Criblets, Colors and Crooning

Here are some new criblets created recently:

Criblet - Meaning
Zebra Socks - Zack's way of describing his new striped socks he is wearing today.
Tiger Sauce - ??? Zack said this repeatedly while putting a toy seal on a small floating mirror in the bathtub. Any guesses?

His pronunciation is quite clear and good for nearly everything his says, with one exception: "Balloon" is pronounced "Budder-Boh". He is having a blast using adjectives in 2 word phrases like Funny Mommy and Crazy Tobey and Hot Water. We are trying to get him to say "Tobey is Crazy" but he sees no point in passive verbs yet.

His attempt at learning colors isn't going so well so far. He knows how to say "color" and when asked he can say "Green" and "Blue" and "Red" but so far hasn't been very successful at matching them correctly. Either he hasn't grasped the color concept yet or he might be partially colorblind, which i understand runs in the men on Jen's side of the family. Much too early to tell however.

He loves his music class, and has started actually singing now along to some songs we play regularly for him. He can now sing the first 4 verses of American Pie, and most of Frank Zappa's Don't Eat the Yellow Snow, and has taken interest in Coldplay recently. Just kidding! he sings along with some folk music from his class and Sesame Street tunes.

20 months

Here are some new criblets:
Criblet - Meaning
Google Wipe - remembering what is was like getting his face wiped after lunch at Google. Zack said this at a dinner restaurant however, when his mouth was wiped in the same way (wet paper napkin) as he was at lunch.
Rain Duck - referring to a bird flying after a rainstorm we had yesterday.

People's Names! - Zack has shown excitement and satisfaction in learning names of everyone he sees on a regular basis. He can already identify and correctly say the names of his 8 classmates and 2 teachers (including tough ones like "Rhiannon" and "Astrid"). And he has done the same with neighbors on the block Saying Clark, Kevin, Will, Kurt, etc. We have no idea where he gets this because both his parents are horrible at remembering names.

A funny t-shirt story: Zack was shown his mickey mouse t-shirt before we put it on him last week, but then we put on a sweatshirt and zipped it up. When he got to daycare and saw that teacher Anna had the exact same shirt, Zack unzipped his sweatshirt, pulled it open and yelled "Mickey Mouse!" showing Anna his t-shirt! I guess it will be many years before one is actually embarrased at wearing the same clothes....

Zack has also shown an increased interest in books and being read to. He now has more patience to sit through a whole book. However he still doesn't see much point in painting, drawing, and art yet. He is more interested in breaking the chalk and crayons. As for music, he likes to dance and play with drumsticks, but he hasn't tried to sing or imitate songs yet. Currently, he likes to just repeat words he hears in songs.

A Picture Share!

A Picture Share!, originally uploaded by Drumbone.

Criblets

Remember "sniglets" from Not Necessarily the News on HBO back in the 80's? They were made-up words that describe things we are all too familiar with. Well, I'm introducing "criblets" which are words or word phrases used by toddlers to describe something in their world. "Criblets" also sounds like a degerative joint disease or a tasty item on a Bennigan's menu, but I digress...
Zack has produced a few two-word phrases recently that consist of real words, but they are paired in an unconventional (and humorous) way in his attempt to describe something new with his existing vocabulary. Sometimes the definition is obvious, sometimes not, but I'll post the definition as best as I can figure it out. Here are the criblets so far:

Criblet - Meaning:
Water Helmet - ???
Butterfly Hockey - A newly-invented sport that involves pushing toy butterflies around with a hockey stick.
Cookie Pocket - ???
Gregory Penis - Apparently it already has a name...

Butterfly Hockey

and "Cookie Pocket" are phrases that Zack is saying that you don't hear too often. Zack picked up a hockey stick this morning and brought it over to two butterfly toys on the floor and tryed to move them with the stick saying "butterfly hockey". Also when he woke up this morning he kept repeatedly saying "cookie pocket" which later changed to "cookie backpack". we couldn't quite figure out what he was referring to or what he wanted, but breakfast seemed to clear it up.

He just demonstrated his first recollection and association with music this morning. We have a small musical keyboard that we were playing with this morning. Zack pressed the Demo button and the keyboard played Yankee Doodle. Zack then yelled "Barney!" It took me a second but then realized that Barney's theme song is to the melody of Yankee Doodle! I was amazed!

Found Dog

Ok, everythings better. At 3pm today we got the call we hoped for. So apparently here's what happened: Friday evening Tobey followed a group of teenagers three blocks away from our house, and then continued down the same road 12 blocks to a small shopping center. Another teenage girl found him WITHOUT HIS COLLAR near the Baskin Robbins around 7pm. She picked him up and took him home to Woodside, the next town over. She didn't know how to ID him so finally one of the flyers we put up in the park was noticed by a friend of hers on Sunday, she took a picture of the flyer with her camera phone and sent it to her, and then once the ID was made, she called us. So Tobey spent two nights away in another home with another dog, but all is well.

