As usual there's some older stuff I want to get around to posting, but I just loved these two pictures from our friend Marc's mom's Easter egg hunt too much to wait any longer.
That's Marc's nephew Boston next to Zack, and he was yelling something to the people in the backyard down below. Zack thought that looked like fun and started yelling it, too (I forgot what they were saying). Zack looked at me in mid-giggle and I happened to be camera ready. I love this pic because it's so difficult to catch a smile on camera, although he does it all the time.
Zack was very interested in this sophisticated keyboard toy and kept coming back to it. He didn't really register the Easter egg action at all.
That's right, my lady marks another year on the planet today. Last night I made a card for her using actual construction paper, and tonight we're going to get our minds blown by How to Train Your Dragon, which according to a friend of ours has flying sequences that make Avatar look like your Aunt Yetta.
And there was a major milestone recently. March 23rd, Zack went an entire day without nay nay. I've been keeping track on the kitchen calendar since then. He nursed three times the 24th, once the 25th, and yesterday, when these pictures with the Wrights were taken, was another day without nay nay! Zero!
So my plan is to keep Zack out of daycare during Spring Break for most of the time, and do lots and lots of fun stuff. It's gonna be crizazzy. And I want to keep him so distracted that we stay on target with the weaning.
Tekla and Zack.
Geveeya!
Zack loves Geneva. She cracks him up. I have to post the footage on here of the first time this happened. But in the meantime, some fun stories. The other day, Zack was going down for his nap, and he had a little trouble. I heard him on the monitor saying, "Mommy?" Then: "Daddy?" Then: "Geveeeeya!!!" He figured he better shout, since she lives kinda far away.
Whenever we pass her street, Zack starts talking about her. "Geveeya! Baka baka baka baka Geveya?" Which I think means, "Hey, this is where Geneva lives. Are we going to see Geneva?"
Tekla and Bruce and Geneva came over for dinner last night, and then we walked to the park. Zack was totally thrilled and did not want to see her leave.
TODAY
I worked a few hours, and then Jeff went to class. I knew I'd have to keep Zack distracted to keep him off nay nay.
My brilliant plan:
Home Depot! Where we had to return something. Boring for Zack.
Except for these flowers. I thought this would be a great way to pass the time, until I saw petals getting torn apart. Then this turned into me carrying a screaming toddler out of Home Depot.
And he wanted nay nay to smooth over the disappointment. I stayed strong.
Next part of my clever strategy:
The car wash!
I mean, Zack loves cars. Zack loves baths. What's not to love?
This was boring, too.
A nice woman passing by snapped this picture for me. And you can see from Zack's expression that the whole car wash thing was just not impressive.
Next part of the plan:
ICE CREAM COOKIE SANDWICH!
We sit down on one of those cheesy coin massage chairs that seem to be in every LA carwash. As soon as we're in a big chair, it's "Nay nay?" But the cookie does the trick! Yay, cookies.
And then, like all yummy things, the cookie must come to an end. Which means this:
It's gone??? This is some serious bullshit!
Lucky for us, it's finally cooling off enough for us to head to the park.
A rude little boy came and took a car Zack was playing with, saying, "That doesn't belong to you." Zack was crushed.
I was comforting him and saying, "Yes, I know, that wasn't nice, but it wasn't your car," when one of the girls from our daycare, who's in an older class, found a car on the sidewalk and gave it to Zack. So nice.
Make it go again, Mommy!
And it was a windup car, which was awesome.
Not a thought of nay nay at the moment. Totally content.
We did it! We made it through dinner, and then Daddy came home and did bedtime. Only one nursing session today--in the morning. I don't think I'll be able to get past that one, but maybe if we head out the door immediately. We'll see how it goes tomorrow.
Just now I heard Zack on the monitor saying, "Night night, Mommy!" Aaawwww.
My grandmother, Paula Elizabeth Harrison (Daisy) died this morning. I am so glad Zack got to meet her. She was a pistol--hard drinking, smoking, gambling up into her 70s. And she was active in the Democratic party in Orange, which is no small feat. She was invited to two presidential inaugurations--Carter and Clinton. And she could kick anyone's ass in Scrabble, mostly because she liked to make up words and gamble that we wouldn't notice.
Her poem, which we put on her funeral cards:
One theory I find mystifying
Is whether there's life after dying.
I may never learn
Whether I shall return.
I can only be sure I'll be trying.
