All together now.. schadenfreude

Yup, schadenfreude...

Because sometimes when you're burned out, seeing others suffer just a little makes the best end of the day ever.


Zachary fell asleep in his crib. It took some convincing, and a lot of sitting, but there you are. He's woken up once, had a snack, and gone back down IN HIS CRIB.

*deep breathing*

I might survive till the weekend after all...

happy friday.

Sawing some Zs....

We picked up the "No Cry Sleep Solution" at Borders.

I read all 181 pages in one day. Not even at work. That's how desperate I was. Am. Is. Are.

Ok, pretty reasonable. Many things we were doing. Consistant is important. We can do this.

First step, log a day of sleep. Naps, prebed routine, night wakings. No problem. We're on it.

That was yesterday. We tried. We really did. It was awesome.

Especially the part where at one am he perked up in bed and was like "Let's play!".

*sigh* Yeah. Last night was awesome.

*thud*

Someone I talked to today was like "Our kid cried for four hours several days in a row. Whatever. It was worth it."

I don't think I'm there yet.

Yet.

yesterday afternoon

playing with water ...
Originally uploaded by m0nk3yphd

zachary and I ran around like crazy. First we went to dolphin park to play in the water, and then onto pick up CSA fruit and veg just around the corner. Once we gotten back to the apt and drop this off, we jumped on the fairway shuttle to 125th st to get some real food too. All in all it was a little too much, particularly since Sarah had read most of the baby sleep solution book, and overtriedness = poor sleeping! So I was bad dad, and in future earlier bedtimes (counter intuitively) make for better sleeping and way less cranky tired parents.

No Tofu Safe...

...going...
Originally uploaded by m0nk3yphd

That's right, Zachary has taken the plunge to the tofu-side. He thinks its *amazing*. This is some disappearing right down the hatch. I like the back up finger to make sure it can't escape. He's going crazy for tofu. Raw squishy tasty tofu.

Our baby so crazy.

Sleep Training, Redux, Part I

Ok. Did I blog this before? Who knows. Not me. I'm in a fog of the partially rested.

Many moons ago, when Zachary was barely a sprout, we "sleep trained". Ha. I say sleep trained. I mean... we sort of managed to get him to fall asleep in his crib. Ish. Or something. There was a little "crying it out", but it was nothing. Like, four minutes of him saying "i'm tired, yo!" quietly, really, when I look back on it. Anyway, he fell asleep nursing, he'd settle in his crib, and sometimes after a top up when we went to bed he'd go back to his crib. Sometimes he'd stay with us. We were, mostly, getting ok sleep. We might get a little fussy night around teething or something. But fine.

We travelled and travelled and travelled. See below.

Zachary mostly slept with us because its easy. Plan and simple. Easy peasy. And we were asking a lot of him, with the running around, and all the new people, and the time zones. No probs. We'd settle down when we returned to normal.

Sleeping sucks.

He is only taking naps with company. He is pretty much only nursing to sleep. And if we miss the small window of sleepiness, he gets a second wind. Except like a drunk person. There is staggering. On everyone's part. And he's waking up in our bed to.. Kick. And Fart. And nurse. and fart some more.

I may not be entirely responsible for my actions at this point.

Vingettes to follow.

Meeting at EJs

Nuzzles
Originally uploaded by m0nk3yphd

Cathy finally made the pillgrimage to the other coast... Hooray! This was... two weekends ago. We wandered around Central Park trying to avoid Bon Jovi, went to Sarabeth's for brunch at 59th, and rounded out the day at EJ's on the upper west side. Diner-esque - we could tell because there were two sargents eating there. And Zachary spilled an ENTIRE glass of cold water everywhere. It was awesome. Cathy told Zachary some important secrets before wandering back to the land where consultants live.

Catching up

Cheerios Rock
Originally uploaded by m0nk3yphd

Bad mommy, slow to post...

This is from the Grandma Tuttle visit that wrapped up on thursday... We all had lots of fun. And hello, cheerios! How can you go wrong...

Crying baby, more stories later..

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH

Ok. I.... I don't have anything to say actually. Nothing. Nothing I can say can in anyway ... Nope. Sorry.

If this isn't child cruelty, I don't know what is.

Dolphin Park

Sumo BABY

That's what our pediatrician called Z today at this 9 month checkup. No shots, YAY! Just for those he like to laugh at how big, Z-slim, really is, here are the facts and figures:

wieght 25.6 lb (~90th %tile)
hieght 29.5 inches (that the same as my in-seam) (105th %tile)
head 47 cm (99th %tile)

Dr Allendorf sat him up and gave him a good prod-push to try and knock him over. Zachary just looked up at him with a puzzled face, that said what's this new game then? We also learnt a new reflex... Which I think we'll video and post because again Zachary thought it was good fun for him to get flung head long towards the table.

