outside the lines

Zane's been busy as always.  We had a great 3 day weekend, and Mondays off always mean one special thing to Zane... garbage trucks!  I also got in my most strenuous workout of late by walking to a playground that's just over a mile from our house with our roughly 30 lb kid in the stroller.  He really liked the steps on this part of the equipment because they're short enough for him to run up and down.  Zane spent at least 5 whole mintues going up and down and up and down... when he would get to the top, he said, "ready, set, go!" and then jump down.

One of our big projects over the holiday weekend was to get the second crib put together, and then creatively move furniture around... Zane's room now has two cribs, the original queen size guest bed that was in there before it was Zane's room, the dresser, changing table, and glider... all that got moved out was one night stand, and the dresser is now calling the closet home - good thing all of Zane's hanging clothes are short!  There's also already a case of newborn diapers stashed under the new crib - I feel a little more at ease now. :)  I'll have to take a picture of the new set up if I remember!

We bought some new sheets when we ordered the crib, and Zane picked out a new monkey sheet to put on his crib and a Dr. Seuss ABC's sheet to put on the baby's crib.  He's also tested it out a few times for his baby brother, and I had forgotten how nice it was to have the mattress raised up high for an infant - especially with a really big belly! I've had to figure out how to get Zane lowered into his crib without dropping him and without smashing my belly at the same time. 

Zane's latest feat is saying his last name like it's no big thing, and he even knows his buddy Eli's last name, which is a mouthful too!  I think that just means they get in trouble enough at school for their full names to get repeated that many times ;)  He also knows our first names too - not really sure how that happened! 

I'm not sure exactly when it happened, but Zane started holding crayons and markers like you would a pen or pencil when you're writing, instead of in a fist.  In the last few weeks, his coloring has become much more focused and purposeful - it's pretty interesting to see the distinct change.  Instead of making giant circles, dots and swirls over the whole paper, he's trying to draw something specific.  Now when he has a piece of paper with a picture on it, he colors purposefully outside the lines :) He also gets really tickled when you put your hand over his and draw what he asks - like Molly, the moon, a letter... He asked Mr. Eddy to make an "A" for him the other day at school and then got really focused on trying to make one too.  Maybe we have an artist on our hands! 

Zane also cracked me up the other day when we were looking out the window.  We spotted a crow (they seem especially giant around here!) that snagged some garbage out of a trash can and was eating something from it.  Zane turned at looked at me and said, "he's eating garbage!!!" And then turned to the window and yelled, "No bird!  Stop it!  That's yucky!"  I don't think the bird could hear him though :)

ca-pillar!!!

Zane went to his very first theater performance on Friday night! "The Very Hungry Caterpillar" by Eric Carle (hungry ca-pillar) is at the Seattle Children's Theatre right now, so we definitely had to take Zane. Most of their performances are targeted towards preschoolers and older, but this one was 2 and up. It was late for him (it started at 7, and all of the weekend daytime performances were sold out by the time we learned about it), but it was great to see his face and reactions. It was a really well done puppet show done on a dark stage with black lights so that we couldn't see the puppeteers (and there were only 2! Which we found out when they revealed their secrets at the end to show the kids how they did it).

He sat patiently through the first two books - The Little Cloud and The Mixed Up Chameleon - although he did say "I want to see hungry ca-pillar. Where ca-pillar go?" a few times. Then the kids were all very excited when the caterpillar returned to the stage, including Zane who grinned and had a whole body shake :) Then he told the caterpillar to "Eat it!" as his treats appeared on stage.

We got to walk past this cool fountain at Seattle Center on our way back to the car, which was almost as exciting as the caterpillar. We then read the "ca-pillar book" 4 or 5 times in a row when we got home to settle down... and then again first thing on Saturday morning when he woke up :) I think it was a hit!



The other major highlight of his weekend was riding the "elegator" at daddy's office after brunch this morning - they have white boards on the walls, and he got to color with a marker! He mentioned the elevator (not to be confused with an alligator) a few times tonight before bed.

He's been saying lots of things that have been cracking us up lately, like "daddy, come here a second" and "bite it, Molly!" (while pointing at one of her chewies). He also has been putting his blanket over his head and saying, "I'm a cat! Meow." He also decided the same blanket was two doggies the other day. I think it's pretty cute when he refers to stirring as "spin it." Tonight after his bath he had a lengthy monologue about an elephant up in the sky and cupcakes - we missed the connection! But what has been much harder to take is that all of a sudden he has started calling us "mom and dad" about half the time. I keep trying to explain that he's not old enough for that, but it doesn't seem to help!

reunited

Zane woke up Monday morning ready to conquer the day after getting his first 12 hour night of sleep since before our trip. He was very excited to see Molly when she came into his room as he was waking up - it was too late to pick her up by the time we finally got home on Sunday.

