2nd Birthday & More

Zach - Of Note

• I love mornings and breakfast with Zach.
  
• He started potty training! Gamma has been in charge of finding fun underwear for him when he's ready. Puffs as incentives, and he has some books coming as well. We'll see. 
• 2nd Birthday!
  
• Visitors, presents, apple cake, and adventures at Keswick: Riding on the Gator, visiting the cows in pasture, and feeding the chickens!
• He loves his construction toys, hot wheels, and truck books. He got an amazing singing card. See video.
• We got a Christmas Tree, and Zach has been pretty responsible about making sure it gets watered. He and I also did some decorating and for the first time, put on some of his ornaments that he's collected over two Christmases
• We're taking him up about 7:15pm now, and we read from his HUGE selection of books. Thanks to all for his birthday books! He also enjoys climbing on my back and over me!
• We explored Lake Anne in the snow! Zach got boots and ski pants for the winter. He's all set. 

Zach's Words & Singing

• “Mommy cooking.”
• “My Mommy” when Tristan (at daycare) got too chummy with me
• "Mommy's coffee" - when I arrived to pick him up one afternoon he was "drinking coffee." Pretty funny. 
• One morning he named all the things in his play room: blocks, box, phone, monkey, tractor, seat, etc. Pretty amazing. 
• Zach is loving looking at pictures of himself. He'll say, "More Zach." He loves photos of Sisi too, and so we asked Leah to text us a new and recent picture since all that we have are kind of old. 
  
• Zach sings: 
• Itsy, Bitsy Spider
• Wheels on the Bus, he says “all through the town” and does hand motions too
• Thank you, thank you, he always comes in on “big and strong” 
• All of the Raindrops, he’s really good at the “Ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ahhhh."
• Peanut Butter and Jelly, he sings "jelly" after, "peanut, peanut butter...."
• We are singing The 12 Days of Christmas nightly now. Fun ritual. 

Before we leave daycare,
Zach MUST play in the gym!
Other kids ask awkward
questions about why he
doesn't want to go home...

Susan & Frank

• Basically, Frank and I did not see much of each other on our own. We had visitors and visited galore this month. 
• Then, I finally succumbed to the family cold, which turned into a nasty sinus infection. Frank rolled his ankle. Lots of recovery, rest, and TLC were necessary this month.
• Date night of drinks at Ocelot (though their two dark, malty beers were over the top sweet and frankly bad) and dinner Liberty Tavern was a Lot of fun!

Good Food

• Lunch at Enyate after a fun day down on the Mall at the Natural History museum, though he was obsessed with the museum store...
• Chili, pumpkin soup, and the roasted carrot salad
• For Zach's birthday and Thanksgiving: apple cake, chocolate pecan pies, and Brussel sprouts
• Homemade bread again
• Garam masala chicken "chili" - Yum, yum!
• Fritata with roasted broccoli and cauliflower
• Braised chicken with beets and olives, mashed potatoes, and broccoli with the Pet Nat from 868

Visits with and to

• Alison from Seattle
• Cooking day at Emily's before T'giving with Mom and Dad. Just like old times. 
• Sara Lee was a tremendous house for Frank, Zach, Jeff, and I over Thanksgiving. We had her homemade pumpkin muffins and eggs from her chickens. Yummy!

• Sam, Julia, and Zahra at Blenheim Winery!
• Kathleen and Brian at 868 Winery 
• Coopers Hawk with Auntie Em

Fun Stuff (Personal & Professional)

• Walking around DC and meeting LeaderFit folks
• Finished Stranger Things
• Cook Ross RISD session on SCORE's Culture of Inclusion training. Lots of good energy in the morning. It had really waned by end of day. We'll see.
• Participated in the HSN Academy, and it's always good to get out of the office and see SCORE at work in communities!  
• Trip to the zoo!
  
• Thanksgiving was fun - both of them! We had a sing-a-long on Friday with Leah and Bennie playing the piano and Sisi and the rest of us singing! See the "cousins"!

  

  Nolan, Gabriel, Zach

• I love Kate's stretch song Setting the World on Fire, by Kenny Chesney with Pink.

