I Love Monsters

More pics

2011-05-22T17:25:00.001-07:00

Daddy's big shirt

Silly boys

Happy belated St. Pat's

Studying for real estate with a very sick, streppy Zack

The Peterson Automotive Museum gift shop.

As any reader of this blog knows by now, we are finally settling into our new schedules after a rough couple months of transition. I'm really liking my new job, except that I still miss seeing Zack earlier in the day. And after a botched attempt with a crappy Montessori school, we finally found an excellent local preschool for Zack, where he is having a blast.

We've been trying to do fun stuff every weekend, and the car museum turned out to be a big hit. We also continue to visit my mom weekly in the nursing home where she is doing rehabilitation. She seems to be recovering and should get news about when she can go home soon.

Jeff's working at a very cool show now and it seems like more jobs are lining up for the future, fingers crossed. Meanwhile, all exciting writing prospects for me shriveled up and died. And then one stuck it's zombie hand out of the grave to grab my attention once again. Also, I have a commercial running in which I drive a Volvo. But mostly I'm dealing with mold remediation, roof repair, being sued by tenants, and repeated visits to the Pasadena Housing Authority. Whoot!

Zack continues to be obsessed with garbage trucks. His other favorite things in life are cars, ladybugs, chocolate, and our cat. Since we pulled him out of the old daycare, we've been relieved to learn that he doesn't seem to have any aggression issues. Something about that place was making him antsy. Or maybe the teachers there were just crazy. But either way, it's been a huge load off our shoulders to see him happy again.

Updates

2011-05-08T16:36:00.000-07:00

Zack's favorite running ramp near the Farmers Market

Anyone who knows us know that we've been ridiculously busy lately, in good and bad ways. So here are some pictures from, um, February I think? I'll try to update a little bit at a time.

Chicken!

The jungly view from our window

A stroll in Santa Monica

Zack studies for his real estate license

Happy Birthday Julie!

2011-04-06T07:18:00.000-07:00

We've been preoccupied the last two weeks with a sick kid, sick us, and the rigors of new jobs; unfortunately the timing has left us little energy for partying. But through it all I love my lady, and I want to say Happy Birthday! Join me, won't you?

Seen it all

2011-01-28T01:09:00.001-08:00

We had a good time in Descanso Gardens that day, you just can't tell from this picture.

Happy Thanksgiving everybody!

2010-11-25T01:49:00.001-08:00

This doesn't really have anything to do with Thanksgiving, except that the moms of these two kids were downstairs making pies. Here's what Zack is reading (The first line I didn't catch; the movie starts on the second page):

A little boy planted a carrot seed (missed)
His mother said, "I'm afraid it won't come up."
His father said, "I'm afraid it won't come up."
And his big brother said, "It won't come up."
Every day the little boy pulled up the weeds around the seed and sprinkled the ground with water.
But nothing came up.
And nothing came up.
Everyone kept saying it wouldn't come up.
But he still pulled up the weeds around it every day and sprinkled the ground with water.
And then, one day,
a carrot came up
just as the little boy had known it would.

Furlough Freedom (Emphasis on Free)

2010-09-08T19:07:00.000-07:00

So a while back, the teachers union asked us to vote on some furlough days to save the jobs of teachers and nurses. I voted against them, if you must know. I figure if these bozos can afford a $150 million payroll system that doesn't pay people correctly, they should be able to afford a few nurses. Also, I have a $4000 scanner sitting in a closet at work that I can't use because of operating system issues. But they can't pay me for a week?

But I digress. Anyway, the furloughs were voted in, and then my employers said, "Fantastic. Thank you for voting that you don't get paid for one week each year. Now here are four other unpaid weeks."

So why did we vote?

Anyway, y'all, money's tight. The positive side of this is that Jeff and I have gotten much, much better at budgeting. We really know how much is coming in and going out now. And we're actually saving more than we used to, which is just a little embarrassing. What were we doing with all our cash back when Jeff was making bank and the school district wasn't bankrupt? Anyway we're better now.

So I have Zack for the week since we're getting a daycare discount and I'm not working. So we have been doing free stuff!

Our first adventure, the California Science Center! Free every single day of the year. Eight dollars for parking. Gotta love LA.

Zack was the most excited to see the fish. He saw fish on the big banner outside the museum and started asking about them right away. Loves aquariums. And the science center delivered. They have a great new exhibit called "Ecosystems." Definitely our favorite was the Kelp Forest.

Here's what he's seeing through that window.

Those divers are tending the kelp!

One of those cool tunnels you walk through.

Above me in the tunnel. So cool!

They also had the hugest lobster I have ever seen in this thing.

We had a bout of illness Friday and Saturday. Lots of puking. Here is Zack resting on the one non-pukey surface left in our place. Note the absence of slipcovers. If there's one good decision I made in this life, it was slipcovers. So in keeping with the theme of this post, yes, we're spending more on rent, but we do have a washer and dryer, and on a day like Saturday, we're happy to be shelling out that cash. Our old place had a coin washer and no dryer, which was just not easy on the puke days. (And as you know, we've had our fair share.)

However, with toys, I've become thriftier. Water table? $90. Come on folks, it's a plastic thingie that you put water in.

Kind of like this?

Mommy's home made water table.

A Target container. Free when cannibalized from Jeff's collection.

Later, $5 when we splurged and got one.

Zack played with this for hours and hours.

Next stop, La Brea Tar Pits for the free first Tuesday of the month. Parking: $7. Bus? Impossible. Whatever. I guess you have to spend some money to live.

Zack watches an animatronic lion devour a giant sloth, over and over.

Remember kids: "Nature is horrifying!"

I hadn't been to this place since I was a kid, and now I remember that it actually scared me. You are fed the constant reminder that life is a brutal endeavor which ends when you are attacked and eaten and/or fall into a pit of tar.

There's a movie in the opening part in which a young horse gets trapped in tar and is attacked by a lion and then some wolves, who also get trapped. Then a vulture comes to eat the dead, and he gets sucked down, too. And you know, this is what happens in LA. We all come here to do great things, and then we're sucked into the tar. Or in our case, the Valley.

Zack eats his "chickidoyos" (chicken taquitos) for lunch.

The hill is the most entertaining part of the museum for two-year-olds.

The frightening message of the place goes right over their heads.

Oh, nothing. It's just another nascent pit of tar. We fenced it off. It's cool.

(Actually these leak out all over the place.)

I love you but I am hungry.

Daddy is stuck in the tar! I remember being pretty affected by this

horrible outdoor tableau as a child. Zack didn't get it, lucky for us.

After nap time on Tar Pit day, we spent time with Geneva, Kate, and Tekla. Zack is steadfast in his love for Geneva. I was asking Tek about indoor toys that would entertain for as long as the water table, and she got out some wooden trains. I could not pull Zack away, even for pasta. We went out to Four and Twenty for dinner. (It's in the budget.)

So I decided to get trains, and Bruce called me to tell me that while the Thomas trains and tracks cost a fortune, the Ikea brand are just as good and super cheap. Done! We went there today. I was also planning to look at a big boy bed for Zack. However, my plans were foiled when I made the mistake of showing Zack the trains, which led to him howling, "I want traaaaaains!" all the way to the exit of Ikea. You know how they guide you through every single piece of their inventory on the way out? Screw that. We were shortcutting it, baby.

The response I was dreaming of. About two hours too late.

Then, Zack wanted to play with the trains in the car, and he was only somewhat pacified when I just put the packages around him as we drove home and put a couple train cars and one track in his hands.

THEN--yeah, this day made me want to drink vodka so badly--we got home and I couldn't pick him up, which led to a screaming tantrum in the parking garage. Zack threw himself on the ground and demanded, "Mah picka UP!" (I think the literal translation is "My pick up!" which you know, means, "Pick me up.") But I couldn't pick him up. I was carrying his #@$% trains! Finally I had one of those moments where I realized he would have to tough it out. Come on, if the sloths could do it all those years ago....

Lots of blubbering later, we made it into the house, where I had to hold Zack for a long, long time and explain that I cannot always pick him up. Man did that suck. It's amazing how a walk from the garage to the apartment can drain the very life force from you. I am not a patient person. Really I have a short fuse with all other people on earth besides Zack. I find them mostly trying and stupid. But as a mom, I've been surprisingly (to myself) pretty chill. I have a loooong fuse. I don't get upset. I see things from his perspective. His emotions don't get to me. But man, today was tough. The utter defiance of logic is just an amazing phenomenon when you are in that tantrum moment. Not to mention it's just freakin' LOUD.

Then--THEN! Yes, there is more. He had a fit every time the trains didn't work, came apart, jumped the tracks. I really had to show him what that toy was about. Meanwhile, I became utterly fascinated myself with reconfiguring the tracks in different ways. Trains are fun, man.

Luckily, nap time hit the reset button on this day. And also luckily, Jeff came home. He's been working and in class, so I've been like a single mom since...well, yesterday, but it seems longer!

But when Zack is in a great mood, his favorite thing to say is, "I'm so happy to see you, too!" This while he is hugging on you. He really is a sweet, sweet little dude. I wish I coulda' picked him up. I hate to see him so upset.

But he also dumped the cat's water on the floor and said, "Oh my gosh." Three times. Or maybe it was only twice. It's all a blur. And lately he's taken to hitting me in the face, just to see if I really don't like it, I guess.

I love daycare.

OK! We've made it to Summer Cousinpalooza!

2010-09-05T17:16:00.000-07:00

The beach! Similar to last year, Zack loved it the first day

and then was totally over it on subsequent days.

And a milestone in my inculcation to the clan: I can finally

tell Aidan and Finn apart!

Camp Chaos Number Two was a huge success. We stayed in a gigantic, meandering house with several "wings" and an actual secret passage through the game closet. It was on a point on the Long Island Sound, so we were surrounded on three sides by water. Definitely the perfect place for us, and it looks like the enormous Cross / Jones clan will go back there next year.

This is not a complete collection of pictures by any means. These are just the first ones that caught my eye.

Crosses!

Zack preferred the kiddie pool to the ocean.

Izzie (in one of many fabulous outfits) and Eric.

The tsunami babies in the pool. They were definitely

celebrities at this moment. I think the entire pool was surrounded

by family taking pictures.

Fairy Maggie.

Aw, Mason.

Old buddies.

Chillaxing in the house.

Our room was facing this side of the point.

We heard waves all night long (when I could persuade Jeff

to turn off his ever present fan, that is).

Zack loved playing the pink piano. Time out

for a little patty cake.

And put it in the oven for baby and me!

Oh so poignant. What does our future hold?

Zack declared: "This is GOOD!"

Playing with Cousin Jake on move out day.

And on to NYC, where we stayed with my cousin Mark and his family.

DUMBO, near Pete Sluska's studio. Pete and Jeff took the same

animation class years ago and ended up working together a lot.

Oh funky, funky Williamsburg.

Mm...it's less funky when you're a parent.

We spent a lot of time going to parks. Madison and Zack!

Lexie!

Looking glamorous.

Zack adored Aunt Ruthie! He went right up to her and

started chatting away. It was very, very cool. He was talking a

lot about his Camp Chaos shirt: "I like the elephant!"

A rare moment of peaceful sharing. Well, not entirely

peaceful, since they were banging on this piano.

Catching up still. I love Washington.

2010-09-05T17:00:00.001-07:00

Mid July. This cat has learned to be mellow.

Sometimes I think it's funny that I called Jeff up, insisted we get back together, rushed us into having a baby, and then dragged this cat home one day. I really have no one to blame but myself!

Catching up. First haircut.

2010-09-04T10:12:00.000-07:00

Before. Zack's hair is curly, so you could

only see how long it was when it was wet.

He really, really hated getting his hair cut.

He cried hysterically the rest of the time.

But here he is! Upset and shorn, but so handsome.

Finally a smile, just before he crashed for a nap.

Zack hated getting his hair cut so much that I'm kind of cool with letting him grow it out as long as he wants!

Catching up still...some pictures from the last few months

2010-09-04T09:59:00.000-07:00

Cat nap. Sometime in June.

June again. Whale watching. Zack got pretty seasick

and I managed to catch every last drop of orange

colored goldfish cracker vomit in a

trashcan. Champion mommy!

Tickle time! July.

Zack's favorite game with me is "Where do you think you're going?" which I started when he was probably one and crawling. He crawls away and I pull him back by his feet and say, "Where do you think you're going?" And then tickle him. It has evolved so that now he lies down when he wants to play and says, "Where do you fink-ink-ink you're go-ying?" And then I say it, and then I stall while he giggles in anticipation. The suspense is much more fun than the tickling at this point. The sound of him cracking up is the best thing ever.

Catching up! Zack's birthday!

2010-09-02T13:20:00.000-07:00

Grandpa got tired and decided to sit out here for a while.

Ring Around the Rosies with Geneva and Kate.

Duncan!

We're on vacation!

2010-08-11T11:55:00.000-07:00

It's Jeff's Fault!

2010-07-07T21:05:00.000-07:00

See, the good pictures are on his camera or on his hard drive, and he hasn't been blogging much lately. The extra step of actually getting the pictures off his hard drive--that's just waaaaay too much for me to deal with. Forget that the hard drive is smaller than my wallet. Somehow just getting that thing up the stairs to my "office" in our bedroom--way too much work for me.

So we will post pictures of Zack's birthday and other various gorgeous shots. In the meantime, here's one from yesterday. I picked Zack up early from daycare, and we strolled over to the fire station. The guys there were so nice.

And for some reason they had this thing there. Cute. Note the rubber ball placed over the highly dangerous spear on the side.

Today I had a meeting to discuss Zack's evaluation at daycare. They do a very elaborate binder with tons of pictures and all these categories that they evaluate. So there was, for example, a section about "problem solving" and there was an anecdote about how Zack wanted a toy that was on the other side of the fence, in the pre-school area. When he realized he couldn't get the toy over the fence, he played with it through the fence. And then, there was a picture of him doing this. Every category was similarly illustrated with stories and pictures. In the part about how he could name all the shapes and colors, there was a little picture of him looking at some shapes and colors. I was so touched by how much Zack's teacher notices about him, and how she really put so much work into this binder. Too bad I can't take it home. It was really wonderful.

