Hot, Hot, Hot

Burke Lake View. We spent a nice Sunday AM there.

Zach - Of Note

• Lollipops at Trader Joe's have been discovered.
• Zach really likes Stephen Kellogg’s Gift Horse album, in particular, My Favorite Place. He sang “days and days and days and days…” with me. 
• Loves swimming underwater, tried out his goggles, finished swimming lessons, and spent a lot of time in the water at Lewes and in Michigan!
• Zach loved swimming generally and the blue floating mat in particular in Lewes.

• Early morning excursions in Lewes to Nectar and to the park and in Michigan to Charlevoix and Boyne City
  
• Scooting and rollerblading together in Lewes and Michigan.
• On the drive to Michigan, Zach played with my hair while we played his Monster Truck game on the Fire.
• Zach loved the keyboard at the house in Michigan!
  
     
• A bit of a fever after he got back from Michigan. I blame Celestine. She was super-snotty. 
• This month Zach has read with me and asked me to go for walks with him. I told him that I loved walking him to daycare. 
• We bought a pumpkin for fall decoration. He wanted to bring it inside. He named it "Athena."
• New show is Leo, the Wildlife Ranger.
• Zach is loving his Bourbon Street Band is Back book (thanks Auntie Em), and it has instruments in it, so this week we watched videos of people playing trumpets and saxophones.

  

  Zach at Soccer Shots

Zach - Potty Training

• Still great; Julie put him in a diaper in Michigan because she didn't know he doesn't wear them anymore.
• He's having more accidents with us, but nowhere else. He gets so much prompting at daycare, and with us, he isn't always telling us when he needs to go now.... Not sure what that's about, but frustrating. One night he laughed when he told us that he peed on himself and the couch. Not cool. His program privileges ended, and he had a timeout. 
• I can see where if we were trying to potty train at 2 years 8-10 months, he would have been a lot less cooperative!

Zach's Words

• Mommy and Daddy's (and Nancy's) age inappropriate words of the day: "damage," "windpipe," "belligerent," "succulent," as in he has "succulent toes," "inordinate," “appearance," "resilient"
• Zach’s funny mispronunciation of hiccupping, hicking-up.
• "Sure, I can do that."
• At one point in Michigan, we sang the All About Firetrucks song, “...all you need is a hero...standing brave and tall all over this land. When darkness falls, all you need is a hero, an angel of mercy, a helping hand.” Zach belts it out! So cute!
• He says things like “this is cool,” and “so exciting.” 
• Zach is saying: “the potty and pacis don’t mix." (He dropped one of his pacis in the toilet a while back.)
• “Knives are sharp.” 
• “Did you see my trick,” even if it’s not a trick per se.
• Zach will pretend to be barely hanging on and say, “I can’t hold on much longer,” like in Fireman Sam
• I hate using the term threenager, but it seems to fit.
• He now say's that he's "frustrated," and things are "so annoying."
• “I’m ready to listen now” 
• Zach says, “okay, okay, okay,” in a really exasperated way when we tell him something too many times.Angie told us that she has the best conversations with him. They chat when he’s settling down for his nap, and he’s like a “little adult.”
• It's awesome when he says, “I love you so much, Mommy.” 

Susan & Frank

• Super fun date night to Crooked Run, tacos, and a walk around Lake Anne.

• So much fun in Michigan! Date night coming up next weekend. 

Good Food

Zach loves my
zucchini hash

• Sam's awesome strawberry daiquiris in Lewes
• Dinner with Auntie Em at Passion Fish
• Summer salsa of cherry tomatoes and that tasty basil olive salt. The lefotver juice made a tomato juice that Mom would like, I think.  
• Frank is trying to change his diet to help with his uppper endoscopy issues, and that's an interesting challenge to cooking.... 
• Mushroom, fennel, green bean salad with balsamic dressing, walnuts, and blue cheese

Visits with

• Grandad; he came right before and right after all our adventures!
• The Uberbuddes and more Zach and Zahra! Thanks, Kate, and it was great fun to hang with Sam, Julia, and Kathleen. See all Lewes photos and videos here. 
• Auntie Em. We see her most weeks at the farmer's market.
• Gamma and Bob in Michigan. On our date night in MI, Zach kept asking where Mommy and Daddy were and Mom eventually told him we were riding unicorns, and he said, “Oh, okay.”
• Thanks to Sara Gay, Nancy, and Edguardo for being awesome hosts as ususal.
• Auntie Em. A sad week for her as our kitty, Bess, is not doing well. 

