North playing around our bicycle

Working on his plan to take over the world

North sweeps his room

Tonight, for the first time ever, North found the broom, got it out and started sweeping the floor. He's almost 23 months old.

North at CEO's desk

Lunch at Mommy's office

My goal is to have the whole family together for lunch everyday at my wife Jenni's office. Today was the first test run of it. Our son loves her work area anyway. It was really nice. I think it'll be good for us, and will give my wive a real break and a chance to reconnect with me and our son in the middle of a crazy business day. Before getting the cargobike lunch dates like this weren't practical.

Almost ready to go to mom's office
Lunch in mom's work area is so cool.
Ok, back on

Waking from a nap.

Throwing leaves into Lake Union

Stats at 1.5 year doctor check-up

32 inches tall

28 pounds

Feeding North

Year and a Half

North turned a year and half on July 25th. Here are a list of things he does:

1. Types on his laptop.
2. If we accidently leave a DVD in the player, he has figured out how to get the TV and DVD player both going.
3. Pushes the YES button on the ATM card reader at Fred Meyer check out.
4. A few yoga moves.
5. His idea of a joke: while walking around Fred Meyer, he walks behind men with shorts on, and slaps their calf, then runs off laughing. (He didn't get that from us or anything we watch)
6. Growls when a computer is rebooting.
7. Points at the moon, and often says something about it. I never pointed at the moon, he found it in the sky.
8. Notices all planes, even ones too far away to hear their sound. He loves airliners the most.
9. Loves the Fremont Rocket (see it here). He eagerly walks to it, raises his hand at it. Lately I tell him he can get on it and ride to the moon, he gets excited at the story.
10. He likes one particular electric cable tower that is huge and along the ship canal. We walk to it and he really likes looking straight up it from underneath.
11. Walking:
    
    • Walks between a quarter and a half mile, occasionally going a mile on the Burke-Gilman Trail.
    • Knows his way around the neighborhood.
    • Walks on the sidewalk with no wandering off course.

North meditating

Jenni watches Yoga Booty Ballet, doing a mix of yoga, aerobics, and ends with a meditation cool down. Today North got in perfect position and participated through the whole meditation part.

Meltdown

Today at Fred Meyer we were having a great time. We walked around, played with the bikes, bounced the ball. Then a bike fell slightly over and North began to cry. What happened next was exceptional. He did that thing they warn about, an escalating explosion of crying, anger and fear.

It was the most upset I've seen him since he was born. Beyond mad at me for taking him from something he liked, this was off the deep end in terms of upset to where it seems fearful to him.

He was grabbing at me, not hostile, but trying to wrap his arms around me. I hugged him while leaving him still seated in the cart. He got steadily more upset. I finally got not-stupid and took him out of the cart, and what I did next was just the right thing. I held him like when he was a week old, and rocked side to side, no hurry, no talking, and did it for over 5 minutes. Within the first minute he was quieter, and then he just went all relaxed and kept his arms around my neck.

He has gotten more mature in the last few months, and most of the time understands "no" and can be expected to understand talking to. But what happened today took a rapport more like when he was a few weeks old.

After he stopped crying it was one of the best moments in my life. I held him for a long time.

North posing for photo

North running around the Lenin Statue

North walking with Makiko and me

Makiko is from Japan, married to an engineer I worked with at Streambox, and they live in our building now. She has been walking with us in the mornings.

North walking like he owns Seattle

North and Jenni playing on computer photo app

North's Computer Workstation

I have a computer workstation in a window. North set-up a bunch of stuff in the other similar window, sort of emulating my area. This morning I added his Linux laptop and he is happily typing on it now.

Crashing cars and laughing

A great moment between Dad and Son

North and I were having a difficult feeding session. He was resisting eating his main course and only wanted apple sauce. I was holding his hands down and waiting for his mouth to be open wide enough while he cried -and popped the food in. I had decided to stand firm on what he eats. But I also didn't want there to be too much "damage" from the contention between us. He had his only super-duper tantrum a week ago, and the rest of the day things were a little cautious and off between us. Since then I've learned to de-escalate this stuff. So after this feeding I wanted to move on to making him enjoy and respect me again.

Turns out maybe he was thinking the same thing. I guess to him he is "teaching me a difficult lesson" also. After this difficult meal he grinned at me, and I picked him up and carried him to watch some things with me on my computer.

I noticed on Facebook a blurb about some girl that is the new guitar whiz, and she performed at TED. I clicked on the video [here]. Kaki King came on and she began to blow North and I away.

I was thrilled to someone contemporary that was so amazing on guitar. But what I'm really writing this blog entry about is North. I looked over at North, and he was enraptured. He gets a serious, deep and reverent look on his face and body mannerisms when his favorite music is on. He was that and more. The video is over 14 minutes long. North was so into it. He never took his eyes off the guitar playing. Once, in not so subtle change in the music composition, he jumped. He was paying a kind of attention adults pay to this stuff.

Through all this he sat in my lap and had his arm around my back, and being so into music that I was so into. We had both discovered it at the same time, a surprise, and we both were extremely moved by the music and the visuals of her unorthodox playing style. I spent half the time of the performance looking at North, almost crying I was enjoying this whole moment so much.

We went out for one of North's long exploration walks, he even did something new when I said "look, there's a little girl over there, you ought to go and say hi" and he walked the half block distance to her and waved hi.

Then we got back, and I got out his lunch of the same food he fought against earlier. I got the first spoonful out and said "open". He opened his mouth, totally cooperating. He ate every bite without even a hint of a fuss.

( Oh, and TED is where some of the greatest minds speak, usually on intellectual topics. A seat for one performance costs $6000.)

At the Beach : Memorial Day 2009 Photos