Bounce Video and Criblets

Here are some new criblets:
Criblet - Meaning
Mommy Tights - ???
Slippery Cows - Describing how animated cows look walking across the screen
Piggy Forklift - said after looking at his fork at dinner. He said "Fork", then "Forklift", then "Piggy Forklift"

Also, here is a video clip of the bouncing castle. It is in .3gp format, which works for me, but i don't know if it will work for you. Let me know, if it doesn't and I'll try another format.

http://www.gracks.com/zachary/10262005(002).3gp

Bouncing and FireTruck

Zack is becoming a physical rough-and-tumble little boy. We stopped by an inflatable jumping castle by a pumpkin patch yesterday and allowed Zack to jump in it. Alone, he was cautious but happy, but when two 10 year olds entered, he went crazy and had a blast. He would imitate how they would jump, run around and fall down. And even joined in the play tackling - the bigger kids were very nice to let themselves be tackled by a 21-month-old. I've got some good video of this but need to convert the format and upload. Should be available soon.

And there is a brilliantly written funny article about a child's encounter with a Fire Truck at theOnion.

'Noofy and Role Playing

Zack just discovered Jen's family of Snoopys in his closet. He pulled them out and was very curious about them. Very quickly he began arranging them against the wall calling the two big Snoopys "Mommy 'Noofy" and "Daddy 'Noofy" and the two smaller ones "Girl 'Noofys". After playing with them for a bit, he decided to put them to bed back on the closet shelf. So he then started saying "Nite nite 'Noofy" and started putting them back on the shelf lying down. He then started whispering "Quiet" and looked at me and said "Shhhhhh" with his finger in front of his mouth. It was all I could do to keep quiet and not laugh. He then closed the closet door and waited.

And if that wasn't enough, he then realized something was unfinished. He opened the door and took out the two small snoopys and put them on the chair and opened up one of his favorite bedtime books "the Corgiville Fair" and started to read it to them. I was so curious to see how he would do it. He was saying things like "fix car" or "race, yea!" or "wash goat" which is what he could identify on the pages of the book. It was very cute, and we'll see if he starts to become more attached to the Snoopys going forward.

Halloween costume preview

Well, that last video post generated a bunch of requests for more video. So here's another. Zack is trying on his bear suit for halloween. Take a look. 20MB.
http://www.gracks.com/zachary/zackybear.mpg

funny noises

Zack has discovered funny noises to make on his arm. Here's a link to the video which is 6.8MB. If that link didn't work, try this: http://www.gracks.com/zachary/funnyzacky.mpg

It's Potty Time

Zack is now 21 months old. The criblets aren't coming at the pace they used to. But here are some more
Criblet - Meaning
Car Sleeping - a toy car that is upside-down
Moose Muffin - his favorite book "When you give a moose a muffin"
Cinco Seis - ??? it sounds like he's saying 5, 6 in spanish, but he waves his arms at the same time. I hope I find out what he's trying to say.

He is excited about Halloween saying "Halloween Coming" and yesterday learned how to walk around like a zombie with his arms out going "arrghhh!". He is very interested in identifying people, and now says "Who's that?" when he sees someone new, and can identify all his friends, AND his friend's parents. I picked him up the other day from daycare and he saw someone getting out of a car and said "Kalya Daddy" and he was right!

We bought our first potty over the weekend, and zack has been excited about it. He currently practices sitting down on it and saying "Zacky Peeing" but I suspect he's just pretending. As long as he's getting used to it though, that's good. That's step #2 along the potty training path.

Zacky and Zackaroo

These are two new names he's given himself. I assume Zackaroo is what someone called him at daycare and he picked up. He now uses the word "hurt" correctly in short sentences which is VERY helpful, he can now say "foot hurts" or "teeth hurt" which helps us identify what is wrong. Also he has started to announce his #2's, saying "Zacky poop", which is the first step in getting potty trained.

We also invented a new game called "Poof!". Zack sits on the edge of a beanbag and I sit down hard on the rest of the beanbag sending Zack flying. We discovered this by accident of course, but Zack was so amused that he demanded More More More!

Zack and Mom at the hockey rink

The cold temperature brings out his little rosy cheeks. This has to be my all-time favorite smile shot of Zack. He normally is very happy, but it is hard to capture smiling with a camera.

Imitating Crazy Uncle Oliver

Sometimes the unexpected pictures are the best...or not.

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?