This is the end…for now

The craziest part about Zachary turning 2 years old is that we have had him for 2 years now. I can’t believe how fast time has gone and how much he has grown. From a helpless infant to a crazy midget who I wish was a bit more helpless at times. It has been a great deal of fun keeping track of the last 2 years which has been twice as long as I originally set out to write this blog. I know Zachary will keep doing crazy, hilarious things but for now I think the blog is done. At least, maybe until there is a Zachary part II in the family.

A Couple More Scenes From Zachary’s 2nd Bday

Zachary is quite a big fan of his cousin Lenny

Can Zachary be trusted with Cheerios???

Yesterday morning Zachary asked for the whole box of Cheerios. I reluctantly gave it to him. Zachary immediately pulled the bag out of the Cheerios box but then sat there very calmly eating the Cheerios out of the bag. Last night Zachary once again asked for the Cheerios box and I confidently gave the box to him. I then spent the next twenty minutes cleaning the entire box of Cheerios that Zachary had emptied all over the living room floor. That was a pretty obvious ending to this story.

Scenes from a 2nd Birthday Weekend

Hanging with cousins Lenny and Maddy

Birthday lunch feast

HAPPY 2ND BIRTHDAY YOU CRAZY MIDGET!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Zachary abuses his puppets

What was Zachary’s best gift from his first birthday? Surprisingly, his grasshopper puppet which he is still obsessed with. Along with grasshopper, he is also obsessed wit his Elmo puppet. Literally, every day he insists that I put these puppets on so they can perform for him. Zachary also really likes to interact with these puppets. At first, Zachary would do cute things like give grasshopper a hug or Elmo a high five. He would even pretend to feed them coffee or pizza. More recently, the relationship has turned abusive. Zachary now loves to jump on and bite the puppets. He will stick toys or his hands in their mouths and crack up when I try to stop him. I keep telling Zachary he is being abusive and he should be nice to his puppets but that only encourages him to further abuse the. Zachary does not act out with other kids or us, it is just his puppets because for some reason it is hilarious to him. I don’t get it but he loves his puppets.

Zachary and the Potty

How do you get ready for potty training? You wait until your child is the appropriate age/maturity. You speak to your doctor. You read books and articles and get advice from friends. What do I do? Pretty much none of that so far. I have just said, hey Zachary, want to try using the potty and seen how it goes. And, instead of the potty, I have let Zachary use the toilet. From the little I have actual read and heard, for boys it is easier to start potty training when they are closer to three years old as opposed to when they are barely two years. My idea has just been to introduce Zachary to the general idea of the potty/toilet. How has it gone so far?

• Zachary has put his hands in the toilet – not so surprising.
• Zachary has put his feet in the toilet – slightly more surprising.

Zachary is fine with being a cliché

Want to save money this year on Zachary’s 2nd birthday gift? Send the box and forget the actual present. We have started receiving some of Zachary’s 2nd birthday gifts in the mail. Zachary has gotten some good gifts so far but seems to be a lot more fascinated with the boxes than the actual toys. I know this is a cliché joke about toddlers but it is funny because it is true, at least in Zachary’s case. What does Zachary like to do with the boxes? He likes to hide in them which is fine but it does not work so well when he tries to get me to hide in there with him.

Being Bad is What I do

Last night, I took Zachary onto our building’s roof to play before bedtime. The roof is great because it is a convenient, contained space where he can run around outside. Or, at least I thought it was great until Zachary discovered the little rocks in the corner of the roof. Zachary grabbed one of these rocks last night and put it in his mouth. I immediately forced Zachary to take the rock out of his mouth and told him we were going to leave the roof if he put another rock in his mouth. Of course, like ten seconds later Zachary put another rock in his mouth. I had warned Zachary and since he did it again I grabbed him and carried him off the roof. He was screaming and crying that he wanted to go back onto the roof.

ME: Zachary, I warned you if you put another rock in your mouth we would leave.

ZACHARY: ROOF!!! WAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!

ME: I will give you one more chance. If we go back out to the roof, are you going to put a rock in your mouth?

ZACHARY: Yes.

ME: What?

Zach or Zack: Damn you Zack Wheeler!!!!!!!!!!

Zack Wheeler you may have screwed me. Zachary and I are huge Mets fans and we are super excited – me more than he – for the young phenom pitcher who just joined the Mets rotation. While it would be great if  Zack Wheeler turns out to be a star it also poses a major problem for me. When Zachary was first born, I wrote a post about whether the spelling for Zachary’s nickname should be Zach or Zack. My concern was related to the fact that people are always spelling my name, Marc wrong. My parents went with the less common spelling which resulted in everyone  including my father at times misspelling my name. I vowed that when I named my son I would use the most common spelling and use a name that was rarely spelled differently. We happily settled on Zachary and used this spelling because Zachary is rarely spelled differently. The issue that did not occur to me until after my son was born was that there where two ways to spell his nickname.