Shoe Hate

It would be an understatement to say that Zain did not like his first pair of shoes.

In the Woods

Quick post from the middle of nowhere. We're on a one week visit to another of the small towns we are auditioning as a potential place to live. We are staying in a great little house out in the country, surrounded immediately by hundreds if pine trees then by acres of cows and rolling fields. It's all very peaceful and we're loving it. Zain has had a lot of fun crawling around in the grass and we've taken lots of hikes in the trails behind our house. We don't have internet at the house, which is both a blessing and a curse. So I'm typing this on Shif's iPhone! So we'll have a longer update when we get back in town next week. A few updates - Zain is finally sprouting his first tooth! After six months of teething-like behavior, there's finally some real action. There is a sharp little nubbin on the bottom. It's taking its sweet time converting into something you can actually see, but you can definitely feel it and it clinks against the grown-up water glass he insists on using. He has also started waving 'hi', albeit with a closed fist. Still working on 'bye-bye'. He's also kinda sorta understanding the names of a few body parts - hand, foot, ears, nose. He's still a big kid and he loooves to eat. He has a pretty huge menu of fruits, vegetables, legumes, tofu, meats, and even herbs that he has eaten. We haven't found amything yet that he won't eat.

Haircut #1

Zain's hair, for most of his existence, has been very neat and tidy.  He had that fun little pointy Caesar, and it could be swept to the side into what we called his "stockbroker hair" for more formal occasions.  But it was always nicely controlled.  We owned a tiny comb, but had no need for it.  I even took a picture the first day he woke up with bedhead, because it was so unusual (or maybe I'm just unusual):

April 21, 2011 - bedhead

However, in the past few weeks, his hair had gotten out of control.  It had devolved into some kind of Beatles-Bieber hybrid - shaggy over the ears, swishy in the back, Caesar points nearly to his eyes.  We were a little reluctant to make that first cut (our baby!), but it was obviously time.  

A couple of his similarly aged pals, Izzy and Jake, had recently made trips to Melonhead to get their first cuts.  Shif convinced me to give her two tries at cutting Zain's hair herself before we sought professional help.  And since Melonhead charges $23, I agreed! 

Attempt #1 came out pretty well - not perfect, but pretty good.  Shif served as barber, I played the role of distracter.  

Before - unruly

Prepping the hair, distracting with Cheerios

Look how long!

First cut

A good view of the Bieber action in the back

Looking slightly crazy mid-haircut

After!  He looks like such a big boy.  :-) or :-( ???

Another after shot

All in all, it was a successful cut.  Shif the barber will retain her day job, but still was impressive with the scissors.  And Zain was amazingly cooperative until the very end. 

Some Older Shots for the Facebookless

This blog is normally our first stop for posting Zain pics, and I catch up later on Facebook.  But these are some shots I put on Facebook a few weeks ago and never got around to blogging.  So, this post is for those of you who are FBless.  And the rest of you can enjoy an encore.  Most of these were taken in April.

"Mommy, my Jolly Jumper isn't working."

Zain's revenge

When traveling.... whatever works!

 

Reading is serious business

 

Ohio Visit Pic-fest

I guess I gave away all the news in the last post.  Zain is crawling very well now.  Not super-fast yet, which is good (for us), but he really gets around.  He loves crawling to various upright objects and then pulling himself to a stand, and standing there squealing for awhile.  And, as I mentioned, thankfully he learned how to sit from a stand instead of falling and bonking his head (Shif's "sitting boot camp" helped).  

His other hobby right now is music.  He has always been a singer.  Now he's adding instruments.  He likes to knock toys together to make sounds.  The last couple days on the change table, he's been rubbing the tin of zinc butt cream along the wall to make new sounds.  He also likes to sing while he has a toy in his mouth and make different sounds with it.  He has one hollow block that is a favorite for this - it must have good acoustics.  Sometimes he'll also smack the toy with his hand for a little rhythm.  I think we've mentioned his head shake before?  For the last month or two, he's been shaking his head (the "no" shake).  He used to do it at people, seemingly trying to get them to shake back.  And he'd also shake at Binda and at characters in books.  Now it seems the shake is also some kind of dance move.  It happens frequently when music comes on.  And every now and then, the rest of the body gets in on the action, too; but he's generally more of a singer than a dancer.

We had a great two-week vacation in Ohio.  Got to see lots of family members, highlighted by Aunt Mary and Uncle Ryan's wedding.  Zain looked very dapper, dressed up with his posse of cousins.  Here are several gajillion pictures from our visit (And we've registered the complaints from Zain Nation about our blog slacking.  It's been a hectic recently.  We promise more frequent updates now!).

Two sharp-looking dudes at the wedding - Zain and Grandpa

With Great-Grandma W at the wedding

A cuddle for Lt Col Uncle Doug (Zain really liked all those toys on Doug's uniform)

With Aunt Lorna, in his Urkel pants

Luke, Zain, and Wyatt with the newlyweds

Ryan giving Zain advice on marriage

Aunt Mary is hilarious!

     

Giggling with Uncle Anthony

We loved the warm weather (but not the tornado warnings)!

 

Whoa!

Maya and I try to convince Zain it's cool to wear a hat

Not convinced

He LOVES the slide

 

How Zain spends most of his time these days

Tippy-toes!

Celebrating Mummy's birthday

We went to the butterfly show with Maya and Lorna

Hunting butterflies

Maya shared her old baby toys with Zain

These stayed on for about five seconds (Mummy is already thinking "that was $7 wasted")

He's crawling and nothing is stopping him

Out for dinner with Grammy

"What is that on your face, Uncle Barry?"

Loves food

Hey, Grandma!

Practicing his walking

Never too young to drive a tractor

Hiking in Glen Helen

 

Perplexed by his first Cheerio