Also I loved how the evals were more story based--just a way to illustrate specifics about what your kid is doing, but not number grades or anything. She did mention that he knows all the colors, shapes, and letters, which is somewhat impressive, I guess. She was slightly concerned that he plays by himself a lot. But he's apparently been more social lately.

Too bad his best friend moved away to Chicago! I am sad every day when I pick Zack up now that we don't see Brandon, but all in all, I just love Zack's school.

I think all of you on the East Coast will be amazed at how much Zack says these days. He put on my sunglasses a couple days ago and declared himself, "So glamorous!"

But maybe these things are not a surprise to people who have already had kids and seen all this progress. For me every day is still unbelievably amazing. We went to Target yesterday, and Zack said, "Excuse me," to everyone we met. And he also said, "Thank you," to the cashiers.

We got his hair cut (and yes, we'll post pictures) and he HATED that. Cried and cried. And then we got his teeth cleaned and that was much, much worse. But still, at the end of both of those horrible experiences, he said, "Thank you!" So polite. He also likes to say, "Thank you so much!"

Some of his language stuff is still very funny, because he says what he hears in certain contexts. So if he falls, he says what he hears people say to him. So he sits there crying and says, "Are you okay? Are you all right?" When he wants to play chase, he just starts running and says, "Iiiiiiiiii'm chasing you!" It doesn't really matter who is chasing whom. Just the act of chasing means we hear, "I'm chasing you!"

The other funny thing about Zack lately is that me must have a car with him at all times. When he wakes up, he asks immediately for his car. He will not let go of it at school, so Jeff writes, "ZACK" on it. And now Zack loves that and says, "That says ZACK!" When he eats, Zack will put his car down, but it will still get covered with food because he plays with it all during his meal. So I have to wash his hands and his car. If we go out, we'll say, "Zack, we're off to the park," and Zack will quickly grab a car or two and head out the door. And...I guess this is becoming a bit of a "thing" in daycare--the only touchy issue at our meeting today--so we've been asked to pry the cars away when he arrives. We'll see how that goes....

Zack's 2nd Birthday! Party prep.

2010-06-10T14:15:00.000-07:00

Zack is two today! Here are the cupcakes we made for his daycare party, peering suspiciously out of the fridge. Does death by little teeth await them all? Yes. Yes it does.

Edited by Julie:

This is a fun snapshot our lives via our refrigerator. There's the leftover Chinese takeout, the margarita mix, Zack's beets in a tupperware container, and a bag of chocolate chips that Jeff left in his trunk, where they fused into one mega, bag shaped chip.

Memorial Day Weekend

2010-06-01T06:30:00.000-07:00

We had a pretty chill weekend. On Sunday our friend Marc popped off some of the best family pictures we've had yet. I couldn't choose so I just posted them all.

Mommy's head!

Head hug!

Grrr!

On Mem Day itself I took Zack to feed the ducks in Balboa park. He liked the ducks but didn't quite get the feeding part. Every piece of bread I gave him to throw he ate himself, and then he threw his Lego cars into the water instead (but I fished them out). Then he enjoyed a big lunch in his stroller, looking over the lake.

The HAIR

2010-05-04T00:40:00.000-07:00

Just woke up!

And here's three more from the park.

Different Kinda Day

2010-04-28T21:16:00.001-07:00

I called in sick Tuesday, because my back was hurting, and I was exhausted. And maybe because I was lazy, but what's it to you? I threw my back out a little while ago and it sucked, so this was um, preventative. Yeah, that's it.

Then Tekla called to see if I could pick up Geneva from school. So I ended up doing my internship in the morning, which was really just an excuse to bring Zack in so everyone could meet him. I got Zack from daycare very early and he had lunch over at Cheyenne. He is playing with a truck he borrowed from Arnold Rifkin, producer of most of the Die Hard movies. Hollywood cracks me up sometimes, even if it won't pay me most of the time.

This might be a blurry picture, but know this: his mouth is open because he is saying the word, "hexagon." See those tiles? So cool!

Then we picked up Geneva, got snacks, and went to the new park we like.

This might be slight overkill on this series of pics, but the thing is, it's so great for us to see Zack smile in a photo. He is usually so obsessed with the camera that we don't get his fantastic smiles. But he was too into Geneva to notice me shooting pics.

I do wish I'd gotten video of this, because his giggle is just too much.

Geneva is hilarious!

Geneva wanted ice cream. Since she already had three Trader Joe's cereal bars, I wasn't too sure what Tek might think. As you can see, I decided to be the treat lady. Hey, special occasion. (I am finding I am pretty easy to convince on two points: TV and sugar. Oh another cookie and another episode of Dora? OK, special occasion. You know, Tuesday!)

This little sweetie shared his cars with Zack. Zack did not reciprocate and then threw a fit when we left. We are working on transitions with him. It's very lucky that Jeff and I share parenting philosophies and we like to talk about these small interactions with Zack a lot--what they mean, what we're communicating, how we might be affecting him. The other day we were at another park, and Zack wanted to get on these heggi-gagga (helicopter) riding toys. This tends to turn into a scene, with the owner of whatever toy returning to claim it and Zack getting upset. So I started teaching him. I just realized he was probably ready to learn that we can't just go taking other people's stuff. I kept explaining it. This belongs to someone else. It's not like at your school. We have to ask permission. If the kid who owns this comes back it could really upset you both. Finally I picked him up and took him to the swing, and he said, "Bye, heggi-gagga," and that was it. Successful transition.

So I tried telling him pretty early on this time that we were going to have to leave these cars with this nice kid who shared them with us. Then hey, one more minute with those cars. And okay, we're going.

Unfortunately, Geneva messed up my timing a bit, so there we were, waiting to leave with Zack wanting the cars and crying, while she dawdled getting her shoes on, because she didn't want to leave. Transitions for 6.5 year olds, maybe not so easy, either. Geneva also had suggestions about how to handle the situation. And really, they were good suggestions, but I've tried them. She said just get him out of sight of the cars and distract him with his own car. Good idea for younger Zack, but 23-month-old Zack sees right through that ruse. The only thing that works now is enforcing the limit. We're leaving, we're leaving, we're going now, and...we're gone. Nothing personal buddy, but it's just time for us to be going. Then he's sad for a minute and gets over it. He's a very good sport.

But staring at the cars while the end of this episode stretched on too long just made him super upset. Having two kids must be full of moments like that. I was sorting how to juggle the two personalities and developmental stages, but lucky for me, I don't have to do it every day.

We all survived and made it out of the park.

And this is one of Geneva's shots.

I don't really like what Zack is doing in this picture, but I'm glad Geneva caught it. He likes to wrap his hair around his finger and pull it out. Then he looks at all the little red hairs and says, "Hairs!" I hope that habit doesn't stick. The weird thing is that I have a lot of nervous hands in hair type stuff, too.

Park Pics

2010-04-25T11:52:00.000-07:00

Marion showed us a great new park on Friday. Here are the boys, swinging. It was tough to get a picture where they were both looking at the camera, because they were both very excited that the moon was out.

And here they are, back in January, 2009. Before the enlarging ray hit them both.

So now they are actually playing together. If Wes was out of sight for a second, Zack said, "Wheah Wes?"

Zack's routine was to slide down the slide. spot Wes, and say, "Mmmmm!" a few times before moving on. Wes thought it was pretty funny.

They also played Chase and Ball. Their versions of these games are so sophisticated that it's tough for adults to understand the complicated rules. So it might look random.

Zack climbed these!

There is a cool skateboard area in this park.

This was yesterday. Zack is a bounce house party crasher. We end up in bounce houses at our local park every weekend. Duncan and Jessie and Dean came to visit us yesterday.

Two from Easter

2010-04-14T06:28:00.000-07:00

As usual there's some older stuff I want to get around to posting, but I just loved these two pictures from our friend Marc's mom's Easter egg hunt too much to wait any longer.

That's Marc's nephew Boston next to Zack, and he was yelling something to the people in the backyard down below. Zack thought that looked like fun and started yelling it, too (I forgot what they were saying). Zack looked at me in mid-giggle and I happened to be camera ready. I love this pic because it's so difficult to catch a smile on camera, although he does it all the time.

Zack was very interested in this sophisticated keyboard toy and kept coming back to it. He didn't really register the Easter egg action at all.

Happy Birthday, Julie!

2010-04-06T09:07:00.001-07:00

That's right, my lady marks another year on the planet today. Last night I made a card for her using actual construction paper, and tonight we're going to get our minds blown by How to Train Your Dragon, which according to a friend of ours has flying sequences that make Avatar look like your Aunt Yetta.

Happy Birthday sweetie! Love you bunches.

Spring Break!

2010-03-27T19:51:00.001-07:00

I'm off work for a week!

And there was a major milestone recently. March 23rd, Zack went an entire day without nay nay. I've been keeping track on the kitchen calendar since then. He nursed three times the 24th, once the 25th, and yesterday, when these pictures with the Wrights were taken, was another day without nay nay! Zero!

So my plan is to keep Zack out of daycare during Spring Break for most of the time, and do lots and lots of fun stuff. It's gonna be crizazzy. And I want to keep him so distracted that we stay on target with the weaning.

Tekla and Zack.

Geveeya!

Zack loves Geneva. She cracks him up. I have to post the footage on here of the first time this happened. But in the meantime, some fun stories. The other day, Zack was going down for his nap, and he had a little trouble. I heard him on the monitor saying, "Mommy?" Then: "Daddy?" Then: "Geveeeeya!!!" He figured he better shout, since she lives kinda far away.

Whenever we pass her street, Zack starts talking about her. "Geveeya! Baka baka baka baka Geveya?" Which I think means, "Hey, this is where Geneva lives. Are we going to see Geneva?"

Tekla and Bruce and Geneva came over for dinner last night, and then we walked to the park. Zack was totally thrilled and did not want to see her leave.

TODAY

I worked a few hours, and then Jeff went to class. I knew I'd have to keep Zack distracted to keep him off nay nay.

My brilliant plan:

Home Depot! Where we had to return something. Boring for Zack.

Except for these flowers. I thought this would be a great way to pass the time, until I saw petals getting torn apart. Then this turned into me carrying a screaming toddler out of Home Depot.

And he wanted nay nay to smooth over the disappointment. I stayed strong.

Next part of my clever strategy:

The car wash!

I mean, Zack loves cars. Zack loves baths. What's not to love?

This was boring, too.

A nice woman passing by snapped this picture for me. And you can see from Zack's expression that the whole car wash thing was just not impressive.

Next part of the plan:

ICE CREAM COOKIE SANDWICH!

We sit down on one of those cheesy coin massage chairs that seem to be in every LA carwash. As soon as we're in a big chair, it's "Nay nay?" But the cookie does the trick! Yay, cookies.

And then, like all yummy things, the cookie must come to an end. Which means this:

It's gone??? This is some serious bullshit!

Lucky for us, it's finally cooling off enough for us to head to the park.

A rude little boy came and took a car Zack was playing with, saying, "That doesn't belong to you." Zack was crushed.

I was comforting him and saying, "Yes, I know, that wasn't nice, but it wasn't your car," when one of the girls from our daycare, who's in an older class, found a car on the sidewalk and gave it to Zack. So nice.

Make it go again, Mommy!

And it was a windup car, which was awesome.

Not a thought of nay nay at the moment. Totally content.

We did it! We made it through dinner, and then Daddy came home and did bedtime. Only one nursing session today--in the morning. I don't think I'll be able to get past that one, but maybe if we head out the door immediately. We'll see how it goes tomorrow.

Just now I heard Zack on the monitor saying, "Night night, Mommy!" Aaawwww.

Great Grandma Daisy

2010-03-24T07:37:00.001-07:00

My grandmother, Paula Elizabeth Harrison (Daisy) died this morning. I am so glad Zack got to meet her. She was a pistol--hard drinking, smoking, gambling up into her 70s. And she was active in the Democratic party in Orange, which is no small feat. She was invited to two presidential inaugurations--Carter and Clinton. And she could kick anyone's ass in Scrabble, mostly because she liked to make up words and gamble that we wouldn't notice.

Her poem, which we put on her funeral cards:

One theory I find mystifying

Is whether there's life after dying.

I may never learn

Whether I shall return.

I can only be sure I'll be trying.

I know I owe my sense of humor and my love for writing silly things mostly to Grandma. I'll miss her!

Grandpa

2010-03-15T06:52:00.001-07:00

My dad came to visit this weekend. It was his first time meeting Zack! Here they are at the farmers market petting zoo. Zack has a bus in hand, as usual.

Zack is missing his upper lateral incisors, and this weekend I learned that he inherited that from Dad. Dad's upper right incisor never came in, and all this time, I knew nothing about that! As you can see in this picture, Zack also got his dimple from my dad. I have this same dimple, but on my right cheek.

While it's too early to tell, it seems Zack may have also inherited Dad's obsession with vehicles and his love for animals.

A few pics from my phone

2010-03-11T14:53:00.000-08:00

My mom is totally not enjoying this, as you can see.

So Zack knows most of the letters of the alphabet. Here he is with two of his favorites, I and Y. He also can identify the nearby bath toys, "star" and "whale."

I was writing down every word and phrase he learned, but they've exploded. He speaks in sentences now. He knows tons of words. However, about 75% of his verbal output is the word "bus." I kind of wish I'd never taught him this word. It was cute back when every large vehicle was "wee wee!" (Because see, fire engines say that.) But now as soon as Zack wakes up, the first word out of his mouth is, "Bus." And any time we're in the car, it's all about, "Look! A bus!" And "Do you see the bus?" It's truly impressive that he has been this obsessed for this long about buses. Daddy bought him some books yesterday about cars, trucks, and buses. Zack was thrilled.

He also really enjoys the moon lately, because he can see it from his new window!

This is Zack at one of my last auditions. I quit auditioning for a while to start an internship at a production company. I'm already loving it and getting to actually WRITE! Amazing.

