Busy Days

Family photo!

Zach
This has been a big month for Zach's words!

• He is now saying "Mommee" and "Daddee" and for a brief time, he had it right calling me "Mommy," and Frank, "Daddy." In fact one night, Frank got home late, and when he heard him at the door, he said, "Daddy, daddy" exuberantly. Lately, "Mommee" has been both of us. 
• He's got "please" down now. 
• He's become obsessed with the fans in the house and enjoys using the switches. "Fa" for "fan" is a new word. 
• Gamma got him a cookie monster t-shirt (the best!), and I think everyone has been commenting on it, so he's added "gookie" and "gracker."
• Late month trips added "boat" and "beach" to his favorite letter, "b."

He loves buses!

• "Bus" continues to be a favorite, and when I was in Atlanta, he got to see a bus when we chatted via Google Hangout!
• "Baby" for all those other children who are SO much younger than him. He says it when we walk past Eric, Rachel, and Teddy's house.
• Zach is saying "nose" and can point to his nose!
• He's saying, "hi-yo" for "hello."
• And "fehfee" for "paci." Then, I say "gacko," "ho-hum," "hee-haw," etc.

at the pool

Water Themes: the pool, the lake, and the beach. Three weekends in a row!

Great Stories/Of Note

• I taped trash bags to his window before the blackout blinds arrived. Classy. He's still waking up early, though. We had a few later mornings, but in general it's late in the 5am/6am hour. No good. :(
• Zach's 18 month appointment. All is well, and he doesn't go back until his 2 years old!
• His hair just keeps growing!
• Lots of singing! He signs along with the "Wheels on the Bus," and he knows all the movements for "Monkeys Jumping on the Bed." He holds his head when we say, "One fell off and bumped his head." He wags his finger, "no" when the lyric says, "No more monkeys jumping on the bed."
• He's been loving his "red strawberry" toy from Auntie Em. Frank likes my impersonation.
• Kathryn, one of his teachers at daycare, told us one day, "It's a good thing he can't have sugar...." We asked a while back that he not be given cookies or ice cream, and that turned in to a medical note saying he can't have sugar. That boy has energy!
• Sometimes he puts two chairs together and sits in one and waits for a friend. Awww. 
• He loves showing us that he can put his milk in the right place!

Mother's Day
A busy day unlike last year when I was sick! I did Zumba at the Reston Town Center and then headed to Breaux for a picnic with Frank, Zach, and Kathleen

Excursions & Visits

• Maryland Brewer's Association Brewfest. Zach had a great time people watching, and we got to sample some terrific beer! Thanks, Janna. 
• We had a bbq at Auntie Em's house. Gamma and Daddy Bob came, and Zach got to meet Tiffany!

Susan & Lucy

• Memorial Day with Gamma and Daddy Bob and the awesome Woodstock playground. A visit to Cave Mountain Winery. 

• Old Ox with Emily and Andy

• Lake House and tubing! A visit to Old Bust Head and a very affordable growler of their Russian Imperial Stout. Meeting Daryn and his story of taking their 5-year old to the Civil Rights Museum in Memphis. They walked miles every day. He takes her to conferences, and his work is in peace studies. Very cool to be reminded of that great work. How does non-violence really work as an alternative to war?
• Lewes and the beach.

Zach on his great,
granddad's chair!

Park in Lewes

Frank and Zach in the bay

Susan & Frank

• Reckless Kelly show at the Birchmere! 
• Kicked off summer with a rollerblade on the W&OD and lunch at Mesob, the other Herndon Ethiopian restaurant

Personal and Professional Fun Stuff

• Cooking - tried out Blue Apron, and we had some great meals, namely spicy Korean chicken and meatball subs. Trying out recipe kits from the Green Grocer now.... 
• Dinner of spicy Korean chicken with roasted potatoes and cabbage and mushrooms for dinner with the Vigionier wine from Cave Mountain, strawberries for dessert, and a basil and mint tisane. Yum!
• Caught up with Tracey!
• Association for Talent Development in Atlanta. Some good sessions! Diversity resources, etc. I saw the Omni of NKOTB fame and shared with Paige! Walked by the Fox Theatre. Ah, Phantom of the Opera, and walked to stumble upon a "fresh, hot, now" Krispy Kreme. Met an aspiring business owner and visited a local brewery where she told me about her business idea. 
• Women, Work, and Life Well-Lived course by Gallup

the tisane

May Updates

It's been a good month since our last update. 

