Wii - Yeah!!

Okay, so I know it's been forever and this is going to be a super huge post. It's taken about a week to get it together. Partly because it's huge but also because Zach usually sleeps in the bedroom for naps. But when you ask for pictures, you get pictures. He takes some really good ones. Although he gets really excited and then starts kicking...which leads to blurry pictures, so often we can't take any when he's in his bouncer.

We've been doing pretty well lately - still going to the chiropractor several times a week and getting massages on a regular basis because of the car wreck. Zach seems to be getting straightened out. He hasn't had much wrong with his spine as of late, and he has gotten much better at turning his head to his right. He actually had his first cold a couple of weeks ago (I'm positive he just had congestion before, don't know why the doc said it was a cold). Some snotty kid at the doctor's office. People, if you know your kids are sick, keep them away from others!! Zach had a really rough night and then the next day we realized he was all congested and had a runny nose. No fever, but I'm sure his throat had been hurting. Later that day, Jason and I noticed symptoms in ourselves. It took Zach two weeks to get over it, and we were finally able to put him back in the nursery at church (we kept our sick kid away! :)).

Because he was sick we had him sleep in the bouncer so he was upright, and he did really well - almost twelve hour stretches. We enjoyed that for a while, but now he's back to waking up at four or five in the morning. He's actually on a schedule now, with set naptimes and feedings, give or take a half hour. He's had a set bedtime for at least a couple months, but we could never figure out anything for the day. Right now we've been pushing his bedtime earlier and earlier - last night was 6:45. Although he cried a few times, he didn't need us until 5:50 this morning. Of course, it's not an exact science (wish it was), so we have to keep tweaking with times and routines to get the best outcome. But he's still a very good baby, and usually goes to sleep within ten to fifteen minutes of setting him down. Which is a good thing, because we have to pace ourselves with Harry Potter - we're almost finished with the fifth one and the seventh book doesn't come out 'till July!

Zachary has also started squealing. Mostly when he's happy but sometimes when he's fussy, too. I would blame that on Judah, our friends' baby in California, but I figure it's payback - from the stories I remember I liked to scream just to make noise when I was little. Zach doesn't actually cry much, which is really nice. Usually only when he wakes up (after we pick him up - he'll lay there for 15 minutes talking to himself) and is hungry or when he's getting an adjustment. Like I said, he's on a schedule now and eats every three hours - breakfast, lunch and dinner with a snack in between each, just like us grownups should be. And he'll even tell me when it's time to take a nap - he'll get a little fussy to remind me it's time. But he really doesn't cry that much. He doesn't even take a pacifier anymore - he decided he was done with that a little after Christmas. It might have had something to do with his neck hurting from the wreck (sucking can hurt), but whatever it was he doesn't like them anymore. We really don't even offer him one. We did the other day and he just played with it like a toy. It was a rough go when he decided he didn't want it for naptimes, but now we're straightened out. I think I was trying to put him to sleep too early. But we really did get the best make and model as far as babies go :).

We finally got our Wii!! It's lots of fun and now we have a really good excuse to have people over (well, we can bribe them better now:)). We bought Trauma Center: Second Opinion, which is a surgery game. It's actually really fun, but I've kind of hit a road block - I'm not very good. Jason has gotten much farther than me, and he's already dismantled a bomb. As a surgeon that's weird, but it's fiction, so it works. For Valentine's Day, we did the most romantic thing...by buying another game for our Wii. I figured that would last longer than a meal, and we couldn't come up with any other ideas. Unfortunately we couldn't find a game that both of us wanted, so we just got Zelda for Jason. I don't really like that game, so the next one we buy I'll have the most weight for the decision.

In my spare time (yeah right!) I'm working on a picture project for Zachary's first holiday season. Hopefully it will be done soon and I'll put a pic up as soon as it is. It's going to be really cool.

And we're down to one vehicle now. They hauled away the car (no tears) so we have to coordinate things a bit more. We had a rental for a while. 2007 Sebring. Piece o' trash for the money, but it ran. We should get our check soon from the insurance company - our attoney's office helped us with that one.


So now for the pictures. I try to put everything in chronological order so you can all see the changes in Zach a little better.

He just loves to snuggle with his blanky - we have to keep an eye on him, and can tell when if hs face is covered when he cries. That's why we like to use the crocheted ones so we know he can breathe!

Zach only sometimes likes to play just on the floor - we've been trying to encourage him to roll over. On January 24th we were playing with him and he just rolled from his belly to his back, pretty quickly. Of course, we get out the camera to see if he can do it again...and he doesn't. Hasn't done it since.