Summer to Winter

Zach - Of Note

Zach on the train
at Burke Lake Park

• We took Zach to Burke Lake Park and  met up with Aliana, Nathan, and Evera with specific plans to ride the train, and he had a blast. We rode the carousel too, which he liked this time around, but he obviously enjoyed the train the most. We rode twice!
• Zach's sleeping has been a little disrupted. He's solidly going to bed at 7:45pm now. Daylight Savings left him going to bed later and getting up later. Go figure!
• He's been doing a little more drawing; we bought him some crayons. 
• On walks home, he always stops and says goodbye to his friends, and we started gazing down at the W&OD trail from above. It became a ritual, and one evening, we counted 19 bikes. 

  

  Walking home

• Zach and Mommy had a great time while Daddy went down to West Virginia with his high school friends!
• On Saturday, we went down to Jammin Java to see Grandsons Junior. Zach enjoyed it for about 45 minutes and then announced that he was "all done."
  
• We visited Katie and Suji on Saturday night, and Katie played guitar for Zach, which he LOVED. Suji said he was mesmerized!
• Great Country Farms was a blast, and we only visited a fraction of their space. Zach loved the wagon ride to the "pumpkin patch," the antique tractors, and the cow train!
  
• Zach saw Frank's new mountain bike and wanted to go out to "ride" on it for several weeks. That required both me and Frank - one of us to hold him up on the seat and the other to walk the bike. 
• Images of buses became the rage this month
• Potty training on the brain this month. We've bought him a potty, and he'll move up to the 2's after Thanksgiving, so it will officially begin. 
• We ran into Mo on his last night as a UPS driver. He's retired!
• Leading up to Halloween, we went for some night strolls, and he enjoyed Halloween lights.
• Halloween was a lot of fun. We dressed him up for the second time (first time at Harvest festival), and visited all the neighbors he's met. Barbara said how much she was hoping we'd stop by!

  

  A monkey!

• With the time change (darker earlier, so less time to spend outside after daycare) and Zach's illness, he's been enjoying more music. Concert DVDs, Youtube videos of Great Big Sea, etc. 
• We picked berries and green beans at Rick's garden plot!
• What a fun time going down on the Mall to the American History Museum with Zach. He loved the transportation exhibit and the Good Humor ice cream truck outside. 
  
• His first cold and a fever that kept him home!

Zach's Words

• Visiting Katie and Suji, Zach quickly picked up on Suji's name. A few weekend's later, he met Lucy, Ralph and Chuckie's dog, again. We went to play outside, and he wanted to go "back up the hill to see Lucy." He parroted me over and over again, and "see Lucy" became "Suji."
• He loves to sing, “Thank you, thank you. Thank you, thank you, for our food. For our food. Helps the body grow. Helps the body grow. Big and strong. Big and strong!” 
• He is talking to Alexa all the time now. 
• One morning we talked about how “independent” he is, and he turned that into “mundo, mundo” and just laughed!

Susan & Frank

• Date night for Frank's birthday. We tried out Heritage Brewing Co. and went to Four Sisters for Vietnamese. 

Good Food

• A great Ethiopian meal at Enyate. The family was so happy to see Zach, and he won them over again!
• Lots of pumpkin bread - thanks to Brian for his recipe!
• Fish Tacos!

Visits with

IX Art Park in
Charlottesville

• Aliana, Evera, and Nathan. We saw them two weekends in a row, and they're expecting a baby boy in April!
• Katie and Suji - dinner and time outside by their firepit!
• Met up with Emily R. for dinner, and we had such a good time. 
• Emily, Grandad, Gamma, and Daddy Bob all visited.
• Dinner with Auntie Em after her trip to Italy was a blast!
• Visit to Charlottesville. A great dinner with Ralph, Chuckie, Christopher, & Mia and Jim and Susan. A nice visit with Sam and Zahra. 
• Mary Kay via phone. Monthly check-ins are good!
• Emmy came to babysit!

