After
a great weekend together, Zeeke seemed disappointed that we sent him
back to day care on Monday. When Karen went to pick him up that
night, rushing back to him after her first day back at work, Zeeke
refused to look her in the eyes (a punishing move he pulled on Steve
when he returned to work as well). Fortunately, he couldn't hold his
grudge for long.
Zeeke is now a full-on walker, only crawling when he wants to examine something on the ground. It's amazing how fast his mode of travel has transformed and how quickly it's causing his independence from us to evolve. He's more and more content playing by himself and seems to delight in deciding for himself where he wants to be at any given moment. Surprisingly, now that he's walking he's lost a lot of his interest in going up and down the stairs, often consenting to be carried between floors.
Zeeke is constantly showing us that he understands a lot of what we say. Sometimes he rolls his eyes when we're talking about him. He loves to shake his head no and laugh when we ask him questions. And most impressively, he can now point to his head and toes when requested.
Zeeke's favorite book of the week: Five Little Monkeys by Eileen Christelow. It was while reading this book to him that we learned Zeeke knew the word "head" because whenever one of the monkeys fell out of bed and bumped his head, Zeeke would touch his head and smile.
Wednesday was the fourth of July. We had a great morning at the playground where we met a bunch of great parents who appreciated Zeeke's dance moves. After the park, we went to Lindsay's barbecue for lunch, headed home for a nap, then went out to Kris & Ed's for barbecue for dinner. It was a fun holiday.
Saturday, after what felt like weeks of teething, Zeeke's fifth tooth finally broke through! We made a morning run to Babies R Us, where Zeeke picked out his own toy, an electronic steering wheel and dashboard for his stroller. After that, we went to lunch at Steve's parents in Jersey. That night, Zeeke ate ravioli for the first time and demanded that we start letting him eat whole cherry tomatoes without cutting them up. He's a very careful eater, but we were still both on the edge of our seats as he chewed away at it.
Sunday, we made an early morning jaunt to the playground before the heat got too bad, then spent an hour or two enjoying the free air conditioning at Ikea, where we bought Zeeke a tent. That afternoon, we headed back to Jersey for our niece Bella's third birthday celebration.