Artistic Temperament

This has been a very difficult and trying week, hence the almost too-late-to-bother post. Michael has also been helping me move to a new computer, so I haven't had the easy access to my computer I'm used to (although soon it will be better than ever!). I'll make this post very abbreviated.

For the last week and a half Zane has been very terribly-twoey. I'd heard it tends to happen before they are two, and boy is it happening now. He is having great difficulty going to sleep, and he is also screaming and crying in his sleep and waking up a lot needing Mama. In the day he is very demanding, rude, violent, and insistent on doing things his way. We are having some time outs, a lot of counting to three before I declare Mama will take over, a lot of wrestling to make diaper changes, getting dressed, and getting into the car seat happen. This is not my favorite phase! I hope it is a quick one. Tonight for the first time in a while he has gone right to sleep without asking for kisses, hugs, this pillow, a different pillow, one blanket or the other, no blanket, no pillow, too hot, sun coming in the window bothers him ... He was just exhausted since nap time went so poorly!

I've been trying to wear him out with excitement, but that doesn't seem to be working. We've had story times, visits with Grandpa, visits with cousins and family, trips to the park with its big sandbox, bicycle rides to the beach with much sand playing, Folklife festival (twice), a new set of paint brushes just for Zane (and "painting" with water), swimming, and a playdate with Uma. Here we have the aftermath of the playdate.















I must say I am pretty exhausted by the emotional effort. Plus the fact that whatever is going on in Zane's brain is making his sleep very disturbed which means I get crappy sleep, too. Grouchy sleepy Mama does not have the patience she needs to get through this. And so I really should not be making this blog post longer. I will relax with wine, a cookie, and a bear documentary.

Nice Days

I can't really think of many earth shattering things that have happened this week, it just feels like it's been a pleasant one. We've had a couple of nice days here and there, and the rest were pretty OK (weather-wise). Compared to what we've had, that's stellar. I've been getting Zane out in his sandbox, and to the park, on strolls with him on his bike, and out front with neighborhood kids. On a couple of days we've even managed bare feet. Today Zane kept being anxious that they were dirty, though, so I set up a foot bath in a plant dish. I try to tell him that being dirty outside is really OK, and even fun, but he likes to be clean. Oh, well.

We made a breakthrough in manners in that he finally said please, unprompted, in a sentence. Unfortunately, he said "More cookies, please." I had already said no many times and didn't want to give in. He said "More apples, please" later, and I got to give him those. Mostly he is still imperious, though. "Mama, up! Mama, walk! Over there!" "Mama, sit! Right there!" "Daddy, move!"

Zane's highlight of the week was probably a box that came with 6 new pairs of socks. Three pairs of space socks and three pairs of construction truck socks. Michael tried to take them away and Zane got seriously upset. He threw his body on them and tried stuffing them up his shirt. I guess I got that purchase just right! How many more years do I get where gifts of socks are loved?

City Fun

This week we ended up having a lot of fun outings. Friday I had a day off, and I had planned to take Zane swimming. A couple of nights before his current cold went into his chest and we had a miserable night of coughing, so we went to the Zoo instead. It was the first warm-ish sunny day for us at the zoo, and it was really fun to wander around. The petting zoo was open for the season so we spent a lot of time there as it was new to us. Zane looooved using the (dry) water pump and driving the tractor. We got to pet some sheep and goats. He was so taken by the goat poop scattered around that he was still talking about it as he drifted off to sleep that night.

We finished off our visit with a short turn manipulating an animatronic dinosaur with buttons, a run on a lawn, and a ride on the carousel.


I thought he would be totally pooped, but he was so jazzed he had a hard time going to sleep at nap time.

I worked this weekend so on Saturday morning as I left for work Zane and Michael were heading off to the aquarium for another fun morning there! They had the usual fun of watching the sea lions eat and generally romping around. Sunday morning we all went out for breakfast and in the afternoon Zane helped Michael and Mike lift weights. Zane lifted 2.5 pounds. On Friday he had a small stick and was imitating Michael's Bo staff antics in the backyard, so maybe he's ready to be signed up for a gym membership.

I've also been exercising his brain, and here he is working on his Maine relatives! These days he can get most people except Aaron and Colleen.

Training

I've been talking to Zane about potties and toilets and what's in his diaper from very early on. Just in the last couple of months he's come to really enjoy reading the potty story books. This week he started to spend some time sitting on his potty with clothes on, sometimes to read. Today he peed on a small rug when he was in between diapers, something that he hasn't done for many months; I think his bladder control is getting better. He seemed a little upset about it, so we spent some time on the potty again. Later I asked him if he wanted to sit on it without any pants on, and for the first time he said yes! He wanted his potty doll Xavier to join him for solidarity. It didn't last long, and there were no results, but I feel like we're at the very beginning of the toilet training journey.