Zach
Time Change and Longer Days Chaos. As the days get longer, Zach's been getting up early. If I wake up at 5:45am, I'm only a few minutes ahead of him. That's been rough, so it was really nice when he Zach slept until 8-ish and us too on a Saturday morning.

Zach loves this toy!

New Words

• Still saying lots of "Mama," but it's still not me. 
• "Mine" and "more"... We're trying to work on "please."
• Two syllables! "jacket" and "cracker"

In the tunnel at daycare

The Latest

• When he throws a tantrum, sometimes I laugh at his ridiculousness, and then he laughs too!
• Books: Roar, Roar, and he can say "roar, roar," Thomas the Train, and Wheels on the Bus where he sings and signs wheels, wipers, and money - clink, clink, clink and bops.  
• He loves mountain lion from Grandad, loves his chair and Thomas the Train book from Gamma and Daddy Bob, loves his tent from Emily Rogers, loved his plane from Kate and Tristan, loves his baby Mozart ball from Robin, loves the ark from Francisco and Juliana.
• LOVED throwing his ball down the slides outside. We'd throw it up the slide to him. It's like skee ball.
• Loves to watch us jump and try it, walking on tip toes, and playing with Easter eggs
• Vibrating with excitement. We need to get a video of this. 
• The hair dryer. 
• He's also been loving licking nut butter off of MumMums, crackers, etc. and same with refried beans. 
• Evie's mom said (even after he'd taken Evie's bottle) that he was so sweet to Evie and would come over in the mornings and say, "hi."
• Zach has moved from Infant 2 to the Toddler Room
• He's not running to me for hugs when I pick him up :( He runs past me...to keep playing.

Zach at Udvar Hazy.
He kept saying "hi"
to the mannequin
displays.

Stories about Pacifiers!

• Zach is so cute when he picks up his pacifiers in the morning. He always says "Uh, oh" for having lost them. If he's had two, he finds them both and switches out putting them in his mouth. 
• Zach knows where his pacifiers are, and he fishes one out when he "needs" it!

Starbucks. Continued.
Everywhere we go, Zach is a hit, but it's interesting how much more philosophical the comments are at the Starbucks at American Dream Way. This month a man said, "Just so you know. I'd do it again." 

Fun Stuff

• Beautiful light in the woods on one of my runs!
• Duolingo for French and German and Slow News podcast (checked it out, not into it yet!)
• Baby Language App taking shape!
• Learning about mind reading

Zach does not have
a lovey, but for a
couple days, his
little owl fit the bill.

Friends & Family

• Date Night to Beltway Brewing and sushi!
• Weekend with Mom and Dad and visited Cobbler Mountain Winery with Mom, Dad, Emily, Jeff, Frank, and Zach. A very fun day and place! They have a play room under the stairs, and we loved the Jeffersonian cider. 
• Visit down to Charlottesville, visits with Jeff, and Tim, Meaghan, and Nolan.
• Great to catch up with: Aliana, Katie, Mary Kay, Abby (trip into to DC), Anna, and Sara from GHCC VISTA days!

Zach at Enyate

Food 

• Chicken in wine dinner at Ralph and Chuckie's with Sam, Julia, and Zahra. Didn't remember that chicken in wine was a Maudie dish, so everybody loved it, and we had seasonally appropriate asparagus and strawberries for dessert! I made my bread!
• We took Zach to Enyate, and he was a hit! Both brothers picked him up and sat him on top of the bar. He was very wary, but they won him over. The older brother/owner made quacking noises, which he loved!

