our week with zeeke

After being spoiled by vacation, Zeeke is having trouble letting us go again. We're back to teary drop-offs at daycare and usually have to hand Zeeke directly to his teacher Kiki so that she can hold him as we leave. His sleep patterns have changed as well. He's waking up earlier and more often, sometimes coughing, sometimes just in tears.

On the positive side, Zeeke's class at daycare has been working on an alphabet project, making letters that look like animals (A for Alligator, D for Dinosaur, etc.) and Zeeke just loves them. While he's eating meals, he stares at the letters, smiling, pointing them out and making us tell him what they are over and over again.

Also, Zeeke spoke his first sentence (or maybe proto-sentence) this week. While they were playing together, Steve started meowing, then Zeeke smiled and said, "Dada a cat!"

Saturday, after music class, Steve & Zeeke went to visit Karen at the library, then came home for a visit with Grandmom and Pop Pop.

Sunday, we went to park and did some shopping, then had a play date with Leah, Jason & Zack.

This week Zeeke turned 17 months old. He is almost a year and a half! After a beautiful weekend, it rained all week during our vacation on Long Beach Island. Sunday night, at bedtime, Zeeke blew a kiss to Steve, which was super cute.

Monday, we went to breakfast with fellow wedding guests Elspeth, Chris & Augie. Not long after they left, Leah & Zack joined for a beach playdate/sleepover. That night, Leah watched the boys while Karen and Steve snuck out for a nice child-free dinner with Colleen and Sean.

Tuesday, we had a great morning with Leah & Zack.

Wednesday, we climbed to the top of the lighthouse and then visited to the Library. After lunch, the newlyweds Jenifer & Eric invited us over to hang out.

Thursday, we went to Miss Carly's Movement & Music class at the library. With the rain getting worse, roads starting to flood and Zeeke already getting cabin fever, we decided to pack up the car during his nap and head home early.

Friday, we dropped Zeeke off at school and went to the movies. It was very nice. On the way home, we picked up a portable sketch pad and a box of 64 crayons for Zeeke.

Saturday, we had another great music class.

Sunday, we had a visit from Karen's mom in the morning. She, Karen and Zeeke went to the coffee shop & the park. In the afternoon, Steve, Karen & Zeeke checked out a zydeco band at the library's Music Sundays on Stage program, then picked out books from the children’s section while Zeeke played with alphabet magnets.

Zeeke's been experimenting with kissing this week. It's very sweet, but at least half of them turn into surprise bites, so we're working on that.

Saturday, after music class, it was back to the beach, this time for a week in LBI. After settling in, we headed right out to the beach. After last weekend’s excursion, Zeeke knew what to expect and was happy to be back to his sandy environment. He was really aware of how wide open the sky was and kept throwing his hands upward to embrace it. Then we checked out some of the Chowderfest shenanigans, ordered up a big batch of seafood and visited our friends who were getting married the next day.

Sunday, our friends Jenifer and Eric got married on the beach. It was a lovely ceremony and Zeeke amazed us by sitting calmly through it all. He especially enjoyed the live musical interludes. During the reception, he was a bit more rambunctious, but he gave a nice kiss to our friend Nadeen, which fortunately didn't turn into a bite.

Most days, after Zeeke is finished with his breakfast, he grabs his favorite toy and sits down in Karen’s lap to play with it. On loan from his grandparents, the ancient red box--which Steve and his older brothers played with when they were Zeeke's age--is covered in eighteen differently shaped holes. Working together, Zeeke and Karen fit each of the plastic pieces through their corresponding holes until they're done. He's always very pleased with himself when he accomplishes tasks like this, often giving himself a round of applause if we're a bit late in responding. He's also been doing a great job of following directions and cleaning up toys when he is finished with them.

Karen, Steve & Zeeke got to spend a great beach weekend with Pop Pop and Grandmom at their time share in Brigantine. A wonderful time was had by all! Zeeke really enjoyed walking along the beach. He would find a track in the sand left by some truck and keep walking until he wore out the adults. When we got back to Philly Sunday night, Zeeke started saying, "Pop Pop" over and over.

Zeeke now says his teacher Kiki's name and will sometimes call for all three of us at home:  "Dada!  Kiki!  Mama!"  Karen was not excited by her third place role.  He also now says "cup" (to refer to just about any sort of drinking vessel) and "bubble" (which he uses generally to describe anything thing that's circular).  In addition to his head, hair and nose, Zeeke will now point to his teeth (and sometimes his eyes) when requested.  "Dada" has been evolving into "Daddy" this week and the two together have become his mantra, happily chanting, "Dada Daddy" over and over.

Zeeke has gotten especially sweet lately.  He's crazy for group hugs.  If he's hugging one parent, he'll usually insist the other come and join in too, then lie his head down on the nearest shoulder and sigh, "Awwwwww."  When we we go out for walks, he'll sometimes stop and extend both arms so that we both hold his hands at the same time.  Only when he has both of us will he start walking again. 

Saturday, we went to Federal Doughnuts and then made a Target run.  We bought a huge bag of Mega Blocks (like Lego but bigger), which Steve occasionally shares with Zeeke.  We headed into Center City for the free opening session of the Temple music class and signed Zeeke up for another round.  His favorite former teacher Maureen was thrilled to see him, but he played it cool with her, flirting instead with new teacher Mary.  After lunch, we went to the playground for a play date with Leah, Jason & Zack.

