A few photos of Talia

Photos of Talia eating ...

    
  



And playing music (while standing up)...

Talia tries cheese

This may amuse you... Sorry about the terrible quality. Made with my phone.

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Exciting times at the homestead

These are exciting times indeed. The reason why is a little delicate, but Zeke does a pretty good job explaining it in the one-minute interview below. Have a look at the video. To listen to the audio by phone, call (510) 248-0386, or if that number doesn't work, click this link and use the number supplied there.

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Last thing Zeke said to me at bedtime tonight

"I want to give you a big hug, Daddy."

Which he did. Then proceeded to curl up with his favorite stuffed animal -- a small green dinosaur -- and go to sleep.

I must have done something really nice in a past life, or something. That's all I can say.

Video diary: Talia today (Sept. 8, 2007)

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Talia's basically been doing three interesting things lately: standing up (with support; she's trying to do it hands-free, though), eating a ton, and making a lot of noise. You can see her do all three in this four-and-a-half-minute video. (Nothing's wrong with your speakers -- there's hardly any sound, except when she pounds on the toy piano.) You can see her try to launch herself into the air from a sitting position. Her "piano playing" is so funny I started laughing while I was trying to film her; that strange noise coming from her is actually, we presume, laughter.

Oh, and yes, the dates in the video are wrong -- they should say Sept. 8, not Sept. 7. Oops.

Wait, you're not supposed to be doing this yet

That's correct, folks, your eyes are not deceiving you. Here's a photo of Talia, standing up, without holding onto anything, in a wading pool, chomping on some watermelon. This is not a trick.

Talia and my nose

It's sort of hard to tell in this photo, but she's actually manhandling my face with both hands here. It kinda hurt.

What Zeke said in the car this morning

While I was driving Zeke and Talia to daycare this morning, Zeke started telling me about "ghostez." After I'd dropped him off, I phoned in this post. If you can't hear the audio, call (510) 248-0386, and if that number doesn't work, click this link and get the correct number.

German, Zeeky-German, and Tally-German

I made this video with my phone while driving and you probably can't make out a thing, but what was going on was that Zeke wanted to practice saying the German word "Kipper," which means "dump truck." He's lately gotten very interested in the idea that you can express familiar terms in a language other than English, and he keeps asking how to say things (especially, for example, the names of animals and of construction equipment) in German. He has also started referring to Talia's babbling as "Tally-German," which I find hilarious.

A few recent photos

Click this link to browse through these photos one at a time.

"Just one more kiss"

As I noted in an earlier post, Zeke is -- and has been for a while -- very good when it comes to delaying the inevitable, i.e., bedtime. Tonight, however, he outdid himself. Here's the scene. I put him in bed, talk to him quietly for a few minutes, sing a lullaby, then sit quietly for a few more minutes, then say goodnight. Normally he objects and asks me to "sit quietly for one more minute", and these days, since Talia is sharing the room with him and I want to avoid having him wake her with his crying, I usually (against my better judgment) tend to oblige. Tonight, though, when I said "Good-night," he answered -- in an unusually sleepy voice -- "Night-night, daddy." I thought I was going to, pardon the expression, get lucky tonight.

Me: Sleep tight.
Z.: Sleep tight, daddy.
Me: See you in the morning. I love you.
Z.: I love you daddy.
(I rise to leave.)
Z.: I want to give you a hug.
(I lower myself again, give him a hug, and then head for the door.)
Z.: I want to give you one more kiss.
(I return to the bedside. Z. takes hold of my arm and kisses it probably thirty times. Finally, he gets bored and lays his head back down.)
Me: Night-night, Zeeky. I love you.
Z.: Daddy, sit quietly for one more minute.

And there we were again...

You gotta admit, that's pretty good. Who could resist?

Another one-liner from Zeke

A few days ago Heather was with Zeke over at the neighbors' house. Zeke and his two-year-old friend next door were playing in the sand table. They were, I think, starting to irritate one another; there was a little bit of quarreling going on, maybe even a little sand-flinging. Our neighbor pulled her daughter aside for a moment to talk to her quietly about manners and behavior. While this was going on Zeke ran up from behind with a toy shovel full of sand and dumped it on her head. Needless to say, Heather took him home. Here was their exchange:

H.: Why did you do that?
Z.: Sometimes, I just feel like doing it.