Professional Fun Stuff

• Raubia and I led the Lunch & Learn for the April birthdays and showed the SCORE Training Communications Styles module and used the discussion guide! It went over well!
• Traveled to Indianapolis for the Central Region Meeting (saw Charlie Bumb from Traverse City and met Sharon from Petoskey) and saw Sara Nienaber! 
• Held two distance walking meetings! Checked in with Sofia (and I walked and we talked). Katie and I had a walk and talk meeting a few weeks ago.
• Reading my ATD magazine and sharing insights. Using improv to be a better listener. 
• Connection with Lisa Taylor of the Challenge Factory and her book, Retain and Gain, and how it relates to SCORE's Megaphone of Main Street. 
• The Side Hustle podcast. Thank you, Greer!
• National AC Meeting: Set up to meet with Steve M., Ann, and Eileen outside of the meeting hours. They're so awesome.

Spring Has Sprung

Zach
Favorite words:

• "uh-oh" 
• "Dada" 
• "bye, bye"
• "Mama" - maybe "maman" in Urdu
• "Hi"
• "Night, night"
• Emily W. told he said, "Not my ball," at the park in early April when she told him he couldn't take another child's ball. 

Zach has, on a few occasions, tried to envelope me with his mouth after I kiss him on the cheek. It's like he's trying to kiss me. He's so cute! Love that little guy!

Walking over to daycare to pick Zach up and take him in. In mid-March, it was in the snow, and now we have to take advantage of this fine spring weather to get out together. I love not having to put him in the car. We've also stopped in at the store or drugstore when we need something, and he loves people watching during errands.

Zach loves being outside, so the mornings start with breakfast and then insistence to put on his jacket and head out. In the evening, it's hard to get him to come in and eat dinner at 6:30pm because he just wants to be out!

He's become much more of a hand holder. I think it was the ice and snow that convinced him a hand from Mommy or Daddy could be helpful, and now he will reach for our hands! Cute!

The winter boots have lived on as spring rain boots. He loves to play in puddles in them!

What's making him laugh:

• Watching animals slide down from the top of his tent
• Being held by his feet and sliding down a slide or being pulled through a tunnel
• His ball with soft bell sounds when it tumbles coming down the stairs
• Blowing air out our noses together

What's new:

• Marching and dancing
• He loves playing in his car seat box. For a few nights, he'd hide in there and pop out to surprise us!
• He's gotten a little fussy eating sometimes. He'll point and say, "Mama" insistently, but is never satisfied. He seems to rely a lot on his pacifiers.

School pictures. Delightful as usual. Ashraf is the only one with a smile in the class picture.

The new director at Childtime tells us Zach is Ava's new best friend. She's 13 months and not yet walking. He brings her her favorite Elmo book in the mornings. When another child took a ball from her, he got it back, and she goes home at night and says, "Zach, Zach, Zach" over and over! 

Took him to a park with tunnels, and he's static electric! Look at that hair! He's getting a lot of, "She's so cute," these days.

Funny Starbucks Experience
We stopped in at Starbucks just to give us more time together and him more looking around time. So many people were so nice to him. An older man said, "hello." A woman held the door for us. The cashier said he was adorable, and a man held the door for us at the end. A couple people said "beautiful kid" and "beautiful child" or something similar, and there was a general sentiment of kids are good; they're important, etc. 

Frank and Susan
Went to see Peter Bradley Adams at Jammin' Java. His opening act Lullannas was great too!

Friends & Family

• Gamma and Daddy Bob and Grandad have all visited
• Auntie Em made us black beans and beef stew, and we had a nice adults coffee date
• Jaclyn and Golden West Brunch and a walk in Hampden, Roland Park, and Guilford
• Uberbuddies and Kathleen's birthday
• Janna and a visit to Old Ox
• An overnight with the Pages
• Finally meeting Andy!

Food Slump

• Still making bread and granola. I'm trying new variations on the bread and milk, butter, and apple sauce make for a slightly moister bread
• Old favorites are not really getting it done...goulash, pasta e fagioli, and tv soup...kinda strange

Professional Life

• My new Learning Coordinator started, and she's a ray of sunshine for me!
• Connecting regularly with many friends and former colleagues: Emily R., Emily F., Yvette, Sofia, Pam, Resa, Angeline, Susan C., Beth M. (new), degreed folks - Vince, Katie, and Patrick on important professional things. Thank you all for your time!