Speaking of training, Zane is also getting ready to earn some allowance:


Earlier in the week Zane had a few nights and naps where he had great difficulty falling asleep, which is unusual for him these days. I'm assuming he was just having a brainsplosion. He's back to normal now.

For excitement I took Zane swimming which we haven't done for a while. He had a blast! We have to go more often, even though it's kind of a pain to do. Friday we went to a Cajun jam after daycare and before going home. It was at a cafe so we could have our dinner there. Zane had a great time looking at instruments and exploring a new place, but he did not like me dancing or playing the triangle. Party pooper.

Happy Mother's day everyone!

Spring Fever

Nice warm weather is finally here, and we have been enjoying it a lot. Zane and I spent most of this weekend outside! I got a yard work done, we ran, walked, and played with sand. We've been meeting up with the neighbors, too. Saturday and Sunday evenings we heard kids playing across the street and Zane insisted we go see; we ended up spending some time in their back yard, which was nice. Sunday we started off by going to Shilshole Marina to see a former co-worker off on her foray into the cruising life with her boyfriend. They have a 32' boat and they plan to cruise the Pacific after spending some summer time in Alaska. Zane loved exploring their boat, seeing all the other boats, a ship cat, a school of small fish, seagulls swimming, and a train. Then we went out to breakfast with Daddy, to the Farmers' market, and home to crash hard for a nap. This afternoon we hung out in the yard, with the neighbors, and literally ran halfway around the block. Good legs on that boy!

Earlier in the week I had Zane in a pair of Michael's pants from when he was little, and some red converse sneakers. I thought he looked especially cute and took a bunch of photos and some video. Zane obliged by getting into the tough guy persona.

One of Zane's favorite things to do these days is to hang out in the front seat of our cars and push buttons and levers. I have to make sure he hasn't turned on the lights when we're finished. When I get back into the car the next day the windshield wipers usually start swishing away and the blinkers go off. Monday night when I was at work a neighbor happened by when Zane was coming home from daycare with Michael, and he got some nice pictures of Zane enjoying booping the car buttons.
I leave you with some video of Zane enjoying the spring sunshine.


And a bonus bun!

Happy Easter!

This was Zane's first Easter that he could have fun with. It took a bit of prompting, but he "found" some eggs. At first he was much more interested in playing with his new garbage truck. Later on we played with them some more, hiding eggs within eggs or other things in the eggs and finding them again.


Brady came for a short visit on the first nice day of the year. Zane and I had the day off since daycare was closed, so we got to have a lot of fabulous outdoor time. We played with sand, ran on the sidewalk, went for a long walk with Brady and then a bike ride to the beach. At the beach we threw stones in the water, touched puppies, saw ducks and sail surfers and a train. With the nice weather we're starting to reconnect with our neighbors, too, which is nice. Zane had fun with his Uncle Brady.

This week Zane got a fabulous new garbage truck, bringing his garbage truck collection to three. He has so many trucks I decided to even things out a bit with two dolls. One is an anatomically correct little boy who comes with a potty; it's funny that he has genitals and an anus, but no nipples. I also got a girl doll with zippers and buttons and snaps and the like for dressing practice.

The cut continues to heal nicely and seems to be getting shallower. These days I'm rubbing four different unguents on Zane for various ailments: Maderma on the cut for less of a scar, hydrocortisol on the hands for a tenacious itchy rash, athlete's foot creme on the back of his knees for a different tenacious rash I suspect to be a yeast infection like the one he had in his crotch a while back, and diaper cream to keep the jock itch from coming back. Sometimes I get the tubes mixed up, but it hasn't killed him yet.

Here's an Easter blast from the past.

Gapes

This morning Zane had a snack and an episode of Mighty Machines while I had my shower. He's been on a grapes kick ("gapes"), and here he is enjoying them while holding a bear and sitting in his own chair. Especially cute, I thought!

Not much to report this week, which is really nice! No falls, no colds, no teething pain (although he is still popping his fangs out). The cut is healing really nicely. Oh, there is one thing! He has finally learned to say "yes". I think he's known "no" for about 6 months, so it's about time.

Today we went out to breakfast and to the Ballard Farmers' Market. I think the last time we went may have been a month ago. Zane remembered the honey stand and went right in for a sample. Then, when we were watching some musicians, he demanded "Mama, wallet." I gave him a dollar and he trotted over and gave them a donation. I was pretty impressed that he remembered we had done that before!

Michael has saved an episode of Saturday Night Live where Katy Perry sings. For some reason Zane is absolutely mesmerized by it. It's kind of funny to watch him.

Scarface

The big news this week is getting Zane's stitches out and bandages off. It turned out to be complicated. We went in on Monday morning to have the stitches removed, but when the top three stitches came out the wound started opening up again. He quickly got the top taped up, and the bottom stitches were left in. On Thursday morning the rest of the stitches came out and he was taped up again for just a few days until the tape came off. We were pretty disappointed by all of this because we worry that the top of the wound will not have healed so nicely as it could have and the bottom of the wound might get the railroad look of stitches being left in too long. In the end, it looks like the wound is pretty evenly healed, so all will be well. For the next 8 weeks I'll be rubbing in some scar stuff four times a day. It will take years to fade and never go away completely. It's just part of the New Zane!