Between that, Jeff's new job and new computer animation classes, and our new place, we are "busy busy" as Zack would say. I fell asleep last night in my clothes at 7:00 p.m., and Jeff did only a little better, crashing on the couch around 8:00.

Zack is now sleeping through the night most nights. We didn't get an easy sleeper. Or we did it all wrong. But in any case, he's finally sleeping through the night regularly, at the age of 22 months. Thank you, sweet Jebus. He still wakes up at 5:30 a.m., but hey, we'll take it.

Our new place is rockin! We are loving having a washer and dryer, and the light in here is excellent. We have these giant, widescreen windows upstairs. Seeing the sky every day does wonders for my mood. I mean, well, seeing it from inside the house.

Also, we have this really cool bamboo forest behind the apartment, and these really sweet little birds live in it. When you're in Jeff & my room, with the window cracked, listening to the wind in the bamboo and the little birds, you just can't help but drift off into happy nap land. It's truly a magic nap room. Then you wake up and see clouds drifting by over your head. Unbelievable.

It's a little dangerous that my office is in there.

Rhode Island & New York Cousin-Palooza Tour

2010-02-05T20:11:00.001-08:00

Cross / Jones Tribe

Jeff & I got better at planning the Xmas trip this year. We got super cheap tickets, reserved parking, and even got a rental car back east for rock bottom prices.

And when I say we, I mean I did it. Yeah, I hooked us up with some good deals this year.

The only aspect of our trip that I might have miscalculated was the red eye. We decided to get Zack in his PJs and get to the airport very early, let him fall asleep there, and then read while waiting for the flight to board.

Instead, we chased an excited toddler around the airport lounge for two hours. He stayed up until midnight, when our plane left. Finally he did crash and slept pretty much the entire flight.

Lidia, Caroline, Frank, MJ

My cousin Frank came to visit with his family. This was our first day there, on December 26th. Frank lives about 40 minutes away and it's been great to get to see him on these trips. We pretty much did what you're seeing here in this photo--sat and jabbered for an hour and a half about family. Pretty cool conversations when your family contains a bunch of geniusy loonies who build robots. Always fun to hear about that stuff.

Hugging the doggie

Miso the dog and Sesame the cat

Zack pretty much hated wearing a coat.

We were also better prepared for Zack's travel sleep issues. He ended up sleeping with us most nights on the air mattress in Maggie's room.

Jake at Johnnie Rockets

Jake before Johnnie Rockets:

I don't want to go. I don't like it. I went there in 2006 and didn't like it. There are no Happy Meal toys. Ew. Gross. What's that smell? I don't like this place.

Jack inside Johnnie Rockets:

This is so good! This is delicious! I don't just like it. I love it! What? Oh, I made that up. I wasn't here in 2006. This is my first time here.

Ah, Jake. We had a lot of fun with him on this trip.

Snow!

Jake and I built this. Later it fell on its face and looked

like it had passed out drunk.

Jake. A fairly representative picture of him, actually.

And Maggie, just taking it easy as usual.

Mason and Zack on the steps.

Peter & Casey's place. How the hell did they get that wreath up there?

Shoes! Jeff got a new pair on the trip. I found this picture while

assembling this post and thought it was kinda cute.

Mason with box on head and Zack with two cars in hand, as usual.

I dig this picture of us even though it's a little blurry.

After the Rhode Island Xmas chaos, we drove to New York in a snowstorm. Jeff was a trooper. Actually, Team Cross travels well. We really managed the whole time to have fun.

Zack and my pal Victor Varnado

We had a fun little get together of friends at a local deli. I didn't get pictures, but Victor, my friend Ray, cousin Meghan and Jeff's friend Jordan were there. Ray brought his beautiful daughter. All my friends had babies in the last two years! Well, except Victor. Get on it, Victor!

Chillin' with Meghan & Matt in their awesome Upper West Side pad

Meghan and Matt were fantastic hosts. I'd forgotten how small New York apartments are, but we felt totally comfortable in their space. They've really worked hard to make it their own and they're in an excellent location, right next to Central Park.

Meghan and Dale, the best dog ever

(and a very pretty rug which we heard a horrifying story about)

Aunt Ruthie!

I got a bit sick on this trip, but I had promised Aunt Ruthie I would visit her. I was pretty close to her and my Uncle Sid back in NYC. Sid passed away recently. Ruthie is in her 90s. I stayed in their building when I first moved to New York and ate bagels and bialys with them every day. They really helped me out. They also cracked me up.

So as we were driving down to Brooklyn, I got so ill I threw up in the car, on the scones Meghan had given us for the trip, and on my own pants. But I refused to turn back. We got to Ruthie's and I powered through it. The only tough part was that I kept having to refuse food, which for a Jewish grandmother is like repeatedly getting stabbed in the heart. But I could not eat a thing. Luckily Zack stepped in for me and had some eggs.

My Jewish Puerto Rican cousin and his Indian baby mama.

This side of the family is pretty United Colors of Benetton.

I'm a big fan of my cousins Sean (in this pic) and Mark. So glad I got to see them this trip. They are the coolest cats and best dancers at any family wedding.

I can't believe we didn't get pictures of Mark's place. Or Mark or his daughters. I think we were simply too dazzled by Mark's life. Seriously, how anyone can afford such an amazing condo in Williamsburg--he must be doing very, very well. And he shares geek genes with Jeff, so they got along great. Perhaps he is involved in organized crime, but I won't judge, because he said we could stay with him next time we're in NY. We'll be downstairs in the playroom/office/guest room/ media room. With the giant projector TV. That's right.

Mark also took us to a great Peruvian restaurant and gave Zack a toy. I'm telling you, this is a great person to know in New York, and I'm related to him.

Art!

Jeff is the best husband ever. He surreptitiously snapped a few shots of Uncle Sid's art collection. The most mysterious item to me in the group is the green father and son portrait. Sid was a generous guy, a lover of cheesy jokes, and a fabulous great uncle. But anyone who knew him could tell you he was an old school racist. So I really don't get that picture.

One of my favorite conversations with Uncle Sid:

Julie (not so long out of a prestigious institution of higher learning): I notice a lot of your paintings have this recurring image of a road curving off in the distance.

Sid (who doesn't know what a thesaurus is): Eh. A lotta paintings have roads in 'em.

Just an awesome picture of Zack.

Visiting Elise, an old work friend of Jeff's

Elise works in an amazing loft space in DUMBO. Crazy views of the city.

Our alma mater

We kept saying we'd visit Columbia when were were in NYC. And here it is!

We spent a lot of time here.

Mc Bain Hall, where Jeff & I first met, in Brenda Wanger's room, of all places.

Zack at Columbia

Since it was nap time, we didn't get to actually go on the campus, but we did drive by it.

On the way back from New York to Rhode Island, we stopped to cure some mid trip antsy-ness at the Mystic Aquarium. This is one of my favorite Zack videos ever.

It's February already?

2010-02-05T06:33:00.001-08:00

We have a tradition of not posting enough pictures, and 2010 is looking no different. Still more to come from our Xmas trip to the east coast, but meanwhile here's one notable shot from the big family photo shoot (above) and some fresh stuff from yesterday's trip to the playground.

Zack's first trip to Disneyland!

2009-12-18T14:54:00.000-08:00

A few weeks ago we met Adam, Jeannette, Jonah and Oona for a toddler-sized romp in the Happiest Place on Earth. A&J got us in with their special mojo and even got Zack a pair of ears.

Here's Oona, Zack and Jonah while we kicked around Downtown Disney before eating. As you can see, Zack was very curious about the ears.

VERY curious.

While we were kicking around Jonah noted that Downtown Disney had bypassed any Thanksgiving decorations and gone straight to Christmas. I suggested it was because there weren't any Thanksgiving decorations, and Oona said "That's right... except for handprint turkeys."

Here we are waiting for The Tiki Room to open. One great side effect of D-Land was that it kept Zack's attention away from the camera. Usually when he sees the camera he says "bay-bee?" and gets upset if he can't watch movies of himself on the screen right away. Even if we don't cave, it's still impossible to take more pictures.

I was worried The Tiki Room would be too loud and scary for Zack, but he just quietly took it all in, I'm sure wondering what damn fool place his parents had brought him to this time.

His expression while experiencing the barrage of Tiki was pretty much just like this, which is how he looked for the whole Jungle Cruise. As with The Tiki Room he seem determined to pay attention but was clearly pretty bewildered by the whole affair. I realized he had little reason to doubt any of the animals he saw were real.

Oona was a little more dubious.

Family shot in front of Sleeping Beauty's Castle, which was all decorated for the season.

Zack likes to pound on Julie's chest while she goes "aahhhhhhhhh."

Here's Oona and Zack outside The Mad Hatter, where Jeannette got Zack his monogrammed set of ears.

He dug them right away, and wears them around the house often.

Can you tell which of these children understand sitting still? No hints. (This was the best group shot in the cup that I could get.)

For the first time ever in my Disneyland travels, the Storybook Land ride was open. I finally got to see what was on the other side of Monstro's maw.

So scary...

Unless, that is, you have a little car to chew on.

It turns out Storybook Land is AWESOME. It's a series of models of various settings in the Disney cartoons, set in little landscapes. As you can imagine, my eyes were popping out of my head. It was great to see it at night, but it didn't result in good pictures. I include this one only because I just missed what would've looked like a giant mallard duck who was standing just to the left of frame.

Our guide for this one wasn't the best. To get the idea, give yourself a slightly nasal twang and say the following in as flat and boring a way as you can: "Here is where Aladdin and Jasmine went on a magic carpet ride, and discovered a whole new world."

After Storybook Land we headed over to Small World, lit up in psychedelic holiday finery. Unfortunately, the beckoning colors had attracted a huge line, and we chose not to play.

Instead we ducked into Toontown for a look around Mickey and Minnie's houses. Looking at this, Oona noted "Minnie is very strict about what can go on her Christmas tree."

In the production studio in the back of Mickey's house there are a number of labelled drawers. This one has always made me a little supicious...

That was about all the good craziness Team Cross could handle, so we said goodnight and headed out. I couldn't help take a few more of the Small World lights.

And again.

We took a quick spin up the stairs in Sleeping Beauty's Castle and saw the dioramas in there. Well worth it. After we left the castle we turned around to check out the Xmas glamor at night, which you can see was pretty sublime. We even caught a taste of the holiday parade just as we reached the end of Main Street, but by that time our eyes were already full.

That was a great day. Big thanks to A&J for that one. We had a rollicking time going to D-Land before their wedding in 1992, and going back now with our kids was really something special. Can't wait for next time.

The LA Zoo

2009-11-14T19:06:00.000-08:00

On Veterans Day, Jeff was working, but Zack and I were off. I was totally exhausted. Zack was whiny and antsy. I couldn't stand the thought of trying to entertain him at home for another few hours, so I took him to the zoo.

We saw these guys.

And these guys.

And these guys. I was very excited about seeing zebras. Zack commented, "Ball!" He was more excited about whatever that ball is in there.

And these guys were cool.

We actually got there late, so I wheeled the stroller super fast to the lion pen, so Zack could see real lions. He's been roaring like a lion so much.

And actually he roared when he saw all the animals. I think they all fell into the lion category of his taxonomy, being big and real and all.

Fun stuff. The zoo!

Oh my GOD it's a LION!!

2009-10-30T12:30:00.000-07:00

Zack has been into doing lion roars lately, so we bagged the triceratops costume we got him and picked up this one. He hasn't yet understood that he is a lion when he's wearing it. As a matter of fact, he hates putting it on at first, but then he gets used to it. Now we just have to get him to say "raaooow."

Some recent favorites (but not that recent)

2009-10-19T18:03:00.000-07:00

I actually selected these pictures for posting a month ago and then as usual neglected the heck out of the blog. If any of you are still tuning in, I hope you like them. This is Zack in a contemplative moment after sliding down the slide. I think he's comtemplating a dog over there.

Early in September we took a trip to Venice beach to meet some friends of mine visiting from the Bay Area. They unexpectedly brought a hula hoop with them, and it just so happens Julie's a bit of an expert. Zack completes the "circus family" tableau by practicing stunts with his ball.

From later the same day, heading back to the car.

Elsa's Last Day

2009-09-14T16:19:00.000-07:00

A new company bought our daycare center and a lot of the teachers are leaving. The saddest thing for us is that Elsa is among them. Her last day is tomorrow. She wasn't asked to stay, which breaks my heart. And I think it's wrong and probably blatant agism, but what can we do? I called the new manager and wrote an email. That's all we can really do. Oh, and I put an ad on boobybrigade, this little crunchified LA breast feeding Yahoo support group, for her. She has two interviews lined up from the ad, so I'm hoping that even though losing her is a crushing blow for us, she'll have a better time of things working for individual families. Being a nanny in LA can be a pretty cushy gig, and since Elsa can drive and has an AA in Child Development, she's a pretty hot commodity. Not to mention she has a special gift with infants. She really is amazing. But this year her knee started to bother her a lot, so maybe working with fewer kids would be better.

Elsa was so wonderful to Zack and loves him so much. He holds out his arms to her every day when he arrives at the center. I can't imagine how he'll take it when he doesn't see her anymore, but I'm sure he'll survive. He made it through her vacation recently. He's older now and just likes to run around and play, but when he was little, he was Elsa's baby.

The one great thing about the new company is that they lowered the price of daycare by a LOT. Because they're paying the teachers so much less. Awesome. But apparently they somehow have the lowest retention rates around in spite of their pay rates. And another parent visited the other centers under this company and said they were really fantastic.

That's the email buzz that's been going around about the changeover. I think most of the parents are sticking around. The place is still beautiful, the price is right, and the new teachers seem really awesome. Just so sad about Elsa.

Cape Cod Trip!

2009-09-13T21:01:00.000-07:00

August 9th-15th we were in Cape Cod, and one month later, here are the pictures. Zack has already outgrown the shoes in this photo. But here he was on that day, ready to hit the road!