Fun Stuff & Not So Fun Stuff (Personal & Professional)

• Emmy is so proud of Zach and us. She shared that she uses us as an example with other parents. She says, “Zach is just two and he….” She told me she tells other parents, “I didn’t think they’d just get rid of diapers, but they did!”
• Lunch at Dogfish in Lewes
• Kinda funny: Zach lost his balance and fell off the blue mat in the bay in Lewes. I dove under to "rescue" him. (He'd already grabbed on to the mat and saved himself. :).) I lost my contacts and then I got water in my ear again that did not go away. So, on the trip, I experienced not being able to see...not being able to hear....
  
• A new season of Heartland released on Netflix!
• Good books: First Impressions, Flat Broke with Two Goats, Once in a Blue Moon Lodge
• Promotion and raise for Frank!
• Terrific advice from Jenn
• A great talk with Patti about The Field Ops Teams' Communications Skills Training
• Salary study got me all preoccupied, but I was well-equipped to deal with it with help from Frank, Nancy, Katie, Candice, and Jeanne
• It has been a challenging few weeks with two of my favorite volunteers experiencing really difficult and heartbreaking personal situations. I have thought a lot about them. To paraphrase Marilyn, she said, "Spend time with family and do the things important to you because you don't know how much time you have."
• Boomer Works meeting

Northern Michigan Vacation 2018

Relaxing for most of the family trip; a great vacation! See all photos and many videos here. 

Overall Highlights

• Having Mom and Dad with us!
• Bryan Lake and the paddle and row boats
  
• Beach walks and rock art on the beaches

  

  A study in green

• The Platte River Canoe and the German family
• Traverse City and Left Hand Charley + lunch to go from Spanglish
• East Arm Day: hike, Chateau Chantal, and Bonobo
• Rollerblading
• Downed trees and off roading
• A visit to Tandem Ciders

  

  Love, love, love Zach

• Watching Hoosiers on video tape!
• Sara Gay, Nancy, and Edguardo!
• Seeing Marilyn and the Fowles again
• Rudbeckia and Burnt Marshmallow: the beers, ciders, car track for Zach, a huge bocci ball puddle, and a pig!

Funny 

• The funny conversations re: White House Athletic shirts with the barista at Leelanau Coffee
• The woman at the Market Basket who shared that her 20-year old daughter just texted to tell her about her impending wedding on Labor Day weekend (this was on Thursday before Labor Day) to a guy she's known three months. Her mom said, "She's impulsive like me." 
• The salon being open at 6:51 am on a Sunday in Charlevoix with two women getting their hair done!
• The two guys, donuts, chocolate milk in champagne glasses, and some sort of game at Boyne City Pavilion. We saw them first getting the donuts at the grocery. I assumed the dozen were for work. Oh, no just them.
• There were really a lot of super-blonde and red-headed children in Northern Michigan!

Zach Highlights

• The birthday party we crashed at the Lake Ann playground and the dinosaurs!
  
• Jake from Memphis and his willingness to play with these random kids (Zach, Lacey, and Natalie)
  
• A great time with Julie. He said on several occasions, "I love Julie's." He didn't learn as much good stuff (jumping, high fives, fist bumps) and possibly learned some attitude from the other kids....
• Moomers excursion with Gamma and Bob. Mom thought he said he wanted "salted" ice cream, so salted caramel was what he got!
• The keyboard at the Lake Ann rental house
• Elk Lake picnic and rock throwing
• Meeting and hanging out with Celestine
• The bomberro
  
• Loved Meli and she did not love him!
• Charlevoix bridge, boats, pirate, and splash pad

Good Food & Drink

• Pizza and Mackintosh cider in Lake Ann
  
• Burgers on the grill
• Pleasanton Brick Oven Bakery's lemon lavender cookie and Oryana's cherry pecan cookies
• The Hop Lot's mead
• Mary's Asian Cuisine Food Truck
• Edguardo's rice and fried garlic. He shaved with a knife and fried it. Yum!

