These Days

Z's newest activity is climbing up, down, over, whenever, wherever. I wasn't sure whether I should post these videos because he almost lands on his head a couple of times, and I am just sitting there camera in hand, but hopefully my readers know me better than to call DHR for a couple of little supervised slips dismounts.

Z is 19 months now and is all about Dora and Elmo these days. The past few days he has come home from school saying Elmoo Elmoo. He loves watching youtube videos on my phone of Sesame Street, nursery rhymes, alphabet songs, pretty much anything as long as it's on that small screen. His love for Dora really lies in the backpack. Whenever he sees that part he gets so excited and yells "ba-pa, ba-pa." I've been known to rewind the backpack portion of the show and replay it for him in order to elicit said response.

He recognizes several letters of the alphabet now and loves to be sung to. His favorites are If You're Happy and You Know It and Wheels on the Bus because he likes to do the hand motions with them. Whenever he is upset or starts whining all you have to do is sing and he gets so excited. Speaking of happy, he is (thank God) a happy child. He just wants to laugh and play all the time, and it is so uplifting to be around. Don't get me wrong, he whines from time to time and is a pill when he gets tired, but I feel so blessed to be around him because it is a joy!

Oh, and I must take a moment to mention the most fabulous Royal Wedding. I DVRed it, and Z slept in a little bit, so I got to watch all of the coverage leading up to the big moment, then I got Z up and we watched the wedding together. He was actually into it, and I loved it! The past couple of weeks are historical for many reasons, and I'm just glad that one of them is so joyful and happy. I soaked it all in, and I'm not ashamed.

Sad Day

I don't have pictures or a funny story to tell. I just had to take a minute to acknowledge the horrible events of April 27, 2011 when a series of tornadoes took our state hostage. This day and its aftermath will forever plague our history books, and I have to thank God that we were spared when so many people were not so fortunate. We had known for several days that Wednesday was going to be a day of severe weather. We are not strangers to severe weather around here, and in fact we have had our share of "big ones" in this state but nothing could compare to what would happen that day. We had a string of storms that morning including some strong tornadoes, but the worst was yet to come for the evening when a second round of storms was predicted. The power was out at Z's school, and I had patients to see, so hubs worked from home and took care of Z, and I worked. We closed early on the news that more storms were coming, but everything was eerily quiet until about 6 that night. We were tuned in to the weather and all the news men had their sleeves rolled up (a sign that this thing was getting serious). Then, all of a sudden we saw the direct shot a weather camera atop the courthouse in Tuscaloosa got of the nearly mile wide tornado, and we were all speechless.

The aftermath has been even worse, but I feel like the state has really pulled together to help the countless number of people who have been affected. I pray this tragedy will be known not just for its massive destruction but for the strength of the human spirit and inspiring way the people helped each other get through it.

Honeysuckles

On Sunday, we went to the Meadowbrook lake/pond to walk around, and we introduced Z to honeysuckles. Let's see how he felt about that.

Hmm, what are those?

 Oh right, okay shove them up my nose then (that would be Jido's hand)

 Um, I'm not so sure I like that

 Perfect. They are lovely from a distance

Notice, the yellow shirt, I admit I had a slight freak-out moment the other night when Z handed me a bright yellow book and said "lellow." WHAT?! Did you just say lellow as in yellow? Where the world did you learn that? That leads me to an admission. Are you ready? I am often too tired and have too many things to do in the evenings to sit down and teach Z much of anything. I'm sorry but that's the truth, so when he says new things, I know they didn't come from me. I'm still trying to figure this one out. I'm down to child prodigy or he learned it at school (leaning strongly toward the former).

Neighborhood Egg Hunt

On Saturday, our neighborhood held an Easter Egg Hunt to benefit the Hope for Gabe Foundation. We were excited to take part  in a fun event for a good cause. The hunt was one street over from ours, so we took Z in the wagon. This is him pointing out his elbow for me (close enough).

Taking it all in!

