Singing in the...Humidity?

Well folks, I know it's been a while. I'd love to report that a lot has happened in the last month, but alas, I cannot tell a lie. Zach has made some strides (literally), so I'll update on him first (don't worry, we know that the baby is always the most important).

Zach just started cruising. Man he loves to scoot. We don't have a walker toy for him, although I have heard recently that they can be a bad toy. Don't really know why, I've just heard that. So we went the cheap route and just let him push around a box. He really loves it. Although he can only go in a straight line and our apartment isn't that long :). So we have to be right there with him to help him steer. The last few days he will walk with the box, then once he hits something and can't go any farther he'll start fussing. I think he might have been tired then too. We can only hope so. I told him he needs to find another way to convey his dissatisfaction. Jason said I need to use smaller words :).

Anyway, he loves to walk with that box. He might have been able to do it before, we just never put the two together. He has been able to walk around the coffee table and couch for a while.

Zach is also learning lots of things. He already knows that electronics don't go in the mouth. He's not allowed to play with cords or the lamps at all (although sometimes he "forgets"). If he's starting to get into something and you tell him not to, he'll usually listen. He often listens when you ask him to follow you into another room. And he'll come hunt you down if you disappear :). He knows the layout of our apartment and loves to come find out where we are, then find some new things to play with. We had another experience that showed us just how much he understands. Like I've said, we don't have a changing table, just a pad on the floor. I always change him there, and he knows he's not supposed to roll over or move while there. I can even get up to grab something and he'll stay put. He might start kicking, but he won't go anywhere. On the other hand, Jason had been telling me that he had a hard time putting Z's diaper and pants back on because Z was to squirmy. I couldn't quite figure it out and was a little worried that Zach would only listen to me. We aren't going to play the game where Zach gets upset because Daddy made him do something he's supposed to, then goes to Mommy for comfort. Na-uh. We figured out, though, that Jason doesn't always change him on that pad. Last week he changed him on the pad and told Zach to get up but he wouldn't. Zach is a smart little cookie and didn't know what was going on - I don't let him move off of that thing. Jason even went into the kitchen calling Zach to come, but he wouldn't. He just laid there until J went and got him. Smart little boy! So now Jason knows to always change him there and things go much easier. And to not call him up, but pick him up :).

Let's see...Jason's doing relatively well at work. It's still enjoyable, although not something he wants to do for the rest of his life. Which is good, because we don't want to live here for the rest of our lives :). He's casually investigating owning a business - we'll see what happens with that. Seriously, you spend so much of your life at "work" you might as well really enjoy it. I guess that's the big decision we put on high schoolers when they go off to college, but how should they really know? Most of us can't figure it out, but we try to make them decide...just a random rant.

Jason's going golfing today with a dude from work. We'll see how long that lasts :). It is so freakin' humid here. Good night. I went to the wonderful world of Target last night. Walked outside and almost ran back in - it was overwhelming! It's supposed to be 95 today with the humidity. We have an ongoing game of guessing the humidity here and then back west. Much different, let me tell you.

So maybe after Jason's golfing we'll hit the pool. It's been a while, and the last few times we tried to go on Sunday's it was locked for some reason. Office staff is slacking, I guess. It was a bummer, too, because it takes so long to get Zach changed and lathered up. But it's hot enough, that's for sure. Whenever it rains (I think I've said this before) it cools down the water a lot because they don't cover it at all. But it should be pretty warm, so we'll see. On an random note, does anyone know what a high ozone index is all about? We've been having "air quality alert" days because it's unhealthy. What exactly does that mean?

I'm doing alright, I guess. Still doing PT and massage, trying to figure out what's going to make my body better. Headaches are still about every other day. I always get chewed out when I go to PT (I used to work there, so they know me) because of all the lifting/carrying I do with Zach. It's not like I have an option, people! Z plus the car seat is a good 30 pounds. I'm just lucky he's a little small for his age. But anyway, maybe one day we'll be able to close the car crash case and get some cash.

We (and by "we" I mean "I") are planning a baby shower for a friend of ours (check out there blog here). It should be really fun. It's like ours was - just a fun, co-ed BBQ. We won't be having any of those silly baby shower games :). She's seriously had quite a few showers, so I think she may have had her fill. I get to make executive decisions, so it works out nicely. I'm going to make party favors (they look great), some tasty treats (desserts are my favorite to make) and Jason's going to use his BBQ. It's been so long (I seriously need to post more often), I can't remember if I mentioned J finally got his BBQ. We had been saving up our fun money for quite a while, but it finally paid off. So we've been eating a lot of things with that. Jason really likes it. There's not a whole lot of things like a man and his BBQ. Now if I can only get him to start making some recipes from BBQU! I used to watch him in the afternoons, and oh my, my mouth would water.