This was our fourth day of no cry drop offs at Day Care.  Each morning we get him settled into his chair at the toddler's table, the other toddlers come around and take their seats, his teacher Kiki hands out some cereal and he then barely gives us a second glance.  

Steve & Zeeke took a sick day on Monday to make sure they were recovered.  At the end of the day, they drove over to the library for a visit and to drive Karen home from work.  Zeeke strolled around like he owned the place.  

Wednesday, Erin, Randy & Kate stopped by for a visit.  They gave us an easel that Zeeke loves.  The easel has really breathed new life into his artistic expression and his crayon drawings have gotten a lot more complex.

Zeeke is still very interested in shoes and can now say the word as well.

Zeeke is getting better and better at waving goodbye to people.  For the past couple weeks, he's been saving his waves until people are out of sight, but now he waves goodbye to everyone at day care.  Sometimes he just keeps on waving to folks (and trees and cars) as we walk down the street on the way home.

On Monday, Steve, Zeeke and Karen got to spend Labor day together and had a great music session with his new drum!  Unfortunately, that same day we noticed that Zeeke had 8 red spots on his face.  When they didn't vanish on their own, Karen took him to the pediatrician and they advised treating them with Neosporin, which cleared them up in a few days. As they were fading though, Zeeke had a spell of Diarreha that lasted for days and left him with some harsh diaper rash.  Fortunately, though, Zeeke was in a great mood through all of it (except when we had to change his diaper).

Zeeke has a toy turtle that projects stars onto his ceiling at night.  When we turn it on, he looks up in awe and says, "Stahhhrs!"  His other new word is "car," which he pronounces with an accidental Boston accent.  He walks down the street, pointing at them and saying, "Cah!  Cah!  Cah!"

Saturday, we went to Smith Playground.  After playing for a while, we had a great time hanging out on the grass watching a kiddie soccer camp.

Sunday, we went to the Philly Green Fest, ran into Aunt Dena, and then headed over to Pitman for dinner with Steve's parents and Aunt June.

Zeeke was especially cute this week. One evening while Karen was putting away Zeeke's blankets, Zeeke laid down on a blanket and as soon as his head touched the blanket, sweetly cooing "Awwwwww."  He does the same thing when giving hugs sometimes, saying it as he lays his head down on your shoulder. 

This week was Zeeke's 15-month checkup. Zeeke weighed in at 24lbs and is a little over 30 inches tall (both about average). Our pediatrician proclaimed him a very health boy.

We've started taken evening strolls every day after dinner with Zeeke usually walking most of the way on his own. If we forget, he brings us our shoes to remind us. Whenever we pass a tree, all three of us point up at it and say, "Tree!" (Although it sounds more like "Tee!" when he says it.) He's getting good with vowel sounds. We often catch him singing the "E-I, E-I O" part of "Old MacDonald Had A Farm."

His new favorite game (when he's not playing with diaper boxes) is to pull out one of the letters from his alphabet mat, and raise it over his head to make us shout out the letter. He gets so much joy from it, most of which is because he loves to be in charge.

This was our first full week of no cry drop-offs at day care! We take him in, he sits down in a big kid chair (proud as punch), and we sneak out while they're giving him Cheerios.

Oh, and we've set up a You Tube channel for our favorite Zeeke videos here:

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC-PB5aNbhoccrBIqjkx0Qbg/videos

Saturday, we took an early trip to the Italian Market for produce, then drove all the way down to Maryland for the annual crab feast at Karen's Dad's house. Zeeke had a great time playing with his cousins and actually said "Bye" to Karen's cousin Chris when we were leaving.

Sunday morning, we had a nice trip to the playground. Zeeke wasn't clingy at all and seemed to have his old playground confidence back. Steve's parents came up and took us to lunch at Birra. After a quick gelato, Zeeke went down for a nap and then it was off for a late night Target run after dinner.

Zeeke's been obsessed with boxes and shoes this week. Upstairs in his room, he loves the diaper boxes (both full and empty). He can get inside them, stack them, climb on them, use them as drums. Downstairs, his focus is more on shoes. He loves to pick up your shoes and bring them over to you. He's pretty good at knowing which shoes to bring you. Sometimes we mistakenly take it as a hint that he wants to go out for a walk, but mostly it just seems to be a fun activity.

He's getting very interested in numbers and letters. On the way to and from school, he often makes us stop next to signs so that he can point them out and make us tell him what they are. When he's walking down the street on his own two feet, he's more interested in inspecting storm drains and sewer grates or checking out his reflection in car doors.

Zeeke often imitates us talking, matching tones and vowel sounds and syllables, but he really enjoys it when we imitate him. One day while Karen was driving, Steve was imitating every sound Zeeke made and it was making him hysterical with laughter.

Wednesday evening, we took a great stroll after dinner and met several neighbors on the block.

Thursday and Friday, we had tear-free drop-offs at day care!

Saturday morning, we fueled up at Federal Donuts and then made a Target run, then Karen went to Circle of Hope for a kids clothing swap where she got some great duds and toys.

Sunday, we got to the Italian Market early, then Zeeke took a long nap. When he got up, we got ice cream cones and then drove out to Smith Playground for a fun afternoon.