From Fall to Winter

Zach - Of Note

• One morning Frank and I both got up early, before Zach, and when Zach woke up, he came downstairs. He was sleepy and just waking up. It is so unusual to see Mommy & Daddy downstairs, lights on at 6:45am. I told him, “I’m so glad you joined the party!” 
• This month, and Zach's last weeks for pacis, we tried a new strategy since Zach often gets up in the middle of the night wanting another paci when he loses his. We told him we'd leave an extra paci for him on the shelf and he could get it himself. This worked for a while, but we think...maybe because he knows he'll lose his pacis soon, that he's obsessing over them and collecting 3+ overnight and clicking them together....
• “Beating others” is still a thing and a motivator. We can leave in the morning to try and “beat Daddy.” Beat reach other eating, vegetables particularly!
  
• Zach asked if he could give me a kiss this PM, and one rainy day he asked if I would take off my jacket so that he could give me a hug. Awwww!
• Zach loves his firefighter costume! Blows the whistle and references the lifeguards and baby pool! 
  
• Took Zach to the dentist. He’s adorable. I tried to emphasize his need to “be brave,” but he did burst in to tears when the dentist came over. Luckily he wailed with his mouth open. He loves the balloons. 
• Halloween
  
• I picked Zach up at school with the stroller, and we changed into his firefighter pants. We slid down the poll and started trick or treating with the kids in that neighborhood. Frank called and said our neighbors were asking about Zach, so we hightailed it home, and visited our neighbors. At the end of the night, we met up with Teddy. After a two days of candy, he’s forgotten about it.
  

• Zach has started to have timeouts at daycare. :( 
• Zach and I joke about “move over bacon, there’s something leaner” from an 80’s commercial for fake bacon, so I bought meatless bacon at the grocery, and we are calling it “fakin.’” We often use the “Move over bacon,” phrase when he gets in bed with me in the morning. So cute and so funny. 
• Time change. Sigh. 
• One night I made my food too spicy, and I told Zach there was a fire in my mouth. He put it out for me! :)
• Election Day. I took Zach voting with me.He got on a school bus with Mr. Ben.
  
• Sherry, one of Zach's teachers, said today that Zach cracks her up. He was telling one of the other children to “be nice to his friends.” The friend wasn't changing his behavior, so Zach said to Sherry, “He's not understanding me.” He got a soccer shot medal he said for “stepping over.”
• The end of his first ten weeks of soccer shots! He got a medal. He calls it his "award" or "necklace."
  

Zach's Words

• Words of the day: corruption, famished
• This morning Zach said, “I love daycare.” 
• In warmer weather, I forgot to capture this.... Zach has started to understand about mosquitoes. I could say, “they're biting me,” and he would cooperate getting in his car seat, not visit a certain park, etc.
• Zach's phrases: "There's an emergency/emergency service required," "Mommy, I'm sorry, I've got to go," and "No time to lose."
• He says, “We did some really good teamwork, Mommy,” or something like that. The way he phrases it is not quite right. 
• Zach says in the morning lately, “I'm ready for some quiet time.”
• Zach loves to play in Frank's car. Frank says he talks about “checking to make sure it’s all clear.”

Susan & Frank

• A second hike at Wolf Gap on the way to West Virginia. We went back up to Tibbett's Knob.
• Two date nights. We went to see the movie, Free Solo, (great movie!) and got Vietnamese and went out for Frank's birthday dinner at Liberty Tavern and to see a play, Heisenberg, at the Signature Theatre.

Good Food

• Roasted cauliflower and Brussel sprouts
• Chili 
• Lasagna
• Frank's carrot cake birthday cake (1 day early)

Visits with

• Mom and Dad! We went the weekend before the annual trip to WV and the weekend of WV. On the weekend before, Zach enjoyed scooting in the parking lot near Gamma and Bob's house, and we saw hangliders on Sunday morning!
  
• West Virginia with Brian and Kathleen. See below.
• Google Duoed with Auntie Em this morning and that seemed to go very well! Later in the day, Zach said he wanted to “listen to Auntie Em again.” The phrasing is so cute! 
• Grandad and the discovery of another playground with a pole and a storm trooper mask
• Zach and I went to the farmer's market and picked items for our dinner picnic with Greer and Shane. We all went for a hike at Great Falls. Very past peak by the water, but still nice.
• Patti came to deliver modules from Fierce conversations to the Field Ops Team. She brought Zach a quilt! 