I think at this point he was trying to tell me to stop :). "No photographs, please."
This was January 4th. I was chopping up carrots and had Z in the kitchen. I often explain to him how to make things, and show him what I'm doing. I figured he'd like a taste of the carrot I was chopping. All he really could do was slobber all over it, but he could still taste it. The first lick he made this aweful face. Then after I showed him I eat some too and got really excited about it, he started to like it more. I even cut the other end a little smaller so he could have a grip on it. Like I've told Jason, it really depends on how excited we are when giving him stuff - that's going to be our motto when we eat all those boring healthy things (like broccoli).
We never did get around to taking a picture of all three of us in front of the tree, but here's Z and I.
We (and by that I mean I) wanted to get pictures of Z in the pot Paul, Maggie and Luke got us for Christmas. He probably doesn't fit in it anymore, since this picture was the first week of January. I also wanted some pictures with the train. Jason was super excited about it and told Zach several times that when he gets older it will be his.
How cute is this?? We would have the train going and he would follow it from right to left.
After Zach got sick we had to take the bunny away (the snotty kid had played with it) and sanitize it. So now that it's back and clean...he doesn't like it anymore.
This is one of my favorite shirts - but we don't really have any pants that match. I really like the whole stripe thing. He let me take some really good pictures.
When he gets excited or likes something, he'll often just open his mouth - it's like his precuser to laughing. Or sometimes he just likes to be super cute.
While he can't sit up on his own yet, we like to let him try. He can sit on the couch and in chairs okay, if you keep an eye on him. If you give him a toy he'll try to lean forward and grab it...and just tip over. Jason took these pictures.
He's just lounging in this one, with his leg sticking out. We had to try to make him smile, and he did just great.
Like I said, we've been trying to get him to roll over. This was actually on January 18th. We've been trying to give him more "tummy time" so he can gain strength in his neck and back.He'll get frustrated after a while, but likes it more if you're down there playing with him. This was before the bunny was quarantined.
Have you ever seen a cuter baby? (yeah, I know, I'm biased, but he is cute). Aunt Rosie and Uncle Tab got him this sleeper for Christmas. Yeah, we know, dissapointing season, but go Steelers!
Workin' hard or hardly workin'? He can make the biggest spit bubbles. Although now he's just transitioned to drooling, not so much the bubbles.
One day I had him sitting up in the bobby, trying to learn some new tricks. And of course he just falls forward. But it lends to some cute pictures.
And when he doesn't fall forward, he falls backward. He didn't complain too much, though. Most people would love to just lounge like that in front of the tv!
Z has some strong abs - we've known that for a while because he loves to lift his butt up when you're changing him - he's done that since at least Thanksgiving. But it's still pretty impressive when you hold him up like this and his little legs stick straight out. Just like Superman.
This was January 23rd. After seeing the doctor, she said we could start him on rice cereal. He only gets a little bit (one ice cube of milk and enough cereal to make it the right consistency), but boy does he make a mess! About a week ago we tried giving him a little more but then stopped altogether - we think it might have upset his tummy. He gets super excited though, and in between bites will kick and bounce.
Jason doesn't like feeding him the food so much, so I feed him the cereal and then Jason will feed him the bottle for dinner. Just within the last few days he's started to reach out and grab for the bottle - he totally knows what it is. He'll pull it to his mouth, but doesn't yet know that he needs to tip it back.
We try to tell Zach that it's a hands-free sport, but I don't think he gets it.
We were laying there watching tv and he wanted his picture taken (he told me so :)).
His bouncer has rings that can come off, and man can he do that quickly. He loves to chew on them, even though they are hard plastic.
Ah, my little Death Eater. It's been pretty cold here lately (thankfully we missed that huge storm that just dumped all kinds of snow), and we have to put an extra layer on him. This sleeper is great because it has little mitten things attached that can fold over his hands. But the hat sticks up straight and is just like the Death Eaters' hats from Harry Potter.
We got Zach a gym - it actually is the same line as his bouncer - with his "rainforest friends." We can move the poles all around and change it up quite a bit, so he doesn't get bored. Most of the toys are velcro'd on, so we can change them out if we want.
The striped zebra cat makes noise if the little purple and blue ball is spun.

After our Superbowl party we had some chips left over. I finished them, but he just loved the noise the bag made, so I let him play with it. With kids, you really don't have to spend much, if anything, on entertainment, huh?
How he can eat his own foot I'll never know, but it's super cute. He can only do it with his left (again, we think he'll be left handed).
And as if the foot wasn't enough, just shove the hand in there too!
This is the turtle we picked up on Zach's first road trip (sure, he was in my belly but he was there) in Redding, CA. It's so soft, and he likes to snuggle with it. Or just slobber on it.

This shirt actually came from Aunt Tina, I think, and is second hand (as are most of Z's clothes). It was a really cool find though, as it matches our turtle theme.
But you can't get too excited about clothes because then he'll spit up. That turtle shirt lasted for a good couple of hours before we had to go down to the onesie.
Well, that's all for now, folks. We've already taken more pics since this last one (February 13th). I'll try to post more regularly as Z has done very well sleeping in his crib for naps the few times we've done it. He doesn't need to have me there to fall asleep, which is what we've been working on. Hope all is well!!