TroubleDuck

Tasty Duck
Originally uploaded by m0nk3yphd

Lots & Lots of photos up on Flickr. I finally got it together and uploaded my set. We're off to Grey Fox tomorrow. Much more to follow.

flying with grandma

Zachary went out to enjoy the sunshine with Grandma and GG, the other day. He got to fly up and down with Jackie. And this crawling is iomproving, he got a good distance as you can see below. But once he got to the pinwheel, I, as the mean dad moved it further down the garden to wear him out before bed.

Z playing silly hand games with Grandpa C



At Marazion (an Ancient market town) swings with Granny and Grandpa C

All Zachary needs is

headlock
Originally uploaded by m0nk3yphd

a Mexican wrestlers mask and he'll be ready for the ring. This demonstrates his signature move, the daddy headlock with a smack on the head with a beer mug!

obstacle course 1

SO many many photos, I may in fact have uploaded some more than once, most are of Z on our trip (and yes Debbie, Sarah is actually in some of them).

obstacle course 1
Originally uploaded by m0nk3yphd

uk videos the next installment

As soon as Zachary could crawl, he got himself to furniture to stand up. Less than a week later, Grandpa Cornwall helped him up, and off he went....(until he, all worn out, collapsed)



At the bidet, standing upright got even more fun.



And finally at Heathrow airport, after 10 hours of travelling, Zachary cruized along watching planes take-off before boarding our last flight of this trip.

manta for the day

"as happy as a baby with cheerios"

Zach snoring, recorded just before we headed off on our travels:


And playing with the washing machine, in england. I just love that everytime it stops he looks away only to be drawn back in as soon as it spins again. Sorry I put the camera around the wrong way again.


And the first in a series of cornish video's of Zachary's new skills.

WE MADE IT HOME

just so anyone who cares knows. :) I'm making pancakes, Zachary is cruising from chair to chair to check each one out with his new skills, and we're reacquainting ourselves with the sun. I suspect I'll fall asleep on the floor by midday... :)

England Augments Z-Skills

That's right in the series of videos (coming soon) you'll see all of the mad skills Zachary has gained.
Leaving France Taxi, Plane, Train London...yay tube (the second underground system of the trip) and friends and rest :-) Zachary got to our hotel room and while awaiting the penulitamate dr who, Zachary decided to try out crawling with knees. He'd been going around on his belly in an army-crawl for a few weeks before we left new york. Not only did he crawl to the bin but then he decided to reverse into sitting. In his mind there was no going back, he hasn't stopped moving since. Tube, Train, Plane, and YAY, we reach Granny and Grandpa Cornwall's house. And Zachary has found that crawling to shelves, tables or chairs can help himself to pull up to standing, and the new favourite game, squat, stand, squat, stand. The sitting it turns out is a great way to check for the best location to go standing, surveying the room before setting off in a now quite speedy crawl.
The standing has even spurred him onto great feats, he has become so steady on his feet (oh and we got cute blue dino shoes btw)that now he has started to cruise along the table or when holding fingers will actually walk several steps before collapsing in a heap of exhaustion, from both physical and mental excersion.
Also expect new teeth!

Dispatch from the Field

Gay Adoption
Originally uploaded by m0nk3yphd

TADA! It's Sarah, even if it seems like Mark. We're alive! Hooray! And all settled down in Hawthorne Cottage. Lots of pictures if you click through to Flickr. Marseille went well (man, why is our bread so bad in new york???) and as you can see from the last picture Zachary had his first sailing trip (Thanks, Bruno :>). London was a relief from the heat and we got to see tons of good friends. The British Museum was surprisingly baby hospitable - especially down in the Assyrian/Egyptian section where there were lots of statues to look at. We had a good play in Russel Square - here Tristan and Andrew are with Zachary. We really do think it looks like they've just adopted their first baby. It is beyond cute. Zachary is catching up on sleep, playing endlessly with the Cornish Grandparents, and enjoying Janna - "Dog! Fluffy! To Roll around with!".

In other news, Zachary is rocking the crawling. It is unreal. Lock up everything, the boy is on the loose....

Travelling - part 1 - Marseilles

1st Boat trip
Originally uploaded by m0nk3yphd

New York, Plane, London, Bus, Plane, Marseilles, Taxi. HOT, HOT HOT!