- Time in the water is amazing this summer. We got season passes to the Water Mine and after three visits, Zach went back to preferring the Reston pools. Either way, it's a great way for us to spend time outside and together on hot, hot days! He has also been to the pool with Gamma and Bob in Woodstock!
- Zach has a belly flop/swan dive technique that he uses to jump in and he kicks and paddles with his arms well. It's amazing really. Others love watching his enthusiasm! He's started doing underwater summersaults, and on Sunday, 7/14, he started trying to dive and even did a flip. Frank was with him, so I have trouble imagining it, but it was impressive!
Exhausted after the pool - He moved up to "the big class," and he's loving summer camp! He loves his Camp Curiosity shirt, water bottle, and backpack! In the first days of summer camp and having his backpack, he packed it to go camping and called his summer camp shirt his “camping shirt.”
- On his visit to Mom and Dad's, Zach picked out chips from the Route 11 Potato Chip Factory that he specifically wanted to buy for Mommy and Daddy, and he picked out a canoe brochure for us too! Teehee. So cute.
- We still get a lot of mileage out of competition and “beating” each other. To eat broccoli, to put on his socks and shoes, to brush his teeth. Teehee!
- Sean told Zach he needed to give me a kiss and a hug when we arrived at daycare one morning. Zach was distracted by showing all his monster truck and talking about his firefighter’s jacket. Very cute! Sean said, “Zach you need to give her a kiss and a hug.”
- We said goodby to Jayla this month. So sad. She and Zach ran each other ragged on her last evening!
- Zach went with me to Harris Teeter for colonoscopy prep items (yuck!) and he LOVED the fun cart. We took a tour all over the parking lot.
- Zach played at the pole park, and then a bunch of kids showed up, and he got to play kickball with them. I got eaten alive for this first time this summer by mosquitoes. 15 bites. :(
- On our June date night, Zach did a voice to text message to me on Emmy's phone. Adorable. He said, “Mommy, where is my iPad; this is Zach” and “Thank you, Mommy, I love you.”
- Zach got a second Fireman Sam swimsuit this month, and we called Gamma and Bob in the car on the way to daycare because he was saying how much he loved his swimsuit and kissing it. Too funny!
- He was obsessed with the full entourage of Sesame Street characters, which I introduced by putting them on the shelf above the mirror in the bathroom. He spotted them within hours of me putting them there. They were quickly replaced by his bear, Zachary, and then the Super Wings (Jett, Jerome, and Dizy) water toys.
- He’s so excited by Thursdays during summer camp: splash day, dance, music, and the ice cream truck. OMG!
- Family trips to breweries: Backyard Brewing (on the way to Woodstock) and Ocelot
- Zach is playing with coins now and we get a coin now when we aren’t listening. Hmm...
- I read The Montessori Toddler on my trip up to NYC this past month, and to appease Zach, the recommended writing down what he was trying to express, so I created a wishlist for him, which he calls "his sign up" and "his map," and we record the things he wants.
- Zach got black raspberry juice on his legs, and it looked like he had all these horrible bruises. Frank and I were so concerned and incredulous until we figured it out.
- They made another "build a bear" this summer, and he picked the most vibrantly colored one he could find (neon orange and green) and named his bear, Zachary. In fact, he's taken to naming everything (Lego men, etc.) Zachary.
- “Tow truck party” for Zach at Home Depot. He met up with Ava and got a chocolate banana milkshake with Frank.
- I took Zach to the Metro. He was so excited. He took his tow truck and his white car and played in Ballston, on the train, and at Auntie Em’s.
- Took Zach to the pool twice in the evenings this week, and it was fun, fun, fun. I've been treading water a lot too with my bum foot/ankle. It's good this happened in summer!
- A serious deluge on Monday, 7/8. Serious. I outfitted Zach in his water shoes, and we waded through the river that was our sidewalk to the car. He had on my old rain jacket and his backpack, so all stayed dry. Good job, Zach.