Professional Fun Stuff (or just Fun Stuff)

Foggy Gainesville

• Mentoring advice and calls with Patti and Jeanne
• DRIVE group coaching and kickoff
• Learning about Green Dot and creating a community in support of non-violence
• Definitely not fun stuff, but Anna left SCORE, and I'm so sad to see her go. 
• Advisory Council meeting...good bonding with Hugh, Eileen, Ann, and Julie
• Trip to Gainesville, FL for a district meeting. Drove from Jacksonville to Gainesville on two different routes. A good meeting, a walk around Gainesville, dinner at a local restaurant...all interesting
• Listening to Serial's Season 2! Got in four episodes in early November

Mr. Chatty & More

Family selfie on the ridge in WV

Zach - Of Note

• A rougher month for sleeping. He's had 3 nights of waking. It used to be once/month and then it was once/3 months. Not sure what's going on!
• Lots of loveys. It started out as sheep, and then Bunny, so I bought a back-up, but now it is Bunny, Tiger, and Paint the Pony (from Auntie Em and Uncle Jeff)

• Claude Moore park in Sterling. A nice place! Zach liked the dining car of the train in the playground, and he continued to ask us to join him. There was a Fall festival, and he checked out the sheep, chickens, rabbits, and goat.

• He had two final late summer pool trips on HOT days, so it was good!
• We got a video of his laugh over bubble wrap here. 
• A couple of Mondays, Zach has waited for me to get home from Zumba. He and Zach are strolling, and he's watching bats. He know "bats, Zumba, and NYC"!
• I took Zach to the farmer's market one morning, and he loved watching the blue grass band. He took his lovey, Bunny.

• We listened to Tom Petty’s greatest hits over Zach's dinner/happy hour/dinner several nights
• We had a couple of low key nights reading in our room
• Zach LOVED "appee cake," aka apple cake this month!
• Because he has so many stuffed animals in his bed, he's doing a lot of chatting with them at night and in the morning. One morning, I heard him make the "Bbbbbbbbbbbbb" and then say, "OUTSIDE!"
• Starting to read and think about potty training. What? I will say goodbye to his footed onesies soon.... Zach seems into it too. He's saying it all. “bathroom,” “potty,” “pee,” and “poop.”

Zach's Words and Words - Words - Words

• He's amazing us daily. He'll say something out of the blue, like "wash cloth," and I think, "Where did he learn that? We don't even say that word too much." Still loving "back hoe," which also sounds like "big hoe." He also told us that was the magic word!
• He says everything: bread, broccoli, bathroom, Auntie Em, birthday, labyrinth, Emmy, Buster/Teddy (Debbie), Rachel, and Erik

He LOVES his cars!

• He says, "Thank you, Mommy!" and another favorite, "Mommy, are you?" for Mommy, where are you. He says this when he can see you!
• He learned about shaking hands, and so I went with it and taught him, “Nice to meet you.”
• We've been trying to teach him that Daddy is Frank and Mommy is Susan. Over several days, he calls us both Frank. On 10/14, he seemed to get it right and call me Susan!
• “Steep,” "yucky” and “stinky.”
• He says "Moona" a lot, but he now talks about all his care givers. Moona gets "Moona, diaper," and "Moona, cracker."

Susan and Susan & Frank

• Sick again. Just a little cold right after vacation, but still!
• Enjoying South of Superior
• Date night: rollerblading and Red's Table. I got a local Wild Hare cider.

Good Food

• Variations of summer checca pasta: spring onions, tomatoes, basil, eggplant (already roasted), corn, and parm and mozzarella with angel hair pasta. Yum! Yum!
• Yum! Zach loved it too!
• Chicken and grape pasta salad
• Smashed potatoes!
• Turkey zucchini meatballs with the yogurt dipping sauce and sweet potato/kale salad
• We made really great chili in West Virginia. Thank you, Kathleen.
• I made my Indian-inspired chicken dish with chick peas on a 60 degree day...not many of those cool days lately

Visits with

• Sofia!

• A really nice birthday celebration with Mom and Dad and Emily

• Greer and walking nearly 10 miles in NYC. We took the Highline to Chelsea Market and ate at Dizengoff’s (hummus bowls and frozen lemonade). Back on the Highline Trail to the end and then on the river walk along the Hudson. At the World Trade Center area, we hopped on the subway up to Greenwich Village and Big Gay Ice Cream. After a stop at Murray’s Cheese Shop, we walked back up to Penn Station. A sunny, beautiful fall day, and I was so dehydrated!
• Gib and Deb and Jeff
• Zach stayed overnight with Gamma and Bob on our West Virginia weekend, and they had a great time!

• The Ubers! WV! West Virginia 2017 Album. 
• Frank and I got to try a new hike in a beautiful area that we've never explored! We met Kathleen and Brian for dinner at the Hellbender.
• On Saturday, we met my parents and picked up Zach. He loved the car/cart at the grocery! K & B got out for a good hike in Dolly Sods, and we took Zach up on the ridge near sunset. (See the sunny hiking pics in the album.)