Stormy Lake Michigan

Sunny Lake Michigan

A Lot Can Happen in Four Weeks

Zach - Of Note

• Less than ideal sleeping continues. Week of July 23, he was up in the middle of the night three nights. Week of August 6, he was up in the middle of the night two nights. :(
• Hopping, hopping, hopping
• Zach “made” ice cream. It was goat cheese ice cream with an artisan cone. Pretentious hipster boy! (Okay, Mommy and Daddy suggested the "artisan cone.")
• This month Zach gave teddy bear (Katija) a time out. He asked Mommy to set the timer for her and then said the timer went off before it did. He was in control. 
• Zach does great phone impersonations, especially considering how little we talk on the phone around him. 
• Zach and trying to get him to sleep until his frog glows green. The first day he did it he bounded into our bedroom yelling, "Daddy."
• Took him to Great Country Farm's Peach Fuzztival. Teehee. 

View at Great
Country Farms

• He knows which shoes are my "work shoes." He notices so much!
• Apparently Colleen is trying to get Zach to slow down when he eats too. Zach is telling us to “slow down/take a break.” Good for all of us!
• Swimming:
• Austin, the lifeguard, had to take Zach to the potty. As they were walking out, Zach said, “I need to wash my hands.” Austin was, like, “Right!” and back they went! 
• Swim lessons finally started! Thank you, Eva! He now jumps in the pool and jumps out from the wall. He kicks and swims under water, and we're still working on blowing bubbles or closing his mouth. As he swims under water more and more, the chlorine is bothering his eyes. He's getting better at floating, but doesn't love it. 

Zach - Potty Training

• He's still doing great. An accident in C'ville when he probably didn't know who to ask to take him to the potty. Jim Q. was watching Fireman Sam with him, and it was probably confusing how the show would stop and if he'd get to keep watching, etc. 
• Little accidents where he seems to be cocky and doesn't ask in time. 
• He wet his bed overnight for the third time? Maybe fourth? Not bad. 

Zach's Words

• Mommy and Daddy's age inappropriate words of the day: self-assured, destination, inept, retrieve, defunct, mutant, unorthodox, analysis, situation
• "That's a good idea."
• "I won't do that next time."
• We read The Knight and the Dragon, and Zach said he didn't like "menacing," as in "the dragon practices looking menacing."
• “Holy beep” - Oops
• "Great teamwork” 
• We're all "super stars" lately.
• He's been saying, "why," and Frank added in: "Why don't you guess?" And he's really good at that!

Susan & Frank

13th Wedding Anniversary celebrations: 

• Drinks and dinner at Ten Penh
• Jason Isbell at Wolf Trap was AWESOME! Such a good show!

Good Food

• Charlottesville Farmer's Market: we got sweet and savory pies, English muffin sandwiches, mushroom empanadas, tomatoes, blackberries.
• Dinner in Charlottesville was great! We had a peach, corn, feta salad and pork and a yummy berry cobbler
• Delicious sausage, egg, and biscuit and cappuccino (for me), milk (for him) at Mudhouse Coffee when Zach woke up as per ususal, super-early. They were the coffee house that opened the earliest on Sunday morning at 7am.

• Jenifer brought lemon poundcake that her Zac made to celebrate our NLC efforts. 
• Farmer's market: Zach chomps on baguettes, loves gooseberries, blackberries, and grapes. He also loves sampling peaches, nectarines, apples, and blueberries, just not as much. 
• Summer bounty of summer checca pasta, mushrooms and chard, pesto, eggplant dip, zucchini hash, cantaloupe, banana mint chocolate chip milk shakes
• Balsamic tofu, rice, corn, grilled zucchini and blistered shishito peppers with Giada's basil olive salt
• Basil strawberry lemonade!