- Zach really is doing a good job of playing by himself with his airplane (M&M), tow truck, cars, etc.
- He loves Season 2 of Super Wings because Jimbo's niece, Skye, is now the coordinator/dispatcher. He loves Skye.
- Today Zach asked on the way to school if I remembered Jeff and Terry. I was so taken aback! I thought, "When has heard us talk about Jeff and Terry?"!!! Then, I realized he meant Jim and Terri. Wow!
Same old, same old. I sleep with him and maybe fall asleep with him more often than in past months around 9pm. I sometimes don't fall asleep and will watch Netflix or read in bed with him. Sometimes I wake in the middle of the night and watch a Netflix show or lately I've gotten up and done some productive things on the computer, like writing this blog. He stirs and wakes more easily in the AM, however, so I'm wary of leaving him in bed by himself. If he stirs and sees I'm not there, he'll come looking for me and get up earlier than I might want.....He goes to bed at 9pm and wakes after 6am most of the time. He's still napping at 1-2 hours/day.
Zach's Words & Songs
- When I picked Zach up after my visit to Chicago, he didn’t run to me for a hug or hello, but was dying to show me his backpack for summer camp! Then, he ran down the hall to say, “Mommy, how was your day?” I said, “Good,” and asked about his day, and he said, “Good, thanks for asking.” Amazing!
- Zach said, “I like holding your hand, Mommy. I never told you that before.” So cute.
- Zach asked me to brush his teeth to get out the graham crackers and peanut butter!
- Zach says, “Look at the mountains, Mommy, they’re so beautiful.” I’m indoctrinating him to be a mtn boy!
- Zach said, “I love corn” at breakfast one morning! More corn for Zach.
- Zach says now “On your marks, it set, go!” He doesn’t understand that it’s “On your mark, get set, go!”
- He can belt out the Super Wings Intro song
- Zach has just started to refer to me and Frank by our first names if we don’t respond to “Mommy” or “Daddy.” Too funny! Seems early and young! Learned some cool things during Rae’s empathy training recording!
- Zach asked one morning about my visit with Auntie Em's, "What did you do together?" He also asked, "How is your foot, Mommy?" Are 3.5 year olds this aware of others' lives, feelings, emotions? Seems remarkable!
- Zach continues to ask me how my foot is every day, and "I'm sorry you hurt your foot, Mommy." Are all kids so thoughtful?
- Frank and I went roller blading and then had a burger and milkshake from Melt in Leesburg. All specials and seasonal! A southern fried green tomato and pimento cheese burger and a strawberry milkshake!
- See "Birthday" below too!
Good Food
In Chicago:
- The ceviche sample from the Botanic Gardens cooking demo
- The Schmidt family Father’s Day dinner of Cotsco marinated skirt steak with chimichurri, roasted poblanos and asparagus, salad, bread and brie. Cookies and mango and raspberries for dessert.
- Emily's blueberry zucchini bread. I shared it with my Leadeship Institute and they loved it!
- On a beautiful summer solstice day, the Fordams met for dinner at Cafe Sano and had a good meal and played by the lake.
- Breakfast, post-colonoscopy, at Lake Anne Coffe House. Yum!
- Cooking: garlic scape pesto, roasted eggplant and carrots. Poached chicken, orzo pasta, and oatmeal and basil pesto
- The cookies from Levain’s in NYC were AMAZING! I had them on the train headed home, and they were warm and gooey. :)
- 4th of July cookout and leftovers of baba ganoush, especially. Yum, sour cherry tart!
- Auntie Em had Zach and me over for dinner. She shared an Aslin sour beer, Volcano, and her corn and bean soup.
- I got two tofu dishes from Territory this month, and they were AMAZING.
- A Fair Winds Brewing Company stout and cheddar soup. Yum!
- Chicago (continued): Met Adrienne on Sunday for a second visit at the Goddess and the Baker, and we had a great time catching up more! I took the train up to the Botanic Gardens and a lovely time with Pam and Yvette. We got to see a ceviche cooking demo and sampled the food. Yum! I crashed the Schmidt family Father’s Day dinner.