 A couple of full body shots before the hunt began

Waiting patiently

 We saw some friends a the hunt

 Z's first push pop. I think he liked it.

 It didn't take him long to catch on. Pick up an egg.

 Or two.

 And bring it over

 He wasn't going to let even one get away.

 On the way home with the loot.

After the hunt, we went to Jim N' Nick's for hamburgers and then home to take a nap! It was a beautiful day. We enjoyed every minute!

Unintended Lessons

In trying to prepare Z for potty training, I have been trying to say "poo poo" whenever I think he's... well, poo pooing. This has not been very effective for two reasons: 1. Z doesn't really poop all that much and 2. he passes gas a lot. The result is that he now thinks passing gas is "poo poo." I came to this realization last night when he "made bubbles" in the tub and looked at me with a grin and said "poo poo." Great, I thought, that failed miserably.

Another unintentional lessons I have taught Z is the word (and hand motion) "Stop!" Which usually comes out as "Bot!" "Top!" or sometimes "Stop!" followed by laughter... Needless to say, this gets said many times throughout the day and clearly I am not being taken seriously.

In other new word news, he now says "outside" like "ow-siiiiii-d." He can make the animal sounds for a dog, sheep, snake, cow, owl, and lion/tiger. And he can point to his nose, eyes, mouth, teeth, ears, hair, belly button, and feet.

He seems to be learning new words every day, and can point out about 10 or 15 words in his First 100 Words book. Some new words are

Diaper (my new favorite, because it sounds like "Di-poo")

Shoes, which for some reason he says by blowing out through his nose and following with an "n" sound. It's kindof strange, especially when he is congested

I love you, which is usually "I wah wu" or "I luv"

This word stuff is probably not that interesting to most people, so I apologize. In other other news, he loves the iphone, particularly youtube videos of his favorite songs like Old McDonald and Twinkle Twinkle. When he watches the twinkle twinkle video he flaps his little arms like he's trying to fly. It is the sweetest thing ever!

He is all about letters and numbers. He pretends to count to five with you, and when you start it, I swear his eyes light up like he's just seen or heard the most wonderful thing on earth.

He still flashes his cheesy grin on command, which I think, is hilarious

 Oh and his upper molars are coming in, which has made brushing important as ever ;)

Z's

Last week Z had to catch up on his Z's (I know, I'm funny). He went to bed right at 7, and we had to wake him up every morning at 7:30/7:45. If you don't already know, Z sleeps with this Winnie the Pooh.

I'm really not sure how this came to be, but it is. He doesn't have to have him at school, and he knows that Winnie lives in his bed, so I don't think we have any issues yet. I actually think it's pretty cute. Exhibits A and B below:

In case you can't tell, Winnie is right under Z's belly, which proves detrimental for Winnie on leaky diaper nights, but thankfully, this particular Winnie is sold at Wal-mart for 5 dollars. My boy's a cheap date.

Z's Entourage

We have been busy bees lately. Nick's mom stayed for a week after we got back from Vegas and took great care of Z and us. We had a lot of fun while she was here and on Saturday finally managed to get out of the house to go to the Botanical Gardens. It was a beautiful day, so we let Z walk around and we all followed. I wish  that were an exaggeration, but it's true. He walked freely while myself, the hubs, my parents, Nick's mom, and Faris followed him around. That's 6 people and 1 baby if you're counting. It was quite a scene. We went out to dinner both Friday and Saturday nights and stayed in to celebrate Nick's birthday on Sunday when Janet had to leave. I have a few pics from the botanical garden adventure. And adventure it was. I'm sure there must have been a couple of proms going on because there were lots of teens in their low-cut stylish interesting gowns taking pictures with their parents. I was struck at how the fashion has changed so little since the '90's when I went to prom (late '90's, but still, that makes me feel old). I hope by the time Z is old enough to go, he won't have to wear a satin turquoise vest and bow tie to match his date's turquoise gown.... Note: I never wore turquoise...