My new food goal is to cut down on our food budget :). Not sure if I mentioned that, either. Several years ago I would have made fun of myself for this, but I'm trying to buy everything that we need for "stock" on sale and with a coupon. You can really save some cash! The last trip to the store I saved 14 bucks because of sales and 10 because of coupons. Granted, I had some bigger ones, but you get my point. It's just a fun game for me to see what's on sale, what I can get for super cheap. I bought mustard (French's) for 19 cents. And not too long ago I bought some New York Texas Toast for 20 cents. Oh, and I got a bottle of Lawry's Marinade for free! Just by watching the sales and using coupons. It gives me a great sense of satisfaction. I can't contribute to money coming in, but I can help control money going out. So I encourage you all to start being more watchful with sales. Lots of stuff freezes well, too, so you can buy it on sale and freeze it. We always have ripe bananas in the freezer to make banana bread - which I did two days ago. Anyway, it's my little game.

So enough blabbering, I'll let you check out some pics. Here's our cute little boy after he woke up from a nap. He must have been laying on his stomach because he had marks all over the left side of his face. His naps have been going well, and he's been sleeping through the night ever since we returned from PA. His top two teeth must have been giving him trouble, because once they came in he stopped waking at 3 am. Hopefully the next round of teeth won't be like that...

I bought him this sorter at a garage sale. It's not exactly the one that I want, but it will work for 2 bucks. I now keep the top loose, but he likes to stick his little arms through the holes to try and pull out the pieces. He sort of understands putting the pieces through the right hole. To be honest, right now we use the cylinder as a base for his little basketball. I showed him how to set it on it, and he then tried to copy me. It was pretty cute.

I know all parents probably think they are raising geniuses, but check this out. Zach likes to go through his shoebox of toys occasionally, and will pull one toy out after another, examining each to see if he wants to play with it. The floor was clean when he decided to rummage through his box one day. Then I noticed that he laid his toys out on the floor - in a line! It was pretty funny.

You'll also notice the hanger in the picture - when I put the laundry away I often give him a hanger or two to keep him occupied while I do the rest. What he'll end up doing is abandoning his hanger, coming over to the couch and pulling all of my hangers onto the floor. He won't play with them, just put them on the floor. He's crazy :).

The next Tiger Woods? Our checking account hopes so :). I guess anything is fair game to go in the mouth.

Only sometimes is Z content to play in his entertainer. This day he was okay with it while I chopped up some food. I don't know why, but sometimes his little arm will end up through the leg hole. And once I fix it he gets all bummed out! It's just funny.

Again, he loves straps. I've been trying to get a picture like this for a while - I can't tell you how often he does this. He'll just be sitting there with a strap or string in his mouth.

I told someone the other day that they probably designed it this way because of failure first, but it really is nice that the oven door doesn't get too hot. I made food for some friends that just adopted their baby (check him out here) and Zach just loved looking in to see the food. He wouldn't stay really still for the picture, but oh well. So every now and then if I'm cooking something, I'll let him peek in to see what I'm making. And then promptly tell him that only grownups put anything in or out of the hot, hot oven :).

Here's Z with his b-ball. It used to be ours - I got it free when The Incredibles came out on DVD.

This is a great "I've seen the light" photo. He just loves light fixtures; not quite sure why. And anything that dangles or hangs from the ceiling. And balloons. I guess the list could go on forever :).

So in retrospect there were a few super exciting things that happened this last month. Harry Potter came out, and our friends (that's right, we have friends) came to visit us. They used to live back in Washington, but moved out to Ohio short term for a job. Hopefully shorter term than our venture to Kentucky :).

They are super cool though. When Nicole called and asked if the weekend of July 21 was okay, I told her that I had just a couple of plans...like I had to go get the next Potter book. It was great, because she was super stoked about it and went with me! I wasn't too scared to go get it at midnight be myself, because let's face it, all those freaks are the same. We're all family :). At least that's been my experience with the Star Wars fans. But it was great to have someone to be excited with. Jason likes to watch the movies, but he's not really into the books. He just asks me what happens.

So after getting our copies at midnight, we came home to find everyone asleep. We commented about how we'd like to read it but we really ought to go to sleep (we have kids, after all). I went to bed and laid down only to realize that I was just too stinking excited to sleep. So I crept into our bathroom and read by the night light. In the morning I sheepishly told Nicole that I had stayed up, but she responded with an excited "Me too!!!" Apparently she camped out in our kitchen and used the night light there. Needless to say, the rest of the weekend was spent trying to read the book and not be too antisocial. It was super fun though, because for a while we were on the same page and could discuss things. I've never had that experience before, but would totally recommend to have another crazed fan around when a new book/movie/fill in the blank comes out.