Personally, I thought this was funny. I may be the only one, though.

Talking about feelings

I was pushing Zeke on the swings two days ago and we had this exchange. Actually it was pretty much all him talking. This is as best I can remember the conversation.

Z.: I felt sick, but now I feel good.
Me: That's good.
Z.: The wind came, and blew my feelings away, and now I feel good.
Me: (Silent; pausing to reflect on the poetic beauty of my son's use of metaphor.)
Z.: Feelings ... feelings are little round things. Gums. Gumdrops. I put them in my mouth and now I feel good. I eat my feelings.

Food for thought.

Zeke wanted to get in on the action too

Just a quick hello from Zeke. Click the large triangle to view. Created in about sixty seconds using Twango.

As promised, here's your Saturday post

A two-minute video of Talia and me. If you subscribe by email and you are reading this as an email, then your subscription is still working.

A technical note about "subscribing" to this blog

If you've been getting updates to this blog via email, you may have to re-subscribe. I'm making a couple of minor technical changes that might deactivate your subscription. It's also possible that you won't notice any difference. I'll put up a new short post tomorrow; if you get it, you'll know that your subscription is still working. If you don't, visit this website (Life-with-Zeeky.blogspot.com) and re-subscribe. Or: if you're not reading this blog via email, and you want to, why, you can subscribe too.

To subscribe by email, enter your address in the box at the top right of the screen. You can also click the gray "Subscribe to this feed" link at the bottom of this post, which will pop up a screen with a few more options.

This blogging system is set up to prevent spamming, so, unfortunately, there's no way I can add your address to the mailing list; you have to do it yourself.

One other thing: there's also a gray link at the bottom of each post labelled "Email this." That will let you send a copy of a post via email to whoever you want.

That concludes this technical bulletin. I hope you have, or have had, a pleasant weekend. They were forecasting a tornado here, but now they say it's not going to happen.

Recorder-keyboard combo chez Nani and Pop-Pop

Nani shot this video a week and a half ago. It's a little under a minute long. Watch to the end. Created in about twenty minutes using Jumpcut.

Video diary: Talia crawls, Zeke lectures on crabs

To watch the video, click the triangle. To make it bigger (it looks better that way), click the small rectangle in the bottom right of the video player.



Big news: Talia has started crawling. Now, it's been so long since I posted anything on here that the news isn't quite so new anymore. This video is a week old, and at that time, Talia was really just beginning to get around by herself. It's pretty exciting. The first few days of her crawling, she pretty much cried miserably while she inched herself along. By the time I made this video, she was still working pretty hard, but not crying about it any more.

The other thing that's new around here is that Zeke got into a real swimming pool (with Heather) for the first time. He loved it. I was actually really amazed -- he was very fearful of the water at first, but within a half hour Heather had somehow convinced him to try it out. I don't know how she did it. She certainly didn't try to talk him into it. I guess she just kind of paddled around gently in the water where he could see her and just chatted with him about this and that, and then after a while he wanted to put his feet in the water ... and then he wanted to jump in. It was really hot out and it probably felt really good. Anyhow, he now officially likes swimming pools and wants to go back.

As I write, Heather and the kids are down in D.C., staying with my folks. I'm frantically trying to get ready for the semester to begin. (Along with posting blog entries.) Hi guys! You'll have seen the kids more recently than I have. Anyhow, enjoy.

Noah's ark

Zeke has a toychest that I think we inherited from someone, I forget who, decorated with bright-colored Noah's ark motifs. I've never given it much thought. Today, though, he was sitting looking at it and pointing out the pairs of animals. For each pair, he told me, "That's the mommy alligator, and that's the baby alligator. That's the mommy giraffe, that's the baby giraffe." Et cetera. Anyhow, it occurred to me that the Noah's ark story, which of all Bible stories we probably treat as the one most appropriate and least complicated for young children, is a story that most little kids probably completely misunderstand, given that they wouldn't have any clue why there would need to be pairs of animals on the ark. The cute, innocent "floating zoo" -- the impression that I suspect many kids have of the ark -- is a little world containing only adult animals, none of the animal babies that small children are often so interested in. Which, to me, is just an interesting example of the way common ideas in our culture might look very different from a small child's perspective. I wonder when Zeke will figure out that the pairs of animals on his toychest are not actually mommies and babies.

