A few short stories.

First: Tonight Zachary said challah. And took Sarah by the hand as she walked through the door to the oven. Where are freshly baked challah was sitting cooling on the top. He then turned on the oven light to indicate where it had been.

Second: Cecelia, was so proud. Jay started daycare last week, he's another addition to the two year old boy posse she's collecting. He was crying and crying, and Z walks up to him and says "Daddies working" pause "come back" and this fixed it. Jay has not cried since, because his dad is working but he will be coming back to pick him up. Zachary two year old to two year old talk did the trick.

Third: Leaving daycare yesterday. Zachary one hand clutching crackers and the other cradling a sippy cup. We got to the front steps and as I went to put my hand out to help him down, he just poof stepped no hand rail, no parental units hand. And continued all the way t the street. Now we're in for real trouble.

Four: Everyone at daycare thought that dry ice in hot water was the coolest halloween trick EVER.

Because I'm so stressed out my eyes are bulging....

Since we've gotten back from California, Zachary has developed the charming habit of early morning waking. At first it was between 1:30am-2:00am (unacceptable, and very funny). Its drifted towards 6:15am (still unacceptable, especially since it often ends in NO MORE SLEEP, but better than 1:30am). After screaming his discontent that he's awake (I hear that...) he wanders through the house, explains to us that its dark (Yes. Because all the other children ARE ASLEEP), asks to use the potty, reads books, goes to have his first breakfast/last snack/some idiotic meal involving string cheese and bunny graham crackers. If we are *VERY* lucky he goes back to sleep. Less lucky? Mark sleeps on the couch while Z dumps every single toy he owns onto the floor. Sorry downstairs neighbors.

Reading back through that, it doesn't sound cute. Not at all. But it is. I promise.

Weaning (which is apparently going without him even being that bothered) is going incredibly well. It turns out I'm happy to parent, as long as I don't feel irreplaceable. I've never been so glad to not be special in my entire life. Ah, it turns out I could only hand over control to biology for so long. He seems none the worse for wear, and I am much cheerier.

In other words, we've incorporated a bedtime snack in hopes of keeping him asleep longer. A glass of milk and "bunnies" (the above bunny graham crackers). If we forget, he points into his mouth and says "Bunnies! Milk!" and then sits on the floor and uses the cadbury's roses tin as his snack table.

See? Silly cute.

some pictures are up

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Originally uploaded by m0nk3yphd

it's late but there are some funny daycare stories to come.

champion of sleep

We made it back to New York, yay! And Zachary, slept almost the whole way. He fell asleep in my arms as I carried him home from dinner at Lillian's restaurant . We transferred him smoothly into the car, and from the car to the wheels at the airport, without the slightest break in his snoring. Even the TSA crazy rules "no you'll have to take the sleeping baby out of the seat and bring him through the detector with no shoes", nor carrying him out onto the tarmac and up the steps onto the plane, nor take off could wake this very tired boy. He woke up briefly as we deplaned, and picked up our luggage. He bounced around in the cab "ta-xi, ta-xi" for roughly a minute before passing out for the whole ride home, and into our apartment where we left him for another few hours.



stil asleep
Originally uploaded by m0nk3yphd

and then we got trapped on the C train....

But first? First we went to simchat torah, which was incredible fun. There was dancing. And coffee cake. And apple juice. (You might guess who was in particular impressed by the last two. Oh, you're right. It was Mark..) Did I mention the dancing? With this intense but wonderful klezmer-ish band and pretty pure chaos. Fun was had, all our legs are tired. We schlepped home. And when the C train pulled into our station (it terminates there - The doors opened. We wrestled our screaming toddler into his stroller. And as our front stroller wheels approached the doors ... they closed. Huh. That's unusual. I mean, they close eventually. But we're talking like less than a minute after getting into the station. Ok, there was wrestling, but we really weren't dawdling. A nice lady on the outside of the train gestured wildly for them to open them. The train jerked forward. Hm. More wild gesturing. An official looking man wandered over. More hand waving. Another small lurch of the train. I idly entertained yanking the emergency break. I wondered how far we'd get before someone cared. We had snacks. I was pretty sure the train just turned around and pulled back into the station on the other track. Pretty sure. Definitely at least 60% confident. Hm. Eventually they got a door open for us.

We're flying to California tomorrow for Debbie's wedding! We're even a little packed, although certainly nothing like *really* packed. Blogging might be sparse, but EVERYONE WILL BE IN CALIFORNIA. And Zachary is turning 2. Holy heck.

DIY

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Originally uploaded by m0nk3yphd

Today, I put our bed frame back together. And Zachary helped. he was really interested in my tool box, and digging through all the sharp point things; screws, nails, tacks, etc. So I gave him the 5 of the 6 screws, I was using, telling him "hold on tight to these, and let me have them when I ask". He took a few steps back from the work area, and a few more as I started drilling the screw into the planks. A sensible boy, to move away from the loud and unknown. Then I stopped, looked up and over he toddled, holding the next one I needed with an outstretched arm. And so it went on, until the bed was made. Then Zachary promptly climbed up onto the mattress and did a victory lap or three.

melon

it turns out is not just food, its a complete experience...