Z & Z at Gabriele
Rausse Winery

Visits with

• Emily and Andrew for a dinner date, and they also joined me and Zach for Reston's "Totally Trucks" event. 
• Excursion to Charlottesville to see Ralph, Chuckie, Susan, Jim and Sam, Julie, and Zahra. Zach enjoyed listening to the Old Town School of Folk Music and singing Peanut Butter and Row, Row, Row Your Boat.
• Grandad at Clemyjontry 
• Mary Kay by phone!
• Mom and Dad came to visit with Auntie Em
• Had Erik over for dinner while his family was away
• Raubia's wedding!

At Totally Trucks

Fun Stuff (Personal & Professional)

• Good ol' "O" magazine. Happiness research indicates that we should practice: daily gratitudes, random acts of kindness, talk to strangers, get in touch with relatives, give people the benefit of the doubt, get enough sleep, exercise, write and deliver a thank you letter, meditate for 10 minutes/day. 
• Motivation & Recognition Update - extricated myself from the project after things went south, but there is some lasting good to come of my passion and efforts. Take the small wins!
• Watched the last episode of Heartland that Netflix has available - 9 seasons. I’ve been watching it since Zach was born.
• Watched Anne with an "E" as my replacement for Heartland
• Having Tammy back at Zumba

NLC 2018

• Preparing for Recruit, Retain, Repeat. Thanks to volunteers (Don, Jayne, Marc) and staff (Betsy, Jenifer, Andi) who helped refine the activity!
• Walks in Jacksonville:
• With Katie to grocery store and around deserted parts of town near the stadia. Not too nice. Depressing, actually. 
• Along the Riverwalk on my own
• Running/walking with Katie and then Jenifer for a walk
• Meals with Zach. Breakfast in particular worked well. I ate a banana while Zach had his. He shared his food “through” the phone. 
• Thunderstorms!
• Charlevoix hat strikes again. Met an adorable mother and son who visited Charlevoix and we talked about Petoskey and Traverse City! 
• Loved Cathy, Beth, Julie, Noriko, Ann, Pat, Laura, Eileen, Marilyn, Hugh, Frances, Janice, Jim, Juliette, Pete C. and his wife, Steve M. and Curt and his anti-hugging antics, Martin, and Karl from Topeka congratulated me on my “beautiful boy," Brian and Kim A. Tom He, Jay, and Tom Hu and Karen W. 
• Celebrating RVP Bill :) 
• No hugging debacles! I ended up hugging people, and we joked about it being captured on the activity feed. (It wasn't.) 

Much Celebration

Zach - Of Note

• Zach has started strapping his animals in the car now - penguin and teddy bear (aka Katija)
• He's still waking up VERY early. I used to convince him to let Daddy sleep, but that doesn't work much anymore. We're all up at 6:20/6:25 am and this week it's been more like 6am. On 7/14 - maybe - I had a bit of a breakthrough and told him it was too early. He peed, and then got back in bed. I've heard him talking, but he hasn't gotten back out of bed and it's 6:53am, so....
• We visited Clemyjontry for the first time in a long time and the train was back up and running.

• Zach started using old shoelaces to lead us around the house “on the butterfly” like he does at school. 
• I took him to the shoe store to get fitted for new shoes since we think the lack of fit may be causing some of his accidents. We had lunch at La Tolteca. Yum!
• Some mornings we read books together in “Mommy’s bed." Faves have been: Journey and One Red Dot 
• He has a new move. I call it the hop turn. 
• More injury. He fell into a rock wall foothold in the big gym and cut his eye. Daycare insisted I take him to the doctor. They told me he said they should call me since "Daddy already has a boo boo." No stitches needed, but he did have bruising on his eyelid. 

Several sunny weekend
days playing in the
fountain at Lake Anne

• Zach has mentioned being scared this month - of monsters and the noise we made one night in the laundry room (below his bedroom) just after he went to bed
• He got the hiccups and said he was hick-upping (wrong emphasis) and then hicking up too! Tee hee.

Zach - Potty Training ('cause I know you're dying for an update!)