Family Road Trip to Vermont!

Zach was an amazing trooper on our 10+ hour road trip to Vermont. He did some good sleeping, and even when he wasn't, he was pretty amiable to be in the car!

Zach sleeping
(very briefly)
on the drive up

We stayed at a supposed 3 star hotel in Albany, but it was a 2 star at best and felt more like a 1.5 star. Yikes. Luckily, there were lots of other families, and everyone was quiet, so it worked out okay. Zach loved exploring, and he charmed people at breakfast.

Zach at breakfast
at the Best
Western in Albany

We stopped in Burlington on our final leg and had a fun lunch. Zach charmed more people. He got some crayons, which he mostly threw on the floor. We were at the bar, and he loved watching the bar tenders shake martinis!

Zach and Frank at
the Farmhouse Tap
& Grill in Burlington

Frank and I got out skiing on Monday & Tuesday at Craftsbury! Yay! They had great food: wholesome scones, muffins, granola bars, and a kale salad. The facilities were incredibly nice for $10pp. 

Frank and Susan at
Craftsbury

Smugglers' is super-family friendly, and we were just up the hill from the indoor pool, so we went three nights in a row. 

Frank and Zach at Smugglers' pool's slide

On Tuesday, coming back from Craftsbury, it was only 10 miles out of the way to Stowe, VT, so we went into town for lunch. Despite visiting two breweries, Brewster River Pub and Idletyme, we had not found any beers that we liked enough to fill our growler, so we stopped in at Black Cap Coffee and made a local sampler, 4 Vermont beers, 1 beer/cider from VT, and 1 from Maine. The highlights are captured!

A really good,
strong
brown ale

A Russian
Imperial Stout

It snowed on Wednesday night into Thursday morning, and amazingly Smugglers' wasn't prepared! We were plowed in at 9am, and three cars and a shuttle had gone in a ditch! Apparently, they hadn't re-sanded. So, we couldn't get Zach to daycare. We spent the day together; in the snow in the morning, and then more time outside in the afternoon. 

Frank, Susan, Zach in the snow at Smugglers'

Frank & Zach

Frank and Zach played around the unit and outside, and I took a second ski lesson. Downhill is scary! Frank got out after I got back from my lesson. The powder of the day's snow had blown off leaving an ice slick for skiing. He fell and had to go to the local hospital for stitches!

The outlier from
Maine, but
pretty local too!

On our final day, we headed back to Craftsbury for a final cross country ski. Though the conditions weren't ideal for them, we enjoyed some new trails that hadn't been open and did Ruthie's Run in the opposite direction from the Monday and Tuesday skis. We ate a delicious lunch at their cafe: a wholesome chicken soup, chicken salad sandwich, homemade granola bar, and a chocolate chip cookie! We got back in time for showers, a hot tub soak, and a nap before picking up Zach.

We headed home on Saturday, and once again, Zach was a great road tripper. We pushed him harder this time with only one short stop near Albany, but he did play a lot in the morning before we left at 1:30pm! Temps were frigid at Smuggs and persisted throughout our drive. We even hit snow storms and a white out (briefly) on I-88 around 6pm. Yikes. Frank was incredible and drove us all the way home. I used Mountain Lion as a pillow and got some sleep with Zach.

Check out all our pics here.  

Winter Updates (even when it wasn't so wintry)

Zach

• Practicing going up and down the stairs
• Still climbing, lately it's been on the coffee table and the upholstered chair
• Still working on his diaper rash, so we've been giving him "air time." See both below!

• Saying "bye, bye" and "Dada" for Frank, but "Mama," seems to mean food. He says that loudly and insistently while he's eating meals, no matter who is feeding him!
• Hugging us (and taking refuge by hugging our legs), and sitting in our laps. So cute!

