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2010-07-07:
So, what's been going on lately? Much. I've got pictures of some of it, but for the rest,
you'll have to rely on my nice, cheap words. I'll start with Niklas since his name's used for the domain and I pay for the webhosting by robbing his piggy bank... I mean, through my legitimate moneymaking ventures. Anyway, we've been cracking down on Niklas's bedtime stall tactics, so that's been fun. We make him go to the potty before he goes to bed, but usually within ten minutes of putting him down, he runs out of his room claiming to have to go urgently. Unless he's been drinking heavily for several hours, I don't think science really allows for that. After five or six days of losing toys and privileges at an impressive clip, he went right to sleep tonight, so we might be making some progress there. Of course, he might just be resting up for and increased offensive on the "I will not go to sleep" front, so we'll see. Sleep avoidance aside, he's been doing well. We've been to several playgrounds of late, including one that was far enough away for me to agree to pull him there in his wagon, so that was popular. Yesterday, he did an awesome job of hitting at T-ball and an opposite of that job at playing defense (unless the rule have changed since I was a kid and it's now recommended that you let the ball roll by you, chase it down, throw it in the wrong direction, chase it down again and pretty much repeat this until someone runs you down). Solid hitting, though. Zoe's doing very well. She had her two week checkup last Friday where she weighed in at seven pounds, five ounces. She's also allegedly an inch and three quarters taller than she was when she was born, but I assume there's some error in one of those measurements. Her umbilical cord and its subsequent scab have fallen off, so her belly doesn't look freaky anymore, which is nice. She's already able to roll over from her stomach to her back, and in a flukey but still impressive move, she scooter herself across the crib on her knees for a few inches. Other than that, poop, eat, yell, etc. One thing that is much easier with Zoe than it was with Niklas is the diaper changing. I assume it's a boy/girl thing, but there hasn't been even remotely as much peeing on the changing table that I'm use to. She's only peed once while I've had her diaper off and thanks to science, I didn't have to worry about her spraying it all over the walls, me or the floor which happened with Niklas every other day or so. She's also only pooped while I was changing her once, and that was while she still the black tar newborn poop, so it didn't fly all over the place. Apropos of the season, it looked like one of those smoke snake things. This is a far cry from Niklas who had painted the walls a couple of times by the time he was three weeks old. Keep up the good work, Zoe! 2010-07-11: Pictures? You bet. And I haven't even sat on my pony yet. Anyway, Zoe's been rocking the tummy time, looking cute and switching up her sleeping and eating schedules as dictated by some sort of sleeping/eating randomization software. Niklas went to the Target with me the other day and I bought him a Matchbox garbage truck. At $0.92, it was dollar for dollar the most popular toy in the history of toys or things that are popular. 2010-07-18: So, it's been hotter than a really hot thing lately. Yesterday, Niklas and I went to the park to fly his kite. Despite the fact that the good kite flying park is only a fifteen minute walk, we took the bus so as to avoid any unnecessary time in the hated sun. This is the first time we've had the kite out in Chicago, and it turns out that despite the city's claims of a windy nature, the ocean breezes of Bermuda are superior when it comes kite piloting. That is, of course, based on a pretty small sample size. Anyway, despite the heat, the lack of consistent wind and my god, the heat, Niklas had a fabulous time running around. Also, he saw a dog. "Hey, dog!" said Niklas. On account of the obvious superiority of indoor activities these days, Niklas has been playing with his Matchbox cars a ton. He and I built a ramp to facilitate racing. The best car so far has proven to be a Mazda 2, though his garbage trucks have been remarkably successful as well. Race cars are surprisingly inconsistent at racing. Planes are right out. Zoe has been doing well. She's developed a shriek that Andrya and I don't remember Niklas having at that age (though he can shriek like a madman now, let me tell you), but it's not something she unleashes a terribly inconvenient amount. Also, her hands and feet have finally filled out so she no longer looks like she has tiny, tiny old lady hands. She's settled into an almost consistent eating schedule, which has just enough variance in it to keep Andrya from getting a reasonable amount of sleep in the evening. Hopefully, that will turn around any day now. Zoe had her first minor poop debacle a couple of days ago. We had just given her a bath and she was all wrapped up in girly pink towel with the flowers, looking all cute and whatnot. Andrya put her on her changing pad so as to get her dressed when Zoe unleashed a BP level poop that blasted it's way through the towel and wrecked up her changing pad as well. Looking back on Niklas's propensity for pooping on the floor, the wall, the changing pad after you've already removed the changing pad cover he just pooped on, etc., we're getting off pretty easily with Zoe so far. Here are some new pictures, including one of Niklas showing me up at golf. Not that that's a challenge. 2010-07-19: Well, then. Welcome to NiklasAndZoe.com, which I've launched a mere month after Zoe's birth. Timely! You'll note that it looks an awful lot like Niklas's site, on account of how I haven't gotten around to Zoe-fying anything yet. Eventually, there'll be some stuff of this nature:  Or maybe the new design will be shoe based:   Note that while Zoe's shoes are more stylish, Niklas will have you know that he has "super fast shoes". Anyway, all of the Niklas Smith Only Child Experience Project Featuring Niklas stuff is still up at www.NiklasSmith.com. I haven't shook this site down yet, and I'll probably slack on that until the redesign is finished. Or at least started. So, to sum up, please visit www.NiklasAndZoe.com for all of the latest Niklas and/or Zoe related news. 2010-07-31: So, being three and all, Niklas has not yet mastered wiping his own bottom after he poops. That awesome task falls to either me or Andrya, whichever one of us fails to look incredibly busy whenever it come up. A couple of days ago, though, I was thrilled to get the call. Not at first, mind you, but then I saw what he had left in the toilet. it was without a doubt the largest amount of poop he has ever let fly. (Seriously, this is a fairly gross picture, so only click here if you're not going to be bothered by an immense amount of poop.) I CANNOT WRAP MY HEAD AROUND A POOP OF THAT SIZE COMING OUT OF NIKLAS. It wasn't like he was backed up for a couple of days or anything. I've got calls into several labs and government agencies. Really, though, did you see the size of that poop? Incredible. It hasn't been all giant poops for Niklas since the last update. He's been playing t-ball, hitting the playground and generally running amuck. He and I went to the Nature Museum with Aaron and Dana the Friday before last. We saw a taxidermied skunk causing Niklas to run around acting like he was a skunk slightly more than usual. They also have a pretty cool indoor play area there. I'm unclear as to it's relationship to nature, but it was 95 degrees outside when we went, so I wasn't about to complain about having access to a place where he could run himself out a bit. This week, I took Niklas into my office downtown so I could get some software to finish up the project that's been keeping me from updating this website in a timely fashion. He was much better behaved than the last time I took him into the office. He didn't even take off running down the hallway once, so that was nice. The highlight for him was when I took him to the break room and he got to marvel at the five different vending machines. That's right, five. Sargent & Lundy is very successful. Zoe has been getting much better at holding her head up. She's also been yelling an awful lot, particularly between the hours of 7pm and 9pm, which I guess could be a lot worse. She slept for 7 hours in a row the other night, so that was pretty awesome. Mostly, though, she's been hanging out looking good. Don't believe me? What is the matter with you? Here are some pictures that will no doubt make you regret ever doubting her beauty.   |