Fun Stuff (Personal & Professional)
Personal

• Yvette sent me a Susan Cain post via LinkedIn on kindred spirits, and I sent it to my kindred spirits which allowed me to catch up with several friends who I hadn't talked to in a while!
• In Cleveland, I stopped in at Great Lakes Brewing in the airport and had a Christmas Ale and pretzels with cheese sauce. Yum! Great for a wintry, rainy day!

Professional

• Reading good professional books: No Ego and Growth Mindset have been great food for thought
• The SCORE Volunteer Onboarding Guidelines launched! Presented to northern Ohio (beautiful leaf color) and remotely to northern Florida. Learning a lot! Great work with Steve M. Kudos from Beth. Criticism from Karen W.
• Ann was able to come to the AC meeting, and we got to bond over wound vac use. She hugged me, which has never happened before!
• Laura really helped me with a call with Matt and LeaderA.... 

West Virginia 2018

On Tuesday after our fun long weekend, we recounted all the fun things about WV. 

• Zach got to see Gamma and Bob and scoot and blow bubbles
• He got to see windmills and sing in the car, “open shut them open shut them…”. 
• We got burritos and rode in the fun truck cart at the grocery store. 
• Kathleen read, Those Darn Squirrels
• Brian played with Zach and his cars and trucks and did voices of Cookie Monster. 
• Cookie Monster, Wooly, and Lambykins lived at Mile Failte! 
• We played in snow and got to bundle up. 
• Snow balls. 
• We watch CMT videos, and I cried at a video. Zach said, “Mommy, why you crying?” We also heard and watched the video for Sunrise, Sunburn, Sunset, repeat. 
• We went for a hike by the Spruce Island Lake
• I took a run/walk from Mile Failte around Timberline. 
• Kathleen, Brian, and I hiked a loop in Dolly Sods. 
• We made chicken, spinach, sweet potato, white bean soup with great bread from the Stop and Shop Express. They had pumpkin bread, a multigrain, and a marble rye. 
• Sirianni’s was the best in years! 
• Enjoyed Bluemont wine that Kathleen brought. 
• Read by and enjoyed the fireplace. It was funny; on the first night, we couldn’t figure out how to start the gas lighter for the fireplace, and I almost said, “Let’s call Todd." 
• We laughed about watching Dirty Dancing, and instead watched Spy Games. 

Photos here: West Virginia 2018

Two Days Ago, Fall Finally Arrived

Zach - Of Note

Zach's elf outfit
He picked it himself.

• Zach knows the safety plan at daycare! "If the fire alarm goes off, go to the back door and get on the butterfly!” So amazing! 
• This month, sitting on the couch, Zach said, “I'm so glad you're here.” 
• Zach kissed me and gave me a leg hug when I dropped him off. :)
• Took Zach on the Metro as a way to spend time on a rainy day, and it was so much fun! We went to Ballston.
  
   
• We went to the park in the rain, and I shot down the slide and landed in the mulch. After that, I just caught myself three more times! Very fun. Zach loved it!
• Sliding down the pole at playgrounds
• We continue to visit the fire station regularly.
• The concept of being scared has become a reality. One night he came into our room scared, so we added a night light. It might be working. 
• Zach is loving hide and seek. He always wants to hide in the same two places: under the covers in the guest room bed and under the covers in Mommy & Daddy's bed. He says, “Hide, hide, hide,” urgently! He definitely doesn’t get it yet, but it’s so much fun! 
• He roars like a dinosaur.
• We played that a monster bit us on the playground, and we were running away from it all the way home.
• On an 80+ degree day in October, we all had popsicles, Zach and I got mosquito bites, and we took him to the fountain at Lake Anne.
  
• For Halloween, we're talking about a monster, dinosaur, or firefighter. 

Zach - Potty Training
He's doing great. Still having a few accidents at home. We've instituted just this second week of October that he has to sit on the potty before watching programs at night. One night he had two accidents! But really, he's amazing. 