So the moral of the story: Posting flyers is KEY, and one should expect the ordeal to last a few days. Everyone we talked to at vet clinics and animal shelters said not to worry because in 3-4 days chances are very high it will resolve itself. Sure enough it did.

Here's another tidbit we learned regarding animal shelters. It is typically the FIRST place that someone who lost a pet would check, but is also typically the LAST place someone who has found a pet would contact for fear of euthanasia. The pet finder usually thinks the pet is better off with them (if it is not a nuisance) and may not even call the shelter to let them know.

So my faith in humanity is now restored and we can end the weekend on a happy note. Horray!

Lost Dog

So the last 24 hours have really sucked. Yesterday at around 6pm, we noticed Tobey was gone, and while he was in the front yard hanging out under periodic supervision by Andy who was mowing the lawn, we later heard from a neighbor that she saw a group of teenagers leading Tobey down the street to the park. We haven't seen or heard anything since and are hoping that he is with a family that will very soon return him to us. However, Tobey is very cute and friendly, and we don't want to think that the separation will be a long one. We've done all the necessary steps to help recovery. Fortunately Tobey has a chip in his back that will identify him if scanned at the vet or animal shelter. However, he needs to physically get there first.

We've changed www.gracks.com to be the easy "more information" destination for our ads. Hopefully this will just be a wild weekend for Tobey and he'll be back with us next week. I just worry most about the bond that he and Zack have developed over the last few months. I'm not having a lot of faith in mankind at the moment since anyone responsible seeing his collar would have contacted us by now.

A Picture Share!

A Picture Share!, originally uploaded by Drumbone.

Great Weekend Visit

This past weekend we had my parents visit from Colorado for 4 days and had a great time. Zack recognized them from their previous visit 3 months ago and excitedly referred to them in three syllable names as "Ol Da Da" and "Gra Me Me". Some of the highlights include a trip to the Children's Discovery Museum and Happy Hollow in San Jose. Zack really enjoyed the tennis ball and water ball exhibits at CDM. At Happy Hollow the Zoo part was great, expecially the goat petting pen. Zack made sure that all goats were not just petted but also hugged. The Capybara exhibit was also very interesting to Zack, he laughed at them quite a bit.

Zack has learned how to open doors and gates with latches now, and doorknobs are not far away. He is learning and using very specific words now like "teapot", "pinecone" (thanks Ol Da Da), and "tennis". However the "terrible twos" are one their way as evident at dinner last night. Zack's attempt to feed applesauce to himself was more a of game. He would put the spoon between his lips and blow, spraying applesauce everywhere, and then laugh and laugh. We tried not to laugh too but we failed.

The end of innocence?

Zack turned 19 months yesterday and we've now had our first time-out. He's been running around like a crazy boy having fun, but, he's just as likely to run away from us as run toward us. The problem has been developing around Zack's treatment of Tobey. He's been occasionally hitting him with toys and just started kicking the dog. He is throwing and kicking a ball well, it is just that those actions are translating to the dog. What doesn't help is that if Zack makes Tobey squeal in pain, he laughs because it is a funny sound. Tobey has been very forgiving in all of this which is fortunate. However, we've started to take time-outs with him when he doesn't listen to us. The challenge there is trying to keep a toddler still for 30-60 seconds. That is just as hard.

Baby got a new pair of shoes

Zack got great mileage out of his 5 1/2 StrideRite shoes, but they were getting more and more difficult to put on so we brought him into the kiddie shoe shop expecting to get a size 6. Well, his feet measured at 6 1/2 and it is suggested that you buy a size up, so we got size 7 1/2 shoes! They look a bit bigger than the old ones, but Zack can run around in them just fine with no tripping. Now the only question is what to do with the old ones. Bronze them? Toss them over a neighborhood telephone line? Encase them in lucite? Turn them into a dog chew toy?

Giraffe Television

A few days ago when Zack was having difficultly going back to sleep after waking up around 11:30pm (teething?) we brought him into our bedroom to watch TV to distract and relax. We settled on the Discovery channel, and they were doing a segment about extreme animals featuring the giraffe. Zack regognized the giraffes, saying "Jaffe", and was very captivated. However the show ended at midnight, and Zack wanted more. He then started signing "more" with his hands, this is the first time he has used the concept of "more" outside of a food consumption context. He then repeatedly made the hand motion and said "More Jaffe TeeVee". We were amazed, but unfortuantely couldn't carry out the request since that was it for shows on tv with giraffes. Fortunately he didn't get TOO upset about it. But since then he has signed "more" and said "More toys" when he can't find the toy to please his current liking.

