Great-Great Aunt Claire's wedding

That's right today, we got to hang out in NJ for Claire and Newt's wedding ceremony. It was wonderful. Zachary had a blast on the train and even more fun in the pond. Agua, Ball. Oh and Mud!



lunchtime #2
Originally uploaded by m0nk3yphd

Making friends

Rudi and Z on the slide
Originally uploaded by m0nk3yphd

Zachary made a friend at the park named Rudy. He is three, and just enough ahead of Z that he got to teach him also sorts of fun and naughty tricks. Like swinging from the bar just above the slide. And lying in puddles, oh wait that was Z's trick!

It was quite incredible really, that Zachary chased, climbed , and ran in the sprinklers with Rudy for well over an hour. They clearly got along, and yet hardly communicated. Apart from Zachary's non-verbal patting the slide, when Rudy was leaning on him to get him to go first. But later on they switched placed and Z learned to lean on him to get him to go.

The sprinklers are a little strong for Zachary at the 173rd park. Rudy ran through the middle, while Zachary played on the edges and started to call "roo dee, ROO DEE" to get his attention.
v. cute.

All in all, quite cool to watch, particularly as Rudy came over to say bye but really just to try and stop his new friend from leaving.

Seriously, universe?

Zachary has had this wild rash for the last few days. We initially thought it was heat rash (it has been intensely warm and humid here) but surprise! I'm going to guess viral. No,no, he's fine. None of his extremities have fallen off and although he might have briefly had a fever it wasn't high.

Mark, however, has 102.

*thuds head on floor*

Thank you, yes, ... Oh. Duh. Thank you interwebz.

It very well could be a post croup bout of roseola. Whatever, our baby always gets the rashes. No matter what the illness. Rash. Poof.

Ok, I'm going to sleep so when the ill-twins wake up, both cranky, I'm rested.

Upside? Some science might have fallen out of my meeting this week. So that's pretty great. :)

charge

running in the sprinklers #5
Originally uploaded by m0nk3yphd

Z really has his run on now. And his words are exploding, he says "Judy" "Mike" "Debbie" "Rabbi"(this might be Rabbit it's still unclear). he is also saying "pleaZZe" and "gracias". And all the time there is more. It also turns out he knows (possibly) more Spanish than English. As proved by the conversation he recently had with a friend of Sarah's.

where's Zachary?

where is Zachary?
Originally uploaded by m0nk3yphd

I've encourage him into this a few times,with limited success. Last night he got in all on his own, and pulled it all the way closed.

daredevil with a jiggle

playing in Santa Cruz

How cute are we??

You're pretty darned cute. Both of you.

The first of many

Mini and Dino book
Originally uploaded by m0nk3yphd

Zachary and I are back from California. Lots of pictures are on my parent's cameras, or my sister's, or who knows what. But here are a few to start you off, along with the stories that go with them.

This is Z's california car. We found it in a second hand baby things store (see below). It was amazing. PS? It is a mini. I swear. He's not even two, and he's already had a fancier car than I have ever had. Oy. Bad precedent.

Music time with Grandpa Michael

P1000607
Originally uploaded by Niais

Greetings from the golden west!

Look, I don't suck. I'm UPLOADING CONTENT. Ok, new improved content will be soon. None of this is moving. And let me tell you, the moving is damned funny. We're having a great deal of fun out in California. Zachary has chosen this charming location as the place to give birth to his last two teeth. Dear god in heaven. If every child teethed in this way THE SKY WOULD FALL. Several times before thursday. He literally throws himself around as if he's having a tooth related seizure. He nursed for two days (and nights) straight before I finally had the sense/cruelty/soretenderbits to say ENOUGH. Oh, also probably because I finally rested for a second and then was like, where the heck is that motrin? And sorry kid, but the boobies will fall off eventually. So far tonight he's surviving. You think we'd be better at this by the last two teeth, yet somehow every time is a surprise.

In other news... water is awesome, he spends a lot of time reenacting things physically (visual storytelling - hilarious). And we found the BEST TOY EVER at a second hand toy store today. It must be european, because the weight limit is in kilos. It is a super red ride on mini shuffle car. Oh my gosh. Its amazing. I want one. But I weigh more than 23 kilos. Bugger. There will be pictures. But there are not yet.

Also, in the wet pictures? Zachary kept running up, handing me water, asking me to pour it on him, then running away. While cackling hysterically. I think its fair to say he's having fun.

Tomorrow, to gilroy. To replace the shoes he has worn holes in. I'm hoping we can convince him to take some upgrades. Because we've stopped being able to convince people that we are not stingy child abusers. Even though they concede the flames are cool.