When we dropped him off at school that morning, we found out that he was officially moving up to the 2's room and out of the toddler room. Zane and his best bud, Eli ("Eliiii!!!!!"), were very excited to be reunited. They still got to hang out with each other in the morning, outside on the playground, and at the end of the day, but ever since Eli made the move about a month or two ago, they talked about each other the rest of the day ("where Eli go?").

Needless to say, this has been his smoothest transition to date (thank you, Eli!). It helps that he knows his new teachers, Miss Tara and Mr. Eddy, pretty well - he saw them every day outside and at the end of the day, and Miss Tara babysits for us occasionally. I think it has still been a little overwhelming for him though - the kids range from 2-3 years old, and while it's the same ratio, there are 12 kids in his class instead of 6, so it's busier.

The weather has been really nice out, so Zane has gotten lots of tricycle time in and a play date at the playground this weekend. The picture above is from when he stopped to inspect an ant he spotted on the sidewalk while he helped me walk Molly one evening this week, and in this one, he was checking out a spider... Bugs are pretty interesting!



In baby brother news, I had my 28 week check up and another ultrasound on Monday, and everything's going well. I can't believe we've made it into the third trimester already. We have some more prepping to do!

Today was a fun Mother's Day spent with my boys and puppy!

go home penny

We got to the hotel late Wednesday night, and on Thursday the three of us had a fun day attempting the beach - Zane decided he was not a fan of the ocean and was actually a little freaked out by it. He did like all of the buckets and shovels the hotel had in the sand though! After a few more attempts of getting Zane close to the waves, we retreated to one of the pools where he had a great time "swimming" and splashing around.




On Friday, Zane was excited to see Grandma and Grandpa when he woke up in the morning. They joined us on our adventure to Jungle Island where we saw lots of parrots and other fun animals like lemurs.












Zane passed out for his nap on the shuttle ride back to the hotel and didn't even wake up walking through the lobby or up the elevator.




That night Zane attended the welcome dinner for all of the wedding guests. It was outside in the courtyard around the pool, and much to my amazement, Zane stayed dry! He did make all of the ladies swoon, and he even broke out some of his best dance moves.








Saturday Zane got in some more Grandma and Grandpa time, and one last dip in the pool. That afternoon/evening was the wedding, but it was for adults only. We found a sitter through the hotel, named Penny. Zane knew exactly what was happening when she arrived at our room, and upon introductions he said, "No, Penny. Go home Penny!" That was definitely a first. He was understandably upset for about five minutes (we eavesdropped!!), but then he settled down and had fun with Penny. He devoured his room service pasta and went to sleep earlier than he had for the entire trip. Thankfully Penny was great about texting us updates.
The wedding was beautiful and it was lots of fun to see everyone, but it was great to get back to the hotel and see our love bug snuggling teddy in the middle of the great big bed! He did say the next day that he had fun with Miss Penny too.




Sunday morning we were off to the airport bright and early. After saying "bye" to Grandma and Grandpa, we got on our first 3 1/2 hour flight to Chicago. Zane slept a good bit of the flight, which was great since we woke him up so early. We boarded our second plane of the day and got prepared for our 4 1/2 hour flight home to Seattle.... Then there was lightning! We ended up being stuck on the plane at the end of the jetway for 3 hours before we took off! Somehow, we all survived! Everyone seated around us was really nice, and Zane handled it pretty well - maybe a little better than some of the grown up passengers. We read every book we brought a few times, colored, played with stickers, sang, watched a little Thomas the Train, drove trucks, and pretty much anything else we could think of!
We were all thankful when we finally landed in Seattle and could say that Zane was right when he said "All done plane!"

SC!!!

Zane got to go on a trip to SC to visit Uncle John, Aunt Ginger, and his cousins a couple weeks ago. On our way there that Saturday, I couldn't stop laughing when I saw this:


Zane had a great time playing with his big cousins, and he especially loved following Mary around. I think his most used phrase for over a week, even after we left, was "Where Mary go?"



He was highly impressed with their backyard too:





We got to visit Matthew and Lena at school for lunch one day, so Zane caught a glimpse of what big kid school is all about.








Zane also got in his first round of mini golf (he was on the move too much to get any golf pictures!) and a trip to the zoo:





On Wednesday we continued on our adventure to Miami for a cousin's wedding. We were able to stop for lunch and some play time with our favorite 3 year old twins, which was great! Then we got to stop by for a quick visit with some other friends in Charlotte before we caught our flight. He did pretty well with all of the time in the car and plane considering we noticed his next to last molar was about halfway out.

2 year pics

We finally were able to pick up the pictures from Zane's two year photo shoot a couple weeks ago.  It was right before we left on our east coast adventure, so I thought I'd put up a few of our favorites: