Happy Easter!

Happy Easter, everyone!!  Zane enjoyed his second Easter today.  The Bunny brought him 3 different sized bouncy balls, big fat crayons (to chew on??), and some bubbles.  He was very excited when he saw his basket this morning and said, "Ball!!"  He even got to see the Easter bunny at brunch today, and we're pretty sure he said "bunny" a few times.  Zane was pretty excited about seeing a giant walking stuffed animal :) 

Some of his other new words include "wow" and "blocks."  He also associates "daddy" and "mama" with us now for sure - I think he has been for a while, but I wasn't completely sure until he pointed to our pictures in the hall the other day.  We're working on saying "Molly" too, but it sounds like "mama" most of the time. 

Then after his nap, he continued the day with a potluck at some friends' house.  Zane got to inspect the garden, meet a puppy, watch the bigger kids play, and follow around the chickens in the backyard.  It was a busy day!  I did a bad job of taking pictures today, but I did catch the quick shot of him in his grown up button down shirt above :)

Yesterday the weather was gorgeous, and Zane got to play outside in the afternoon without a jacket on for the first time in what feels like forever!  We played at a playground in the morning too - after he decided to climb on top of an activity table a few times, I figured it might help to get some of the climbing out of his system.  Silly me.  I'm pretty sure his new found love of climbing isn't going anywhere!  That was the overall theme to his week... climbing :)

Climbing on a big drum at school,  the activity table, the rocking ottoman in his room, a big container of clothes, us, stairs, slides...  

chomp, chomp

Well, it had to happen eventually, I suppose... Zane bit me!  Twice this week.  He seemed a little taken aback when I said "Ouch!  No bite!" Then a little mad, and then a little sad and pouty.  Hopefully this isn't a new trend that we're going to have to deal with. 

It's getting rough in his mouth - as of this past Monday he's up to 12 teeth - that's 4 molars!  Hopefully we have a little break before the next set start coming in...  He is also adding to his list of words: night-night (na na), ball (baa), and some other things we can't decipher :)  He's getting really good at the sign for "milk" and used the sign for "more" unprompted for the first time yesterday morning.  After the last few weeks of the "my body" theme at school, Zane can now proudly point to his belly when you ask him to.  He's also now fascinated by belly buttons, and he gets pretty tickled when he learns that someone else has one too.

In other news, Zane got to check out lots of plant life this weekend, which is always high on his list of very exciting things.  We took him to the arboretum yesterday afternoon to check out some cherry blossoms:

And then this morning we went to the Skagit Valley tulip festival.  The ground was pretty muddy all weekend, so Zane's rain pants came in handy. ;)

puddle stomping

Zane had a fun weekend, and he got to play outside a lot!  Which generally means walking around (zigzagging), inspecting things, giggling and falling down a few times. :)  He even got to go to two different playgrounds.  He swung at the park yesterday and spent the rest of the time walking around in the grass and patting low leaves on trees and bushes.  This morning there were no swings, but he did walk around on a little suspension bridge piece.  Zane also got to put his newest skill to good use while he was climbing around the playground equipment - going down stairs!  He decided this was the week to go down stairs on his own (well, with one of us about a step or two below him the whole way), and he opted for going backwards, which is what we've been working on.  Woohoo! 

Then this afternoon, Zane got to do one of his most favorite outdoor activities.... stomping and splashing in puddles!  It's pretty cute - at least he was wearing his rain pants!  He is seriously drawn to puddles.  I didn't get a picture of him stomping in a puddle, but I did get a picture of him getting into some mischief with his sidekick Stanley yesterday morning....

double whammy

Zane must have been missing his pediatrician... I picked him up from school on Monday with 2 gooey eyes.  The whites of his eyes were bright white, but they were oh so gooey.  Poor baby! His eyes were puffy but goo-free on Tuesday morning - we still got an appointment with his pediatrician's office that afternoon, which was good because he has an ear infection.  Boo!  He made it so long without any ear infections, and now he's already onto #2. 

He did, however, get to use a stand up scale for the first time ever.  I was a little confused at first when the nurse stopped by the scale.  He weighed in at 24 lbs!  I wasn't expecting him to already be up 2 lbs - it's been less than 2 months since his 1 year check up.  Then, while we were waiting in the exam room, Zane was pushing the doctor's stool around (very fun), and he figured out he could pull it and walk backwards.  He was very tickled with himself. When we got home, he tried out his new trick using a walker - he even placed one of his little people on it to go for a ride. 

Zane and I are making our return to school/work tomorrow now that he's gotten a full dose of antibiotics.  I caught this funny shot of Molly doing a fly by of a cringing Zane today while we were slacking off.  Chances are she was making the same face back at him - she's definitely a little unnerved by how much more mobile he's become in the last few weeks. 

mini super model

Zane's one year old pictures have arrived!!  They turned out great, and we have copyright free digital images, so I thought I'd post a few of my favorites. :)  If anyone is looking for a photographer in Seattle, I'd highly recommend Donna Ryan Photography.

Zane's been busy as usual, which is part of the reason I can't seem to get a post up more often than once a week (at least that's my excuse). He had a lot of not-so-graceful moments, but he made it all week without any injury reports at school.  That's a sure sign he's getting a little less wobbly.  It's pretty amazing how far he's come in such a short time - he's even working on that awesome toddler/little kid squat when he picks stuff up off the ground and just stands right back up again.  He's totally turning into a little boy.

His sleeping finally seems to be back on track again...I'm not sure if it was the transition to 1 nap, the classroom change at school, the molars, the walking transition, all of the above, or none of the above, but he had started waking up in the middle of the night again - usually for less than 5 minutes, but at the worst point, it was about 30ish minutes.  I think Zane's back to getting 12 hours of continuous sleep at night.  Now we just have to work on our own bed time...

Zane's got his 3rd molar poking through too - the bottom right one now. That's a total of 11 chompers!

And one more... :)