• It's still going great. For a while, he'd say, when I put him on regular sized potties, “you'll hold on to me?” So sweet.
• He now prefers to say "pee coming."
• He's gotten a little cocky and doesn't get to the potty in time.
• He's almost completely thrown over his little potties in favor of sitting on the big potty, though he did go completely by himself on the little potty earlier this week!
• He peed in the woods after initally reluctance. I think it's because in Potty, doggie "goes outside."

Look, his one hand isn't
even on the keyboard!

Zach's Words

• Zach made up a word, “Tafooti”? He says it, and he just laughs. 
• He says, “It's my fault,” because they say that ALL the time at the end of Fireman Sam. (It took me three weeks to realize this!)
• “That's a good idea, Mommy.”
• Zach knows what “commando” means. One morning he wouldn’t put his undies on and said he wanted to “go commando.”
• He's still really excited about going to the beach and Michigan in August.
• "That gonna be a disaster!." He's loving his book, The Knight and the Dragon.
• Zach has started saying, “why,” a lot.
• Zach asked about Lisa's ponytail in Cordoroy, and I pointed out my ponytail. Now, he looks for it!

Susan & Frank

• Canoeing on the Shenandoah River. We got a beautiful weekend and stopped at Cobbler Mountain on our way to Gamma and Bob's. The next morning, Sunday, we got up and canoed on the Shenandoah and took a picnic lunch to Castle Vineyards. Thanks, Gamma and Bob for babysitting!
• Date night: dinner at Four Sisters and and the movie, Leave No Trace

Good Food

• Awesome birthday treats: sour cherry crisp and lemon poundcake by Auntie Em
• Terrific birthday dinner out with Auntie Em at Ten Penh
• Peaches, cantaloupe smoothies, spread, summer bounty ratatouille, garlic scape/basil/sunflower seed/parmesan cheese pesto 
• Mustard, maple syrup, soy sauce, and olive oil marinated tofu = a hit with beets, avocado, walnuts, and rice. 
• Ginger beer summer cocktails

Cider at
Crank Arm Brewing

Visit with

• The Shaheepskys. We met them at Potomac School's playground and went for tacos afterwards. It was a hot day and Zach shared his popsicles
• Patrick and Jen's baby shower. Emily and I saw a wolf or coyote out by the brewery, Twinpanzee!
• An overnight visit with Kathleen
• Grandad, and he got us Thai from La Ong and a hobo Stout from Total wine.
• Pool with Auntie Em on the 4th of July
• Aliana and Nathan hosted us at their house in Fairfax. They a huge, beautiful house! Evera and Zach had fun eating together. Zach loved her little guitar. 
• Gamma and Bob in Woodstock
• Kathleen and Brian at Dry Mill Winery
  

Fun Stuff (Personal & Professional)

• Father's Day excursion to Old 690 for lunch
• Lots of research on motivation and recognition and kudos from colleagues for my work. Thanks Jeanne, Katie, Sameena, Andi, Betsy for more motivation help!
• Great work with Tim G. and vols and good work convos, Jayne, Marc
• It took a while to get into, but definitely enjoyed The Storied Life of AJ Fickry 
• Meeting with Boomer Works on how to work through fear, uncertainty, and doubt. Fascinating presentation. 
• Even though there's been some blazing hot weather, we've had some nice low humidity days. Walks to daycare and home have been enjoyable.
• Met Fateh and held Raubia's wedding celebration at SCORE. Rachel did an AMAZING job helping
• A nice lunch out at Lake Anne Coffee House
• Trip to Raleigh for the TICE conference with JPL/d'Vinci folks. It was great. Dinner out and local brewery. Tom knows Vertical Horizon. Lots of fun talking music. Talked to Megan from Hershey who loves skiing. Kati and that onboarding energy (A Positive Adventure). Girl Scouts!
• Nice Raleigh walk and coffee/breakfast with Lucy. 
• Emily and Andrew are engaged!
• Heel digs at Zumba. 

• Visit with Greer in Philadelphia. Lunch at Barbuzzo, so delicious. Thanks, Betsy. A visit to the Philadelphia Museum of Art and Elixr. 
• Enjoying La Foret on Netflix
• Lots of birthday wishes! Tom Burgum! Greer, Mary Kay, Raubia, Morgan, Jessica, Sofia, Zara, Sameena, Kate. Tons of fun blading (a snake slithered across the path!) and then having lunch at Senor Ramon’s with Frank. 
• Caught up with MKC. 