• Zach is still shutting doors for us: the bathroom door, the fridge door. All doors. Watch those fingers!
• It's amazing what Zach can understand. As I mentioned in last month's blog post, I'll tell him, "Let's go have a bath," and he'll start climbing the stairs.
• Speaking of baths, when I wash his hair, he now closes his eyes tightly as I get to "3" in my "1, 2, 3" count down to dousing him!
• Loves watching the girls from several doors down. They all play on some Saturdays at the playground
• First ride in an elevator at his 15 month doctor's appointment. It surprised him!

Family

• Walks all around Reston and to Lake Anne Coffee House on Saturdays
• Warm weather! I took Zach for a nice, really long walk after work on a Thursday. (It reminded me of our early morning walks in early November.) :)
• The zoo! Zach got to see elephants, zebras, meerkats, seals, etc.

On the merry-go-round at
the National Zoo

Fun

• Date night dinner out at Red's Table and Cherish the Ladies concert
• Brunch at Red's Table and a run with Kathleen. (Thanks to Gamma, Daddy Bob, and Auntie Em for babysitting)
• Meeting Auntie Em at the Lake Anne Coffee House on several Saturdays
• Happy hour with Katie at Lake Anne (How much do we love Lake Anne?)
• Chinese dinner with Michael and Leah and family

Food

• Made very simple bread from scratch! No yeast, mother, kneeding, rising; just mix and bake for 40 minutes. Easy!

Work

• Virtual conference. Great sessions. Huge success. Terrific numbers: 570 unique visitors, a little over 1000 registered. Great conversion since 30% conversion is considered good, and we were at over 50%. Average time in event was high at 3 hours 40 minutes. Almost 1500 documents downloaded. A huge number. Over 1700 views of documents and an average of 7 downloads per person.
• My featured video blog with d'Vinci is here. 

"Nevertheless she persisted."

The Last Month+

Zach

• He walked to the swings by himself, and he's now going down the slide by himself!
• Zach loves watching his animals fly down from the shelves and bubbles!

Mesmerized by bubbles!

• Zach’s first words: 1.) ball 2.) car 3.) cow (or maybe it’s a variation of “car.” He also does lots of “Mamamama” and “Dadadadada,” but not sure we can go with “Mama” and “Dada” yet.
• He also understands so much now. We can say, “Go get Dear Zoo," or your ball or your car, and he does!

Playing peek-a-boo
with his food cape

• He stands in front of his high chair to let us know he’s hungry, and he wears a food cape now (aka a bandana)
• He took his first swim lesson at Goldfish Swim School!

Frank, Zach, & Susan at the pool

• Zach loves watching people and especially older kids.
• He pulls out his blanket that matches his room decor, and we all sit on it together on the upstairs landing. So cute.
• I loved reading the latest chapters of Winnie the Pooh, especially "issue" for sneezing.
• He's begun climbing up and balancing on the Huggies box, step stool, etc. He's a good climber.
• He has a man purse that he carries around. One night it had a ball and his toothbrush. 
• He's continued to have terrible diaper rash; we cut out citrus, but it persists! So, he takes baking soda baths. We use lots of baking soda!

Notable Events

• Emily's surgery – not easy, but all went well with Auntie Em. She was a textbook case and was able to leave the hospital early even!
• ½ date day with Frank (a run + Enyate) + Date Night the next day! Lake Anne Wine Bar and appetizer, Robbie Schaefer show at Jammin’ Java for Syrian refugees, and a really good dinner at Caboose Brewing.
• Cross country skiing at Whitegrass for the first time since 2015. Thank you Gamma and Daddy Bob for babysitting Zach. I'm sorry I gave you my (Zach's) stomach bug. :( and to Frank days later….

Whitegrass View

Fun Food

• Chicken with garam masala sauce – DELICIOUS!
• Cocktails from Zach’s leftover fruit syrup
• Finished up Jim and Terri's Christmas bacon on top of mac & cheese, pinto beans, and greens. My favorite soul food meal.
• A shout out from Morgan! Morgan went to the Bluebird Bistro/Cafe in KC at my recommendation!
• China Chilcano in DC for Restaurant Week and seeing Callie again for the first time since 2013

Good Work Stuff

• A work trip to Harrisburg (JPL Creative and d’Vinci) and the Eastern PA District Meeting. I was interviewed for JPL's video blog series, visited Lancaster Brewing Company with Jenny, Angeline, and Susan. Such a kindred spirit feeling!