I'm not sure why, but we left half an hour later than we decided we should. Maybe it's because it was dark 'o-clock in the morning and we have a one-year-old. Everything took way longer than we thought. Here we are waiting in a long, long line. There seemed to be no mercy for us, even though we were about to miss our flight. When I got through security with Zack, I heard someone calling "Passenger Zachary Cross" on the speaker, and I took off barefoot with Zack across the airport. My shoes were still making their way through the x-ray machine. The security lady said to Jeff, "You have 20 seconds," when he was through. I got to the gate, and the flight folks were all, "Mrs. Cross! You made it!" and got us on. We also did not have seats all together, but they got us situated.

Jeff and I vowed never again to live our lives as if we were in our early 20s and running for planes was some kind of crazy fun adventure. Zack responded like this. We got to watch a movie, since Zack slept so well on the plane. He really loves to sleep in moving vehicles.

And then we arrived!

Starving. Huzzah--Enterprise Rental Cars had free hamburgers grillin' in their lot. Way to be, folks.

More moving vehicles

Jeff's dad made wooden tops for all the kids.

I guess this is a little silly, but I had to edit here to say, hey, check out the gigantic pile of cilantro on the table. This was Monday, when Jeff and I made dinner--black bean soup and macaroni and cheese. Every couple got a night to cook. Our food lasted the whole week--I guess we kinda overshot.

Zack loved 'em.

Here are all the tsunami babies playing in an enclosure, while the adults have happy hour. The babies were born in alphabetical order: Ian, Isabelle, Mason, and Zack. And they are in reverse order in terms of size. Zack is the biggest.

Okay, New England, we get it. You are very charming.

Zack in the water, on one of the two days he loved it.

At this point, you might be saying, "But Julie, enough with the trip details. What I really wanted to see are some pictures of a baby in sunglasses." Your wish is my command.

Pile o' cousins: Jake, Aidan, and Finn

I slept through the big ice cream party. Check out the fly kitchen.

There were enough high and low chairs for the babies.

Mommy gets her deserved come-uppance.

We headed into the nearby town of Sandwich one day. It was actually the same day we had pulled beef sandwiches for dinner. A sandwich themed day.

Yes, yes, New England, we understand. Adorable.

We found a park in Sandwich for the kids.

Zack's big ol' feet, which are now bigger.

Zack is super coordinated these days. He has really mastered climbing up slides.

Acting very LA for the group shot.

Zack has the same PJs as everyone else, but they were in the laundry when the matching PJ shot was taken. Ah well.

This is the other side of that photo. When you can't get all your cousins in one shot, yep, that's a big family.

One day it rained and we headed to Boston to go to the Children's Museum. Zack was pretty stoked to get out of the house.

And then the first exhibit was the bubble room! So awesome! If we had any doubts that Zack would enjoy this place, they were over at that point.

We tried to take him to see a little play called "Count Me In" all about numbers, but as soon as some balls came out on stage, Zack did not understand the whole performer / audience dynamic and kept yelling because he was not playing with the balls. Still not old enough for the theater.

Beautiful Boston.

Beautiful boys.

Zack loved these chess pieces, until this horrible little girl came along and whacked him over the head with one, for absolutely no reason. Her mom didn't see it happen, so we had to tell her and then we just left that area. Her other two kids were kicking the chess pieces all around. Hard to know if that woman really has no control or if it was just a bad day. Don't want to be too judgmental, since Zack is already pulling hair and biting in daycare. But it stank!

Cool three story play structure.

"Yes, yes, the museum looks interesting, Julie, but what I really would like to see are more babies in sunglasses."

You have come to the right place.

Zack

Izzy

Ian

Everyone's babies were all over the place with sleeping. One night I got up at 2:00 a.m. and found Jules and Izzy in the living room. Jules was on her laptop and Izzy was watching Dora.

Mason, who has the most hair of the tsunami babies

Dana's group gift to everyone was these shirts that say "Camp Chaos 2009." The backs of the kids' shirts say "Camper" and the adults' shirts say "Staff."

Mags in the water.

Maggie had the quote of the trip, from our adventure in Sandwich, when she skinned her knee and exclaimed: "I falled down and I got the blood!"

Zack and Willie

Julie and Willie

Mason and Jeff

Zack getting his award for "Best Red Head and Tallest Baby"

Tsunami babies

Izzy steals Zack's cookie.

So gentlemanly. He gives it to her.

Jules, Izzy, and Dana

Zack loves being upside down lately.

And he often makes it happen on his own.

We thought we'd take Zack in the canoe, but this was the day he decided he hated the lake because it was too cold. Then this life jacket was so big it was ridiculous. And the canoe was super tippy. So our canoeing trip ended about 20 feet from the shore. As you can see, Zack isn't really thrilled. Just didn't seem worth it.

Unfortunately, the cold lake water traumatized the boy a bit. We got him back into swim classes at the Y, and he acts like the water is going to be scary and freezing every time now. But he's getting over it.

This was the view from the porch. Come on, New England,

I think we all understand that you are simply quaint as all get out.

Chillin' on the steps.

Cousin Jake gets a hug.

The Horrorthoners

Sox fan

Maybe not the best idea

Zack spent most of his free time in this big room called the great room--actually a converted barn. I didn't get a great shot of it, but there is the head of an ibex on the wall in this room. We stayed in here our first couple nights and the ibex would glare down at us in bed.

Hangin' with the big boy twins

I refused to go outside after dusk because I was convinced I would be carried away by mosquitoes. So Jeff made me a smore.

Sparklers

Zack refused to sleep in his pack n' play. So this was the scene every night. Amazingly, when we got home he went right back to his normal schedule, and now we've gotten him scaled back to just one 5 a.m. feeding.

Returning the car

Since we got home, Zack has fallen in love with planes, and whenever he sees or hears one, he points and says, "Tlay!"

There's really no way this post could capture how fun and nutty it was to be in a house with 28 people, eleven of whom were six-years-old and under. There was much diaper changing, much crying, much laughing. It was great.

Washington Graduates From Cute School

2009-09-04T07:05:00.000-07:00

Laying it on a little thick, doncha think?

Zack loves Washington, and Washington loves Zack. Zack calls Washington "goo gicky" or just "gicky." And he will ask, "Wheah goo gicky?" If you say, "Zack, where's Washington?" he just says, "Gicky gicky gicky gicky gicky!"

Washington follows Zack all around the house and plays with all of Zack's toys. We put the playmat out with the dangly toys, and Washington went nuts for it. That thing is the perfect cat toy. I'm surprised it hasn't been marketed for cats. And Washington has taken possession of the elephant from the playmat, which makes a scrunchy plastic sound when you sink your teeth into it. He is constantly trying to drag that thing away to eat it somewhere, but then it makes noise and he has to kill it again.

Zack grabs and pets the cat a lot, but knock on wood, no scratches so far. The other day Zack had his feet dangling over the side of the futon couch (because oh yeah, Zack can get on and off the couch by himself now!), and the cat kept attacking them from below. Zack was cracking up. And I thought, wow, it kinda doesn't get much cuter than this. I spend my afternoons in just a living stereotype of cuteness.

As Promised, Geneva's Photographs of Our Wedding

2009-08-31T15:05:00.000-07:00

The waiters!

This is my favorite!

How close were the fires?

2009-08-30T16:53:00.001-07:00

Freaky close. Yesterday, I started out on a walk with the boy, but our neighborhood smelled like a barbecue pit. So we high-tailed it to Orange for a visit to the folks, where Zack was in rare form, saying all his words, dancing, playing a rousing game of "Where's Zack?" Really fun visit.

On the way out, I saw this enormous plume of smoke and my first thought was that there must be another fire in Orange. But nope, I was seeing the fire near Glendale, all the way from Orange. I took a bunch of pictures of the gigantic plume of smoke just over the hills near Glendale. I snapped them with the iPhone while driving, which wasn't the best idea, but as you can see, I was focused more on driving than composition. I saw flames just before I changed from the 5 to the 134. Crazy.

The boy was still asleep in the car when I arrived home, so I extended the trip by driving to Target. The whole way up Vineland I was driving right into this thing.

And there it is again. Mordor encroaches upon our local Target.

Except for the fact that the world is on fire, we had a great day. We bought some necessities and then went to the YMCA for family swim. Really fun day with Zack.

Happy Belated Anniversary!

2009-08-28T11:17:00.000-07:00

Blurry but oh so in love.

We're way behind on the blog. But super quick, here is a shot from last year taken by Geneva. She captured a lot of our wedding day and I'm going to post all the pics, as they are awesome and so clearly taken from a five-year-old's perspective. Here you can see the bride and groom and the beautiful flower arrangements sent by all the siblings that couldn't be there for our last minute ceremony. We had a lot of fun that day, and more importantly, we have had a lot of fun so far being married.

Griffith Park Train Ride

2009-08-02T12:28:00.001-07:00

Today Zack and I met Jennie and Leyla for breakfast, and then after a meandering lead by a very confused Julie, we ended up in Griffith Park near the train rides.

Zack wasn't as impressed as I would have expected, but it was just before nap time.

Jennie and Leyla

I was trying to capture the different expressions here, but the iPhone camera is a little wonky. But I think you can see that Leyla is having the time of her life, whereas Zack is like (as Jennie said), "Frankly, the car goes faster."

Fun Zack Pics

2009-08-02T12:20:00.001-07:00

Zack has been doing a lot of solo "reading" lately. He likes to sit behind the glider.

Small boy, big shadow.

Hey, what's this?

Wow, it's still here....

Higher, please!

Doing Mommy Double Duty

2009-08-02T11:53:00.001-07:00

Washington usually hides behind the Lego bins. Jeff left the kitchen gate open a couple nights ago, and I really panicked that Washington would hide someplace we'd never find him. Jeff put flour all over the kitchen floor, and when we saw footprints, we knew he was somewhere in there. His new hiding place turned out to be the broiler! Jeff blocked his entrance in the back of the stove and also glued some foam core around the base of the fridge to block that hiding place. Having to move appliances to find this guy is too much.

This is the kitty after his bath. Holding him by the scruff makes him feel like Mommy is around.

We've had some great lap time. He is very affectionate.

This is a love bite. He's gentle when he plays.

Witness the cuteness.

Cuteness close up.

My new pirate kitten, eating his formula on my shoulder.

After bragging to my friend Tekla on the phone that Washington is now totally tame, I let him loose on the living room floor and immediately lost sight of him. He's now under the couch and won't come out. He hisses and spits. I think it's a two person job to move him, so I'm waiting for Jeff to wake up.

We have made a lot of progress every day, though. Yesterday I got him to come out from behind the Lego bins with just the lure of a toy. He is such a lap cat and loves being petted, lots of purring and licking. Really a sweety. In some ways he is more tame already than Bridget ever was. It's frustrating that he reverts so quickly to hiding, but it's instinct. I still have to drag him by the scruff out for his twice daily bath and love session. He digs it a lot, but when it's over, right back to his hiding place.

There are some cat adoption fairs around so I'm going to look into those and keep taming him. I saw a flea on him, which is a total disaster for me. Fleas love me better than any other animal. I was dreading bringing any of them into the house. He must have been way infested with them and the bath at the vet didn't get them all. That and the litter on the floor, and the fact that when Zack naps, I have to be a mommy to the kitten....well, it's just a lot, that's all. I'm glad I saved the little guy, but I hope we can find a place for him.

Washington Update

2009-07-31T07:05:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I handled Washington quite a bit and got some purring, licking, and love bites. I did a little research about orphan, wild kittens, and I am feeding him kitten formula along with his other kitten chow. I also gave him a little bath and "stimulated" his butt with a washcloth. I don't think this was actually necessary; he seems to be pooping on his own. (The stimulation is apparently vital for very young kitten survival, as it gets the bowels moving.) But although he might not have needed it, he sure did love it. By the time that was all over, I was mom.

In order to get to that point, I had to fetch Washington from behind the refrigerator, which meant I had to move the refrigerator. He usually hides either there or behind Jeff's Lego containers under his desk. Once the fridge was moved, I had to put on gloves and fight to get the cat out from under the fridge. He is a hisser and a scratcher. He thinks he's fighting for his life, after all.

But in the end he turned out to be a total pushover. I guess we are getting him at the crucial time, 4-6 weeks old, when it is actually possible to tame a kitten. Also, he is weaned, which really ups his chances for survival. I'm giving him the formula only to fatten him up, since he's so teeny--only half a pound. In the days since I found him, I have found two of his siblings dead in the same place on that off ramp. Washington was the only lucky one who had the good fortune to get seen by someone who would stop. This, combined with his ideal developmental stage, means he is a lucky little dude.

Yesterday, I got tired of seeing dead cats in the road and actually went on foot for a little exploration of the off ramp area. It was a dismal scene. I pass by there every day, but in a car, I never noticed how full of trash the place is. Also, under the 10 freeway overpass, there seems to be a colony of homeless activity--lots of shopping carts and old clothes. I didn't venture under there. There was a discarded infant car seat behind the sticker bushes I pulled Washington out of. I don't even want to know about that one. It became clear very quickly that finding any more kittens would be impossible. There were too many hiding places, and I can barely find Washington in our apartment. This morning I braced myself on the way to work, and sure enough, I saw a bigger cat dead in the exact same place. Maybe that was the mom. So it brings to mind a sick joke: why did a whole family of cats cross the road? No idea, but it didn't work out for most of them, that's for sure.

Since we are going out of town for the big family reunion on Cape Cod (yay!!!!), I am looking for a temporary foster home for the kitten while we're away. I put in a request to this teacher at my school who fosters tons of cats and has six of her own. I'm hoping she can continue to hand train Washington while we're gone so we don't lose any momentum on taming him.

I'm not thrilled to have a cat right now, to be honest. I don't think a kitten and a toddler are exactly well matched. But it was either this or certain doom for the kitten, so if we can get him tamed, maybe we can adopt him out when he's eight weeks old. If not, we'll keep him. Jeff has never had a kitten, and if this one does become a tame, playful little guy, we are in for some serious hilarity over the next few months. Having a kitten around is one of life's greatest, funniest, most fleeting experiences.

Happy Birthday, Daddy!

2009-07-30T19:58:00.000-07:00

Thank you for taking me to the park almost every day. I have so much fun with you. You are the best dad. I love you!

Way Long Overdue - Uncle Pete!