Jump Starting Potty Training & More!

Potty Training
Day 3

Zach - Potty Training

• Today is Day 22 of potty training, and it's gone unbelievably well. 
• We had 14 tough days, and then it clicked completely (as of now anyway!). 
• Daycare was not as supportive as we thought they would be. After two big pooping accidents (one where they had to close the playground to all kids), they suggested that he wear pull ups for outside and gym time, whenever he was far from the potty. We feared he would regress, but he did not. They did make is seem like he was unusual for having accidents, which cannot be true! As our babysitter said, "That is potty training."
• In week two, I thought he was developing a serious pooping hang up. Luckily, he was not.   
• By end of weekend 1, he had gotten peeing down and would ask us to pee on the potty. 
• By the end of weekend 2, he got pooping down, including asking to "go poop" and "it's coming," and "Ah, there it is!" AND he used his potty in the car and peed and pooped out at a public restroom. Done. (Not really, I'm sure, but still!) 
• Of note: We converted his bed from crib to a bed with a rail. He needed to be able to get up. That seemed to disrupt the cozy feeling of his crib and cause some of our night time problems. 
• He's had 1 accident during nap time and overnight. One. One. One! He immediately began holding his pee all night. The downside here was 5-7 days where he woke at 4:45 or in the 5am hour and did not go back to sleep. All were a little sleep deprived. :( We've definitely obsessed over his disrupted sleep, but it's nothing in the grand scheme! 
• We learned that closing his door at night seemed to make a difference. He feels safe and cozy like he did in his crib. 
• Key concepts seem to be: you're just learning; this is hard; and of course "We're so proud of you!" This works for other things too!
• Thanks for Auntie Em for helping with laundry on that first weekend!

Zach - Of Note

Zach loves his
UGA football 

• Continued nice long walks to/from daycare by the fire station or by the Zumba gym. One morning on the way to daycare, we got to go inside the fire station again and see Fireman Josh again!
• He's wrapping his legs around me often when I pick him up now. 
• We've also enjoyed stopping in Whole Foods and/or CVS on certain evenings when we walk home and stopping by the fountains
• A man at the store asked what aisle I’d found Zach in... and said he's “so cute.” 
• Frank and Zach crashed the Montessori School's festival one Friday afternoon, and they had a blast. Zach rode their "train" four times! 

He’s really loving
hanging and dropping

• Zach fell running up some stairs and split is lip, bruised his teeth, etc. Frank had to take him to doctor, dentist, and pediatric ER. Yikes! 

Injured Zach :(

Zach's Words

• Zach told Frank today that he would “be nice to his sister.” Awww…. Neighbor, Teddy, and daycare friends are getting younger siblings (Noalie, David, Evie, etc.)
• Zach is not a fan of storms, “I don’t like thunder,” and he'll ask, "Where did the thunder go."
• Zach says, “Stop talking." We're trying to get to something nicer. During a Dino Dana episode, we were reminded of the Cure song, “Enjoy the Silence,” so we're trying that out. 
• We've been talking about our vacation, and he’s saying, “I want to go to Michigan” and "I want to go to Michigan right now."
• He mimics back, "I'm so proud of you. Good job, Mommy. Awesome!"

Susan & Frank

• Frank and I had a date night and went to Beltway Brewing for tasters and a Nordic Knot pretzel and to Enyate for Ethiopian. 
• Date night of Dogfish and the movie, Solo.

Good Food

• Asparagus and mushroom cream sauce with pasta
• Smashed potatoes
• Strawberry mint chocolate chip milkshakes! 
• Meatballs with zucchini
• Frittata
• Lentil apricot soup from French Kids Eat Everything
• Goat cheese tart
• Melodious blend, rice, olives, greens with fried leeks on top
• Finally, on 6/16, yummy strawberries from the farmer's market. Thank you, Auntie Em

Zach's flip

Family photo from May trip to visit Marney!