I know I owe my sense of humor and my love for writing silly things mostly to Grandma. I'll miss her!
My dad came to visit this weekend. It was his first time meeting Zack! Here they are at the farmers market petting zoo. Zack has a bus in hand, as usual.
Zack is missing his upper lateral incisors, and this weekend I learned that he inherited that from Dad. Dad's upper right incisor never came in, and all this time, I knew nothing about that! As you can see in this picture, Zack also got his dimple from my dad. I have this same dimple, but on my right cheek.
While it's too early to tell, it seems Zack may have also inherited Dad's obsession with vehicles and his love for animals.
My mom is totally not enjoying this, as you can see.
So Zack knows most of the letters of the alphabet. Here he is with two of his favorites, I and Y. He also can identify the nearby bath toys, "star" and "whale."
I was writing down every word and phrase he learned, but they've exploded. He speaks in sentences now. He knows tons of words. However, about 75% of his verbal output is the word "bus." I kind of wish I'd never taught him this word. It was cute back when every large vehicle was "wee wee!" (Because see, fire engines say that.) But now as soon as Zack wakes up, the first word out of his mouth is, "Bus." And any time we're in the car, it's all about, "Look! A bus!" And "Do you see the bus?" It's truly impressive that he has been this obsessed for this long about buses. Daddy bought him some books yesterday about cars, trucks, and buses. Zack was thrilled.
He also really enjoys the moon lately, because he can see it from his new window!
This is Zack at one of my last auditions. I quit auditioning for a while to start an internship at a production company. I'm already loving it and getting to actually WRITE! Amazing.
Between that, Jeff's new job and new computer animation classes, and our new place, we are "busy busy" as Zack would say. I fell asleep last night in my clothes at 7:00 p.m., and Jeff did only a little better, crashing on the couch around 8:00.
Zack is now sleeping through the night most nights. We didn't get an easy sleeper. Or we did it all wrong. But in any case, he's finally sleeping through the night regularly, at the age of 22 months. Thank you, sweet Jebus. He still wakes up at 5:30 a.m., but hey, we'll take it.
Our new place is rockin! We are loving having a washer and dryer, and the light in here is excellent. We have these giant, widescreen windows upstairs. Seeing the sky every day does wonders for my mood. I mean, well, seeing it from inside the house.
Also, we have this really cool bamboo forest behind the apartment, and these really sweet little birds live in it. When you're in Jeff & my room, with the window cracked, listening to the wind in the bamboo and the little birds, you just can't help but drift off into happy nap land. It's truly a magic nap room. Then you wake up and see clouds drifting by over your head. Unbelievable.
It's a little dangerous that my office is in there.
Jeff & I got better at planning the Xmas trip this year. We got super cheap tickets, reserved parking, and even got a rental car back east for rock bottom prices.
And when I say we, I mean I did it. Yeah, I hooked us up with some good deals this year.
The only aspect of our trip that I might have miscalculated was the red eye. We decided to get Zack in his PJs and get to the airport very early, let him fall asleep there, and then read while waiting for the flight to board.
Instead, we chased an excited toddler around the airport lounge for two hours. He stayed up until midnight, when our plane left. Finally he did crash and slept pretty much the entire flight.
Lidia, Caroline, Frank, MJ
My cousin Frank came to visit with his family. This was our first day there, on December 26th. Frank lives about 40 minutes away and it's been great to get to see him on these trips. We pretty much did what you're seeing here in this photo--sat and jabbered for an hour and a half about family. Pretty cool conversations when your family contains a bunch of geniusy loonies who build robots. Always fun to hear about that stuff.
Hugging the doggie
Miso the dog and Sesame the cat
Zack pretty much hated wearing a coat.
We were also better prepared for Zack's travel sleep issues. He ended up sleeping with us most nights on the air mattress in Maggie's room.
Jake at Johnnie Rockets
Jake before Johnnie Rockets:
I don't want to go. I don't like it. I went there in 2006 and didn't like it. There are no Happy Meal toys. Ew. Gross. What's that smell? I don't like this place.
Jack inside Johnnie Rockets:
This is so good! This is delicious! I don't just like it. I love it! What? Oh, I made that up. I wasn't here in 2006. This is my first time here.
Ah, Jake. We had a lot of fun with him on this trip.
Snow!
Jake and I built this. Later it fell on its face and looked
like it had passed out drunk.
Jake. A fairly representative picture of him, actually.
And Maggie, just taking it easy as usual.
Mason and Zack on the steps.
