, here are the results of their doctor trip just after 4 months.
Zoe:
Weight: 13lb 2oz (50%)
Length: 24.75 in (75%)
Head: 40 7/8 in (50%)

Zadie:
Weight: 13lb (50%)
Length: 25.5 in (80%)
Head: 41 2/8 in (55%)

We thought at the time that they measured Zadie incorrectly since Zoe always looks taller, but as the month has gone on, it really is Zadie who is growing faster and bigger than Zoe. She's been making up for lost time and for being the younger sister.

Zoe rolled over at Xmas! Exactly at the 4 month mark just before xmas, Zoe rolled herself over from her back to her tummy. Since then she does it very frequently and will almost always end up on her tummy when given the chance. We haven't seen her roll back to her back yet. Zoe also is doing very well with picking up and manipulating things. She clearly had made the connection between what she wants and what her hands can do. She can pull out a pacifier and wave it around and look at it, but can't quite get it back in yet. Zoe's skin is still sensitive, someties she'll have red blotches on her face after rubbing it or after nursing.

Zadie isn't rolling over yet, but she is able to keep herself in a sitting position, wheras Zoe cannot. Zadie is also very talkative and excitable. She smiles constantly and really fixates on faces and other people. She surprises us with how far away she can recognize people and objects and react to them.

For sleeping, we've kept them swaddled and are only now starting to relax that restriction. We've started sleep training them, which means that we have set times for naps and meals, and are adjusting them to that schedule. It has been a breeze for Zoe who now goes down at 7pm and will wake up only once before 7am. Zadie's been a bit more tough, having to cry it out for 15 min or so at 7pm, and then needs to eat twice before wakeup. Zadie also cannot comfort herself unless she's swaddled, so that transition may take a while.

Less than a month left for breast feeding, we are trying to make it to 6 mo.

The twins are more like sisters rather than twins, since they are showing different personalitities. If I were to guess now at 4 months as to how they may develop here it goes:
Zoe is very interested in observing how things work and manipulating things, so she like Zack has a little bit of a mechanical interest. She's a bit shy however, we call her our delicate little flower since she has sensitive skin and new environments and situations can be alarming to her.
Zadie is a people person and is more interested in people than anything else. She is very comfortable with new situations and smiles at everyone. She is very vocal and like to make many noises. She may turn out to be more extroverted than Zoe. She's the one who will get herself and her sister into trouble as teenagers...

The interesting thing is that I saw some of these traits (which i would classify as "nurture" rather than "nature") at birth, such as during their first week, if there was a loud noise, Zoe would be the one who would jump, and Zadie wouldn't be bothered. It makes you wonder what characteristics are nature vs. nurture.
So to recap: Zoe is more interested in objects than people, and Zadie is more interested in people than objects. They are starting to discover each other and interact, so we'll have more cute stories to come.

First Word Read

For those who are keeping track at home, Zack's experiment with underwear thru the night was not a success. And what was worse is that his accident didn't wake him up, so he finally woke up cold and wet. But we've done well since with dry diapers at night and will try again soon.

Anyway, Zack identified his first word a few weeks ago. It's not CAT or DOG or CAR. I guess as a sign of the times, it came about as he was looking over the shoulder of one of us on the computer, he pointed to the upper left of the screen and said "Google". Yup, there it is, Google is his first word identified by himself.

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!

First Ear Infection

So a lot of the random fussiness, including a horrible Friday night has an explanation: ear infection! Jen and I can't remember ever having gotten them ourselves, so we had no idea how to spot one. I guess the answer is: If your baby is really cranky and writhing in pain, and it is not gas, hunger, stomach virus, teething, dirty diaper, then it is obviously an ear infection! (He wasn't running a fever and wasn't pulling at his ear, making it more puzzling) He's got a slight infection in both ears, most likely as a result of being sick for the first half of last week. So a dose of Tylenol helps the pain, and we got the proverbial pink liquid medicine.

