First Haircut

Oh, and I forgot to mention, on Sunday, Zack got his first haircut. Now maybe he'll be mistaken less for a girl. :-) I'll post a picture soon.

15 Month Checkup

So I've been quite tardy on the updates recently. We had our 15 month checkup last week.

Here are the stats:
Weight: 26 pounds (75%)
Height: 33 inches (95%)

We've been informed by friends that for amusement parks, the min height requirement is 36 inches so zack may reach that before he even knows what an amusement park ride is!
Zack just started daycare and seems to be loving it.
So as the Daddy Sabbatical ends, here are the facts that were tracked over his 11-15 month time frame:

Zack Stats at 15 months:
-Tooth count: 6, but a molar eruption is about to occur. (4 @11mo)
-Weight: 26 pounds (23 @11mo)
-Height: 33 inches (31 @11mo)
-Words: a torrent of new words such that I can't count all of them anymore. I would estimate spoken vocab of around 30 words and an understood vocab of 60. He is responding correctly to complex sentences with different nouns and verbs, such as "Zack, can you smell the grass? Zack, can you give mommy a kiss?" His favortite new word is "Hockey", and one word that seems to mean many things is "Kah-goo" or "Dah-doo" which can mean "Cracker, Tractor, Dragon, etc". Oh and we can finally imitate a kitty-cat with a resounding "MEEE-OWWW!"
-Special Skills: running, kicking, throwing, dancing. he seems to have an early gift for balance and body movement. We see him shifting his weight all round his toes and ankles, even his tippy-toes in a way a dancer might. He hasn't started jumping yet, but that may start soon. We love love love to read books, and it seems as if he can't get enough. His current favorites are Pat the Bunny and Big Dog, Little Dog. We've learned to play the drums, but don't show a strong desire to listen or sing to music yet. We are just starting experiments in drawing/painting.
-Food: eating mostly people food with a strong penchant for dairy products. He has become quite fussy and unaccepting of new food. uses a sippy cup, but doesn't like juice yet. (not much change from 11mo)
-Naps: One a day now from 12-2, although he may steal a cat nap in the car occasionally. Still sleeps through the night from 7:30pm - 7:00am , thank goodness! (2 naps and occasional waking @11mo)

A Picture Share!

Catching up and talking

Sorry about the lack of updates. I'll follow with a physical update at his 15 month check up in a few weeks, but in the meantime here is what has been going on the this first half of being 14 months:

Talking: Zack has been really talky lately. I've rigged a mic connected to the computer to work with the software Sound Snooper to voice-activatedly record his crib babble. It hasn't worked so welll so far because the mic or software produces an annoying level of background signal noise, but i'll have to fix that. Needless to say he is very cute and his vocabulary of spoken words is:
Ball "baah"
Star "tar"
Toy "toyie"
Wheel "wee-oh-wee-oh-wee-oh-wee-oh"
Bike "bie"
Balloon "bah boo"
Bubble "buh buh"
Hi "Hieee"
Bye-Bye "buh bye doh"*
Daddy "dah-ie"
Mommy "mah-ie"
These are in addition to about a dozen or so other words he understands but doesn't say, and a chorus of about 6 animal noises. he likes to make.

* we finally realized where this extra syllable came from. We would say "Say bye bye to mommy" or "say bye bye to the doggie" and he would say, "bye bye to"

A Picture Share!

Parental Discipline Failure

So I've failed at my first real test of bad behavior. My excuse is that it was just so funny. I had taken a box of crayons out to show zack for the first time how to draw and color. We spent some time playing with the crayons, holding them, tasting them, placing them in different places before we really understood how they could mark on the large pad of paper I had. Well, he only drew a very small amount on the paper, i think because it was on the ground and not as easy to draw on as something that was vertical, like, umm...the wall for example. Zack walked over to the wall with a crayon and quickly marked the wall before I could stop him. I then said"no" because he shouldn't do that, but I was happy to see that he finally knew what a crayon could do. Except, he then giggled at the attention and went back to trying to mark the wall and saying "no". I again said "no", watched him giggle and I started laughing. I couldn't keep a straight face. He would walk to the hutch and try the same thing, and I would say no and start laughing because his reaction was so funny. I knew I was failing miserably but I couldn't stop laughing. Jen finally arrived to put an end to Zack's behavior because I was completely ineffective. And now, Zack thinks "no" is a game that gets him physical attention.
I've got more parenting work to do..... :-)

