Bingo & Swiper

As I was filling Scott in on some of Zach's latest funny moments yesterday, he reminded me I should blog about these things, since we'll never remember them. So here we go:

Zach does not wake up happy and ready to go... at least not from his bed. However, when he wakes up from his carseat or from napping on one of us (which has been happening lately... we've been having some nap struggles) - he is instantly awake and happy, and usually is speaking before his eyes are even open. These examples, from the last week, occurred when he fell asleep in his carseat on his way to our morning adventures with our friends in Minneapolis. In both cases, he was basically still asleep as I got him out of the car, with his head snuggled on my shoulder.

Walking into the Minneapolis Institute of Art: his head lifted off my shoulder, with a huge string of drool stretching from his mouth to my coat, and he said "the farmer had a dog and bingo was his name-o!"

Walking into Edinborough Park: his head lifted off my shoulder, and he said "swiper no swiping!"

As you can probably guess, we had been listening to some kids music on our way to the art institute, and one of those songs happened to be "Bingo". And if you don't know who "Swiper" is, you have never seen Dora the Explorer, which Zach had watched the morning we went to the indoor park. Do you think he dreams about a dog named Bingo and Swiper the fox?

Pillow diving (video!!)

Since I finally am able to get video off our camera, I thought I'd show you the new fun game at our house, along with a little alphabet song Zach-style...

A conversation with Zach

Zach is a verbal kid. We feel very lucky, since having a two year old who can express himself as well as Zach does is very helpful when you're trying to figure out what he wants or needs. But besides that, it can be very fascinating, because you finally get a peek into your child's head, what he's thinking about the world around him, how much he can understand. And sometimes it just amazes me, when I think that just two years ago Zach didn't even know how to hold up his own head!

This is a conversation (as best as I can remember) we had this morning as we left the grocery store:

Zach: what that girl and that guy doing?
me: they work at the grocery story (followed by an attempt at briefly explaining what a cashier and bagger do)
Z: can I watch them?
me: no, we have to go home and eat lunch.
Z: with daddy?
me: no, daddy can't eat lunch with us today. just you and me.
Z: and Koskie?
me: yep, Koskie will be there.
Z: will he eat?
me: no, Koskie just eats twice a day, breakfast and dinner.
At this point, Zach wrinkled his nose and looked very puzzled by the idea of eating only twice a day. As I was loading him into his carseat, he glanced into the car next to us and said:
Z: that guy has a basketball in his car! that's weird! (pronounced with 2 syllables... "wee-yurd")
I think I commented on that, and then got in the car and started to drive.
Z: can Koskie drive?
me: uh, no, dogs can't drive.

And from there, I think he started singing something, his typical entertainment in the car. Whew.

My little helper

Experts will tell you that there are all sorts of benefits to getting your kids involved in cooking. I've been trying for all the reasons they mention, but also just because Zach just really likes to be doing whatever I'm doing, so if I want to make dinner in relative peace, in many ways it's easier if he's "helping". Let me show you what that looks like...

This is Zach helping to assemble enchiladas. He's in charge of the green onions and the black olives. Despite all the onions spread out on the counter, he did manage to sprinkle quite a few into the enchiladas. The black olives, however, were a different story... most of those did not make it into our dinner.
And this is what it looks like when Zach gets to clean the spatula after we make chocolate pudding:

Need vs go away

A quick documentation of things Zach has been saying lately that I don't want to forget...

I love these - "Can I need you?" or "Let me need you". He says one of these when he wants us to pick him up and/or snuggle him. Soooo cute.

Not so fond of this one - "go away". I think he got it from a book we've been reading lately -The Grouchy Ladybug by Eric Carle. I don't recommend it, not just because I think that's where Zach picked up "go away" (even though it's only mentioned once!), but because it's about a ladybug who wants to fight every animal he comes across - not exactly a message we want to convey. Anyway... we're hoping this one doesn't last long, since it's not nice to hear your two-year old tell you to go away. I thought we had at least a few more years before we heard that sentiment!

We had a nice Valentine's weekend here... Scott and I had "date night" on Friday - a yummy dinner followed by a win at curling, followed by some drinks with a fun group at the club. Saturday was more of a family valentine's day, including an outing to the pool at the Y. We ended the day with our favorite sub sandwiches and a very romantic movie - Iron Man!

More cake

I love this picture of Zach. This is a kid who really loves cake... can you tell? His buddy Clark turned two last week, and it's Evan's turn tomorrow, so they had a joint birthday party - more cake for Zach! The little babies who used to just lay on the floor next to each other in our ECFE class are now all two, talking, running around and climbing things - it's amazing.

Last week the temperature finally ventured high enough that we could play outside in the snow, for the first time at our house (it has been sooo cold here). Zach was pretty excited to put on his snowpants and boots, although I wasn't impressed with what a process that is. When we got outside he had no idea to what to do, and didn't like walking in the snow in his boots. So I ended up pulling him around the yard on the sled, which he loved... for a while. Then he wanted to go inside and take his boots off, so we weren't out there for too long. So needless to say, I was quite surprised when he asked to go outside and play in the snow the next day!

