Taking the Scenic Route

I found a blog with some great photography.  The first entries right now are pregnancy photos.  http://www.xanga.com/annakmair  I found it via xanga boost.  Back a few posts is one of a family at the beach. 

We had a ball today.  Grandma came up and watched Zane in preschool for a while, then we went home and hung out until Zach got home from class, then headed out to the zoo to enjoy the 50 degree weather.  It was really nice. 

This week’s book at preschool is Polar Bear, Polar Bear, What Do You Hear and it shows a bunch of different animals.  This morning at preschool they were discussing all sorts of different animals, as we had at home.  When Zach got home, he went to ask Zane if he wanted to go to the Zoo.  Zane gave an enthusiastic “Yes!’  Zach then asked if he knew what was at the Zoo?  (after the earlier discussions, we were expecting a list of animals) and Zane looked up like it was the dumbest question ever and said “animals”, with no elaboration what-so-ever.  lol.

a dead sprint to the map when he spots the first one

in the African building, it was feeding time, so several of the animals you only see at a distance were really close up.  We saw Rhinos, Elephants, Hippos, and Giraffes up close.  Later we also saw the Apes being fed and much more active, but we were out of memory space to photograph that.

finding the animals in the book he is studying now

again with the map, getting distracted trying to leave

looking at the kangaroo from the back of the exibit

so, you think he likes maps?

oh, and although we were spared walking with the finger on the rope fence all around the zoo  (the snow was shoved to the side of the paths in front of the rope fence), he did find a few fences with something to systematically move.  lol.  Every other stick of this fence is short and can be moved.

He did point regularly.  What a change from a year ago.  On a funny note, as we were seeing animals, we were doing the “What does the _____ say?” to elicit animal sounds from him.  We watched the Lion, Lioness and two cubs for a while, and as we were leaving we quizzed him “What does the Lion say?”  he quickly replied “Nothing.”  :snort.  Not the answer we were expecting, but certainly what he experienced today.  lol. 

An Elk up close and personal

photos of the kids to follow when I get a few minutes.

Today she was walking just as fast as her little feet would carry her back and forth through the apartment, just for the sake of walking it appeared.  I think she is on the verge of running, or at least she is working up to it. 

She also really prefers wearing shoes (her little Robez boots) to being barefoot.  I try and leave her feet bare for just a bit after I change her to let her little toes breath (and because I prefered to be barefoot as a kid, and as an adult until I discovered the Birki’s helped my back so much).  The last few times, she has picked up her shoes and followed me around holding them up for me and keeps doing so until I put them on her. 

I wish she was talking, if only to know that she can.  I know we are still in the range of ‘normal’ and that she will likely start working on that when she has this walking thing more down pat, but I can’t help to be a little concerned.  She does babble a lot more than I remember Zane doing, but I am not really trusting my memory either. 

She also seems to be starting to try and build things instead of just ripping them apart, and put thing back into bins/bags, ect instead of just taking things out.  We are now seeing the very beginning of sorting type things, and it is really cool.

Why I do not want a dog:  http://www.breedemandweep.com/?p=55

Another poop chronicle, of the small human variety:  http://www.breedemandweep.com/?p=59

It does look like they have gotten enough email to make a form letter, which is good.  A copy of the email I got from them:

Monday, February 5, 2007

Thank you for your email to the National Pork Board. We appreciate you taking the time to send us an email regarding our communication with “The Lactivist” webstore on CafePress.com about our trademark rights.

It is important to understand that our lawyer’s correspondence to Ms. Laycock was in no way intended to challenge or demean breastfeeding or those who support it. This correspondence is about defending our trademark and the National Pork Board’s responsibility to protect pork industry investments on behalf of the 70,000 US pork producers we represent. The Other White Meat® is a pork industry trademark whose value was built slowly and thoughtfully over 20 years, paid for by producer’s hard-earned dollars. Any infringement on that mark would substantially lessen its value and impact for US pork producers.

It’s also important to understand that the National Pork Board cannot pick and choose which infringement challenges it decides to address. We have a responsibility to the industry to challenge all viable infringements (and we do so on a weekly basis) or face the possibility of losing trademark protection and allowing the industry’s valued trademark to become public domain, and thus worthless.