Visits with

• Emily Rogers came over for dinner, and we all ate together with Zach. Very nice!
• Kathleen and brunch at Red's Table. Yum! Also, a good walk. 
• Emily and Jeff walked with us to the favored Lake Anne playground. 
• Lunch with Anna
• Grandad
• Indoor picnic with Emily, Jeff, Mom, and Dad on weekend two of potty training
• Emily, Mom, and I went to see Barry Manilow, and it was AMAZING!

Fun Stuff (Personal & Professional)

• I took Sandra to N'Used, and we both hit the jackpot!
• Calls with Jeanne; she's helped me in a bind twice!
• Our AC meeting was a lot less enjoyable than normal, but I did have a nice chat with Frances. 
• My ATD webinar on DEI went really well. Angeline said it was particularly great b/c I had 10 participants. 11 had been registered and all stayed to the end, which doesn’t always happen! 
• Fantasic work trip to Houston. The best trip in a while. I got to see Sofia, I enjoyed learning from the women, and I got to take a couple nice walks, particularly on Tuesday morning when I walked to Shipley Do-Nuts and Starbucks. 
• Field Ops Team Retreat. I'm hopeful. 

Five Weeks of Winter, Spring, & Summer

Zach - Of Note
Parties, Parks, & Playgrounds Galore: 

• The playground near Lake Anne; Zach wants us to all go down the slides together (since they have three slides abreast)
• We had a great time at Frying Pan Park on the tractors and on a wagon ride! 
• Family excursion to Hamilton Community Park, a new playground for Zach with a sort of zip line, and lunch at Old 690 Brewery. 
• Rick and Susan were supposed to have a party and parties mean balloons. Zach was so excited. When it got cancelled b/c Rick was sick, he was so disappointed. We bought him his own balloon the next day. 

Fires

• A trip out to Gamma and Bob's included an open house at the Strasburg Fire Station
• He's been putting out fires since then all month....sssss. He'll wake up saying, "There's a fire in the oven," etc. 
• A couple of nice long walks home by the fire station after I picked him up from daycare, and a weekend walk by the fire station where Fireman Josh showed him around!
  

Potty Training
Zach wanted to sit on the potty once this month! After he sat there, but didn't do anything, I put him in underwear. Don't know if it was a good idea. In the end, he said he wanted his diaper, but I think he gets it and is not confused. Problem is, he doesn't care about being a big boy and wearing underwear, though he did say he wanted pull ups one night since he wears those at daycare....

Misc.

Zach in his "Bob" shirt

• Teddy’s basketball hoop and ball! Teddy's baby sister arrived this month! 
• Zach's first dentist appointment and a balloon!
• Zach's starting to recognize where things, ie, that we’re home, near the Zumba gym, etc. 
• Zach's also gaining an awareness of days: tomorrow and days of the week. He’s starting to understand that he doesn’t go to daycare on the weekends. 
• We had a short stint of reading in the morning, Alfie; Good night, Maisey; and the art book
• A trip to the zoo. So cold!
• Ball playing in the front yard
• For a few days, Zach enjoyed being made into a sandwich!
• At bedtime, Zach will lay down on the floor downstairs, and I'll pick him up by his feet and carry him upstairs
• Zach has started saying, “Go away.” My tack when he does this in the morning is to tell him that he has to say "hello, Mommy," and give me a hug, then he can ask for Daddy. 
• Zach wiped out on his scooter and got a scrape on his cheek, chin, and forehead. He also got a big cut under his nose. It's still healing a week+ later :(
• Zach enjoys “swimming” in the bath and putting his head underwater. Good for his cut. He also wanted me to put goldfish in the bath. 