• The weather turned rainy on Sunday, and we went out to eat at the Purple Fiddle in Thomas (and heard live music) and to Sirianni's on Monday. Frank and I took Zach to playgrounds at parks, Blackwater Falls on the sunny day and Canaan Valley on the rainy day w/ swings.
• The house had a great porch and grounds that we all enjoyed. There was a great fire pit, and we had good weather for it on Saturday night. We hot tubbed in the rain on Sunday night.
• Emily's birthday dinner at Clyde's was so much fun!

Professional Fun Stuff (or just Fun Stuff)

• Walking meeting with Mary Kay
• Top Golf with the Field Ops Team
• Inclusion work is really taking off. I'm the staff point person, and it's just where I want to be! Met Krystal, working on modules, training, calls, measures of success, communication plans, etc.
• Raju left. On his last day he shared delicious Nepalese food he made, and I gave him a food token
• My awesome mentors continue!

Late Summer and Vacation!

Family Vacation to Northern Michigan

• For the album, click here. 
• We left on a Friday night and put Zach to bed in the car. Frank drove us to Youngstown, OH, and we did okay getting Zach in the hotel room. He was not as cooperative as our March trip to Vermont, but he got to sleep fairly quickly, and we all slept until about 8am. 
• We stopped in Ann Arbor and visited around Zingerman's. Frank and Zach quickly found a park, and I brought a picnic. Zach loved the pesto pasta. 
• Back in the car, we made it Interlochen for a grocery store stop and then headed the rest of the way to Glen Lake. 
  
• On Sunday, we discovered the Old Settler's Park near our house. Zach really loved their swings and encountered the merry-go-round for the first time. On the dock, Zach swerved and wobbled such that he nearly fell off the dock. Frank fell in righting him, and cut his hand. It was a great save! We headed in to Traverse City for lunch and had to improvise when Spanglish was closed. Luckily, there was an awesome pizza and bakery on the quad, so we carried out pizza to Left Foot Charley's and sampled their wine and cider. The winery/cidery had a sand box with truck, so Zach had a blast. Other kids and families filtered in and out. 
  
• Monday - Friday we settled into a routine. We mostly got started a little late and had breakfast together. We'd get Zach to Julie's, and on MWF, he played with three older boys and one 14-month old girl.  On T and Th, there was a fourth older boy. He loved Julie's set-up. She has bikes, cars, and tractors galore to ride. Her basement was enticing, and she had them outside a lot with her pool and water table. Some days Zach didn't want to leave. She remarked at how much he drank and at how after the first day, he would go to the room where he napped and tell her when he was ready for his nap. We'd pick him up with plenty of time for playing at Glen Lake at either the park or in the water, and on Friday night, we took him to the Hop Lot Brewery. 
  
• Frank and I took off for different adventures: hiking in nature preserves, roller blading two days, canoeing one day, and spending a relaxing morning by the fire on Friday. The weather was fairly chilly. After a leisurely morning, we explored Sleeping Bear Dues near Port Oneida. We visited a lot of our favorite places: Black Star Farms, Spanglish and tried out new ones: Pleasanton Bakery, Left Hand Charley's, and Hop Lot. We ate out on the deck at our house a couple of days too and read. We took naps!
  
• On Saturday, it took forever, as usual, to pack up and hit the road. We stopped at Shorts Brewery, and, oh, how it has changed! When we last went two or three years ago, there was no table service. They've expanded, and there was a long wait, so we got food to go and ate on the outside grounds of a local grill. Before heading out, we filled our growler at Shorts. 
• At Polecat, we had a lovely time with Nancy and Sara Gay, and Edguardo joined us on Sunday. (He and Zach did not have as much time to speak Spanish together as I would have hoped.) We all handled dinners with Sara Gay delivering two delicious meals. Zach was a hit, and our flexibility was tested feeding him in several different locations!
  
• Frank, Zach, and I toured around mostly together, visiting Petoskey's and Boyne City's waterside parks. Frank watched Zach while I rollerbladed two mornings, and I watched Zach in the afternoon while Frank sailed on two days. We got in the water two nights and visited Rudbeckia Winery and Burnt Marshmallow Brewery for lunch one day. Their kids car track was a hit. Zach befriended "slow man" on a visit to Camp Seagull. We also went into Charlevoix and uncovered their splash pad and purchased the signature vacation milkshake (now $9) from Kilwin's. 
  