2009-07-30T19:51:00.000-07:00

My brother came to visit a while back.

Long Overdue Videos

2009-07-30T19:44:00.000-07:00

The first is La Dee Da. One morning Zack did this, I did it back, and then Jeff heard us on the baby monitor going back and forth with La Dee Da and came in to join the fun. Now it's our family's first in joke.

Get it?

And finally, as promised many times, here are Zack's first steps, which Jeff accidentally caught on video. This was May 2nd. Within a week, Zack was really walking.

Washington Cross

2009-07-29T21:44:00.000-07:00

This morning, I found this little guy on the freeway offramp where I exit every day for work. He was sitting there in the middle of the road. I stopped the car, put on the hazards, and approached him. He crossed the road into some pretty thorny bushes between the ramp and the actual freeway, and I knew I had to extricate him, because he had little chance of surviving the day if I didn't. I came out of the fray covered in scratches, stuck all over with little thorns, and pretty dirty. And then I had a cat in my car. As you can see, he's quite safety conscious and elected to ride in the infant restraint.

Although I could complain for hours about my job, one huge advantage of it is that I can pretty much change my schedule at will, so I went in and did a switcheroo to work this evening. Then I took the cat to the vet, got my car washed and vacuumed to get rid of any fleas, and went to Petco to pick up some necessary items.

I should mention that I named the cat Washington about a minute after I got him into my car. I found him on the Washington exit off the 10 freeway. So I guess I had it in mind to adopt him right away. He's on a trial basis now. We'll see how he does. He's hiding under Jeff's desk, and I expect he'll be there for a few days.

Sadly, when I went into work later, I exited at the same place and I thought hey, I wonder if Washington has any brothers and sisters. And right after I thought that, I did see a little kitten quite exploded in the road, very near where I had found Washington this morning. It didn't even occur to me to look around for more kittens earlier today, and I was kind of devastated to find out I'd separated them, and then one hadn't made it. So now I know that Washington is not only hiding under Jeff's desk and taking some time to adjust; he's mourning the loss of a family member. Maybe several. Could have been a heck of a lot worse for him, and I'm sure he'll recover, but he's had a tough day.

One kind of fun thing today for a geek like me was that for some reason my vet thought I would be interested in seeing Washington's infestation of ear mites under a microscope. Man, that guy has me pegged. I totally loved that.

Washington was filthy and the ear mite thing was out of control, but he cleaned up pretty well. I don't think he's actually a biter or a scratcher. He was just terrified out of his mind this morning. The fight had gone out of him when I picked him up from the vet. They wrapped him in a little blanket, just like a swaddle, and all he could muster was a weak hiss by that time.

Zack got to pet him a little and was very good with the "gentle touching," although he did grab an ear. There was no payback from Washington, so that's a great sign. I offered him some food and sat and petted him while he ate; he was clearly starving. So we'll see. Any more scratching and he's out on his recently cleaned and de-mited ears. But I'm optimistic.

Thirteen months!

2009-07-10T12:40:00.000-07:00

Yes, this mess is sufficient. Time for a drink.

I think Zack might be on to me.

Booooooring.

Zack is upset by loud noises, so while the gardeners were running their leaf blowers and hedge trimmers, he spent the time here.

Block chosen for color coordination.

And flavor!

Independence Day!

2009-07-04T11:22:00.000-07:00

Today Zack and I went out for a little stroll to get some air before it heats up too much in the Valley. Also we wanted to give Jeff a nice long sleeping in time, since Zack has been having these weird intermissions around 3 a.m. and is up for 90 minutes or so. Jeff tackled the one last night. They are no fun! The only plus is that Zack sleeps in when he is up partying at 3 in the morning.

The Valley Village Homeowners Association was setting up a big shindig in our local park. When Zack gets excited, he makes this amazing sound: a dramatic intake of breath, a gasp of happiness. He makes it whenever he realizes we're going to the park and when Jeff drops him off at daycare. So when he saw the swings today and this many balloons, it was just too much. Hugely dramatic gasp.

We had breakfast al fresco. Waffles and dried fruit. He is not so much a fruit eater, but I found these Gerber freeze dried fruits that he loves.

He looks great in my most recent Target sunglasses.

I was just reading that toddlers vacillate between independence and clinginess. So all over the play structures in the park, I was blown away by how much Zack can do now. He is such a climber. Jeff started taking the boy on the monkey bars when Zack was teeny, so now he has almost no fear. It's really great to see. And then every now and then, when we would go down the slide, that was just a little much, and he would want to be carried for a while.

But when he saw some guys hanging balloons on the corners of the tents in the distance, he completely took off! I glanced down, and the next thing I knew, he was speeding across the park. What happened next was an epic journey for him. The terrain was a little rough, and he stumbled a few times. He also strayed and ambled away from the goal, but then he would find the object of the journey again and reorient himself. The balloons were his North Star. He made it all the way across the grass to the tents, which you can see in the distance over his head in this picture. Then he stood there and admired the gigantic bouquet of balloons that the guys were working with. And of course, they gave him one, even though it meant they had a red and a white on left over that they couldn't use on one of the corners.

Mission accomplished.

Zack also followed a little girl around the park with the same determination. He loves older kids, but especially girls.

And then he saw a doggie and took off in that direction. Unfortunately he ate it on a downslope and ended up with grass on his face, in his mouth, and a small cut on his nose and some light abrasions. He was a complete champ about it. Just a little crying, and then a sippy cup and some playing with his new balloon made it all better.

He didn't even cry when the balloon popped in his hands. He was very zen about that loss.

And then he snapped this photo of Mommy's shoes.

And another of his own shadow. I think the composition is pretty good in these.

Happy 4th! Since Zack tends to cry if we even operate a blender in the house, we are not seeking out fireworks. Anyway, he'll be in bed by then. So we'll probably catch the local CBS Radford Studios show from our front lawn, if anything.

In other news, Zack has been recovering from a weird virus that left him covered in red polka dots. We have now had to delay his MMR twice due to illnesses. It's sort of ironic that the second delay actually involved a measles-like rash, but we took him to the doc (at Jeff's insistence) and he does not have measles or chicken pox. Just some other, non specific red, dotty rash.

We also recently got an allergy panel done for him. Jeff wondered if he might have allergies, since he's congested a lot. I have no idea how the allergy test works, but it turns out Zack has no allergies to anything, which is great to know. Because he's often stuffed up and/or rashy, it's nice to be sure those symptoms are definitely viral and we don't have to worry about nuts or dairy or pollen or cat dander. We just have a daycare kid who gets every single bug that comes around.

Lovely Weekends!

2009-06-28T12:20:00.001-07:00

We made Zack a great play area by the big living room window. You can see how crappy our window is in this picture, but oh well. It's still an awesome play area, and we like sitting near him and catching a breeze while he entertains himself.

He has been super snuggly lately. He likes to jump on us while playing.

He also enjoys taking the shapes out of the mat. And sometimes putting them back in.

Geneva's birthday party on June 19th! Zack plays with Kate and some noodles.

He loves this house in the back yard.

June 20th. Park near our house

This is a play structure made for little kids. It's perfectly Zack size. He got up to this level totally on his own.

He was really in his element in this little play area. Just loved it.

Dancing? Doing karate? We're not sure.

And this play structure is made of 100% recyclable materials. They sure know the way to a girl's heart.

Zack takes a bonus nap.

The farmers' market today!

Note the corpse face shirt, a birthday gift from Marc.

Zack spent most of the time at the market striking out on his own like this. I don't know if you can see the small blood spots on the back of the onesie. Mommy cut her finger cooking, but I guess it's fitting to have your zombie onesie get slightly bloody.

Yay, farmers' market!

The petting zoo. Zack was fearless.

This was our first time inside the fence.

We've only looked at the animals from the outside before.

Hooray. Mangy, molting little chickens. Um, great!

This one was a complete spaz.

He kept walking up my hands like a little staircase.

Duck!

Our delicious friend the pig.

Soft bunny. I was a little more interested in petting the animals than Zack was.

He was like, "Wow, check out this chair!"

Also, he really liked the purse of the lady next to him.

She had to take it off another chair and put it on her lap.

He did pet some goats.

The pony ride next door. This kid has the right idea.

A little red haired girl. She said to me,

"The last time I was here, a goat nibbled on my daddy's butt."

Zack heads to the ATM for some cash.

After zoo snacks

That face. Whatta kid.

I know I've said it before, but the Farmers' Market is a hoot. I enjoy counting the number of $900 strollers that go by. Today I saw $3600 worth of Bugaboo and one Stokke. There was a camera crew shooting B roll for something. They were zipping up the street, and I heard a crew member say, "Vegetable stand, coming up on the left!" We also met a girl named Maggie, who seemed to have three daddies, as far as we could tell. Oh, Studio City, how I love you. (Also the produce is delicious.)

The Stats

2009-06-22T17:07:00.000-07:00

At his one year doctor's appointment:

31 1/2 inches tall (90-92%)

26 pounds (90%)

19 1/2 inch head circumference (still off the charts)

He can still say five words: Mommy, Daddy, ball, bubble, and water. It's funny that he just exploded with those five words so early, and we've heard no more. Except for "Wow."

He also says, "La-dee-la-dee-la-dee-la-dee-dah." We'll have to get some video up of this. La-dee-la is Zack's first inside joke.

His favorite foods are brocolli, rice, veggie burgers, chicken, bread, YoBaby yogurt, and avocado. He hated bananas for a long time, but a couple days ago he ate a whole banana. He loves them now. Same with strawberries. Today he had strawberries at daycare and came home smelling like a giant strawberry, with berry stains all over him. He has been refusing formula. He hates cow's milk. I'm still nursing!

He doesn't point or do "Sooo big." But he makes himself understood very clearly. When he sees a food he wants, like the animal crackers at daycare or some veggie burger at home, he makes his hands into little fists and shouts, "Unnngh!" It's quite articulate. We get it.

He pushes away things he doesn't like, whether food or books. That's his way of saying no. He just pushes the offending object out of his sight. During story time, he has become very picky about books, so it'll go something like this:

"Do you want to read Night Night Baby?"

Push.

"No. Okay, how about Go Dog. Go?"

Push.

"Hm. Well, we can read Where's the Kitten?"

He leans back into my lap. Okay, that one's all right.

He laughs along with us when we are laughing. He wants to be in on the joke. This cracks us up when what we are laughing at in the first place is Zack. It also makes me think that it's nice he is growing up around two people who laugh a lot.

Zack is ONE

2009-06-21T14:19:00.000-07:00

Yay! Zack has moved into his second year on Earth, and we celebrated the first one last weekend. Here he is at his party, but first...

A few days before his birthday, we got a pair of packages from Nana and Papa in Florida. We didn't make him wait. Zack was very interested in the box...

and it contained an Ugly Doll! (You can see he's still intrigued by that box.)

His other present was this great farm puzzle, the pieces of which all have big wooden knobs that are great for little hands. How do I know?

Well, here's Zack eating and he's still clutching a piece (that's the goose piece, I think).

And here he is an hour after lights out, still clutching the piece he was clutching before bedtime while Monkey looks on jealously. I'm pretty sure that piece is the rooster.

Zack's actual birthday was on a Wednesday, a few days before his party. I wasn't working that day, so it was all Zack and Daddy until late afternoon. Here he is chilling on the playmat.

And here he is doing some scientific research on the playmat. Subject: What Everything Looks Like Upside-Down.

We were short on some essential supplies, so we took a trip to good ol' Target shortly before Zack's naptime. You can see the tiredness in Zack's face, although he was still clearly "thumbs up" about this great big ball.

After naptime (see the difference?), Zack listens to his birthday message from Marc.

After that it was a trip to Toys R Us! I let Z loose in the aisles to see what he liked...

And he went straight to the toy zoo he's already got at home, pressing the demo buttons to make monkey noises. I got him a little something else and we took off...

but not before a quick photo up in this ball bin.

After that we stopped at daycare so Zack could hang with his buddies. Here they are grooving on bubbles.

We didn't go crazy for the party on Saturday, just bought up a buncha food and had people over at the house. We purposely overshot, so pretty much everything you see here lasted us well into the following week. I made four quiches, homemade guacamole and hummous. Not pictured is the bloody mary mix. I made it as an afterthought, but wound up serving bloody marys to several of our guests.

Zack's daycare friends Benicio and Brandon (below) both came with their parents, as well as two of the daycare center's teachers, our landlady, and a few friends.

There were some folks who couldn't make it, and they were missed -- although it was the perfect number of people for our living room.

Cake! It was carrot cake with the yummy cream cheese frosting. Mommy helped him blow out the fancy candle...

And then Zack helped himself to some of Daddy's piece of cake.

The hunk he crammed in his mouth is the biggest thing I've ever seen him eat. I was following him around with a napkin for a few minutes, certain I was going to catch a fat wad of cake, but to my astonishment he worked it down without a hitch.

It was a great party. Zack got cool presents from everyone and, as Marc's expression will attest, had a good crazy time.

May Favorites

2009-06-01T00:05:00.001-07:00

I'm hoping this Zacktastic display will make up for all the stuff we haven't been doing. I've mentioned some great video to some of you (walking!), but I had an incident of Blogger taking forever to upload some video and then at the end pretending I never asked it to in the first place. Then tonight I realized that didn't prevent me from uploading some regular, non-moving pictures.

Zack loves going outside, so we often break up the day by parking on a blanket in our small front yard. I lie down and Zack pulls himself to standing postion on me, then starts exuberantly talking to the trees and passing cars. It's my favorite thing to do these days. Also, Zack thinks anyone's shades were put there on their face for him to pull off, as you can see here.

No, really, it's the best.

Here's Zack showing some Kleenex who's boss.

We bought these great interlocking play mat squares for Zack's corner of the living room. You could get letters, numbers or shapes. I said screw letters and numbers, and we just got three sets of shapes.

Do you know how when you fly, you're constantly barraged with the same information over and over? Little signs everywhere about your seat belt, stuff over the PA system about strange luggage, etc. I've discovered that being a baby is like that, except everyone's trying to jampack your sensorium with letters and numbers. Shapes and colors, too, but not with the same dogged persistence. Point being, I wanted to give the kid a break.