The weather in Seattle has really been depressing lately. Cold and rainy every blinkin' day. Wednesday we took another trip to the aquarium as Zane can never have enough of the fish. It turned out to be spring break this week, so it was full of kids. Zane actually likes that. He spends a lot of time peering at kids and silently playing with/near them. We burned off a lot of energy and got to see the otters and fur seals vigorously swimming. The river otters were awake for the first time ever, but for some reason Zane didn't want to see them. Thursday afternoon we were home after the doctor appointment and actually got some good half-sunshine time outside with Zane's bicycle and in the sandbox. Saturday was cold but not raining, so I bundled us up and we got on my bike (Big Bikecycle) and headed out to a park for some walking, airplane and boat spotting, and dog watching. We came home pretty chilled and I gave Zane his first hot (lukewarm) chocolate. He decided it was "gone" when the marshmallows were gone.

Zane is still having a growth spurt, and his brain has ramped up, too. This week we noticed he is really beginning to nail down his colors. We have a color coded shape sorter he hasn't used for a while, and Michael got it out today. Zane was a wiz at it all of a sudden. He has also started to understand counting and has correctly identified "two" of a few things without any prompting.
Today I showed him a picture of three apples and asked him how many -- I've never asked anything remotely like this, it was just an experiment. He pointed to each apple and said "One. One. One." I can't say he was wrong!

He's also been shouting in his dreams lately. One night I heard "Dolphin!", and another night he said "Airplane!" over and over until Michael said "Shhhh -- night night!" I don't think Zane was awake for either shout.

We've been battling a cold this weekend, and Zane has been tired and cranky but not at his worst. I need to sleep, though, as I feel like I'm fighting it off. Night night, sleep tight, snug as a bug in a rug, and sweet sweet dreams!

FrankenBaby

Short story: 6 stitches in the forehead, scar likely.

On Wednesday Grandpa was visiting and Michael was up in the living room, too. There was tickle play, and Zane was running away laughing, and he tripped and fell, whacking his forehead on the projecting corner of a wall by the stairs. He screamed, which didn’t surprise us since it sounded like a loud whack. I held him for a few seconds and then decided I’d better look to make sure he hadn’t hit his eyes or nose. I saw blood! I started to wipe it and there was a big deep vertical gash in his head! Aaaaaaaah! We ran to the bathroom and I wiped some blood but it was bleeding pretty fast. We hopped into my car with Michael driving and me in the back with Zane strapped into his car seat. I wasn’t sure at first if his head was cracked, but after a few minutes it was pretty clear that just his skin was split, but it was very deep and scary looking. After just a few minutes Zane stopped crying and started talking about the trucks he saw. The bleeding stopped actively gushing, too.

We got to the local Ballard Swedish emergency room, and by then he was only whimpering a little. He noticed a horse sculpture and said “horse” and whinnied, which charmed the receptionist. We ended up being there for three hours. He got some topical anesthetic on a pad which had to sit on the wound for a while to work its magic. Eventually when they were ready to stitch, he got another anesthetic up his nose which put him into a loopy stupor. He got wrapped up like a burrito, and then stitched up while I sat by him. He was so loopy he actually smiled at the women working on him. It took about 45 min for the stupor-stuff to wear off enough for us to go home. He was still quite silly for a while.

He gets stitches out Monday morning. Because it is a vertical gash the scar is more likely to be visible. It is about 1.5 inches long and sort of right of center over his eye. They said he could go to daycare, so the next day it was back to normal! We just have to disinfect and bandage and watch for infection.

Phew. We’re just very glad he’s OK and seems to be completely fine about it. Such a trooper! Several people have pointed out to me that he will have a Harry Potter scar, and it will be very distinguished, maybe even sexy. Tonight (Sunday) when I took the bandage off the skin all of a sudden looked really stitched together at the surface. The healing seems to be very even, and I really think that in a few years it could fade to a pretty thin scar. Fingers crossed!

Other stuff happened this week - Tuesday storytime was canceled so Zane and I went to the zoo instead. We spent time in the nice warm tropical house where the toucans were a favorite. We had our first carousel ride, and then picked up a monkey in the gift shop on the way home. Monkey has now become part of Zane's entourage. Zane had a fever Saturday and when he got up he camped out in the big chair for a while with Kitty and Foof on the left and Monkey and Bob on the right. They are all required for bedtime these days.

Later on in the week Zane got a digger (aka an excavator) from Daddy. When will the warmth and sunshine come back so we can dig sand? Meanwhile, I bought some polished rocks for playing with construction equipment in the kitchen. The rocks are easier to clean up than the orzo I was using earlier!

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.