Tuesday, February 28, 2012

Kiwi as a Reflection of Growing Up

It's a sad day... Zain no longer calls kiwi "wee-wee".  Our little boy is growing up.  He's still learning tons of new words every week.  He'll latch onto one for a few days and practice saying it - incessantly.  This week, "neighbor" and "tow truck" have been very popular.  Other random words he's collected this week include "faucet", "sink", "everybody", and "streetcar".  And some words have now gained extra pronunciation - milk is now "mink" instead of "mi" and water is now "watie" instead of "wa".


Speaking of kiwi.... in another sign that he's growing (and growing and growing), yesterday he ate a whole kiwi in less time than it took me to peel it.  He's a good eater, to say the least.  


Zain is also big on walking now instead of being in the stroller.  Which is fun now that he has capitulated and agreed to hold our hands when walking outside.  He loves to point out all forms of transportation.  From our front window, we'll frequently hear him pointing out a "buh", "schoo buh", "tuck", "cah", or "moma" (motorcycle, which seems to be what he calls bikes, because he says it a lot and there aren't many motorcycles out these days).  Yesterday, he got to see a fire truck up close and personal when we saw one parked outside the grocery store.  The firefighters even turned on the lights for him.  He very politiely told them "teek oo".  


This was an obsession for a few weeks - hiding something behind the cushion and then throwing up his hands and saying "Gup?" (Where did it go?)

He's a kissing fool right now.  He kisses book characters, stuffed animals, even packages of underwear at the store (above).  He even goes so far as to kiss US now, without complaint.  He's never really been that into kissing actual people before.

Zain is getting really good with the spoon.  He can pretty much feed himself from a bowl if the food is sticky enough.  Here he is stealing some of Mama's cereal.

As always, eating is serious business.  I'm not allowed to call this a frown or a furrowed brow (the look was inherited from his other mommy, who says serious-looking people are misunderstood).  :-)

The new chalkboard, which was lots of fun at the beginning but hasn't seen much use since Zain starting refusing to comply with our instructions to not eat the chalk

Our baby engineer, already getting a start on IKEA assembly

Sunday, February 19, 2012

The Carrier

Zain has had a habit this winter of transmitting toddler-based diseases to me and Shif (and most of my family in Ohio on one occasion).  He'll cough a little for a day, then leave the adults near him debilitated for a week.  I suppose we should consider ourselves lucky that he doesn't suffer or turn into a crankypants; it makes it much easier to take care of him while we sniffle and schlump along.  We're also lucky to have a number of willing babysitters nearby who can help us out.  Bapa bailed me out the other day and Zain had a fantastic time playing with him.


Zain is (too) rapidly turning into a big boy.  He seems to learn several new words every day.  Recent acquisitions include sink, chalk, Play-Doh, neighbor, and harira (a Moroccan soup, and a common baby word).  He also has a catch-all word, "deppady", that seems to mean "this thing that I don't know the name of."  He says it very confidently, like deppady is the exact name of that animal, food, machine, or piece of garbage.  He's also into demonstrating his mastery of the concept of opposites.  He has a new bathroom stool where he likes to play "up-down."  "Opie-close" with doors and baby gates has always been popular.  And he will always point out that tea or coffee is "hot hot" and will want to touch a can of pop and say "cold."  


He went through a couple weeks of "toddler boot camp" where he was grumpy, demanding, defiant, and tons of fun.  But he seems to have mellowed out since then, thankfully.  He still has streaks of defiance (for instance, if he wants our attention, he'll go stick his hand in Binda's water bowl and say "Mommy" until we notice), but he'll generally bend to our wishes. However, these are some phrases I've heard uttered in the last few days:

  • Piggy doesn't go in the garbage.
  • Binda is not a compost bin.
  • No chalk in the potty.
  • Don't eat the wire. 

Speaking of saying "Mommy", we've joked that we should get one of those little clickers so that we can count the number of times he says that word during a day.  I think it would be in the many hundreds on some days.  He likes to point out interesting objects to us ("Mommy, Mommy, Mommy, Mommy, Mommy..." "What, sweetie?"  "Mommy, car.") and ask for things ("Mommy, Mommy, Mommy, Mommy, Mommy..." "What, sweetie?"  "Mommy, mink [milk].") or just smile at us ("Mommy, Mommy, Mommy, Mommy, Mommy..." "What, sweetie?" [Smile]).  He is a sweet, sweet boy and so fun to be around.  It's amazing to watch him learn and grow up.


Nesting Santas occupied hours of time (Grammy probably had no idea of their future use when she bought these for me a few years ago!)

Chasing down a pea

He really liked these mannequins

Displaying his "ultrasound lips" on a hike (does anyone have a copy of the giant-lips ultrasound?  we can't find the original.)

Zain and Shif duet on the trumpet

Oooops!

Wednesday, February 15, 2012

Hearts

Zain's valentines for Shif:


2011

2012

Monday, February 13, 2012

From the Vault

Just found these pics I took last summer, when I was playing with photo apps on my new phone.  




Monday, February 6, 2012

White Stuff

Snow!  It's been in short supply in Toronto this year.  Which is kinda sad, because Zain loves it. He's only really had two chances to get out in the white stuff.  The first was an inch or so that quickly started melting, so we scooted out to the back yard to play in the soupy mess.  




The slide is extra-fast when it's wet

You can see how wet he was.  A lot of laundry was done that day.

Hat head


Then, a few days later, we finally got a decent snowfall of about 3".  We went to High Park early before Shif had to go to work and Zain had his first sled ride.  When we got home, it was already warming up, so I put off his nap for an extra hour so we could play in the backyard and make a snowman.  It was a good call, because it was 10°C/50°F by the afternoon and our little snowman was reduced to a pile of slush.


The night before, he was sooo excited to get out and walk in the snow.


He was a bit indifferent toward the sled.  He mostly wanted to get out and walk.  That's pretty normal for him these days.

Learning about "cold"

The snowman!

Zain's favorite thing to do with the snowman - pull out his nose

Friday, February 3, 2012

Christmas in January

We finally made it down to Ohio for a belated Christmas celebration in mid-January.  Some scenes:


Z continues to be a good flyer.  He had a few "10-second tantrums" on the way back, when I was flying alone with him, but he's usually pretty easily entertained.  This "up-down" game took up a lot of time.

Z had lots of good play time with his cousins

Maya and Zain taking over Bob Evans with their balloons

Borrowing Star's toys

Grandma W helps with a very hilarious activity (driving the van off the table) while Star looks on

Cuddles with Grandma
Maya is always fun to be around

Zain would rather figure out the remote control than open presents

Tickles make giggles

Another thing to figure out - a walking Santa

Our visit coincided with my mom's birthday, so we had lots of celebrating to do

Luke and Zain competing for Grandpa's attention?  

Hugs with Aunt Lorna

Someone short seems to have gotten ahold of our camera

Reading a new book

Mahalo to Uncle Doug for his gift - an authentic aloha shirt.  I think we need to visit Hawaii to personally thank him!

We visited the Cincinnati Children's Museum with Aunt Lorna and Maya.  Zain  loved these Madagascar cockroaches!