Peter & Casey's place. How the hell did they get that wreath up there?
Shoes! Jeff got a new pair on the trip. I found this picture while
assembling this post and thought it was kinda cute.
Mason with box on head and Zack with two cars in hand, as usual.
I dig this picture of us even though it's a little blurry.
After the Rhode Island Xmas chaos, we drove to New York in a snowstorm. Jeff was a trooper. Actually, Team Cross travels well. We really managed the whole time to have fun.
Zack and my pal Victor Varnado
We had a fun little get together of friends at a local deli. I didn't get pictures, but Victor, my friend Ray, cousin Meghan and Jeff's friend Jordan were there. Ray brought his beautiful daughter. All my friends had babies in the last two years! Well, except Victor. Get on it, Victor!
Chillin' with Meghan & Matt in their awesome Upper West Side pad
Meghan and Matt were fantastic hosts. I'd forgotten how small New York apartments are, but we felt totally comfortable in their space. They've really worked hard to make it their own and they're in an excellent location, right next to Central Park.
Meghan and Dale, the best dog ever
(and a very pretty rug which we heard a horrifying story about)
Aunt Ruthie!
I got a bit sick on this trip, but I had promised Aunt Ruthie I would visit her. I was pretty close to her and my Uncle Sid back in NYC. Sid passed away recently. Ruthie is in her 90s. I stayed in their building when I first moved to New York and ate bagels and bialys with them every day. They really helped me out. They also cracked me up.
So as we were driving down to Brooklyn, I got so ill I threw up in the car, on the scones Meghan had given us for the trip, and on my own pants. But I refused to turn back. We got to Ruthie's and I powered through it. The only tough part was that I kept having to refuse food, which for a Jewish grandmother is like repeatedly getting stabbed in the heart. But I could not eat a thing. Luckily Zack stepped in for me and had some eggs.
My Jewish Puerto Rican cousin and his Indian baby mama.
This side of the family is pretty United Colors of Benetton.
I'm a big fan of my cousins Sean (in this pic) and Mark. So glad I got to see them this trip. They are the coolest cats and best dancers at any family wedding.
I can't believe we didn't get pictures of Mark's place. Or Mark or his daughters. I think we were simply too dazzled by Mark's life. Seriously, how anyone can afford such an amazing condo in Williamsburg--he must be doing very, very well. And he shares geek genes with Jeff, so they got along great. Perhaps he is involved in organized crime, but I won't judge, because he said we could stay with him next time we're in NY. We'll be downstairs in the playroom/office/guest room/ media room. With the giant projector TV. That's right.
Mark also took us to a great Peruvian restaurant and gave Zack a toy. I'm telling you, this is a great person to know in New York, and I'm related to him.
Art!
Jeff is the best husband ever. He surreptitiously snapped a few shots of Uncle Sid's art collection. The most mysterious item to me in the group is the green father and son portrait. Sid was a generous guy, a lover of cheesy jokes, and a fabulous great uncle. But anyone who knew him could tell you he was an old school racist. So I really don't get that picture.
One of my favorite conversations with Uncle Sid:
Julie (not so long out of a prestigious institution of higher learning): I notice a lot of your paintings have this recurring image of a road curving off in the distance.
Sid (who doesn't know what a thesaurus is): Eh. A lotta paintings have roads in 'em.
Just an awesome picture of Zack.
Visiting Elise, an old work friend of Jeff's
Elise works in an amazing loft space in DUMBO. Crazy views of the city.
Our alma mater
We kept saying we'd visit Columbia when were were in NYC. And here it is!
We spent a lot of time here.
Mc Bain Hall, where Jeff & I first met, in Brenda Wanger's room, of all places.
Zack at Columbia
Since it was nap time, we didn't get to actually go on the campus, but we did drive by it.
On the way back from New York to Rhode Island, we stopped to cure some mid trip antsy-ness at the Mystic Aquarium. This is one of my favorite Zack videos ever.
We have a tradition of not posting enough pictures, and 2010 is looking no different. Still more to come from our Xmas trip to the east coast, but meanwhile here's one notable shot from the big family photo shoot (above) and some fresh stuff from yesterday's trip to the playground.
As usual there's some older stuff I want to get around to posting, but I just loved these two pictures from our friend Marc's mom's Easter egg hunt too much to wait any longer.
Zack was very interested in this sophisticated keyboard toy and kept coming back to it. He didn't really register the Easter egg action at all.