Susan's video blog interview

• I listened to Susan Cain’s Quiet going to and from PA. Lots of good insight.
• I'm continuing my pursuit of expertise: a virtcon LinkedIn post and continued social media postings. Very proud of our efforts!

Super Fun January

Second Christmas went well with Heidi, Sam, and Jeff, though Heidi threw us a curve ball at Great Falls. She fell and ended up being taken by ambulance to Reston Hospital! Luckily, she was fine, and her stay in Reston meant we had a nice lunch with everyone on January 1 at our house. I made beer cheese soup, and it was hit!

Susan and Zach
Zach is a great present!

Christmas in Chevy Chase was a fun affair, and Penni and Tommy hosted us for a lovely lunch after presents. 

Reston's Chinese Lantern Festival

Zach and Mommy at
the Chinese Lantern Festival

In the new year, the Fordams have had so much fun. We went with Auntie Em to the Chinese Lantern Festival and headed out to Woodstock for a cold weekend with Gamma and Daddy Bob. 

Sleepy boy

Zach has been so happy and delighted by so much: walking around everywhere, especially Great Falls and around Reston; the "ssss" of his Noah's ark snake; his name as pronounced by Muslima (Zach-a-ree) and Mamoona (My Zachy). We've continued to have great hide and seek and peek-a-boo games. On the way to Baltimore, we started reading Winnie the Pooh stories in the car, and they were a huge hit for everyone. Rabbit offered Pooh bread with honey or condensed milk. What?! 

The most adorable picture of Zach!

Thanks to Kate for hosting us in Baltimore. It was wonderful to see everyone and visit old B'more haunts (Golden West and Carma's) and try out a brewery, Union Craft Brewing, with a growler of their Bock 1000. 

The Holidays!

Since Zach's first birthday...

We've gotten in some good walks on the weekends and patronized the new local coffee shop. We also got the cutest video of Zach giggling while on the swings! 

We had an overnight visit from Mary Kay, Stephen, and Hance. We divvyed up the cooking and had some time to catch up after the boys went to bed!

Zach and a favorite
toy, the new plunger!

Due to holidays, daycare offered some Saturday hours, so Frank and I got out for lunch at Enyate, and I took advantage of the extra time to do some extravagant cooking. I made Juliana's Bolognese sauce! 

Along the festive lines, we also took Zach to the Wolf Trap sing-along, where the crowd did a nice rendition of The Twelve Days of Christmas, and that continued at home as we sang along with the holiday book. On 12/18, we got a tree! 

Zach and his elf hat!

Zach has been enjoying the newest take on Dear Zoo, where he opens the flaps and gets quite a reaction from me! I also got to take Zach to a sign language class, so we've been working on some signs too! He's gotten a fifth tooth, and his sleep has been somewhat disrupted about one night a week for the last month. :( But really, not bad at all!

Frank and I had a fun date night to see Manchester by the Sea and stopped in at Dogfish Head for an early dinner!

Our local winery/brewery patronage continues. We met Sam, Julia, Zahra, and Sam's mom at Blenheim winery in Charlottesville after Thanksgiving, visited Bull Run winery with Kathleen, and rollerbladed + lunched at Monk's BBQ in Purcellville. Yesterday, we walked nearly 8 miles around the Mall, went to the Stuart Davis exhibit at the National Gallery of Art, and tried a new Ethiopian restaurant, Addis. They had artisanal tej!

Zach's cute hat

I had the chance to meet up with Sofia at Zaytinya in DC. We shared excellent food and got to catch up in person! (I also bought Zach a super-cute hat!) See picture above!

We had a wonderful Christmas Eve and Christmas Day with the Forts and Kovatchitch's. We took Zach's Pack-n-Play to Auntie Em's, so he got naps, AND we got in a lot of good time to hang out, which included viewing a fun Billy Joel concert DVD.