• Nancy, Sara Gay, Edguardo, Frank, Zach and I had really nice evenings together. Zach would eat, and we would snack while the chef cooked. We all "cheers"ed Zach, enjoyed a couple fires, and had delicious dinners after he went to bed. 
• On Wednesday, we took forever to pack up again, and hit the road at 11am. We stopped again in Ann Arbor at the park and made it home around 1am after standstill traffic on the Ohio Turnpike for 30-45 minutes. 

Zach - Of Note

Tumbling this month!

• At Julie's, Zach learned the fist bump, jumping, and got tickled. Now, he says, "tickle, tickle."
• He continues to LOVE playing in the car. It's a good rainy day activity. 
• Loveys. This month he decided he must have his sheep blanket in his crib, and we sent it with him to Julie's every day. At home, he doesn't take it to daycare. Now Bunny is his first stuffed animal lovey. 
• Every UPS driver on our trip was Mo!
• Teething returned with a vengeance! A rough night for Mr. Zacharoo. 
• Zach was very taken by steam from boiling water on the stove. I tried to show him it was hot, and he remembered when he saw the same dish later that evening and wondered if it was hot. 

Zach's Words

• Zach is really good at singing “Ashes, ashes, we all fall down!”
• "Cheers" continues to be a fun and routine activity in the evenings.
• At our house in Michigan there were stuffed deer (2) and duck memorabilia. He impressed us by knowing both words and pointing them out!
  
• Apple sauce is "apee sauce."
• It's hard to tell the difference, but he says, "Alexa," which also sounds a little like "outside."
• At Polecat, in Michigan, it's fairly steep, and Zach learned the word while we were there. 
• "Food" and "hungry"
• First sentence: "I did it!"

Susan & Frank

• We got out to see the movie, Wind River, which we enjoyed. 
• The latest season of Hinterland
• And tons of vacation fun

Good Food

• Lasagna and modified turkey vegetable soup (with in season veggies) on vacation and dinner on the screened porch overlooking the lake
• Breakfasts in Michigan. We brought everything in to the table and ate together with a view of the lake
• Lemon raspberry tart, peach brown butter tart, ham croissant with dijon mustard, cheddar bacon scone, and bars/cookies (great for the trail) from Pleaston Bakery
• Best vacation lunch was the afternoon at Blackstar Farms. Yummy pizzas, cider, and wine. They use the grape skins in their pizza crust, which is thin and crispy. Very tasty!

Excursions & Visits

• Two brunches at the Shaheepskys. At the first one, Sisi took Zach for a ride, and he melted down on the eve of our second brunch date when we reminded him of the fun he had via a photo, and he became obsessed with the photo on the phone. In September, our turn around the block in one of the toy cars led him to meet another "slow man." This one with a dog! Zach gave him a high five. 
  
• Visits with Sara Gay, Nancy, and Edguardo in Charlevoix
• Gamma and Daddy Bob ("Bob" to Zach) and Jeff visited too!

Professional Fun Stuff (or just Fun Stuff)

• A bit of professional bonding with an eclipse viewing at work
• Finished two books: Rosa Parks: My Story and Midnight Blue
• LeaderAMP continues to provide some great coaching
• Renegade, unsanctioned stars!
• Connections: Avizia and Tiara and Artisan E-Learning and Diane. She gave Zach a book she wrote. Very cool. 
• SCORE Awards were great!

Bugs & More

Of Note

• Zach loves Mo, our UPS driver. They have had a good time seeing each other over the summer. 
• He has loved playing in the car. 
• Zach enjoys dancing. We turn on “Hand Clap,” and he dances. He bobs his head and high steps in place. He seems to know a lot of “moves” for songs too. There are some new ones for “The Wheels on the Bus,” and he knows how to "fall down" in "Pocket Full of Posey."

• Zach loved finding the new playground by the church. 
• At Clemyjontri Park, Zach enjoyed the train once he sat in my lap. 
• Theme for the summer: buggy and a TON of mosquitoes bites for me every day. :(
• So many nice interactions with neighbors. One keeps water in her bird bath for him. The family with two dogs who played ball with him one weekend day. 

