Within Minutes ...

Grandpa Michael is here, and the fun has started. Yes, Mom, that's Zachary up to his elbow in a water glass. I TRIED TO INTERVENE. But as you know, once the precedent is set... *grin* Damn. Besides, Grandpas are notoriously hard to train. We're having a blast. Zachary loves linguini, and madolin, and grandpa wrestling. Bath time! More later...

science is fun ... no really

This is adam, he has a 1 in 40 chance of being the next BBC Tomorrow World presenter. Today he was learning the wonderful lesson of never work with animals or children for his screen test.

Don't any grown ups live here?

down the slide on his own

then around the corner, to the big slide and he did it again...adrenajunkibaby

RAHHHHHH!

RAHHHHHH!
Originally uploaded by m0nk3yphd

crazy hair, he's suddenly sleeping a bit better, must be 'cos we're about to travel and mess his schedule up again. Some photos to tide you over the weekend while we're off in North Carolina :-)

Reading Rocks

bumpy frog
Originally uploaded by m0nk3yphd

Zachary sometimes keeps himself happily busy with his toys in our living room. Last week I was busy and turned around to find him quietly on his back, flipping through his book about "Colours" - multicultural, see? We got it in England ;) He looked up when I got the camera, but for ages he was just busily flipping through the pages and touching the animals (one side of the pages has textures, such as the bumpy frog you see here. Bumpy frog = Grandma Jackie's favorite).

Whoo! We're off to North Carolina on Wednesday, so things might get a little quiet in the blogosphere while I FREAK OUT. *grin* Just kidding. Well, not about the quiet. But hopefully about the freaking out.

PS - Zachary turned 11 months on saturday. 11 months! How did that happen? Did I blink? Bugger. I must have done. Expect a retrospective by next month ;) Maybe we'll have a quiz .....

Zachary Louis Collins and Great Grandpa Louis Tucker

Arm dimples, Check.
Pudgy thighs, Check.
Cute ikkle nose, Check.
Jaw line, Check.
Chubby cheeks, Check.
Sitting still for a photo, hmmm no. I have no idea how they had Lou sit that still as a baby. Bearing in mind we're talking fairly long exposures for portraits taken back then. It took at least 2 dozen shot to get this one of Zachary and just seconds before and straight after he was off again, zooming around the apartment.

In all seriousness thought they do look related :-)

bubble bath

DSC_0177.JPG
Originally uploaded by m0nk3yphd

is tasty it turns out. Some foto's are up for all those who requested an update. Last night Sarah, Mike Berkowitz, Zachary and I went to columbia university to watch Obama and McCain in the ServiceNation Summit. You can see me and mike just right of the stairs and watch it online at the link in the article. It was really fun and Z was amazing well behaved. He even cheered when Obama came on the jumbo screen (we tried to get ticks but it was bad odds 100seats/15,000applications), we'll maybe not cheered so much as screamed from the roar that exploded around us. Other than that everyone was fairly subdued, listening rather than cheering.

Drill, baby, drill....

As we speak, John McCain is accepting the nomination of the Republican Party.

By the time Zachary notices? We'd like the world to be better.


Help. :)

Thanks to everyone who is already doing their bit - making phone calls, donating money, talking to random strangers on the bus.

I hate opposing anyone named Sarah, but one does what one has to do to make the world right.

Happy Thursday.

getting pushed around

Zachary made a new friend yesterday, she is just 6 days older, and striding around the playground with this walker like a champion. In fact she pushed Z in a circuit all round the playground after 2 warm up laps.

Shoulda gotta swiffer...

But Zachary is sooooo much cuter....

Heckscher Playground

Since it's gotten a little hotter than the last few sunshinetastic weeks we've had in new york, Zachary and I have been exploring the variatiey of parks the city has to offer. While Sarah was enjoying brunch with Niki, Zachary and I went to Heckscher Playground, which is designed to look like a volcanic landscape. Complete with water (lava) flow. It was awesome fun. Zachary climbed, four wheel drive, part way up a crater. And splashed quite a distance in the lava flow. He was asleep by the time we left central park and didn't even wake up on the subway home, we really tired him out.

Lessons learned living in new york

Best. Game. EVER.

running the gauntlet

running the gauntlet 4
Originally uploaded by m0nk3yphd

fun at the park again, and then today Z and I went to the 116th tot lot, for water sprinklers in the hot hot hot of the end of summer.

Flashback

I was cleaning up some of my files and found this.....

awwwww......

Also? The post below?

1) that picture gives my baby and awkward chin
2) and he needs a haircut
3) also? activity squared is not exponential. just for the record.

Activity squared

standing 1
Originally uploaded by m0nk3yphd

that right Zachary's activity level is currently an exponential equation, this is him standing in the garden having pushed off my knees. But in the flickr set you can see him enjoying the wonders of the playground. He loves watching the older kids walk/run around and got inspired. He crawled quite a distance to get to the slide, passing many leaves on the way, and none went in his mouth, talk about focused. We enjoyed the slide for a while and the steering wheels underneath. Then he decided to step up into the climbing structure and crawl around up there. Quite a day for figuring out steps. He even turned around and went down one of the small steps.

Tent Fun

Busted
Originally uploaded by m0nk3yphd

Not the worst mom ever. Look, I took pictures and I'm posting them ON THE SAME DAY. Zachary had a ton of fun in the tent today. Who knows why it suddenly had such appeal. It did.
Knock on wood, the sleep seems to be slipping back into some kind of normal, and the cold/snot is receding... for now...

Uh oh, the kitchen slave is calling for assistance... I guess I can't use blogging as an excuse for much longer. Bye!

Incorrect door usage

Not using the door
Originally uploaded by m0nk3yphd

Well, generally we'd focus on pictures of the other cute side....

walkering

It has been one week since Zachary noticed what the blue walker was for. Since then, Zachary has discovered the stroller and crawls over to it, past the shoes, past the cat food, past the cat water (astounding, since usually the cat water alone has irresistable mess potential). All the practicing is paying off. He is clearly improving, and this morning he tried walking his hands up to his toes to get to standing sans leaning post. He failed and ended up on his bum on the floor, but the time when he won't is rapidly approaching.

really sore teeth face
Originally uploaded by m0nk3yphd

some funny faces and some aided walking, pictures are now up... bed calls our name. Zachary seems to be getting over his cold and three new teeth are here (well almost).