- Hance and Zach and Mary Kay and I had a fun time at Savage Mill. Zach brought his Sesame Street characters and had a blast with them. We had breakfast and then walked along the path by the river and quickly ended up in the river. With water shoes on the boys had fun, and Hance played with a worm. Ewwww. They enjoyed throwing rocks and seeking out spider webs!
- Gamma and Bob; Zach was obsessed with his water wings that weekend!
- Sofia
- Greer! Great work on train for July LI on feedback, beautiful water views, music, reading! Vietnamese at Vietnaam (good conversation and ridiculous portion sizes), Cooper-Hewitt museum: mushroom shroud, etc., Central Park, Tiffany room at NYHS, cookies at Levain’s bakery (chocolate w/ pb chips and choc chip walnut). I got a carmelized onion flatbread too. Train back.
- Kathleen - by phone
- Katie
- 4th of July with all the family and Charlotte!
- We've seen a lot of Auntie Em in the last few weeks, and it's been great. She and got together for some significant time on July 3 and 4, and she's gone to the pool with us and she and Jeff came to my birthday brunch at Crooked Run/Senor Ramon's/Daybreak
- Sales Bootcamp Celebration with Amanda at Bonchon
- Meeting with Candice! She's such a wonderful, professional colleague!
- Colonoscopy. All went well. The prep was pretty easy (much better than June 2014), and I could eat until 12noon the day before. Wow!
- I sprained my foot/ankle on July 3. I stepped off a stool and completely misjudged the distance. I had my backpack on and was ready to run out the door, and I think the extra weight didn't help. Oww! I stayed home and iced and elevated and did a good job for a few days, but I pushed it and did too much too soon, so I went to the doctor and got an X-rays and an air cast. Nothing broken!
- June Leadership Institute was good, but I added NPS as a measurement, and it was a bit of a challenge. Some people rated a 6 and said, "great training," What?! 6 and below is a detractor, peeps. Stephanie told me that she is not a fan of NPS, so she and I will chat!
- Strengths Cohorts, especially Seal Team 6's June/July meeting. Loved it! I had a blast prepping for the July Leadership Institute by listening to three podcasts on the way to NYC. Also, because of my foot/ankle injury, I worked from home and watched Brene Brown's "Difficult Conversations" modules. All wonderful. I pulled together an LI Advisory Council, and I love them.
- Buti yoga!
- Enjoyed The Break on Netflix, though I disliked the ending a lot. Watched Wine Country and elevated my foot
- Maisie Dobbs by Jacqueline Winspear and Elon Musk's biography are both great!
- My Fitness Pal has been going well; just hit a bit of snag with my foot injury so that I am not able to exercise as much/vigorously. (Though, this did alert me to the recumbent elliptical machine. Amazing.) Now, with the injury and lots of celebration (4th of July, birthday, and anniversary), I'll be off my game for a few weeks. I now have a Garmin vivosport to track my steps, exercise, etc. It's totally fun!
- Listened to the Fresh Air interview about “How an All Female Crew Sailed Around the World.”
- Judie and GoCanvas were awesome! Judie got me all variety of breakfast pastries and an Amazon gift card. Wow! GC sends out b'day wished on Slack, so everyone weighed in, which was nice. They sang to me at the crab feast at Quarterdeck.
- The Fordams had a great morning: farmer's market, exercise (recumbent elliptical for me instead of Zumba, unfortunately) and then brunch at Crooked Run/Senor Ramon's/Daybreak. Emily brought me cupcakes and a tiara!
- For dinner, Frank and I went to a Red's Table and Fair Winds Brewing Company food and beer pairing dinner, and it was tasty, though all portions were too big, and we felt a bit ill at the end. :(
- Lots of nice text message birthday wishes and cards from family and Mary Kay and Hance. So sweet!
No comments:
Post a Comment