P.S. That picture is a random toy I found online, not something we own, but if you have a hankering for it, it can be had for about twenty dollars from a website called -- ahem -- Punkin-Butt. It's down at the bottom of the page.

Zeke and Talia playing together

Sometimes I get the feeling that Zeke still thinks of Talia as just another toy (at least, at good moments). Here, he's dressing both of them up using some cloth rings that are actually part of a whole different toy.

Overheard conversation

Zeke and one of his very best friends, a two-year-old girl who lives next door, were having a fairly involved discussion by toddler standards, which I overheard part of.

Z.: Can you come to my house?
K.: No. I don't want Jimmy to hiss at me.
Z.: Do you like Jimmy?
K.: No, I don't like Jimmy.
Z.: Do you like Lucy?
K.: Yeah, I like Lucy.
Z.: Do you like Hector?
K.: Who's Hector?
Z.: He's a cat.

I didn't hear where it went after this. And yes, it's true; to our chagrin, Jimmy has started hissing and swatting at small children (sometimes older people, too). Seems like he finally got fed up with the stress of having two little kids in the house. Hopefully he won't get too much nastier.

Zoo pictures from D.C.

I guess this is a little on the predictable side. Oh well. These are from our visit to the National Zoo in D.C. this weekend. Mostly the photos are of animals, with a few of Zeke. Nothing of Talia came out decent. Click here to see the whole set (a dozen pictures or so), presented with great drama.

www.flickr.com

Talia is almost crawling

Talia - early July 2007 - mosaic, uploaded 12th July, 2007.

Here are a couple of recent photos of Talia. She's not crawling yet, but she's trying. I don't think it'll be much longer now. She's remarkably cheerful about the whole business.

A visit with Carmen

A couple of very good friends are back in town after being gone almost two months. We visited with them tonight. Talia sat on the grass, diaperless, and consented to being amused by Carmen's funny noises.




Later, Zeke and Carmen had some ice cream together.


A few more photos are here.

More animals: Elmwood Park Zoo

Today we visited the Elmwood Park Zoo in lovely Norristown, PA . Talia rode around in her stroller...


... and Zeke ran here and there.


Some favorite animals:

From top left: Flamingoes, sheep, Nubian goat, four-foot alligator supposedly found roaming around in Fairmount Park in Philadelphia, peregrine falcon, jaguar.

Zeke also rode a pony. See the previous post for a one-minute video.

Pony ride (one-minute video post)

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Today, July 4, we took the kids to Elmwood Park Zoo in Norristown. Zeke rode a pony named Chocolate, probably the smallest pony I've ever seen.

Independence Day is just around the corner

At bedtime, Zeke heard some fireworks in the distance and asked what they were.
Me: I think those are firecrackers.
Z.: (long pause) Can you eat them?
Me: (chuckling) No, not crackers. Firecrackers.
Z.: (nodding sagely) Oh. Because they would burn your mouth, and that would really hurt.

Miscellaneous photos of kids and animals

Today we visited Upper Schuylkill Valley Park, which is about ten minutes from our house and very bucolic. Note: Click any of the photos to view a larger version.

We saw lots of animals there.

Piglets ...


... turkeys ...


... an owl ...


... and a noisy crow named Scrappy.

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Talia rode in her stroller...


... and Zeke and Heather admired the animals on foot.

(There's a donkey in that paddock just out of sight.)

Yesterday was a pretty quiet day.

Talia slept, like a baby, as the saying goes...


... and Zeke and Heather admired the garden.

Talia investigates the cameraphone

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This is kind of amusing. She makes a grab for the phone.

"Then I hit them"

Zeke continues to demonstrate his ability to handle extended strings of ideas, if sometimes in worrisome ways. Tonight's before-bed chat:

Me: Do you like school? (Probably the wrong question. Oh well.)
Z.: No.
Me: Why not?
Z.: My friends aren't nice to me.
Me: What do they do?
Z.: They hit me.
Me: Then what happens?
Z.: I hit them too.
Me: Then what happens?
Z.: I go in time out.
Me: Then what happens?
Z.: I am done with my time out, and I get up and we have a snack.