On his "cycle"

• Also, this month Zach continued to be obsessed with his tricycle and told us to “sit” on his tricycle, so he could push us on it. So funny!
• We took Zach to the Fairfax County 4-H Fair, thinking he'd like it, but he didn't seem to care about the fair that much, but he LOVED the kid-sized tractors and didn't want to share. 

At Frying Pan Park

• We met Aliana and family at Burke Lake and walked around the 4.5 mile lake path. It was nice to see them, and Zach and Ev played a bit together. The day was so nice, we drove out for a winery lunch at 868 Vineyards. We got bbq sandwiches and wine slushies. I really liked their bbq, but the bugs were terrible, not like my lovely birthday dinner night, so we did not hang out long.... 

Frank & Zach kayaking!

Zach and Frank went to the beach during my conference. They drove out at bedtime on Friday and came home on Monday. Thanks to Kate and Tristan for making the weekend awesome and sending me so many great pictures. Zach is lucky to have such an adventurous Dad!

Tristan, Zach, Frank

Tristan & Zach

Tristan & Zach

Zach's Words
He said “soap” a lot after one Sunday bath night. He's saying “big car,” "van," "truck," "stroller," and he says “tv” quite a bit, which is a puzzle since we don't do anything with him and the tv….

Susan & Frank

• We rollerbladed on the W&OD. It was a scorcher, but there was a nice breeze and some shade at times. We went to Senor Ramon’s at Crooked Run Brewery afterwards, and it was delicious! 
• Met Frank for lunch at Mesob Ethiopian restaurant. 

Good Food

• Anniversary Dish: Appetizer: baguette, salami, olives, and cheeses. For dinner: summer checca pasta (tomatoes roasted) and roasted green beans, fennel, zucchini, and red onions. Quite tasty.
• Mary Kay, Stephen, and Hance visited, and the adults enjoyed a delicious meal of salmon, rice, and a carrot/radish/mango slaw with a southern Indian peanut/coconut spread. 
• Blue Apron pork burgers and roasted potatoes. 

Excursions & Visits

• Fun evening at Katie and Suji’s. Their new place is so nice, and Zach had a great time exploring!
• The weekend at Gamma and Daddy Bob's.... Nice cool morning at Mom and Dad's. We had so much fun in the morning with coffee and playing on the patio. Zach got to the park AND a winery, Valerie Hill. They have a great space for Zach. I did a tasting and bought three bottles, including one for us to drink with our picnic. When we arrived there were cows in the field next door mooing away! We met Eleanor (30 months) and Severa (17 months). Eleanor and Zach drank water out of a nasty tank using their blocks as cups. Good times. Everyone was enamoured of Zach. It was as lovely day. 
• Nashville concert with Emily at Wolf Trap. There was a lot of emoting!
• Time in Baltimore post-conference: coffee with Kathleen, my Druid Hill Park walk, and stops at favorite locales (Golden West, particularly)!

A cartoon from NLC keynote

Professional Fun Stuff

• Listened to the rockin’ music that could have been part of our ComplyRight video, but I think it was a little too rockin’ for Simple Steps to Hiring Your First Employee. Called Chris Merritt, and we played phone tag, but it was nice to kind of connect!
• Bobby has left candy presents around my desk, and that was really fun. I found two of them and then a third later in the day. 
• Great mentoring sessions with Patti and Jeanne. With Jeanne, I was able to sit outside at Lake Anne and enjoyed the BEAUTIFUL weather.
• Values-Based Interview Guidelines got a fair number of kudos! Woohoo! 
• NLC: Good drive to Baltimore with Katie. The conference went the best of them all so far. I got to see Antara and Ellyn. Martin was awesome to work with. There was time for some good SCORE Team bonding, and I got to chat with so many awesome volunteers! Tim Gilligan's keynote was fantastic and inspirational!

Summer is Here!

Zach
Just after our last blog post, Zach got a haircut! We were at the pool on Father's Day, and I realized it was so long that I could pull it altogether, twirl it, and snip. We had to do a little shaping and evening, definitely wasn't the best haircut, but it was not bad! And though I missed his hair, looking back at pre-cut photos, I like his new haircut better! (It's probably time for a trim now.)

Of Note

• Lawn mowers as entertainment

• Clemyjontry Park! He loves the school bus! He hated the carousel!

