Feeling Better

Zane was in better spirits on Sunday with a good appetite and plenty of energy. By evening he even took a bath, displaying his normal exuberance (fancy word for total-crazy-kid). In the morning I brought bananas home from the grocery and he wolfed down one and a half in no time at all. Huge banana bites! I don’t think he’s ever eaten that much banana at once and certainly never with such big bites. There’s no feeling quite like seeing him with a good appetite and a smile.

He’s been talking more and more lately. There are magnetic letters on the fridge and the other night he moved them from one side to the other. We’d tell him the name of the letter as he moved it and he did an amazing job of repeating most of them. Of course that’s with the parental filter in place: what sounded like a perfect “F” to us might sound like mumbling to someone else. He’ll even join in on the ABC song sometimes, parroting a line I’ve just sung, or point to a letter out of the blue and say it.

He’s also been doing more signing to fill in the gaps. I don’t know how many times I’ve read the baby signs book to him and done the “peeling-the-finger” sign for banana without so much as a faint response. But yesterday while getting ready to feed him some more banana I asked if he wanted some and he did the banana sign a couple of times. So far I think he’s done: more, drink, butterfly, diaper, apple, sleep, milk, banana, moon, ball, and maybe stars. Some of these are hard to interpret one way or the other. Oh, and the “diaper” and “sleep” signs were done in response to the words. I don’t think he’s used them to let us know that he needs changing or would like to lay down for a bit.

Speaking of the alphabet song I’ve been thinking how unfair it is to Z named kids. It’s almost like it ends half-heartedly with “oh, and Z I guess”. Searching the web I found three alternatives:

a z b y c x d w e v f u g t h s i r j q k p l o m n
a e i o u b c d f g h j k l m n p q r s t v w x z y
t h e q u i c k b r o w n f x j m p s v l a z y d g

The first two obviously still start with A, which has been in the limelight far too long. So I put together two alternatives:

z a y b x c w d v e u f t g s h r i q j p k o l n m
z y x w v u t s r q p o n m l k j i h g f e d c b a

Finally, for JJ/Kirk and anyone else who’s nutty enough, here’s one that treats the alphabet like a series of letters that are PI spaced apart (sort of):

a d g j m p s v z w t q n k h e b x u r o l i f c y