Our friend Tekla gave us a heavy bag of books that her daughter is too old for, and we mixed it together with our old standbys into the organized library you see here. Zack loved it, except when he had to crawl over a pile of books.

Zack and Mommy in Aunt Rose's pool. Rose's pool has a little spa sectioned off from the pool proper, which is good because the big pool was way too cold for Z. He dug the jets, and also having Mommy or Daddy help him chase his ball around.

This was last Monday and for some reason Zack hadn't had the proper amount of nap by evening. We had a good time but you can tell he's out of it.

This dog Mona was very well-behaved, but was largely distracted watching the kid from her own family doing stuff.

One of Zack's favorite spots on the smaller play structure. It's just a section where the platform curves like a hill, cresting about three inches high in the middle. He just sidles back and forth over it, grooving out on his skills.

The park trip before this one I lay inside this cylinder and pulled Zack through on top of me. He cried when he reached the end and I thought I'd scared him. Then this time he's trying to touch the dress of this much older little girl when she and her friend took off through the tunnel. He followed after them with no hesitation. I guess he hadn't been scared, he'd been pissed that I didn't let him do it himself. My camera's battery had just conked out, so while I sputtered in disbelief I had to get it together to shoot this with my phone. Little so-and-so.

And these are a couple more from Saturday. He was really digging the swing.

This time he tried standing up in here, which didn't work very well because he hit the ceiling with his head. Didn't stop the adorable, though.

Baby's first audition

2009-05-29T19:33:00.000-07:00

I didn't get a great picture of it, but Zack had an audition today. He did well. He enjoyed the waiting room and all the other babies, and he was very social. Then a couple of dogs entered onto the scene, and it was the fastest I've seen the boy walk yet. He was way, way into the dogs. There seem to be a lot of casting studios where pets are allowed. That was just fine by Zack.

I've actually booked a couple of commercials though this casting director, and I think that might be why they asked me to audition as Zack's mom. So we had to wait around for a while before a dad showed up. He was very cute and very, very gay. We made a beautiful family.

Zack got a little spooked when we got into the studio. I don't know if it was the camera or just that we were away from the more social scene in the waiting room. Or maybe just shutting the door in a strange room. I've noticed Zack doesn't really like elevators, either. But anyway, I had to put him on my shoulders for his picture, so he would smile. But then he did great.

The "story" of the commercial was that the dad was watching The Closer, and the baby starts crying. The dad changes the channel to Sesame Street and the baby is happy. I stayed off to the side so Zack wouldn't get too upset. I gave him a post card he had gotten interested in, and he sat there and played with it pretty happily. When the baby was supposed to by crying, the camera guy played an audiotape of a baby crying. The sound upset Zack and he actually did start to protest a little. He didn't really cry, but he whimpered a little and made it clear he didn't like that noise. Then when the camera guy turned off the tape, Zack stopped crying and looked very interested and engaged. The camera guy couldn't believe how perfect it was. It really looked as if Zack had gotten upset that Sesame Street wasn't on, demanded a channel change, and then was at peace and just involved in the show. It was too funny how great the timing was.

Then I was supposed to do my part of the audition, which meant I had to find a place to stow Zack outside the studio. I've watched a few babies myself at auditions and have previously handed Zack over to new and old friends in waiting rooms. So Zack went to look at the dogs again with his new baby friend (who happened to be another HUGE 27 pounder whose mom said she was suffering with lower back pain because of carrying him around--and trying acupuncture to cure it, and well, good luck with that lady, but thanks for watching the kid anyway).

My part of the audition was that gay hubbie and I are watching Slum Dog Millionaire when we hear the baby cry on the monitor and have to pause the movie to go take care of him. As you can imagine, this was a real stretch for me.

When I had to pull Zack away from the dogs to go home, he got really, really upset. He had been pretty game all through the audition, but he just did not understand why he couldn't play with the little dogs some more. So what if they were in a lady's office? And she was making ten thousand phone calls? (She looked a little annoyed, actually.)

We are home now, and Zack is taking the weirdest, longest afternoon nap. It's lasted from 2:45 until now. It's 7:45. I think tonight might be tough. But when I tried to wake him to stay on schedule, he was just so conked out. I didn't have the heart.

Plus I am getting so much writing done. Freakin' household full of wacked out artists on crazy schedules.

For all our east coast, not in the business folks, just know that if Zack was in any way distressed at an audition, I wouldn't let him stay. For little babies, I don't think the business is really messed up. It's only when kids get older that they can get a little tweaked by competition, superficiality, and rejection. Zack is just out for a good time wherever he goes.

And if he gets this job, it's $5000 in the bank for him, which isn't bad for a day of socializing.

Sorry, it's been so long!

2009-05-23T13:16:00.000-07:00

This is Zack's eleven month old picture! The big birthday bash is being planned. We're very excited.

This pic is from the day we went down to Mom's to give her some support after she got some very bad news. She lost her job.

Ironically (and yes, I think I'm using that word correctly), it has been my brother's job that we have all been the most worried about, as he will become part of Microsoft's first round of layoffs ever on June 1st. The politics involved in his job loss were vicious and ugly and unfair, but Pete rallied and worked his ass off, and he just got his dream job in Florida, right in the nick of time! He is so happy and I am so relieved for him and for my three nephews!

And then Mom's company up and decided to move operations to Ohio. The two bits of news happened within one day of each other. Unlike Pete, Mom is in no shape for a cross country move. She was offered a job in the new Ohio location, but she took the severance package instead. Several nervous breakdowns, a few pain med imbalances that made her sound truly high and crazy, and one hospital stay later, she is finally sounding optimistic about finding another job. She has never been able to remember Dr. Sterling's name. It has gone from "Silver" to "Spurling" to "The one we like" to occasionally, "Meh Bleh." But the meds seem to be in order now, and she is sounding much more lucid. (Phew. Major phew!)

It's been a tough month. Mom got a social worker from the Counsel on Aging in to talk to the family, and it looks like they are getting Meals on Wheels, which is a significant relief to me. I had been trying to cook big meals and bring them down there. I succeeded in doing this exactly twice. Grandma seems to be softening to the idea of a nursing home. I have my fingers crossed. The social worker was a great first step. Very smart to have a neutral, expert person in to evaluate the situation.

With the grim news aside, we have video and pics to share, and Zack is really being great lately. He's been teething and having a hard time with that, but otherwise, he is walking like a champ and his sense of humor and games and just his personality in general are developing so much every day. He's cracking us up. He looks more and more like I did as a baby, but there's no doubt that his personality is straight up Jeff! Example: he will push away anything he does not like. Books, food, whatever. He just pushes it away from him. And if you stop playing hide and seek, he pushes you to play some more and makes a lot of noise about it. Okay, maybe any baby does this, but to me this refusal to deal with anything boring and uninteresting, and the insistence on non-stop fun: Jeff, people. It's Jeff.

Or maybe Jeff is just a big kid. Uh...maybe definitely.

And our fears that we would have a complete jock boy might be materializing. Zack is so incredibly coordinated and loves to play ball. I think we have a future red-headed Laker on our hands. I don't know from babies, but it really seems like he's very, very good with a ball. We've actually seen him just about dribble the thing. It's impressive, seriously impressive.

Hey, where are the pictures?

2009-05-08T00:40:00.001-07:00

We've got stuff to post. Some firsts (a couple of steps!), some seconds (another case of croup!), big big news from my brother Tim and Kristina's house (twins!), but we're recovering from a case of the croup and letting ourselves lag. Stay tuned.

Tooth Number 5

2009-05-02T00:02:00.000-07:00

Zack has been a bit of a drama queen lately, and yesterday we noticed he has busted out another tooth on the bottom left of the two that are already in. So I guess he was having a hard time with that little tooth. He was a lot calmer today.

We visited the grandparents and Zack put on quite a show, bouncing his ball, eating like a champ, and saying both "Mommy" and "ball," as well as doing some very impressive babbling. He has gotten pretty physically coordinated and it's great to watch him navigate his way around the furniture.

Jeff bought the last items to childproof our place, so now Zack can roam from his room and pretty much throughout the living room without doing too much damage to himself or anything else. We keep the door to our room and the bathroom shut, and the dangerous Lego / kitchen area is gated off.

Jeff is thrilled because Zack mostly feeds himself with his left hand. And really, a dead giveaway, if he does pick up something with his right hand, he'll switch to his left before he eats it. Mom is also a lefty so everyone has got their hopes up about this left handed thing.

He has started feeding himself with a spoon. We are really cheering him on, although it's such a complete mess! But he insists he wants to do it. He also likes to wear his bowl as a hat.

Jeff finally caught him on video laughing, something that has been as elusive as Bigfoot. But I swear it's real.

The latest word he is working on is "baby," although he doesn't seem to know what it means. But he says it a lot.

He also plays peekaboo with us by hiding his face with a towel or peeking around the corner.

Developing little games with him has been fun. He bites down hard on the spoon after each bite, and then he wants me to try and take it from him. We end up playing tug of war, like you would with a dog. Cracks Zack up for some reason.

He used to play a game with us called Baby Attack. Here were the rules. We would say, "Baby attack!" And Zack would descend and slobber on our faces. I have no idea why that one stopped. And really, I have no idea what Baby Attack actually meant to Zack. He cannot have understood it--this was a few months ago. But he sure did love it.

What Daddy Has Been Doing

2009-04-22T20:51:00.000-07:00

I like the way the Pirate is about to get some grog, and the monkey wants in on the action and has temporarily stowed his wrench in his tail. Also I dig the jewels. This is something Jeff was working on for a Lego contest.

I just set up Zack's 529, which I've been meaning to do for about ten months. Some might say that is a more legitimate accomplishment than finishing a Lego pirate ship. I am not so sure.

Freedom From the Heat!

2009-04-21T22:15:00.000-07:00

We've been having a pretty bad heat wave, and the Valley is always ten degrees hotter. So it's been pretty tough.

Today, I forgot my phone, and I thought, eh, it won't matter unless I get a same day audition, and what are the odds? Yep, got one. Yep, missed it. I was too busy galavanting with Zack. Only we weren't galavanting. I don't think you can really galavant when it's 104 degrees outside. Our trips to SAG-AFTRA Credit Union and Trader Joe's were cut short by fussiness. Zack's, not mine, although mine wasn't much better.

But it's a good thing, because then I got home and got my messages and realized I had no time at all to feed Zack and haul us out to Santa Monica. So I plopped him down and gave him some yoghurt, which he loved. He has taken to saying, "Mmmmmm," when he likes stuff, and also, "Nom nom nom!" Just linked that to Urban Dictionary so you can see the many reasons nom nom nom cracks me up. He really says that.

Except that Zack is a delightful cutie at all times, I was pretty peeved to have an audition. It meant we were going to miss our little baby swim class at the YMCA. I don't think Zack will really learn to swim in this class, because that's ridiculous. But there are three other moms and babies I know in there, and come in, it's 104 degrees. Plus, auditioning sucks. I really do hate it. Working is fun. Auditioning is lame.

Anyway, great audition, in which Zack got to "act" like he was my baby in the back seat of my car. Fun stuff. He wasn't supposed to be there, but he was still fussin', and the camera guy was just cool about it. He was like, "So, you have a baby in your car. It could happen." So Zack got to chew on a water bottle while I tried to park a pretend car. I'm sure he stole the show.

And then we killed some time in Santa Monica, because oh my gosh, it's sooooo cool there. What the hell was I ever thinking to live in California NOT by a beach? So silly. The breeze blew away our fussiness. I fed Zack in the park. He had his favorites: broccoli and whole wheat bread. And some jar food. And he watched kids play. And we met another little red headed seven-month-old named Clementine. It's so fun to meet other red-headed babies. Having a red head is an opportunity for people to talk to you, really. It's kinda fun. So I talked to these parents about how everyone talks to us about our red heads. They were like these tattooed, rocker, Venice Beach parents. Me likey the freaks.

Then Zack and I came home and had a perfect bed time. They get better and better.

Weekends!

2009-04-18T21:58:00.001-07:00

We'll get some fun pictures up. For now, I just want to say, weekends are the best. We spent some time with Zack out on the front lawn today, and he's ridiculous fun now. He's a non stop party. I love that kid so much. He's crazy goodness.

Weekdays, Jeff and I really don't get to see a lot of each other, because our work schedules are so different. So weekends are great, and weekdays are fine, but sometimes tough--especially since my job is a major stressor. Someday, the weirdos I work with will seem funny to me, but right now, it seems all I do is complain about them. Jeff is a bit of a saint to listen, but I think his last job experience gave him empathy for somebody in a position like mine.

But I have to be very, very grateful this year, because I still have a job. This week at work, many of my friends and coworkers lost 30% to 50% of their hours. It was quite painful. One teacher said it will force him into retirement. Another one doesn't know how he'll "meet his obligations." Out of sheer luck, I remained on a pristine little island and my job is unchanged. Since I'm funded by a special federal program, and the program has been reauthorized for next year, I'll be measuring student outcomes and justifying the school's existence and entering all that information into a gigantic database and sending it off to the state and federal government, just like always. But it can't last. There will be fewer classes and fewer students, and therefore, fewer outcomes to measure and less data to enter, so I'm sure they'll cut the job eventually. I just got lucky this time around!

Scary and exciting times Zack has been born into. Jeff and I are fortunate to be employed and fortunate not to have bought houses--not like that was part of any master plan or anything. I'll be spending most of this year trying to get another job. Well, maybe I'll get one soon and it will only take part of the year. My job has been great in terms of acting, going to graduate school, and now taking care of Zack. I don't think I could have found another that's part time, paid as decently, and came with the ostensible satisfaction helping people every day. Well, there's prostitution of course, but that has so many risks and drawbacks.

Monster Mess

2009-04-16T18:05:00.000-07:00

Yep, poop in the tub. I know many parents have been there, and there's probably no need to belabor the point: it's a bad scene.