We were worried that since giving him small squirts of cough and cold medicine was hard, then giving him 1.5 oz of pink stuff would be impossible. So here's what we did: We gave him the large eyedropper along with his pacifier and he curiously checked out the eyedropper and sucked on it. Then we said we are going to give him a "squirt" and he thought it was fun and ate the pink stuff right up - even asking for more!! So fortunately taking temperatures and giving medicine are now fun activities, however I'll bet the pink stuff has gotten tastier over the years. I thought I remembered it being yucky, but I tasted a bit, and it is quite good! Why do we always have to have it worse than the kids these days!?! :-)

Zack's First Podcast

So now we have the audio experience along with the stories and photos. Thanks to the Gcast tool from GarageBand.com this was really easy to set up. All I do is call a special phone number and can record audio directly to this site, so no matter where Zack is when he starts making funny noises or sentences, I can capture it for everyone if I have my phone handy. This should be fun to play around with. Our first posting isn't so interesting, Zack wasn't very talkative today. More audio clips will appear in the upper right of this blog page as we make them.

Update: Ear Thermometer

So I went out and got one of those digital ear thermometers. It was only $30 at Safeway. And now, getting our temp taken is fun! Zack holds still and he likes to imitate the beeps that it makes. You only need to do it in one ear, but Zack likes it so much he demands his temp be taken in the other ear too. Who knew this could be so much fun. And it only takes 3 seconds in each ear. Soooo much more helpful!

Fussy Fussy...Flop

12142005.jpg, originally uploaded by Drumbone.

We must be approaching the "twos". Zack's been sick and had a fever yesterday, but routine things that used to be easy are becoming more difficult. Giving him medicine was as easy as showing the eye-dropper to him and he would eagerly suck it down. Now it takes two people and a lot of restraint and tears to give him medicine. Even taking temperature under his arm is no easy feat (i should look into those ear temp tools), and even putting on a bib at times is too much.

We just did all three while restrained in the highchair for a snack, which lead to a lot of crying, not much eating, and an instant nap in the chair. I'm not kidding, this picture was taken 20 seconds after a 5 minute crying session ended.

End of the high chair?

Recently Zack has been asserting himself as a big boy in certain ways. Most recently he has demanded to sit in the booster seat, or big boy seat, at the table instead of the high chair. that way we all eat together at the same table. he's been sitting on the potty more frequently but no other progress there yet.

Zack is getting into counting now. We count trucks on the highway as we drive. Unprompetd, here is how he currently counts to ten:
"One, two, three, four, six, five, ten!"
I'm sure this will change by the end of the week because we are counting so much.

He got his flu shot last week, and cried after he felt the needle, but stopped abruptly when he got a band-aid on the arm, saying "sticker!". I guess stickers do the trick!

A Ham for the Cam

A shot today of Zack having fun at daycare. When he is asked to smile, he cocks his head and shows his teeth. Very cute.

Here's another criblet:
Smile Pants - He said this after seeing my boxer shorts that have smiley faces on it.

Stay tuned for the Zack Podcast Channel coming soon! Hear Zack's latest squeals, words, and noises! I'll be using GarageBand.com latest offering

Big shoes to fill

Heres a video of zack walking in mommy's shoes. Turns out i stopped the recording a few seconds too soon, because just after i stopped it he said "Bye Bye. Working" as he walked away, apparently imitating his mommy.

http://www.gracks.com/zachary/12022005(2).3gp

Here are some new Criblets: (Criblet - Meaning)

Play Lotion - He heard both of these words in the same sentence and though they sounded good together i guess. he repeated it a few times.
Andy Pandy - His new nickname for me. He recently learned our real first names, and thought "Andy" sounds funny. Flashes of grade school name-mocking memories are suddenly flying back to me now.
Santa Closet - Santa Claus, but i think he likes using other words he's familiar with.
Goofy - Excuse Me. He thinks burps and farts are funny, so we are trying to get him to say "excuse me" after it. However, he says "Goofy" instead, which unfortunately perpetuates his funny aspect.