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18 Month Update

We had our 18 month checkup last week.

Here are the stats:
Weight: 29.5 pounds (75-90%)
Length: 34.5 inches (95-97%)

I just learned that I've been incorrectly calling length as height. They mark his length laying down until he is 2, then they measure how tall he is (height) standing up, and the difference is that height is an inch or two less than length, which would explain why at 34 inches of length he is still not tall enough for the 34 inch height requirement at LegoLand.

Zack Stats at 18 months:
-Tooth count: 11, thanks to the 4-teeth-in-one-day experience. (6 @15mo)
-Weight: 29.5 pounds (26 @15mo)
-Length: 34.5 inches (33 @15mo)
-Words:Zack is not a quiet baby, he talks almost all the time. Again, we've lost count of words, but he can understand sentences and commands and can say about less than half of what he understands. His pronunciation has greatly improved and there are words and phrases he can say that sound as clear as that of a regular child's, such as "All Done" which he says when he is finished with his food, and "My-kle" which sounds JUST like "Michael" but means "Motorcycle" (the first time he said it i looked around for a Michael wondering how he new to say it so clearly). He has surprised us by following commands correctly like "Zack, can you run around the fountain?" and "Zack, can you show me where the bee stung you?" He doesn't seem to have any favorite word because in the last week or so he is literally repeating the last word of any sentence he hears, most of them are new words, like "Taco", "Giraffe", "Umbrella" which he can now identify as well. Oh, and we are now correctly saying "Tobey" instead of "Bo-tey". He likes pointing at things and verbally identifying them. At the 18 month checkup our doctor was amazed at his grip on words as he correctly responded to the bee sting question. Zack then started to babble words about some pictures on the door and she said "Oh! he's using expressions!" She said Zack is exhibiting everything that a 2 year old should be doing and that he seems to be absorbing language well so she encouraged us to challenge him by introducing more words, a second language, or music (viewed as a language). I haven't heard him say a complete correct sentence yet but we are close with "Yummy Banana" and " Want to see Meow". He can identify and name his friends and caregivers from daycare "Kayla, Ella, Anna, Gregory" and the latest tough one "Rhiannon." (he also knows all the parts of the face and understands that other people and animals have them. We bumped into a very friendly cat and after saying 'meow, meow', zack proceeded to touch each part 'nose', 'eye' (VERY friendly cat), and 'ear' - he also has a little pig toy that he does the same thing to with the addition of 'tail' and 'feet'-Jen )

Interesting side note: we just started participating in a study at Stanford's center for infant studies that tracks vocabulary development for kids from 18 mo to 3 years. At the end of the study they will present to us a complete list of spoken and understood words by his age. Should be very interesting!

-Special Skills:The gross motor skills of climbing, running, kicking, throwing, dancing are lots of fun. We hardly use a stroller anymore because he prefers to walk. He hasn't started jumping yet, but that may start soon. (Bean bag tackling, however, has become a fun sport. He throws himself into the bean bag screaming with delight and then rolls around until he falls off at which point he laughs and giggles, gets up and does it again. Tobey likes to participate in this as well and sometimes gets clobbered as Zack leaps into the bag on top of Tobey. -Jen) He's really enjoyed swimming and likes to jump in from the edge into the water and into my arms. He can't swim on his own or climb out on his own, but with minimal support he can do it. He kicks well, uses his arms, and can go underwater with great comfort. Reading books is still fun and we've gone to the library. Drumming and dancing to music seems to be a lot of fun and so I'm going to explore some Music Together classes with him instead of Gymboree. We've tried experiments in drawing/painting but he doesn't seem to be an interest for him yet. (Although he does come home from daycare covered in paint from the various activities they do there. -Jen )
-Food:eating mostly people food and starting to have more interest in fruit. He can eat a lot when he wants to. He has been getting better about trying new food. We use a sippy cup for convenience, but he can (and likes to) drink out of an open cup. The challenge has come in throwing food down to the floor when he's done for Tobey to eat. Additionally he like grabbing dogfood and tipping over Tobey's water dish. All that is going to be tough to continue to control. (He also thinks it's fun to put food into his cup of milk when he's done eating but still has energy for playing - another reason we prefer the sippy cup for now-Jen ).
-Naps: Still one a day from 12-2, although he may steal a cat nap in the car occasionally. Bedtime has slipped 30 min to 8pm but he still sleeps through the night until 7:00am , thank goodness! (not much change from 15mo)
-Other notes: we've noticed that in the last week he has started to "pretend" with his toys.
He had two small people toys and marched them onto a toy bridge and and babbled words for them while moving them. His favorite toys are his water table and his Brio train set. He absolutely loves loves loves to play with cars, trains, tractors that are of the Brio size or larger. He also has a large plastic car that he can sit in, and he will entertain himself by packing it up with toys, getting in and closing the door, sitting down at the steering wheel for about 5 seconds, (saying 'beep, beep') and then getting out and unloading. I guess he is imitating the car trips he's gone on. He is now interested enough in TV to sit through an entire episode of sesame street without getting fidgety, (he even laughed at Grover being silly) although we try to limit TV exposure. Also, when he falls down and even bumps his head, he rarely cries or gets upset anymore - I guess he is used to it by now.