A Picture Share!

museum trip at 14 months

We went to a great fantastic museum today, The Children's Discovery Museum and we had a blast. Zack walked all over exploring various exhibits and his favorite were the large tannis ball machine that had tennis balls rolling down all sort of different ramps, chutes, and tubes. The was also a fantastic hand on water exhibit that was very cool for both of us to play with. Zack quickly saw the objective of some of the hands-on tasks and enjoyed doing them over and over. I've got a great video of him playing with an air vent and a rubber ball that I'll try an upload in the next day or so. He is very independent and will explore on his own. However when we are at home and a guest comes over, he will back into me or my legs, showing some signs of shyness or caution.

Zack also has a habit of doing something new on the day he turns another month older. Today he turned 14 months, and has started running. He will burst into a run briefly for about 10-12 steps and go back to a walk while he figures it out. At first I thought he was falling and trying to catch himself, but i guess he planned it!

Other fun things I've noticed: He now will grab the remote and point it at the TV and stereo equipment and start pressing buttons, because he sees what we do with it. Also, he knocked on the door of a neighbor when he approached it. I didn't think he's seen me knock on doors so I don't know how he learned that one...

Amazing Vocabulary

Well I've been truly amazed at his vocabulary today. It's easy to think that a baby's vocab is limited to what they can say, but they know much more than they normally express.

Here is how our great evening went:
After we got in our PJ's we played in the living room some more. I found some bubbles and blew them to his enjoyment. After a few times of hearing me say "bubble" he started to say it and associate it with the bubbles. We wrestled around on the floor and chased each other around the room, then started to calm down as bedtime was approaching. I then said "time for bed. bedtime" and zack looked at me, took a toy into his hand and started walking to his room and stopped at the crib pointing at it. I put him in, gave him a pacifier, and opened up one of his books to read. While Zack can't say many things, he can identify things. So on a page in the book that had many items, I asked "Where's the ball?" and he correctly pointed to the ball. I said "Where's the cookie?" and again another correct point. I asked "Where's the blanket?" and he grabbed his blanket rather than point to the blanket in the book. I then asked "Where the pajamas?" and he tugged at his shirt rather than point to the PJ's in the book. I was shocked since I didn't think he knew some of those words. I asked "Where's Bob the Bear?" and he grabbed the right stuffed animal. I asked "Where's Pooh Bear?" and again grabbed the right object in his crib.
After this I turned out the light, said goodnight, and closed the door and he went right to sleep.

I doubt evenings are always going to be this easy, especially as he gets into his twos. But 13 months is a fantastic time and age. Zack is so happy and excited about everything, he says new things each day and continues to amaze me. Each month gets better and better, and if Zack isn't careful, he'll end up with many brothers and sisters.... :-)

A Picture Share!

Vacation Update

Wow, what a week! Zack just returned from Cancun where he had his first (and probably not last) spring break experience. Here are some highights:

-Learning how to imitate a fish and a horse. His animal sound vocabulary now also includes: lion, tiger, duck, bird, cow, dog, squirrel. The funniest moment came one morning when we were still in bed and he was awake in his crib and went through his entire inventory of animal sounds unprompted. Now that's a real morning zoo.

-our room had steps inside from the kitchen to the living room, so it was time to finally really learn how to go down stairs on his own. His grandparents made it their mission to make sure he learned it and he sure did. He even backed down the 20 steps of the back of the resort by himself

-he saw the sand and the ocean for the first time, but seemed unimpressed. If he had to put his hands in the sand to stand up he would try and use his palms and have his fingers avoid touching the sand. He loved the kiddie pools though and if he could, he would spend the whole day in them.

-he's talking even more now saying "hi" and "bye bye" to many people, and the best highlight was when Zack boarded an elevator with two bikini-clad buxom spring breakers. Zack looked at the two women and exclaimed loudly, "WOW"!

finally more teeth

Zack turned 1 year old and had only 4 teeth. Fortunately, his two front teeth have decided to come in bringing it to a total of 6 so far. 4 on top, 2 on the bottom. It is not so nice to put your finger near his mouth anymore....

It's a late night/early morning as Zack has woken up a few times with a stuffy nose, so I'll catch the reader up with some rough updates while I'm still awake, waiting for the next outburst.