I noticed it first on the towel, then on Zack, then on the sheets. Hm...maybe another bath? Nope, tub's fulla poo. Okay, let's get Homeslice changed. Wow, what still smells? Oh, it's my clothes, covered in poo.

Just put the boy in the Intellipooper (cause it's safe now) and cleaned up the aftermath. Much laundry.

AND--thanks Jeff, for putting the Cuisinart blade in the dishwasher. I was trying to staunch the flow of blood from my left middle finger all during this poopalicious episode. See, Jeff and I have different philosophies about the dishwasher. Nevermind what mine is. That's not the issue here. His is that the dishwasher should do all the work. He's good at dishwasher geometry, I'll give him that. He can fill that thing like nobody's bitness. But well, some items should get a hand wash. That's what I believe, is all. I'm not gonna push my beliefs on anyone. You know, live and let live. But let's leave the spiral shaped blade out of the silverware bucket, mkay?

Ten months. Ten pictures.

2009-04-13T13:42:00.001-07:00

Julie had a photo shoot on Zack's 10-month marker day last Friday, and this was as far as I could winnow down the pictures.

We usually refer to his crawling style as "the pegleg," but for these shots I prefer "the crab."

These last three are called "I'm going to get that camera!"

Amid the Lilacs

2009-04-11T14:58:00.000-07:00

A little trip to Descanso Gardens a few days ago. Ten month pics coming up soon....

Our Week Off

2009-04-08T12:38:00.000-07:00

Yay! Video.

Okay, get ready to be amazed. Here is Zack playing with a ball, and well, you may actually hear him say, "Ball." Also, brace yourself for the face plant at the end of this segment. I know that's a little rough, but I think it shows a lot about how he's been doing lately. The crying from any little stumble like that only lasts a few seconds. Jeff and I both have the same philosophy of reacting to that stuff, which is to make sure there's a complete lack of drama. So even though inside we're thinking, "Poor Zack!" And then, "Awww...he looks adorable when he's upset!" we only say, "Yes, you took a little spill," or something like that. Then, it's no big deal, and playing resumes immediately.

Marc makes Zack laugh. Sometimes. Other times,

Marc makes Zack look confused.

Jeff is off for most of this week, and I'm on Spring Break. So we've been taking care of some business around the house and playing with Zack. We've been trying to deal with child proofing. First priority: securing the cables on our new television! We're so practical.

The other night, I got the last bit of the internet madness fixed, and I was ecstatic to have a fast connection. So there I was surfing the internet, while Jeff perused the new TV's features. This lasted for maybe three hours. Then we looked up from our respective screens. It's a happy marriage, folks!

Oh, and I cannot believe I haven't been shouting this from the rooftops. We had three hours to ourselves because Zack is sleeping through the night!!!

Forgive the indulgence with the exclamation points. But really, three is not enough. We did it! We night weaned him, and then we had one rough night of checkins with some crying. But the second night, we did not even have to check in once! He's sleeping on his own and he can get himself back to sleep if he wakes up.

It's like a miracle. I'm soooo proud of him. And of us.

I still kind of miss sleeping with him, but in his new phase as a mobile baby, he will not drift off peacefully. As long as there is someone there to play with him, he will play and play until he drops. And then he won't actually drop. He'll just keep playing with his eyes half shut. He's actually fallen asleep several times now, sitting up in his crib. So it's just not possible to co-sleep at this point. Fortunately, bed time is great now. Since we tackled that a few months back, he goes down very easy and just babbles in the crib for a bit.

Now that I'm with him in the mornings, I'm also realizing he's waaaaay off on naps. I've been pretty mellow about naps and scheduling. But I guess Zack never takes one in the morning at daycare, since he's so busy playing. At home, he has been napping by the book. So we have to fix that! I didn't want to get uptight about the nap stuff, but now I'm thinking the kid's been somewhat chronically sleep deprived. Whenever I pick him up, he just crashes in the car. It's suboptimal.

Today I put him down for his first nap, and when I checked on him, he was on his feet, looking in the closet door mirrors, jumping up and down. It was awesome. Then he started to fuss, and I did do a little soothing and nursing, and he slept for two whole hours. So clearly he does need a mid-morning nap. He just has to be absolutely convinced that he needs it. I'm not sure if daycare can actually fix this one, but I'm going to work with them on it.

This was Mommy's birthday party! This is an odd picture, but I like it because it gives an idea of the general chaotic vibe. Pictured are Jessie (with Duncan inside the yellow shirt), the back of Tekla's head, Bruce, Zack, Julie, Marc, Darlene and Kelly, Stephanie and Birdie, Sarah and Lucy...and maybe some extras from the gigantic party for a one-year-old at the next tables over. Turns out if you're a Mexican toddler, our local park is the place to be on your birthday! Marion managed to snag a spot for us.

Bruce making Zack laugh.

Natalie managed to get her butt in the baby swing. I'm not sure if there's an award for this, but there should be.

Marion and Jason. I just think this is a nice picture of them. As you can see, we had fantastic weather for the party. Unfortunately, Baby Wes decided that the party was optimal nap time and had to leave.

Since I'm off work, we took Zack to infant and toddler story time at the local library. I can usually not make this event, since I'm working. It was really fun, even though it was total chaos! Zack had a great time. One LA note: many nannies were there. I know I keep mentioning the Hispanic population where we live, but it is interesting to see a 40-year-old Guatemalan woman with a little tow-headed baby. We just looked at a house a block away from us--it cost close to a million dollars. And at our local park, I often see $900 strollers. So that's where we live, in an apartment that for some mysterious reason is one of the least expensive in all of LA. Oh wait, I think I figured out the mysterious reason: it's kinda crappy. But cute!

Another thing I learned at infant and toddler story time is that Mommy is a SAP. Yep. When the librarian was singing the shake your body song, at the end part, where you shake your body and walk around and say hello to your new friends...well, I almost lost it. I loved seeing all those little babies walk around and say hi to each other.

I had a similar reaction at Avery's birthday party. Avery's brother, Jack was grousing and crying about how he wanted a certain seat. Avery did not want to wear her birthday crown. Robyn couldn't get the lighter to work to light the candle on the cake. It looked like there would just be a complete implosion at this key point in the party. And then the candle got lit and everyone sang Happy Birthday, and guess who almost started crying? It just seemed so cool--family life!

Hey, this one's on sale.

After story time, we took Zack south to the Citadel Outlets, located at the intersection of the Five Freeway and all my memories from childhood. We used to pass this place every trip to LA from Orange. It looks like a giant Babylonian temple. It's now a mall. I had never, ever been inside until yesterday!

We had to get Zack some clothes. Until now, we haven't had to buy him really anything, but we were almost completely out of PJs that did not fit him like a tight little sausage casing. And Elsa, his main lady at daycare, doesn't like to dress him in tight pants. We got him six pairs of "Roomy Comfy" pants for a two-year-old at the Carter's outlet store.

Chocolate mousse cake we had yesterday.

And I had today. For breakfast.

My "It's my birthday so I can eat anything" mentality

has been in effect since Sunday.

Jeff went to pick up food and picked up a ball for Zack, which was a hit! He spent the entire visit at my folk's throwing this thing and then chasing it around and talking. So much fun for $1.09!

So yesterday was story time, outlet shopping, and visit to my family. AND, in the morning, we heard a new word. We really could not get over this one. As I was leaving our room to get the phone, I could have sworn I heard Zack say, "Water." He was playing with Jeff's water bottle. Water bottles are probably his second favorite toy, after this new ball.

Jeff said, "Did he just say water?" Then we heard it several more times! The weird thing is that I was getting the phone to call Arrowhead Water and straighten out our order for today. So Zack kept saying, "Water!" and messing up the phone interaction with the Arrowhead robot customer service system.

Later, Jeff was filling up Zack's sippy cup, and Zack again said, "Water!" It was so clear. The feeling of amazement I have when I hear this is totally disorienting. Jeff said, "Yeah, it's like seeing a ghost or an extraterrestrial creature or something. Like something you've heard about but never believed in." And that's really it. I knew the kid would talk, but seriously? He's talking?

He doesn't seem to accumulate words yet. We hear these things, and then the next day it feels like we dreamt it, because he doesn't repeat himself. Today we heard "Mama" again clearly. But it's not like he starts using a word and then continues using it regularly. It's still like a flicker, like we're getting some flash of reception from far away, and then back to jumbled static. Except the jumbled static is actually still pretty charming.

Here's some fun footage of Zack trying to stand. He is so determined. He has also started cruising along furniture. I have written a lot in this post because this video takes for-EV-ah to load. So I hoped you enjoyed my chatty run down of the last few days.

Freaking finally...video's loaded!

Oh, and one more thing. I've pretty much been thinking all along I would nurse Zack for the full first year, and I still believe we'll get there. Nursing has been easy and enjoyable, for the most part. I'm just sick of pumping at work, and I'm finding I want a little personal space back. But yesterday, he bit Mommy soooo hard that he actually broke the skin, and I bled onto my shirt. It was a pretty bad scene. I had to hand him over to Jeff right away, because I was so upset. I think I actually said, "You little bastard," which is something of a low blow, since you know, Zack really is a bastard. But in a good way. So I'm less inclined to believe we will go past one year of nursing, and more and more I'm thinking we'll get him onto cow's milk in a couple months and I will pack up the nay nays. But we'll see!

Avery's Birthday Party

2009-04-07T00:23:00.000-07:00

Zack went to a baby play date to celebrate Avery's birthday.

I like how you can see Leyla in the background chewing on another toy.

The birthday girl

Wow...this is all posting so fast. I can't believe we lived without a fast internet connection for so long. It feels like waking from a nightmare!

Uh...speaking of waking, that's what Zack is NOT doing now. He's been asleep for four hours and fifteen minutes, which is a record for recent months. We've weaned him off night feedings and he's sleeping in the crib. That's a lot progress. I'm so proud of him. And of us.

Sleeeep.

2009-04-02T09:00:00.001-07:00

Last night we all went to bed early and slept just about through the night, with a few minor interruptions from Zack. Even Jeff went to bed at ten.

Here's a more typical night for us:

Julie wakes up at 3 a.m. and comes into the kitchen, where there is a fierce, bright light. Jeff is photographing his pirate pod racer Lego creation. He's got the dining room set up like a professional photographer's studio. Julie wanders around like the living dead, pumps some milk, checks email, fiddles with the internet for a while.

It's no wonder Zack isn't on a strict night schedule. Schedules are for squares.

I don't think the lack of sleep involved in having a baby got to us as bad as most people. I was in graduate school just about until the night before Zack was born. And Jeff just doesn't keep a schedule or really believe in sleep, it seems to me.

Yay internet.

2009-04-01T19:33:00.000-07:00

The cable dude came back again today with a partner and completely recabled our apartment. Turns out the lines were damaged, possibly by plumbing issues beneath our place, and definitely by squirrels chewing the lines above our place.

Squirrels!

So I am currently enjoying some speed on the connection. Hoooray.

Zack smiled like crazy at the cable guys. You know, that whole adorable baby for strangers routine--little showoff.

I think it was Sunday that Zack played ball with me. I rolled a ball to him, and he got the game and rolled it back. His version of rolling the ball back is holding it up high until it drops and bounces to me.

More and more like a 100% sentient being every day! So cool.

I also got Zack more books at the library. Yesterday when I went to pick him up, he was asleep. He's usually asleep now that I have a new work schedule. I no longer work Saturdays! So I took advantage of his nap to hit the library, which is right near daycare. I got a new card and a whole bunch of board books. Zack, unfortunately for me, preferred his old books! But tonight he warmed up to a few of the borrowed ones.

He has been going down to sleep more and more easily. We are slowly crib training him and training him to sleep through the night. I hope what we're doing works. So far, he has gone back to his old peaceful night routine. After a bath, some playing, some nursing, and stories, I've started telling him that he's going to bed and giving him a big hug and a lot of kisses. I do the whole rationalization about how awesome it is to go to bed, because then you get to wake up tomorrow ready to play some more. And well, it's working! He goes in the crib and he gets himself to sleep. Tonight he chatted to himself for a while, and then O-U-T. Great stuff.

He is still waking up several times a night to eat, so Jeff is feeding him only from a bottle for the first couple night feedings. We're lessening the ounces every time. The result so far is that Zack has acclimated to the smaller feedings, and then when my shift comes around at 3:00 a.m., he is completely ravenous. Plus after those unexciting bottles, the boobs make an appearance and it is just a lot of general excitement. He's eating a huge meal at 3:00. I tried to shorten it last night, and he woke up at 4:00 and then 5:00. Oh, and then 6:00.

But we'll get there. I really want him to sleep through the night, but my unwillingness to let go of co-sleeping with him interfered. I only wanted the evenings to myself. Once I got that, sleep training stopped for us. I just loved having Zack sleep next to me. I will really miss it. And I'm sure I'm not completely through with it. It's just too great.

But at the moment, he is soooo into crawling that he actually wakes up in motion. If he's sleeping next to me now, the way I know he's awake is that he is on his way out the door. Seems slightly dangerous.

So we put him in the baby cage! And he's actually starting to like it, I think.

He has also fallen asleep twice sitting up. He is just so into moving around these days that he will play and play until his eyes just close. So far in his short life, he's been a baby who went to bed at his bed time, and it wasn't something we had to enforce. But now it is! So I'm really happy we did the minimal sleep training, because it made it easier to just put him down awake and walk out the door.

I haven't heard "Mommy" in a while, so now I wonder if it really happened. Today when we were playing ball, I said, "Ball," and he said, "Ba!" It's more the tone that seems like he's imitating me. Yesterday, he bit me really hard on the shoulder. I said, "NO!" and he shrank a little. Then he said, "Na!" and it really seemed like he was imitating me. So funny. First time I've ever raised my voice to him. But hey, those teeth are sharp!

Pictures!

2009-03-28T11:23:00.000-07:00

Sorry we've been laggng with the photos! Zack had a checkup last week, and here he is waiting for the doctor. The stats: 24 pounds, 12 ounces (92nd-95th percentile), 30 1/2 inches (95th - 97th percentile) and a head circumerence of 19 inches (still off the charts).

Asleep on mommy

Hanging out in the front yard

Standing!