A shot from daycare at nap time

Zach's Words

• There have been age inappropriate words of the day, but I haven't been good about writing them down! Only one to note: "condescending."
• Zach became briefly obsessed with gummi bears, that I believe he thought were called “yummy bears,” just makes more sense! :)
• Zach said, “Can you take me to that lighthouse,” in our Maine pics. 
• He's been talking nonsense this month and laughing at his "Gaga Gookee," etc.
• Sometimes Zach says, “Yes, sir,” in a very gruff, formal way. Very strange to try and figure out where this is from…. There are no men at daycare, and I can’t imagine there are books that teach, “yes, sir,” etc. Very odd! It might be Fireman Sam, I guess.
• On a visit to Aliana and Nathan, the dogs in the kennel down the street started barking and really scared Zach. He said, “You'll keep me safe?” 
• Zach has been playing around and saying "poopy." Frank hates this and is being rather rigid in trying to stop Zach from saying it.
• He knew Patricia's name when I mentioned our house was getting cleaned. I hadn't said her name at all, and we don't really talk about her. That's amazing!
• Zach asked “Where's Zach in that picture?” Remarking on Auntie Em's wedding photo. I tried to explain it was before he was born!
• Zach has started taking music lessons and soccer once week. Zach wakes up and says, "It's soccer today?" "It's music today?" "I get a popsicle?" So funny.
• We were decorating Auntie Em's card, and he pointed out the cupcake and called it a "pucake." It's a super-cute mispronunciation.

Susan & Frank

• Date night of a walk around Reston and tacos at Taco Bamba

Big Schloss

• Great hike with Frank up to Big Schloss from the Wolf Gap Recreation Area and then a stop at Ridge Runner Brewery. Thanks Gamma and Bob for babysitting.
  

Good Food

• Made chicken, white bean soup (used mushroom broth) with spinach. Added basil and roasted garlic as a topping. Yum!
• Aliana's delicious cornbread and strudel. Evera helped to make the strudel! 
• Yummy breakfast sandwich: bread with butter (probably not necessary), egg, meatless sausage, and roasted sweet potatoes and avocado as spreads more than toppings

Visits with

• Emily and Andrew. Zach showed them everything as if it was new, “You’ve never seen this before.” 
• Aliana and Nathan, Evera and Esher
• Gamma and Bob for Gamma's birthday. Zach said we went to Gamma's birthday party. And we went to see harness racing. Mom showed a video of Debbie’s son’s first baby, and he used a TON of wipes to change his first diaper! Zach loved it and laughed about it later in the day.
  
   
• Dammann extended family. Michael and Leah hosted and Tim and Meaghan and Nolan came along with Ralph and Charlotte!
• Celebrating Auntie Em's birthday with a night out. So much fun! Though she and I have seen each other at the farmer's market, with all of her travel, I've missed her. I have had to do the heel dig wooping all by myself!
• Grandad came for Friday evening pick up, a visit to the shady park, and dinner
• Catching up with Candice and Jessica, Kathryn and Jenifer
• Call with Sofia

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

Personal

• I am 100% obsessed with minute 21:34-22:34 of Season 1, Episode 7 of the show Tin Star. Some pretty amazing acting and character development.
• Rollerbladed 
• If it has to rain and rain and rain and rain, I’m leaving my window open at night and get to hear it, which is nice. 
• We said goodbye to Bess.
  
   
• Trying for some weight loss. We all use the scale together! 
• The week of flu shots for all of us!
• Enjoyed Trapped...lots of amazing snowy scenes!

Professional

• GREAT call with Dorsey. Thank you, Nancy! 
• Good energy with the AARP call. I talked to Cathy, Jim, Bill, Larry, Bob, Curt, and Donna. All good things! I have the skills and the cred!
• Problem solving and communication practice and got the job done!
• Some good collegiality with Steve M. I told him, "What would I do without you."
• Patti & Communication Skills training - still great!
• Working with Laura
• Hopefully attending a StrengthsFinder course!
• Really enjoying Mindset. I joined the ATD book club, and it's great!
• Another spate of departures at SCORE. People I really liked, who believe in SCORE and are passionate. :(

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.