We've now discovered how to hide remote controls. This was cute at first but becomes very annoying quickly. We got Zack a small wooden train set and he LOVES it. he has developed a soft touch to push the cars around the track without causing them to jump the track, and carries the train cars in his hard around with him almost contantly, trying to find new surfaces to roll them on. The baby babble continues, cute to hear him almost form words, but he talks and giggles almost contantly.

Zack is now off to see the Gulf of Mexico and see his first beach. I'll have much more to report in a week.

A Picture Share!

Built for power, not speed

Zack is a terrain consumer. He reminds me of those Stomper 4x4 toys of the 80's that will crawl over anything. He seems to want to learn new terrain. On inclined ramps and walkways, he will continuously walk up and down them as if he wants to practice. Also in the sand at the playground he seems drawn to this new terrain and will work on walking over it again and again to get better. He's currently moved onto lumpy grass patches. He's certainly not the fastest baby on two feet, but he seems dedicated to making sure he can walk on anything. However, going down steps are still a barrier. He refuses to back himself down steps and wants to hold a hand and walk down it forwards (dangerous). At least he won't do it forwards by himself.

Food fights: Let the difficult feeding sessions begin. Peas and Cheerios aren't just for eating anymore, they fly nicely through the air and onto the floor.

A Picture Share!

A Picture Share!

"No!" and blanket bondage

It finally happened, at 12.5 month, he said "no" . This has not been witnessed by us first hand yet, but our nanny said that as she started putting his toys away the other day, he responded by protesting, "No, No, No, No!" She was taken aback, as were we. We haven't been saying "No" too much to him, other than gently correcting things that he does, like playing with the fireplace, grabbing pens or dangerous objects, or tipping hanged pictures within his reach. I guess he's learned quickly!

One funny pen story: Zack picked up a pen from the couch, we said, "No Zack, put it back", he seemed to understand and then put the pen back on the couch. We praised and applauded him, which in turn got him to grin and clap. But then he went for the pen again, we repeated our command and the same result happened. Then he started going through and repeating the following cycle all on his own: Pick up pen, shake head "No" (while grinning), put the pen back down, and then clap in delight. It took all our strength to keep a stern face and keep from laughing!

This week has seen Zack go from zero attachment to super attachment to one of his bankets. He now needs to carry it around the house and we've started taking it with us on car trips and walks, requiring a lot more cleaning now. The change was so sudden, and it didn't seem to replace another attachment to another object. It seems to be a new, but healthy attachment.

Also we went down a slide all by ourselves the other day, with daddy catching at the bottom. He needs to be placed in a seated position before going down, but he will initiate the inching forward until he starts to slide, and seems to enjoy it quite a bit!

baby signing

So since zack has started to recognize and respond to words, but isn't talking, I decided to teach him a few simple baby sign language signs. We started with "eat", "milk", "more" and then we are expanding to "all done" and "bed". Zack picked these up pretty quickly in about 3 days. He now is easily able to tell (or remind us) that he hungry rather than us having to figure out why he is crying. He seems to like the signing and wants to learn more.

I found these sites helpful:
baby hands
signing baby

Also he makes a funny new sound. He is can now laugh while inhaling. It's quite a funny sound, I thought he was choking at first, but now understand that he's just really excited. We just need to make sure he doesn't try it with food in his mouth!

vocal developments

Well, the postings aren't as frequent as I had hoped. But that doesn't mean we aren't having a great time. Yesterday we went to the Palo Alto Junior Museum and Zoo and got to see many live animals for the first time with the picture below showing Zack's encounter with geese and ducks.

Zack is finding his stride with vocal imitation. He now likes to imitate the "roar" of the lion king electronic toy he has, and the "moo" of and electronic farm toy. he has even tried to imitate the quacks of ducks and the meows of cats, but he can't quite get it right, but his attempts sound so funny.

He is also developing his walking skills beyond the basics. He purposly likes to try out inclines and declines (like driveway or sidewalk entrances) to see if he can maintain his balance. Yesterday at the park he spend most of his time walking on the sand and small grass hills. He seems to welcome this challenge of new surfaces to walk on.

We've gone back to 2 naps a day instead of one, perhaps because of the increase in exercise. However, it has another advantage in that there are no more night wakings, even for a bottle. his bedtime has shifted to 8pm and he gets up at 7:30am.

A Picture Share!