I'd be more concerned about this if I knew he weren't constantly making stuff up. I think they'd tell me at daycare if he were getting in fistfights regularly.

A few photos of Talia sleeping

Talia sleeping (mosaic), uploaded 25th June, 2007.

See them larger here.

On the way to daycare this morning, Zeke sang "The Itsy-Bitsy Spider"...

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... And I held my phone backwards and made this fifteen-second movie. I'm not sure this counts as "useful" mobile technology, but it's amusing. Observe the green rattle in Zeke's hand.

Canal Day 2007

    
    

The whole family spent a couple of hours down near Lock 60, where the Schuylkill River Canal passes by Phoenixville and Mont Clare, PA. Today was the annual Canal Day, a fundraising event for preserving the lock and locktender's house. They had a bunch of kids' activities, including one of those boards with holes cut into it that you're supposed to toss bean-bags through. Zeke soon got tired of tossing the bean-bags (he wouldn't get further away than about six inches, so there wasn't much challenge), and he decided to repurpose the equipment. Larger versions here.

Video diary: Zeke screaming, Talia swimming

Click to play the movie.

I almost muted out the audio in the second half because it makes Heather and me sound like such dumb-asses. But I didn't.

Post-birthday party narcosis

Post-birthday party narcosis, uploaded 24th June, 2007.

Taken on arriving home after a friend's second birthday party. There are some bits of cake still smeared around his mouth.

A couple of recent pictures of Talia

Here she is, looking cute, about to have some food.




Horsing around on the big bed.

Zeke's first trip to the E.R.! Whee!

Today Zeke came home from daycare complaining that his arm hurt, and he was reluctant to use it for anything. On the pediatrician's advice, we took him to the emergency room in case an X-ray was needed. Turns out it was nursemaid's elbow.

A child should not be lifted or swung by the arms or hands nor should a child's arm be pulled hard. A small child should be lifted from under the arms.
... [N]ursemaid's elbow commonly occurs when an obstinate child is forcibly pulled along or lifted by the forearm by a parent or older sibling. For example, the injury might occur in a shopping center where a young child, typically two or three years old, is intent on pursuing a course or selecting an item somewhat different from the intentions of the parent.

And there you are. He was back to normal in about five minutes and within an hour he was telling people about how he hurt his arm and had to go to the hospital "yesterday."

Bedtime

Zeke almost never puts up a fight at bedtime -- not exactly, anyhow. What he does manage to do quite successfully is draw things out for a long time. Sometimes he whines, but usually he is subtler -- he squeezes out an engaging or amusing remark just as you think you're going to be able to get him to say good-night. Some of this is just simple manipulativeness, I think, but there's a fair amount of genuine anxiety about being left alone for the night. Tonight, though, he really topped himself. He started out by asking about his friend Billy (last seen on this blog here), who recently moved out of state (with his parents). He wanted to know where Billy was, saying, "I want my friend, I want Billy," and briefly became somewhat distressed, but then comforted himself (rather heartrendingly for the adult in the room) by saying, "When I wake up, my friend will come my house, and I will say, 'Come on in!'"

Then he started the process of talking himself into sleeping. He said: "At night time, the birds stop eating, and eating, and flying around, and they sit in their nests and go to sleep and tuck their heads under their wings, like this" (and he curled his arm around his head). Then -- and this was an absolute killer, I really did lose it for a minute -- he said, "Daddy, do the birds say to their mama and daddy, 'Don't fly away, stay here in the nest'? Is that what they say? Is that what they say? ... Daddy, I don't want you to leave."

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On a lighter note, here are a few photos...

Zeke with necklace, turtle and Father's Day card

Zeke posing on Father's Day, uploaded 18th June, 2007.

Showing off. He's wearing a favorite necklace, holding up two little plastic animals (one is a turtle, I'm not sure what the other is), and in the last photo he's also got the Father's Day card he made. He kept telling me, "I painted it, and I drawed it."

Larger versions here.

Zeke and Talia made a Father's Day card

Father's Day card from the kids, uploaded 17th June, 2007.

Actually, I think it's pretty much all Zeke's work. The writing is Heather's. This is probably not a surprise.