Taking Summer Seriously

Sorry - yet again - for the long time between posts.  We've been busy getting ready for our latest trial-run visits to a couple of Ontario towns, and I've been neglecting my photo-sorting and blogging duties.  It's hard to keep track of a couple hundred pictures a month from two cameras and two cell phones.  The kid is just too photogenic.  :-)  

We've been enjoying some lovely summer weather the past couple weeks!  Zain doesn't seem to mind the heat (or the mosquitoes) and he loves being outside.

Hitting the pool with our godkids, Gavin and Rhys, who were visiting from Halifax

The caution didn't last long

Accidentally standing on his own

 

Hydrating

Hydrating like a frat boy

Helping to set up the tent

Yeah, we can't figure it out either

Learning to understand tents - inside, outside...

It is hot

Dinner picnic (the pasta is already gone - he's a carb addict already)

Post-hike tickles

Post-hike snacking - help yourself!

Visiting the beach!

This sand is so interesting

First time in the water!  He loved it.

Mommy having a little fun with the baby

Seagull stalking

The bib will not stop him

A Short History of Zain and Food

Zain loves his food.  But he's recently entered a phase where he wants to feed himself.  Occasionally, he'll still let us shovel it in, but most of the time now he rejects the spoon.  His pincer grasp is pretty good, although usually the item gets palmed and then shoved in the general direction of his mouth.  Shif and I have different feeding styles.  Her theory is "put it all down and he'll eat what he wants" and my policy is usually "a few at a time".  But listening to him grunt and groan his displeasure if I don't get the pieces down fast enough usually leads me to start following Shif's plan.  There's not a lot of moderation for this boy.  If there are five Cheerios on the tray, he'll try to get all five in his hand at once.  Same goes for gooier things like banana.  I've just resigned myself to the fact that we'll be mopping the floor after every meal.  

Here's a brief history of Zain and solid food:

We've made almost all of his food ourselves.  Lots of cereals early on - oats, millet, barley, and rice.

An early (unintentional) attempt at finger food - pureed sweet potato is not the best choice

He's resourceful

Cousin Naeem takes a turn at feeding duties

You may recall Zain's first encounter with bananas.... pure hate

He has since changed his mind

Quinoa is always fun to eat

Our freezer has housed lots of pureed food - including this kiwi and mango

A running list of foods he had tried

Impatient?  Helping himself to some black beans

As finger foods become more popular, faces get messier...

... especially after big, gooey raspberries from our neighbour Michelle's backyard

We Have Words

Yep, we have words!  Four of them.  And his first word was, just as Shif predicted, "Binda".  Actually, it was more like "Beet-ah", but it was definitely in reference to the dog who keeps running away when he sees the baby start to crawl.  His second word - "mama".  Yay!  As far as we can tell, it's used to refer to both of his mamas.  He also sometimes says "dog" when he hears a dog bark, and he says "ball".  

We wish he'd learn a few more though, or at least start using some of the sign language we've been teaching him for months.  The past few days, he's been using loud and urgent whining as his primary form of needs expression.  If you don't get his food down fast enough, you will hear about it.

The newly mobile Zain is keeping us on our toes.  Babyproofing is still underway, but he's pretty well contained.  Binda's dishes have been moved to a completely inaccessible location.  He would see them and make a beeline toward them, a bowlful of choking hazards.  He also loves electric cords.  We've tried to remove as many of them as we can.  If he hears the fridge or dishwasher doors being opened, he'll stop whatever he's doing and head that way as fast as he can.  He loves to try to climb in and assess what's inside.

 
He still has just the one tooth. And he keeps it pretty well hidden under those big full lips.  I've actually hardly seen it.  But you can definitely feel it.  It's a little razor.  Unfortunately for Shif, he's decided to try out this new tool a couple times when he's been feeding.  Ouch!  

A few scenes from the bath:

Multi-tasking

The return of Mirror Boy

A little post-bath fun

Perseverance

We're catching up with Toronto life after our week in the woods.  We spent a few days babyproofing and rearranging our living/family room so that Zain has more room to roam, and we can let him roam without hovering over him fearing his demise.  He now has access to the whole first floor. We're having a little trouble finding baby gates that fit our narrow stairs (thank you, 100-year-old house).  We got a good one that blocks the top of the basement stairs, but our temporary solution to blocking the stairs to the upstairs is to shove his toy bin there when he's wandering around.  It works.  Luckily, he hasn't shown much interest in stairs yet.  He's mainly interested in crawling around, pulling to stand on whatever's available, and climbing over anything that's in his way on the way there.   

I think he also has a future as a rock climber.  I've started rating his climbs.  The other day he was working on a difficult 5.8 pitch, where his feet were under a table and he was pulling himself up by his fingertips.  One of his other favorite things to do right now is to crawl through the tunnel between our armchair and its ottoman - no matter how narrow the gap is or what else is in the gap, including someone's legs or a large balloon.  He'll grunt and groan and wiggle and he won't give up until he's through.  I'm sure this quality of perseverance will serve him well in the future but all we can see is toddlerhood.  :-)

Some pictures from the last couple weeks:

Still loves Brown Bear

Hanging out with Steve

 

The pack 'n play makes a nice temporary baby gate

A typical view these days

Thirsty! And ambitious!

Using Mommy as a climbing wall (5.6)

Brown Bear again (I can't tell you how much I love this picture)

Hanging out at the Art Gallery of Ontario with Mommy

A day at the library - he was obsessed with the letters

Rearranging books

Making a friend

He spotted his usual naptime book, Saffy, and attacked it