Show and Share Items: his fireman hat, his shovel and the bouncy ball from the dentist, his ornament kitty and bat, balloons (not allowed, choking hazard)

Zach's Words

• Zach made two birthday videos this month - one for Emmy and one for Marney. Very cute. 
• This month Zach started telling us to “watch out” and “be careful.” 
• I told Zach I “hurt” my nail while I was grating zucchini, and he asked me if I wanted him to “kiss it” He kind of air kisses and puckers. It’s not an actual kiss. So cute!
• Alternating singing Mr. Sun and Zach saying “your turn.” 
• Zach loves us making certain noises from the noisy book, like ooo, ooo, ooo for the 🐒. 
• Frank made an exasperated sigh yesterday and he loved it, “Do it again!” He says "Do it again," a lot!
• Frank sang “Do you know the muffin man?” And Zach interrupted and said, “Daddy, I know the muffin man.” 
• When we told him we were going to Katie and Suji's he said, "Woo-hoo" and did a little dance. 
• Zach says, “I'm coming, Madison.”  (His friend at daycare)
• Zach was singing Elvis's song, from Fireman Sam, "Red is for danger. Red is what I said. When you're in danger, the color is red." He used a stick as his microphone!
• Zach said this morning that he wanted to go to Tennessee. When we said, “Yes, we're going on Friday.” He said, “I want to go today. Wahhhhh!!!” 
• Zach asked Auntie Em, “Will you watch Fireman Sam with me.” Wow! 
• He also said, “Awesome, good job, Mommy.” This was after I said, “We did it!” after our grocery store excursion.

Alan concert!

Susan & Frank

• Rollerblading: once the weekend Zach visited Gamma and Bob, and they visited the fire station
• And a second time when Emmy came to babysit. Zach and Emmy rode the Metro and went to the Tysons Mall play area. Rollerblading, there was a stiff wind, and a biker told us we were “crushing it” as he passed us on an uphill portion. Frank and I went to Senor Ramon’s and Crooked Run, and the tacos and beer were delicious!
• Alan Doyle concert

Good Food

• I made popcorn and Zach at times called it crack corn. A mixture of crackers and popcorn! 
• Making chia seed pudding for Frank instead of milk-based yogurt; it's not very consistent :)
• Back to Green Grocer boxes. Need to eat a little healthier.... Cooking on Tuesdays is a new routine. 
• Live kale salad
• Turkey zucchini meatballs
• Kimchi tacos
• Salmon burgers
• Kale salad and roasted sweet potatoes
• Green Grocer ravioli with mushrooms, asparagus, and leeks with toasted quinoa and parmesan
• Lunch of toasted bread, tomato, and cucumber salad
• Omelet with spring onions, garlic, mushrooms, asparagus, and cheddar
• Lots of tofu and instapot rice with different sauces and a tasty peanut sauce that Zach liked a lot
• Smashed potatoes
• Strawbererry rhubarb bread
• Chicken, rice, greens, lemon dressing, olives, and tomatoes.

Zach in Grandad's
red truck

Visits with

• Yvette! I met her at Le Pain Quotidien, and we had a wonderful time catching up!
• Raubia; she came to meet Zach, and we took the long route home with her. It was cold!
• Auntie Em - we visited the kitty cousins and had a nice little party near her house
• Dinner party at Katie and Suji's; Meadow, their dog, got a B-
• Dinners with Grandad at Tacos and More and Mellow Mushroom
• Down to Tennessee for Mother's Day. We had a fun time visiting Marney and had multiple parties. We stopped at a Harvest Table, Abingdon Winery, First Watch for breakfast, and the White Duck Taco Shop, which included some Yee-Haw beer sampling. Yum! The train went right by the restaurant where we sat outside, and it was SO LOUD! Zach got to visit two awesome playgrounds, Winged Deer and the Rotary Park.
  

Fun Stuff (Personal & Professional) & Not So Fun Stuff

• Still need to cultivate analytics and influencers
• Good Reading: Dance Lessons, Educated, and French Kids Eat Everything
• Lunches with colleagues, Sherrill, Jenifer, and Candice
• Calls with MKC and Kathleen
• Got some tips from Sofia this week on structuring my Master Mentor thinking; she was on the SW plane where the woman died
• Good calls with Yetunde; the LAC; the AC, including Frances; and Betsy W., Shira, etc. 
• Podiatrist visit and acid on my feet....
• Sick this month, and it took a long while to go away :(
• Jun's contract was ended
• Auntie Em and Jeff had said goodbye to Peggy