supermarket sweep

Z has the right idea. I was about to pop him into the seat on the shopping cart/trolly when a little girl rolled up with a kids size version. Z was sold. He wheeled it all around the store (only needing some supervision) putting in the shopping. Also he can run much faster when he's holding onto a wheeled stabilizer, zooom!

The Family Together

This is one of a series of the three of us on our laptops. Sarah was writing an email, I was working on an abstract and Z wanted to be in the middle with "my one". He was fascinated by Sarah's 160 words a minute typing, so he played alphababy very gentle tapping the keys and naming the shapes.

Thanksgiving fun

Pre-thanksgiving, we went to see the balloons, Z thought they were very exciting. The next day we watched the Macys parade on the TV which he also thought was great. He danced to several marching bands, YoGabbaGabba and the rockettes.

Oh and the Dino-topiary was roar-tastic.

Stalling bedtime

has become a regular occurrence in Zachary's routine. But sometimes it's so funny and cute that we just go with it. This is a classic bathtime stall, he knows if he doesn't get out of the bath I can't dry him off, get him into his PJs and ready for his bedtime book, milk and bunnies. But winging the balls around the bathtub has become a favourite hobby, he calls it circles.




and the answer was...

The Sweetest Thing

(Great) Auntie Marilyn gave Zachary this book "Before I go to sleep". It is sweet, and we've been using it as part of his bedtime routine. The child in the book has a (very tiny) adventure (in his mind) as s/he drifts off to sleep. Near the end, it says something like "We're almost home now". And tonight, Zachary looks up with a grin and says "Daddy, home. Mommy, home."

Sometimes he just swallows up my heart.

playground fun

Zachary (and many other toddler's) favorite loop.

My favorite new vocabulary words

Chocolate and kiloparsec, for obvious reasons.

Turns out if both parents are chocolate fiends, your children might be too. What's funny is the look of michevious pleasure he gets when he says it. Like he knows exactly how deliciously naughty and fantastic chocolate is.

And kiloparsec was important because it was a point of clarification in a book of his. It makes the unfortunate blunder of saying that the sun is at the center of our galaxy, the Milky Way. Which isn't true at all. Sag A* is at the center of our galaxy (also a supermassive black hole). And although the sun is in the *disk* of the galaxy, it is 8 kiloparsecs (about half way) between the center and the edge of the milky way. The sun is at the center of the solar system. Our solar system. Named because of.. you know... the SUN at the center of it....

I mean geesh. Was that so confusing? ;)

Gold shoes go with everything

the shoes complete the outfit
Originally uploaded by m0nk3yphd

I was in the kitchen cooking and wearing my apron. Z & Mark got home from the park and Zachary immediately requested his apron. He wandered to the mirror in our bedroom to preen over his lovely self and noticed my shoes sitting behind him. Well obviously that's what was missing.

Strongbad + the Exploding Pound

Pre-swimming lunch consisted of Z requesting Strongbad's techno on repeat. This is a genetic flaw he's inherited from Mark and we will not speak of it again.

That, and practicing his exploding pound.

If we ever move to the suburbs, we're going to have a lot of explaining to do.

Blog That. Right now

I walk in to go to bed. Zachary is, like he always is, rotated 90 degrees to normal and half off the bed.

And then I realize.

He's aligning north / south.

Maybe we should just rotate the bed.

Maybe he's magnetic.

You have to watch them both....

or at least part of them.

So here is what Z is watching: my old friend David P. juggling


(this is an audition video. Those of you in the know might recognize the UCSC performance space).

And Z, inspired.

I mean, until he remembers the animal train.

For Aunt Debbie & Uncle Mike

Also so you can see the chaos that is our home. This is from a few weeks ago (october 3rd to be precise). More to follow.

Two is such a surprising age

Last night I came home tired. More tired than I expected to be. And hungry. This is always an error because lets be honest - I wish my wife came home early and had dinner ready and waiting when I got home. But she doesn't. SLACKER. Ha. Instead we're all home tumbly tired at the same time and trying to hold it together just long enough to get fed or feed or whatever. My point is we're clearly *all* on best behavior. He was being 2 and I was being 32 and I guess my point is we were obviously CHARMING. charming charming charming. And tired.

And then you know what? We redeemed ourselves. I told Zachary no books at dinner (who has to tell a 2 year old no books at dinner? I feel like such a shrew) so I asked him about his day instead. We had a lovely chat about it, and I definitely understood at least part of it. There was gesturing. Some pasta might have been lost. Then we read "Marvin K. Mooney Will You Please Go Now!"... twice. The second time as I flipped to the title page he pointed at "Now" and said "Now!"

And I blinked.

And he grinned.

And I was like "Ok, we're not going to talk about that because seriously. I can not handle the thought of you reading right now. You were only born yesterday and I suck at integrals. Slow it down mister."

Really he's mostly loving to echo words and cracks himself up when he tries to use them. He is a VORACIOUS book-listener which is pretty fun. We're trying to diversify. We're raiding the paperbook shelf (those are the big kid books, versus the board books) for increasing complexity. And humour. And generally having fun.

Because parachuting is a profession...

and you never know when you might have to jump...

Nothing to report...

Sure, we promise to upload some stuff soon. Honest to goodness.

Zachary begged to go swimming today, after seeing folks in swimwear headed down to the pool. A little funny, because the last round with the pool left us thinking he was a bit ... nonplussed about the whole swim adventure. Not this time. Mark (working well above his pay grade) carried Zachary on his back while he swam laps. There was frolicking. They also have some floating kickboards, so Zachary employed one for its designed use (kicking) and floating. His vocabulary has been busy (Pterydactyl, anyone?). He's well in charge of his environment, and knows clearly what he wants. Except, you know, when he's lying on the floor losing his crap and thrashing about violently. Par for the toddler course. Oh right! And he reenacted the kickboard antics with the cookie cooling rack in the kitchen (sans cookies - sad, because cookies are delicious. Happy, because that would have been a giant freaking mess.)

I'm applying for jobs. Fall is coming. Squash type breads and pies are being made. Dark is coming early. All the same but different.

halloween dry ice fun #1

halloween dry ice fun #1
Originally uploaded by m0nk3yphd

Thanks Sage!

DSC_0193
Originally uploaded by m0nk3yphd

With the football shirt and the 2 empty pitchers he's looking like a frat boy in training. To be fair really he was learning to hear the sea, like with shells but not.