southern california trip

over the 4th of july week, we did our first family roadtrip south to LA and San Diego. It was one of the best vacations we've had! We stayed at the generous accomidations of our friends Eric and Becca in San Diego, and Rafi and Erica in LA, both of whom had two young kids for Zack to interact with. Doing the main driving in evening and at night while Zack slept in the car was key.

New toys: visiting a different house with kids is a new toy explosion! things we resolved to get for zack after seeing his interaction were: a water table (he loves water), mini table with chairs, Little People bus and people, wet/dry dustbuster (for easy cleanup), mini stroller or cart for pushing, more trains, toy Rhino.

The San Diego Zoo: we went in the evening which was perfect for crowds, heat, and animal activity. Zack's favorite animal is now "Rhino"

Balboa Park: went to the Science Museum, Natural History Museum (just like a zoo for zack but less walking and more animals), and Model Train Museum (baby torture: cool trains but all are behind plexiglass so no touching!)

San Diego Beach: Zack now likes sand, and getting dirty, and eating sand, and eating raisins covered with sand.

LegoLand: This was the biggest unexpected hit of the trip. Very interactive for kids even his age. just barely not tall enough for some of the rides.

DisneyLand: I liked it more than DisneyWorld: more walking room and less stroller congestion. Zack now loves Mickey Mouse. The Bug's Land exhibit in California Adventure was our favorite for Zack. I didn't realize how scary some of the regular Disney rides (like Pinnochio) can be until I go through with a toddler in my lap

Uncle Steve: Zack finally got to meet his great Uncle Steve and a good time was had by all.

One other mention: he entertained himself for hours just getting in and out of the large plastic sit-down cars that Erica and Rafi had. Something about opening and closing the car doors...

Crazy Toothbrushing

Here is a report from Jen as relayed to me. We've introduced Zack to personal grooming activities and he has really shown interest. He likes to say "comb" and "brush" and use them (to minimal effect) on his hair. He has also been brushing his own teeth. Last night after his bath, he was so excited to brush his teeth that when he got the brush he started moving his hand fast and swinging his head from side to side. Unfortunately, he ended up gagging himself with the toothbrush and threw up a little bit in the bathroom. I guess now that the limit has been tested, he knows not to brush the back of his throat anymore!

Blogarithm is a cool new tool!

Wow, so I just discovered that a good friend of mine, Max Minkoff had developed a tool, Blogarithm, that allows for easy notification of new blog postings. If you want to be notified by email whenever there is a new posting to this blog, then type your email address into the form on the right column of this page. Also, from Blogarithm's website, you can enter any other blog site to receive notifications from. This is great for those of you who don't have RSS readers, since email is much more convenient. Feel free to add their form into your blog too, they have tools on their website to allow you to easily do that.

Hanging Ten in San Diego

First Bee Sting

I haven't been able to write about last week's vacation yet because we had an interesting event this evening. I've gone over 32 years without a bee sting to my knowledge and now Zack gets one a few days before turning 18 months.
Zack was in the back yard on the deck playing with his new favorite toy: a water table
We were in and out of the back yard preparing for dinner when we hear Zack give out a few agitated cries, which, knowing his reactions, made me think he got his hand or foot stuck in something. We came out to the deck and asked him what was wrong. He pointed at the table and said "Bug". sure enough there was a honey bee waddling around on the table with it's backend missing. We had to search Zack for the sting because he wasn't crying. We found it on the inside on his right index finger. After some quick consultation with neighbors and reference books we scraped the stinger out with a business card and put baking soda paste on his finger. He would periodically whine and cry for the next hour, but in general carried on like it was no big deal, except he would leave his index finger extended when grabbing something, acknowledging that he had hurt that finger. The doc says that allergic reactions show within 2 hours of a sting and if there is no shortness of breath, swelling, or coughing, then we are fine, and we are. He's sleeping soundly tonight.

A Picture Share!

A Picture Share!, originally uploaded by Drumbone.