Fun In the Sun

Tomorrow is my birthday, so I get this week's front page photo. Mom asked if I had a photo of myself in the sandbox from Texas, and here it is! This is from May 1969, so I would have been 14 months old and Aaron almost 3. I had a wonderful time celebrating my birthday today with Michael and Zane!

We had a pretty fun week! The weather has been quite nice a few times, and twice Zane got extended sand box time. He loooooves the sand. He likes to talk about it afterward, mime the pouring motion, and say "Sssssss" like the sound sand makes when it pours. He didn't get the idea to get in the box, but he has been having a wonderful time distributing it all over the back yard. His bulldozer broke, so I bought another one, but Michael fixed the first one, so now he can have a permanent sandbox bulldozer . I've been enjoying the sand box because I can work in the yard while he plays!

Zane keeps amazing us with his vocabulary and the speed at which he's getting more. This week he learned the concept of fixing, and asks Mama to "Fik it." If I say I can't, he decides Daddy will fik it. In one book, sheep wreck a Jeep, and on the last page is a picture of the wreck. For some reason Zane always say "Man. Fik it." When he gets older we'll work on the definition of "man"!

Friday I needed to take Zane in to the doctor to see about a rash on his hands. The rash is most likely just eczema from dry skin, so we're just lubing up. The good news is that Zane gained 2 lbs 2 oz and a half an inch in the last 5 weeks, so we got to cancel our next weight check up appointment. No more check ups or shots until 2 years! Zane is going through an almost visible growth spurt with his hair and nails growing quickly, too. Many clothes are all of a sudden not fitting! Before when he went through a growth spurt he got skinny and then gained weight after he stopped getting taller, but this time he's got fat cheeks, too. Cutie pie!

Brain growing, getting taller, getting fatter, and also new teeth! His first canine tooth has started to poke through. I hope that since these are pointy it will be an easier event than the molars.

Today we all went to the Seattle Children's Museum and had a great time! I think Zane's favorite thing was the mini Metro bus. He loves to see the buses on the road, and this one he got to get in and out of! We spent a lot of time in the construction room where Michael helped some bigger kids build some walls; Zane walked around industriously moving things around. We finished up with the art room, and Zane got to paint for the first time! He watched the girl next to him for cues on how to do it. Next time we go I think I'll hit the art room first, and then we can take a painting home with us after it has dried while we visit the rest of the museum.

Here's Zane creating his masterpiece. At first he got worried because he got a tiny dab of paint on the easel, but later he was more free spirited.

One, Two, Three

Wednesday morning Zane woke up limp and sad. He had a mild fever and was somehow feeling lousy. He spent quite a bit of time in our recliner quietly watching TV, reading, and drinking juice. I put his sunglasses on him to cheer him up, but it didn't really work. I held him for a one hour nursing nap in the late morning, and when he woke up he seemed to be better. He ate a banana, his first food for the day, and by noon was back to his old self. In fact, for the rest of the afternoon he seemed to have more energy than ever! Who knows what that was. I'm glad it was short!

In general he's been doing really well with eating and sleeping and seems to be growing.

We have an evening game Michael calls Bean Toss, where Zane gets thrown onto pillows on the bed. We usually count 1-2-3 and toss. One night he said "pillows" and started piling them up himself and said "onetwothree!" I was pretty impressed. Then he said "Onetwo ... three!" and threw himself face down on the pillows. Funny kid! I figure if he knows those words I'll try to give him more examples of what one and two and three are.

We discovered he learned to say "sorry," which was a surprise. I'm glad he learns manners at daycare!

We're starting to have nice weather here off and on, which is a relief. Spring is a little messy which turns out to be a little difficult for Zane. He likes things to be in their proper places. Several times when Michael was combing JoJo (who is going through a major shed), Zane said "Uh oh!" and industriously gathered up her hair and stuck it back on her head. On a walk he was interested in the cherry blossoms on the ground, and when I showed him where they came from he wanted to put them back on the trees. If only he was as neat with his toys at home! He loves to drag his booster chair into the kitchen to take things out of the silverware drawer, and he hardly ever tries to put the stuff back.