Sarah and Z left early this morning for California. And I had the first lie in in many months. Sleep wow. On another note, Sarah's podcast about NASA ballooning is now up at 365 days of astronomy

hangin out

hangin out
Originally uploaded by m0nk3yphd

Yeah. See? I told you we'd get there in the end.

This is the newest thing. He's all about the monkeying. Tonight he crawled into the laundry basket (the springy tunnel one) and rolled and rolled around. He climbed to the top of the couch to pretend to be one of the cats. And then he double back flipped into the bath! Just kidding. But Mark has been working on trying to get him to rollypolly (or forward somersault) on the carpet. Currently he tends to end up on his back, facing the ceiling after rolling sideways.

Remain calm!

All is well.
The croup has (mostly) passed. Ugh. It was a bit of a nightmare, but we're almost all sleeping some of the night now. Zachary actually spun in a circle he was so excited to go back to daycare. We managed to not spin. But we were pretty damn excited.
We had internet ridiculousness at home, so we haven't been able to get online. Hopefully pictures in the next day or two.

We've been working on Z saying "Please". It is the funniest thing ever. For a while he'd only say "puhhhhhh" in this really breathy funny voice. Sort of "Please sir, can I have some more" sort of pleading, with less sound. Hysterical. Now he intersperses "PUHLEEEEE" as a complement for when he's very excited for something he's asking for. Did I mention? Hysterical.

Z and I are off to California on thursday. The packing has begun. Mark has given me permission to let him watch tv (we're flying virgin america) if the endless stickers, markers, and books do not work. Thank goodness. Suddenly I'm thinking flying with him on my lap is BATSHIT CRAZY. I'll let you know how that goes.

whoop whoop it's the croup

Yup, Z has his good old wheeze back. But this time the strider is from parainfluenza inflaming his larynx. But he is in the majority (9/10) kids under 5 to have had serotype 3. Whoop whoop, hitting those milestones, you have to be funny when your this knackered.

As for real milestone he has suddenly started repeating, or at least attempting to repeat, words we say, much more frequently than previously. Today we got whoop, and yesterday it was monkey. He is finally stringing the few words he knows together too, with encouragement, so we get "more please" not just "MORE", well sometimes.

Peanut Butter Conspiracy

Another lovely weekend

downtown
Originally uploaded by m0nk3yphd

Really, it has gotten ridiculous. The weather this weekend has been spectacular. Totally unseasonal. By that I mean.. sunny. Without the sticky. Which for late july is beyond unseasonable. Wacky.

We had a nice visit with the Rosenbergs (sans Barry) and Cousin Nathan. That would explain the spectacular view in this (and several other) photographs. It was the perfect morning for loitering on the balcony.

We had a lovely stroll through central park. It was actually a bit quiet, I'd suspect because most New Yorkers have fled to the hamptons, or the vineyard, or really anywhere but here. They're all sitting in traffic as we speak, so :P to them. It was lovely to see the cousins and share New York. We're even starting to get excited about our California adventure in under two weeks.

Seaweed

playing at the beach
Originally uploaded by m0nk3yphd

We spent this weekend visiting friends in Connecticut, just outside of New Haven. Guilford, to be precise. And wow. Fireworks. Wow. Zachary loved them. We loved them. It was stupendous. We sat in Eilat & Yaniv's backyard and.. wow. I also love that it is a small enough town that they set them off ten minutes early to beat the impending rain.

We spent some quality time at the beach enjoying Long Island Sound. Zachary experimented with seaweed, salt water, and the ever popular pastime of returning rocks to the sea.

We also enjoyed some of the best french toast ever. We hear the sandwiches are pretty unbeatable too.

Zachary is also full of words. Berry. He's now starting to demand berries. I CAN NOT MAKE BERRIES APPEAR AS IF MAGIC, CHILD. I may have said this loudly to him on the train home sunday afternoon. Hard to know. Apparently no one was rude enough to call child services. Thank goodness for small blessings. Oh, right. And no. He might have discovered No. He's saying it as if he's savoring it. Then he looks at us with a look I can only describe as saucy.

And he hugs with abandon. Let me tell you, there is nothing better than being hugged with abandon. We should all work on that.

matching

Zachary is not only having a doll phase but is grouping and matching too. Yesterday, he pointed at his tiger toy and then at Linus, back at the toy and then Willow. Today, he lion on his jimjams got kisses. Totally cute. Also his vocabulary is suddenly starting to expand again. And he is most definitely trying to repeat some of the words we say to him.



tiger meet lion
Originally uploaded by m0nk3yphd