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.