This is what Nicole and I did most of the weekend. I mean, we couldn't do it the whole time...the kids had to eat.

On Saturday (I know, we had to put the books down) we took a trek out to Joe Huber's Orchard. There are lots of things to do there, but we usually just go and pick fruit. That's what we did this time. We picked up some grapes and blueberries. It's about 30 minutes north of here (although if you follow the signs it's 40), but realistically it's a pretty cheap, fun form of entertainment. They have an ice cream shop there with tasty ice cream. It's good :). They also have other things to do, but we didn't have much time as Zach goes to bed pretty early. So we came home and I discovered the wonder of pesto. Yummy! I don't know where that's been all my life.

Here's a pic of the Hoxworths. You can check out their blog here for some additional pics. They made some random comment on their blog about a broken wrist, but as there is no photographic evidence that we had any involvement in that "incident;" we will deny that it ever happened :).

Here's our little fam. Not really the best picture, but one of the only ones of all three of us. We have to get Zachary a new hat - that one is too small but it was either that or the sun in his eyes (it was a beautiful day).

After we were done picking fruit and shopping at the little market they have there, we went over to the other side of the farm so the Hoxworths could take some pics. They have some cute ones on their blog. I stayed in the car with Zach as we didn't want to do the whole car-seat thing over again. I had my ice cream, and let's just say he was interested in it. Keep in mind that I hardly EVER give him things he ought not have, but I figured what the heck? He'd been a good boy and he was curious. So I let him taste my ice cream. Go figure, he liked it :). They really do have good ice cream there, I'm pretty sure they make it themselves with their own fruit and stuff.

He was tired, too, so his eyes look a little sleepy in this one. I figured he was too cute to not get a pic.

When Zachary was little he used to not like my hair at all - he would try to put it in his mouth and then it would tickle him. He used to make the funniest faces. Now he actually likes to grab it (he rarely pulls) and taste it. He'll do it sometimes while I'm holding him. He can actually do it without me really noticing. Anyway, we were in the car, he was tired (he went to bed an hour late) and hungry, so I let him goof around. Just like the straps, sometimes he just likes to have something IN his mouth, not necessarily chew on it.

Before the Hoxworths left we decided we needed some proof that we were with them :).

One night Z was laying on Jason and relaxing. Of course, once I got the camera he wanted up. But he was laying there for a while watching tv. It was cute.

Attack of the Zach!

I finally got my kite hung up on the ceiling. I wanted to take a picture of it, but all Z wanted to do was climb on me. It worked out okay, though, because now you can see both he and the kite :). His shirt is kind of old school (I'm sure it's second hand) and we decided he had the whole Simon Cowell thing going on.

Here's a pic of the kite. It was a chore to put up, but it really adds a lot of color to the room. I wanted to spin it in more, but ran out of kite :). It still looks pretty nice though, I think.

For the baby shower I made the party favors (I can get a pic next time). Zach decided he wanted to "help." Needless to say, his idea of help and my idea of help are not always the same thing :).

I just like this picture. He's a cutie!

Zach was talking in this one. He loves to make different noises. I'm trying to teach him different sounds of the alphabet, like the "k" sound for keys. I think he likes to mimic. In this pic, too, his hair was sticking up in a few places that reminded me of horns.

I had to mess with the brightness on these next ones. The only thing I don't like about our camera is that sometimes the lighting will look fine on the screen, but much different once you get them on your computer. But nothing some cheap software can't fix. Isn't he just too cute?

I was trying to get a good shot of his teeth. Obviously he's got the bottom ones, but the top ones are harder to get a pic of. They're really coming in! I'm afraid he's going to end up with my teeth, but even Jason's top teeth are much larger than the bottom two. And don't most kids have the gap on top? All of the kids I've looked at lately do.

We like our boy :).

One thing Zach has started to do a lot more of lately is play by himself. If the drapes and blinds are open in his bedroom so it's really light in there, he'll just play by himself for a while. It's so nice! I peek in every now and then to make sure he's not chewing on electrical cords, but he knows that he can play with almost anything in there and it work outs really well. He knows that he can pull his books down and look at them - he knows he can't pull our books down in the living room. He'll play with his toys or the stuffed animals on the chair. It's really nice to not have to entertain him all the time. That 30-45 minutes is a great gift! I can actually load the dishwasher without him attacking it...

If you've actually read this far I give you props. I know my posts are super long. But I figure if you didn't actually want to know how we're doing you wouldn't check in. Or you could just look at the pictures :).