First computer

Here is a pic of an old dell laptop that barely has enough memory to run windows XP, but i reconfigured for Zack to use. I removed the keys for all the F1, F2, Ctrl, Alt, etc. and left the others so that he wouldn't get himself into too much trouble. He loves it and loves the simple web-based games we've found.
When he wants to use the computer, he'll say "Tickle Elmo" or "See Froggies" which are two fun keyboard-only games to play on Sesame Street website

Sick Day

And boy, was it. For some unknown reason we all got sick early this morning and were miserable all through the day. Zack threw-up at 1am in his crib, and after we woke up we both felt bad too. Jen spent the rest of the morning sleepig on the floor of one bathroom and I spent it sleeping on the floor with Zack in the other bathroom. There is nothing that makes me feel more like a dad than to be caring for and sleeping with a little guy who keeps throwing up every 2 hours.
It's pretty sad watching a toddler throw up and seeing him not care anymore because he'd been doing it off and on for the last 12 hours. The secondary problem was getting rid of his hiccups afterward, since drinking water would be kept down. Accidently bumping his head on the wall is the only thing that worked so far.
As Jen said "I used to think the worst thing was throwing up, but now I know the worst thing is throwing up while hearing your son throw up too."
Anyway, he was very happy and seemed healthy tonight, Jen and I can't say that unfortunately.

First time ice skating!

Zack really really wanted to try skating when we all went up to Squaw Valley. He wanted to have skates on his feet and after we started out in the corner of the ice he said "Skate with big people" meaning he wanted to go around the rink with everyone else. He was a champ and didn't get upset at all, except for when we stepped off the ice too early after a few rounds, and he said "More Ice Skating". I thing someone may get skates for x-mas...

First Conversation

Zack is now 22 months old and in the final stretch toward turing 2. Yesterday I got a call from day care reporting that he took a big tumble off a bench and hit his head on the gravel. He was fine by the time I arrived, so on the way home in the car, he said at some point,
"Zacky fall down."
"Oh, you fell down today?" I asked.
"Yeah" Zack said sheepishly
"Did you bump your head?"
"Yeah...Zacky Cry"
"Oh, did you cry?" I asked.
"Yeah" sheepishly again.
"That's ok, its OK to cry. Are you happy now?"
"Yeah!" he said more excitedly.

Also, he is starting to say phrases and more correct sentences. Yesterday he said "Fire truck in the castle!!!" which is the first complete use of a prepositional phrase I can remember after he put his toy fire truck into a barn silo that looks like a castle. When we went outside last night, he commented, "It's dark".

How to eat meat

Zack is a carb-loving baby and it has been more and more difficult to get him to eat anything other than bread-related foods and certain fruits. However this weekend we had a breakthrough and we were able to get Zack to eat a whole slice of meatloaf by using the following techniques:
1) tell him it is chicken. chicken seems to be OK, and when it it cut up to look like little chicken bits, it is just like "dark meat", right?
2) play hide-and-seek with the piece of food, but tell Zack to hide it in his mouth. He will stuf the piece in his mouth and then eat it and quickly exclaim "all gone!"

Draw Face

From the Funny Story of the Day dept:
We all went our for dinner at Applebees last night and Zack was having fun with the crayons, scribbling on the kiddie activity placemat. There was a section that had a blank ghost with the instructions to draw a face on the ghost. We said to Zack, "Zack can you draw a face?" Then he proceeded to bring the crayon up to HIS OWN face, closed his eyes, and tried to scribble on his cheeks and nose. He then stopped, smiled and said "Draw face!" We couldn't stop laughing.

New Criblets:
Tickle Treat - Trick or Treat.
Oat Email - Oatmeal, Zack's favorite breakfast food. He started saying ee-mail for Oatmeal, and then realized that it wasn't quite right, so he added "Oat" a few days later, but kept "ee".

His pronunciation is great except for a few expections, like "Oat-e-mail", and "Budder-boon" (balloon)