I had hoped to post some pictures of Zach and Scott at the pool at the Y; we lugged the camera there last weekend only to discover you're not allowed to take pictures in the pool. Not too surprising, I guess. I especially wanted to get shots of the two of them going down the two-story, twisty water slide - Zach loves it. I think his dad's love of swimming is wearing off on Zach; he could stay in the pool all day. He's gotten pretty brave jumping off the side, putting his face in the water, etc. It'll be interesting to see if this love of swimming carries over into the summer, when we're outside in water that isn't 86 degrees!

Our bottomless pit

Hopefully it's a growth spurt, otherwise our grocery bills are about to skyrocket. The last few days Zach has been putting away food like he's getting ready to hibernate! I had to laugh at today's lunch, which started out with his normal-size lunch: macaroni & cheese (or "macanoni" as he calls it), green beans, some grapes and part of a pear. The great thing about this eating spurt is that we don't have to encourage him to eat his vegetables like we usually do - if it's on the plate, it goes down the hatch.

So sure enough, he efficiently put away his lunch, and then requested a "Zach-sized" (mini) muffin. After he had two of those, I cut him off, so he asked for Cheerios. Two large handfuls of cheerios later, he requested... broccoli with dip, aka ranch dressing. He then proceeded to ask for seconds and thirds. By the time he was done, the broccoli that I had just made was gone - and I was planning to use it for at least two meals. I am trusting what I've been told/have read - that unlike adults, toddlers only eat until they're full. Otherwise we are going to have one large kid soon!

In other Willard family news, Scott has been the opposite of a bottomless pit. He was struck down pretty hard with the flu - official influenza. He must have slept at least fourteen hours a day, and did little else other than lay on the couch and drink water and gatorade for three days. He's back at work today, feeling better. I'm just thankful that apparently Zach and I got the right flu shots - hooray!

The pics below are from last weekend, when our friends were over with their daughter Kasey. Zach and Kasey are funny to watch, since Kasey has reached the age where she's very curious about Zach, and he kind of treats her like a big brother. Very cute...

Also

Zach's been full of some funny stuff lately...

My favorite - his use of the word "also." He uses it appropriately, but it is just so funny to hear such a formal-sounding word coming out of a tiny person with a high voice. One example: today on our way home I said we were going to go home to see Daddy, and he responded "Koskie also." Hee hee!

He also cracked me up a little today when he was splashing around in the tub. All of a sudden he looked up at me and said "it's nice and cozy in here." I have no idea where that came from, but I guess the water was the right temperature.

We had adventures in finger-painting for the first time last week... some of you lucky readers will be receiving a very special valentine from Zach. He wasn't too thrilled to get his hands all messy; I wonder where he gets that from???

(an example of his "smile")

2 year photo attempt

I really, really miss the days that I could just make a goofy noise and Zach would look at the camera and smile. These days he not only won't smile, he doesn't want to even look at the camera. Or, if he does smile, it looks like he's baring his fangs with his eyes are squeezed shut - not his best look.

Despite all of that, Scott and I took Zach to Central Park here in Woodbury, which is an indoor park - live plants and trees, waterfalls, and a huge wall of windows. It's very nice actually, and a great spot for taking pictures. I thought perhaps we'd get one or two decent pictures to use as his official 2 year-old photos, rather than dragging him to yet another portrait studio.

As you'll see below, the outing wasn't a grand success. While these aren't bad, I'm still on a mission for a good smile aimed at the camera. Perhaps by the time he turns three...

Birthday party #2

Yes, we went a little overboard with the birthday celebrations this year. But that's what happens when your birthday falls mid-week and your grandparents live out of town!

Zach opened his gifts from us and our friends the Neudecks on his actual birthday, and it seemed like he was starting to understand the concept of presents. That became much more obvious when my parents arrived the next day with more gifts - he was more than ready to tear into them. But first he'd say "what do you think is in here?"

Two of his favorite gifts are shown here - the new train set from G&G Klicka, and the custom Sesame Street book from the Neudecks. We got great video of him looking at the book, and literally oohing and aahing each time he turned the page. But, of course, I still can't get video off the camera (I'm working on it again!), so I can't share that with you.

On Saturday we had some more friends over to celebrate again, and with all the kids running around it was hilarious chaos. Zach particularly enjoyed when everyone sang happy birthday; when we finished he yelled "hooray - I did it!" And as you saw in the previous post, he then enthusiastically dug into his cake. He now says things like "ooh, cake. I love cake!" As you can see below, he's not the only one!

Some of Zach's friends are quite old enough to enjoy cake yet, but I think they had a good time anyway!

Birthday party #1

I have some serious catching-up to do, so I'll try to go chronologically.

On Zach's actual birthday, we had some of his good buddies over for a playdate and cake. These are pals he's known since he was about three months old, and it's been really fun to watch the kids grow together. We're finally starting to see some actual interaction between the kids, rather than the typical "parallel play."

Given their history together, it seemed entirely appropriate for these friends to celebrate Zach's second birthday. We look forward to celebrating many birthdays together in the future!

(pictured clockwise - Zach, Clark, Maggie, and Evan)