First time swimming!

Well, not really swimming. But we're going to enroll him in class.

Pear!

2009-03-28T10:10:00.000-07:00

Yummy. Some old pictures. Internet connection working at the moment. Technician arrives on Monday to replace or repair something.

Yesterday Zack and I went to play with Tekla, Geneva, Baby Kate (who is no longer a baby, but three!), and Tek's mom. Geneva is simply the funniest person in the entire world. She cracks Zack up. He spent some time crawling around after her on the front lawn. He also got to play a fun game with playing cards and a bowl. I put the cards in the bowl, and he took them out and put them in his mouth.

Tekla is a great hostess and gave Zack some rice and beans and broccoli. We've been a little lazy about finger foods around here, but only because I cannot seem to get to the store. Yesterday, I had Zack in the car, finishing a car nap in the parking lot of Trader Joe's. It took way too long. I finished my Iphone Scrabble and got bored. Then, Marion called and we blew off the store and went to the park. So I ended up just letting my car idle in the parking lot for 40 minutes.

Schlepping

2009-03-27T08:00:00.000-07:00

Yesterday Zack just took off, schlepped out of the living room, and into the hallway. He was moving fast, doing this peg legged crawl. He's on the left knee but up tall on the right foot. Sometimes the right foot is out in front. It's very funny looking, really, but he's fast.

He banged on the bathroom door, but it wouldn't open. Good--child proofing made easy! He turned and headed into our bedroom and made it pretty far. As soon as he decided Jeff's trash can was a good toy, I picked him up.

He's all over the place now! So cash in your bets. He did crawl, or anyway schlep, before walking. So many people told me he would probably skip the crawl phase completely.

And actually, I'm pretty sure he could move like this for a while, but why bother? If there are toys nearby, who needs to move?

AND! He also looked right at me and said, "Mommy." Seriously! I said, "Yes, that's right! I'm Mommy!" And he could tell I was pretty stoked, so he said it again! Still not a reliable crowd pleasing baby trick. He also will not wave bye bye just to make me look good. I mean, I know my baby is not supposed to be a performing monkey. But come on, monkey, dance and wave to the people already!

"Mommy" seems to not only mean who I am. It also indicates, "Hey, I want out of the highchair." Or, "I'm hungry." He actually did say, "Mommy nay nay." HI-larious. I wonder how long it will be before anyone actually can verify that I'm telling the truth. The baby is talking. FRRRREEEAKY!

Pictures soon. We have been dealing with too many annoying internet problems. I hope to have time to make some fixing attempts this weekend. Once again, I'm posting from my "job."

Special Bulletin

2009-03-20T07:08:00.000-07:00

Zack stood up yesterday! No hands!

He was outside in the boat at daycare. There's a big plastic boat, where he has spent a lot of time since September. He's been hanging out in there since all he could do was lie around in a Boppy. The outdoor area at daycare is super nice.

I saw him pushing to standing, with his hands on the side of the boat. When he saw me, he stood up, arms over head, and said, "Nay nay!"

I was amazed! He was up for a few seconds, and then he sort of swayed and started to fall on his bum, but I caught him and gave him a whole bunch of kisses.

Yay Zack!

He is also definitely saying Mama. Clear as day.

And he ate a pear yesterday! Well, he toothed and gummed it. I got pictures, but stupid internet, stupid Airport Utilities, stupid invisible devices, grumble grumble grrrr... I don't know what is going on, but we are having some really annoying tech issues at home! I'm actually posting from (ahem) "work."

Back

2009-03-18T20:10:00.000-07:00

I took a stab at our taxes today, using the free Turbo Tax software in the accounting class where I work. When I saw the result, I returned our TV. Well, it hasn't been delivered, so I just went to Best Buy and got a refund. While I was there, I called Mom and found out she's being readmitted to the hospital. I don't think she's as bad as she was. Just dehydrated.

So everything and everybody is going back. And more weirdness with Grandma. I thought she was pretty together yesterday, but it's just so apparent that she cannot hold onto information.

But yesterday she did come up with the best term for how Zack gets around. He's great at standing, but there's no forward motion. If he really wants to move from A to B, he does this combination crawl, fall, roll, pull, and then a few other moves. I actually want to videotape it and speed it up. It kind of happens slowly, so that maybe five minutes later, you'll say, "Hey, he moved a whole seven feet!" But you can't really remember how it happened. We were out on the front lawn the other day and he got interested in the sprinkler, and then gradually, over time, he got to it. I don't know how. My grandmother nailed, though: "He schleps."

Zack was kind of ornery in Best Buy today, but for a kid who had a too short nap in the car, he was very, very good. There was some computer issue and it took forever for this poor manager to run around the store collecting enough cash to repay me. I had to get cash for some reason. Then finally I didn't need cash. I won't bore you with the details, but it took a along time. At one point I had to warn the manager, "Um, I'm going to have a screaming baby in here soon." But I didn't. Just a baby who made me take my shirt off a whole bunch to give him his nay nay. He's a good natured kid. We're lucky.

I swear I'm hearing him say Mama. Too weird. It just can't be.

Slippers!

2009-03-17T23:25:00.001-07:00

It's so funny what will capture Zack's attention. He was fascinated by Mom's slippers when I went to visit the folks today. I actually got these for her when she first went into the hospital. The physical therapist and all the nurses there loved them, and apparently they were so popular that someone put a note on the bulletin board near the nurses' station informing everyone that you could purchase these slippers in the gift shop. I was at a loss about what to get Mom, since no flowers were allowed. I ended up opting for slippers, a stuffed animal, and a purse. And I got myself the same purse. It was a good day for the gift shop.

And Zack loves the slippers.

He had a great day visiting the family today. Grandma was finally allowed to smush him a little. He stood on my lap and waved his arms around and addressed the good people of the living room. He's really quite the orator. He played peekaboo with Great Grandma and laughed his head off. And he ate a ton. He ate a piece of bread, and some rice cereal and peas. And he nursed non stop.

He also got interested in some papers Mom was removing from the coffee table, and he stood up with only one hand to balance himself, as he reached with his other hand toward the papers! There was what seemed like a long, long moment where I watched this happening in complete disbelief. The sight of him standing there, perfectly balanced, one hand outstretched, just by himself: stunning.

So the family are all remarkably in their right minds again. Mom straightened out Grandma's meds, and now Grandma is making sense again. And Mom herself is now lucid, which I'm not quite used to. For a month I've been talking to and taking care of people who had a hard time communicating and understanding me. It got to the point where if Jeff didn't catch what I said and asked, "What?" I would almost get panicky. (No, no, not you, too!) But now all seems to be well.

Sticks!

2009-03-17T02:40:00.000-07:00

I took this with my iPhone, which doesn't work so great in low light, but it captures the action-y blur of these xylophone sticks, which Zack used today to bang the heck out of everything. I thought he might smash his new little toy cell phone. He banged the sticks together. He would not let go of the sticks today. I had to put him in the high chair with the sticks, and he didn't eat much--just sat there banging on the tray. I finally pried them loose for bath time. It was great to see how much he latched on to the concept that these were little hammers. It kinda looked like that monkey scene in 2001--except much louder.

Jeff came home and found one stick in the kitchen, one in the bathroom, and Zack and me asleep on the futon. I often fall asleep at 7:00 with Zack and then have a little wander round the house at 2 or 3 in the morning. You know, a little dinner. A little futzing with our internet.

I don't know what is up, but I keep thinking that maybe the economy is finally hitting our internet connection. It's slow, and for some reason, my computer can't see devices, and then Jeff's computer can't access my network. And we're having trouble on Rational Moms, too. It's just frustrating because it's bad enough that I have to do my taxes, but if you get me started fixing computer problems, I'll just emerge three days later from this frustrated but happy little geek hole. It's such a time suck, but in this weird way, I do enjoy it.

And speaking of tech stuff, Zack and I went to Best Buy today, and we had a stellar time together as usual. He decided it was nap time--no arguments, folks, it's happening now! And he napped in my arms while I looked at various flat screen pictures. When he woke up, he was in a great mood, bubbly and ready for admiration. A woman came over and started talking about his big blue eyes, his red hair, and oh my gosh, a dimple, too? It's the whole package! Then she tickled Zack (okay, a little weird when people touch your baby, but this time it was fine) and he let out a peal of his unbelievable little laugh, and then it was over. The woman was just beside herself. She could not believe it. I mean what is with this kid? Did he go to baby charm school when I wasn't looking?

The guy working at Best Buy gave Zack a little toy Curious George, and Zack looked the guy right in the eye. It was like he was saying thanks.

And then the guy rung us up for a brand new TV.

Happy frickin' 40th birthday to me.

Okay, it's actually coming up in April, but here's the thing, our old TV sucks. The sound is terrible. My ex got the TV used from the people moving out of our old apartment, and it went on the fritz not too long after that. We tried rerouting the sound through the stereo, but the sound connection thingy is also broken.

I work at a vocational school, so I asked the home theater repair teacher about fixing my TV. He said it wasn't even worth it to fix TVs. I don't know if that's necessarily the whole story, but hey, good enough excuse for Jeff and I to buy a new one. Only we haven't bought a new one. We just keep trying to watch the old one, and we have to use the captions feature on DVDs just to make out anything at all.

We just had a discussion about the TV situation, and we also had a discussion about how we're going to track our expenses for 30 days, starting today. We figure we're spending too much money on takeout and expensive juices, and we need to curb that. So today I spent $1.80 on snacks, $4.00 on Girl Scout cookies I bought from a co-worker....

And oh yeah, I bought a TV. Add that to the tally! First day out and I'm already saving money on juice!

Another funny thing about Best Buy with Zack was that I didn't bring in my diaper bag. I didn't even bring in my wallet. I just got out my bank card and my driver's license, and my phone, and I carried Zack. I left everything else in the car. And oh yeah, I actually left my diaper bag at home. I didn't have it with me when I picked him up from daycare, and Best Buy is on the way home.

It was such a bad idea, in retrospect. I had none of his stuff with me, not even another diaper. And it was near nap time. But what can I say? I guess he travels light like I do. He was ready for the whole scene, as long as we could stop for an hour while he slept in my arms. And that actually worked out great, because then I could really study the subtle differences between the pictures on the models in my price range. (It was the low range, just to make everyone feel a little better about the TV.) I think this is what that actually stopped me from buying a TV during my other trips to Best Buy. I didn't have enough time to stare and stare at the three choices I really had, trying to determine if I wanted the sky to be bluer or the butterflies to maybe look more realistic. I totally opted for more color. Screw realistic. I'm a sucker for saturation.

Zack is still waking up every three hours at night to eat, and I think I might actually muster up the strength to try and night wean him. But for the most part, I find then when I just roll with what he can do, it works. I have kind of stopped believing I can do much about his naps. Obviously if he can sleep in Best Buy and Home Depot, he knows when he needs to sleep.

Worse

2009-03-14T08:56:00.000-07:00

Okay, I might have my first nervous breakdown today.

I'm just so effing tired. In spite of my glorious post on Rational Moms about our victorious sleep training and my decision to side with mainstream parents across the US, um, we SUCK at sleep training, and we're pushovers. We give in to every demand.

Tekla came over to babysit last night, and Jeff and I went to see the Watchmen. We knew it would be dicey, because the night before, Zack had a full on freak out when he did his hour after bed time wakeup. I warned Tek. She's a pro, so she asked a great question: how long should she let the boy cry before calling me?

And I said, hey, if you're uncomfortable, call. No minimum time requirement.

I can't say I'm sorry she called, because the Watchmen was the most violent, disturbing crap I've ever sat through. There were a lot of shots of cute buttocks, though, if you're into that. And some full frontal male nudity. I guess you can show a big, blue atomic guy's weinie now. I guess the MPAA is okay with it. They didn't show it when the big, blue atomic guy was the size of a house--just when he was our size, so hey, it's fine.

Zack woke up to eat last night, and Jeff brought him into our room. And his diaper leaked all over the mattress. So we had to change him, and he completely, totally blew his top. That is just NOT how it gets done at our place, most of the time. You don't tear the baby away from the boob mid meal, at two in the morning. I mean, what was THAT ABOUT????!!!! Sheer outrage. We tried various calming techniques as Jeff attempted to squeeze the little sausage into his size 12 month PJs. NO EFFING DICE.

At one point, we stood him up just to see if we could wrangle his wriggly hands into his sleeves, and he started twisting his body around to see if he could get his wailing mouth any closer to the Mommy prize.

So traumatic!

And Tek fed him all the milk last night, so although I tried to pump, I could not catch up. I have not been able to stay ahead of him, have no frozen supply, since month five or something.

I really envy my friends whose babies just decided they were not interested in breast milk at nine months old. Zack will be at it until he's five, if we let him.

And the way things are going, won't we just let him??? We are really not very forceful about much. I woke up with him in the futon again today, swapped places so Jeff could keep him company, and now they are coming to visit me at work, so we don't have to give Zack formula. And...I'm pumping while I write this!

We are trying to not give Zack formula because we think it really might bother his eczema. But I'm philosophically fine with formula. Even though for some odd reason, it's a huge challenge to my ego whenever the kid gets even an ounce of it.

So I may as well give it up. I thought I was a sleep training, baby in the crib, formula loving, modern mom. But let's face it, I'm a breast feeding and co-sleeping mom, and I may never sleep through the night again!

Better

2009-03-13T06:33:00.000-07:00

Hey, everybody. Just wanted to say:

Foot's better.

Butt's better.

Zack's better.

Mom's coming home today.

The arrangements for her homecoming have been characteristically cuckoo for Cocoa Puffs over at the folks' place. Things have always been nutty in my family. With the addition of several prescription pain meds and a hefty dose of old age, the confusion and theatrics became even more intense. But we seem to have worked it out. Last I heard, everything was settled. According to Mom, Leticia and Lidia will now come to help Grandma for a combined total of four hours a day.

And according to Grandma, only Leticia is coming, and only for two hours a day.

I'm glad everyone's happy! Can't wait to see how this one plays out. I was on the phone from work for several hours yesterday. I hope they don't send me a bill.