Again, the National Pork Board takes no issue with your important cause. Our interest here was in protecting US pork producer’s investment in The Other White Meat® trademark. We apologize if our response seemed impersonal or harsh; that was not our intent. We will use all feedback that we receive to improve our communication processes in the future. Thank you for bringing your concerns to our attention.

Sincerely,

Steve Murphy
Chief Executive Officer
The National Pork Board

 

Zach’s best friend just found out his bio-mom died.  He just found out a few days ago that she had “3-4 weeks to live”, but obviously the end came a lot sooner for her.  The news was so fresh he hadn’t even had time to process it yet.  My heart just hurts for him.  She lost custody of him for good reason (as an infant/toddler), and he grew up knowing her as his aunt, but it is still a big blow. 

He was able to spend Sunday with her, and she died Sunday night, so that is good.  He didn’t hear about it until this evening because his phone somehow got knocked off the jack on the wall and nobody noticed it until this evening.  He has to call around to all the family now and write the ulogy. 

This sucks.  As an adult he was finally able to regain a relationship with her and now he lost her so young.  Ugh.

Ok, well, it was more a quiet day, but the day begged for the title.  lol. 

We ended up watching a series of documentaries about things like Rivals of Jesus and Knights Templar and Freemasons.  Lots of bible history type stuff.  Then I moved to Monk until Zach said he had enough Monk for one day.  lol.  (Zach showed me a Monk game online and I can’t figure out how to win it yet) Mostly we just puttered around, cleaning & organizing a bit, playing with the kids, and Zach worked some more on open GL on the computer.  Boring, but nice.

Not much to say today, but I will leave you with a cute picture of fresh-from-the-bath wrinkly baby feet.  *sigh* so precious.

eta:  things you never thought you would hear yourself say:  “Zane, stop standing on your head and get under the covers and go to sleep”.  lol.  I guess he didn’t want to go right to sleep.  We wouldn’t have discovered him doing it if he hadn’t been giggling at himself so loudly.  goofball.

oh…challenge #2…try to keep a straight, firm face when you step on a book that Moos at you as you leave the room.  pft.

Seriously, I forgot there was a big game tomorrow, but figured it out when we had to park out in the edges of the parking lot to pick up some groceries.  I am guessing that we had particularly bad timing because it seemed like every other person was wearing a WSU shirt and, apparently, a game just let out.  By the attitude of the people, I would also guess we lost.  Oh boy, it was a fun time. 

As soon as I saw the sheer volume of people I did something we haven’t done in a while, just put Zane in the basket of the cart and charged through shopping as fast as we could.  Zane would occasionally start getting upset and when we asked what the problem was, it was because he wanted something (like chocolate milk) and couldn’t just walk over to get it, but he used words to tell us.  It sometimes took a bit for us to understand him, but considering the environment, I was pretty impressed he was able to communicate anything beyond crying.  Heck, even I was struggling to remain calm and friendly.  He did request to get down, and he walked for a bit, but I started seeing some pre-meltdown behavior and got down on his level and gave him a few really firm all-body hugs and then he was then calm enough to agree to get back in the cart without a battle or a meltdown.  He really did well.  In fact, unless 80% of the kids in there were also ASD, he did better than a lot of typical kids. 

I am just so proud of him.  The stress of the semester seems to be backing off a bit and we are seeing a bit more spontaneous language again.  We are also noticing that he is getting pronouns (I, you, me) right more often now, which is a really good thing. 

Oh..we also had a first today!  He tried pancakes!  I have given him pancakes countless times but he wouldn’t even try them.  I guess the number of stories involving pancakes finally made him comfortable enough to give them a try.  He even ate quite a few bites of pancakes after that, so I can assume he likes them.  It might seem silly, but pancakes were one of my favorite foods as a child and it is nice to see him finally letting himself enjoy them also. Zora, naturally, didn’t need a second invitation to take a bite. She was trying to crawl across the table to get to her brother’s pancakes.  lol.

Now that I have a second, I am going to see how the WSU game went today and see who is playing the Superbowl tomorrow.  There is a “Monk” marathon on tomorrow, so we might watch that instead of Star Wars DVDs (our traditional superbowl party entertainment)…guess we will see if we “Feel the Force”. 

Ok, this is the most absurd thing I have heard in a long time.  The Pork people are threatening to sue breastfeeding activists.  Read more here. 

Thank you feebee for bringing it to my attention.