• Zach took off his diaper one night, and it wasn't pretty! He pointed to his BM and said, "uh,oh." We can't put him to bed with access to his diaper. Lesson learned.
• Locked himself in Frank's car with the house and car keys. 

• The month of smoothies: pb, banana, and milk; peach and milk; cantaloupe and vanilla yogurt. He's drinking them out of his own glass!
• The best video ever of Zach on the slides at Luv 2 Play for Harley's birthday party! Those places are amazing.

• Really loving breakfast with Zach. I love to get up in the morning and hang out with him before he starts insisting on "outside."

Zach's Words:

• Saying "please" without being prompted
• Working on getting "Mommy" and "Daddy" with the right one of us
• Knows "tree," "sky," "airplane," "outside," "diaper," "all done," "damnit"????, "poop," "pool," and "Bye, bye pool."
• He tells us to "sit," mostly with him while he's eating
• He says "all done," and starts handing us his food items
• He called tomatoes on the counter "balls."

Father's Day

On Father's Day, Zach took me to breakfast at Lake Anne Coffee House. We gave Frank a little time to himself, and he enjoyed playing in the fountain. He stole a sugar packet from Cafe Montmartre, and he sucked nasty fountain water through it. Good times! When we got back, we took Zach to the pool, then the haircut, as mentioned above.

Excursions & Visits

• Patrick & Jen came over for dinner, and we made the Green Grocer's turkey and zucchini meatballs with a yogurt sauce and a sweet potato and kale salad. Both delicious!
• Enjoyed having tacos at Crooked Run Brewing and meeting Emily R.'s parents. Good to see Aliana too!
• Sam, Julia, and Zahra stopped by
• Visit to Gamma and Daddy Bob's for the 4th of July. Jeff and Auntie Em came too!

• Kathleen came to visit the weekend before my birthday. We made a yummy lamb chili with raita, rice, and green bean and fennel salad. We trekked out to Bluemont Winery and Zach loved dancing to their musician, Tony. One of the group's there told me how cute they thought Zach was and how much they liked my "Nevertheless She Persisted" shirt! :)
• Chinese takeout with the Shahipskys. The tricycle obsession begins.

Birthday

Susan at the National
Gallery of Art

• The Mall. It was really great to have some time to myself! I took the Metro and listened to NPR, got a cappuccino from Le Pain Quotidien and walked to the Hirshorn. Finished my drink in their lovely garden by the fountain. Went in and checked out the Aiwewei exhibit. Headed over the National Gallery and visited their East of the Mississippi, Urban Scapes 1920-1950, Rineke Dijkstra photographs, and an American Art before 1950 exhibit with Hopper, O’Keefe, Steiglitz, etc. On the way back to the Metro, I got a peppermint lemonade and a bagel for lunch. Yum! Dinner with Auntie Em at Bar Taco. 
• Multiple birthday desserts! Leah made me Bourbon Brownies and Auntie Em made a peach and blueberry crisp. So yummy. 
• Watched Mumford & Sons concert DVD on Friday

• Dinner date at Grandale Vintner's Table on Saturday. We lucked out with the weather. Lower humidity and a truly spectacular and unusual July evening. We sat out at the winery and at the restaurant, and after dinner, we walked around the grounds.

Susan & Frank

Birthday dinner at Grandale Vitner's Table. See above!

Personal & Professional Fun Stuff

Going down on the Mall for the Folklife Festival was definitely a great time. That Sunday's weather was slightly cooler and less humid, so we enjoyed the unicycles, trapeze artists, and acrobats.

Museuming just a few days later is always a treat. 

• Blue Apron and the Green Grocer - continue to be tasty 
• Banana mint chocolate chip milkshakes
• Enjoyed reading Lauren Graham's Talking As Fast As I Can and starting the writing process she highlights (for 10 minutes/day for 3 days) :/
• Fun professional stuff included 
• Being introduced to Ultimate Software and LeaderAMP and considering the CPLP. Diversity & Inclusion focus and good convos with Diversity Works. What a cool game! Reconnected with Sally Jue who's now with Cook Ross. Two great mentor conversations with Jeanne and Patti. 
• Steve said I was probably the only person in the office that never misses deadlines. He agreed I had been very proactive this past year and flexible. 
• Some good runs, especially a couple of Sunday mornings!