We just had a really fabulous weekend. Saturday was sunny and warm. Zane and I puttered around outside in the morning with his bicycle and some neighbors. Then after his morning snack I got out my bike, and he seemed to remember it! He was excited and wanted to get into the seat. He really enjoyed helping me put air in the tires. We went down into town and I renewed my gym membership -- I'm really looking forward to making and stretching some muscles again! Then we played in a park for awhile, biked home, had a nice lunch and then naptime. In the afternoon all three of us went to the locks and watched boats come and go, geese fly and waddle, water pour over the damn, and lots of people, dogs, and kids. There were no fish in the ladder, and Zane said no fish like "No? Fish!" several times.

Sunday was supposed to be even better, but it turned out to be windy and cold. We went out for lunch and Zane ate an enormous amount of food. Then we went to the farmers' market and saw a couple of great bands. One was a small oompah-jazz brass band which Zane really loved. I had gotten a sand box all ready for Zane thinking Sunday would be warm, but unfortunately it was just too cold. I didn't show it to him, so he'll be surprised and excited when we have our next good day. I can't wait!

A Sense of Self

This week Zane has really showed us that he has a sense of self. Twice when I've asked him if he wants to do something himself he has said "self." He will also now point to himself if we ask him where Zane is, or who is that baby in the picture. He's been saying Zane now for awhile, but we weren't really sure he understood that was himself. Along with this sense of self have come tantrums; I read that this is a common connection. He knows what he wants and how he wants things to be and recognizes that he does or does not have a choice in how things happen. This can lead to emotional meltdowns over the silliest things (or at least they seem minor to us).

He's also been starting to want to do things for himself, like trying to put on clothes, zip a zipper, or brush his teeth. I think sometimes the wanting to do something and not quite being able to yet has led to some of the meltdowns. Otherwise, it's fun to help him learn to pull up his pants, carry things, use tongs, zip zippers and snap snaps. He loves to do what we do, so lately I've been having him "help" me cook a bit. Here he practices his skills.

It seems that he is starting to recognize colors, too. On one walk he said "Daddy" for all of the black or blue cars we passed, and "Mama" for the red cars.

Lots of drooling, fingers in the mouth, and a little bit of biting seem to be telling us that more teeth are on the way. The fangs are next! With this round of teeth Zane has been able to tell me a few times that his mouth hurts, rather than having it be a total guessing game.

I've worked a lot this week, and on Saturday Zane got to go to the Aquarium with Daddy. This time they saw several animals being fed, which was new and fun. And a train went by again when they were coming from the car! Thanks Pa Jim for the family membership -- it's really been wonderful!

Word Scoop

We've had another kind of unpleasant week in the grip of cold and flu season. This time I got to share the cold with Zane, and he and I stayed home from work for two days, and still felt pretty crappy after that. Oh well, that's just the way it is.

It's still pretty cold most of the time, so I dug out some old orzo and let Zane play with it on the kitchen floor. It makes a mess, but isn't quite as bad as our water pouring experiments of earlier in the week.


Zane has really been exploding with words lately. I can't keep up with them anymore. He's constantly parroting us and adding more and more to his vocabulary. Some words are a little difficult, though; chocolate shake comes out more like "jock itch shake". It's amazing to see his brain developing so fast it is almost visible.

Nasty colds aside, we did have some fun this week. Tuesday we went to story time which we haven't been to in months. Saturday we went to a reptile show and Zane got to touch a tortoise, a snake, and an alligator. That afternoon was sort of sunny and warm, so we took our first walk in a long time; we had a lot of fun picking up pebbles and poking them into storm drains and other holes. Sunday we took another trip to the aquarium.

Daddy surprised Zane with a new garbage truck. Zane was super excited about it.


That's all for now!