Scrumpy Daddy

We had a great 4th of July this year. It was very relaxing after spending so much time getting ready for Zach’s party, that was the day before (July 3rd). We spent most of the day just playing with the kids around the house and then went to the fireworks. Zach fell asleep during the fireworks. Even the finale only made him stir slightly. He is definitely like his daddy. He can fall asleep anywhere!

Happy belated 4th of July everyone!

Grammy came down with Aunt Becky and Gramps for Zach’s birthday. Grammy stayed for an extra week. It was her birthday too (July 6th)! She stayed because we took her to the DCI (Drum Corp International) show. It was an amazing show. The bands were awesome and it made me miss marching band.

While Grammy was here for the extra week Abby got to stay home with her all week and have some fun mini trips with Grammy. They went to the library, mall, and pet store. They also had fun at home playing with Abby’s toys, watching movies, and making pictures. Thanks for the great week Grammy!

Abby and Grammy at the mall

Grammy’s birthday!

Abby and Grammy at the fireworks for the 4th of July.

Playing with my new Eric doll that Grammy got me at the Disney store. I used to have mommy’s old Eric doll from when she was a kid, but it broke recently.

Zach turned 1 on July 1st. I can’t believe it has been over a year now since he came into our life. Wow! Time really does fly. Abby will be 4 this August and then next year off to school. Crazy!

Anyways, Zach had his 1 year appointment last night with the pediatrician. He is doing great. He is 24 lbs and 31 inches. It is nice to see him lengthening out now. He is still to remain doing his breathing treatments once a day with the Pulmacort. Don’t know how long he will need to continue this. He will also be moving to no bottles soon and just using sippy cups and drinking whole milk and water. I am going to finish the can of formula we have and then move him to whole milk.

What Zach can do:

On Zach’s birthday (July 1st) he decided it was time to stand. He started pulling himself up to standing on everything. He now cruises along furniture and has started to use the walking toys. Though, he seems to love to push and walk with Abby’s little white desk chair the best. I guess it moves slower then the toys with the wheels. He loves to pull himself up in his crib now. We had to lower it to the lowest setting now. Whenever I go to get him from bedtime or nap time he always stands up to greet me with a smile. I love it.

Zach is now fully on table foods and can use a sippy cup and feed himself. He especially likes wagon wheels for a treat after his dinner. He definitely likes to eat and will eat anything you put in front of him. Even if he makes a face (ice cream and Popsicles) he continues to open his mouth and eat it.

Zach loves all his new toys from his birthday. He got a lot of boy toys (trucks and blocks). He especially likes this little white pull along dog. He will push it away from himself to use the string to pull it back. He gets so excited doing it. He is definitely a boy and loves cars and trucks. He pushes them all over the floor. He got a big dump truck and likes to raise the shovel in the front and dump things into the truck. Though, he doesn’t usually have anything on the shovel, but just likes the action. Zach now has lots of mega blocks. Just with all other blocks he loves when people make things that he can break apart. You barely have time to put something together before he is over there knocking it over and pulling the blocks apart. He can put the blocks back together too. Zach also likes his ball popper and this other toy where you hit the balls with a hammer to knock them down through the toy. He has gotten very good at hitting the balls with the hammer and then putting the balls back on the top to do again. Also with the ball popper he doesn’t just knock it over anymore and let the balls out all at once. He loves to sit with it and try and catch the balls as they come out the top and then put them back down. His last favorite toy (not new, used to be Abby’s) are the stacking cups. He loves to take them apart and try and put them back together. He needs work on stacking them in the right order, but that will come.

Reading are the building blocks to so many things and Zach loves books. He will sit and turn the pages to books for a good while. He is not great at listening to the books yet, because he wants to keep turning the pages back and forth instead of listening to all the words. We are going to start reading him books before bed just like we do Abby. We have tried doing them both at the same time in the past, but since they are on differently levels of interest and attention I think we are going to separate them and one parent will do one child and the other the other child. They also each like their one on one time where they don’t have to share.

Now that Zach is up and moving more he is annoying his sister more. Whenever she is sitting on the couch he always tries to grab what she has on the couch or her feet. So far Abby has been fairly patient with him, but she does need reminder to be gentle. Zach also likes to follow Abby around and want to play with everything that Abby is playing with. I don’t think Abby is quite ready to share everything with Zach and will sometimes push him away or grab toys back from him. I know it will continue to get worse right now with the sharing of the toys and both of them wanting to play with mommy and daddy.

Lastly, the verbal skills are coming along. Zach was saying dat (that) when he pointed to things, but now it has turned more into a bup. He does say ba ba for bottle, mama, and dada. He also tries to say book and ball. He really likes his B words. I don’t really remember with Abby how long it took for her to say multiple words. I remember he first clear word was ball when she was a year and she would say it, “ballah!”. It was so cute. I can’t wait for Zach to move past the B phase and try more sounds. Maybe reading to him more will help with this.

There were 2 things about today that really stood out in my mind that I want to share about Abby.

This morning after we got in the car to go to daycare I said to Dave, “I got my eye on you”. Abby then said, “Give daddy back his eye.” I was so confused at first, but she said it again. So I rolled my window down and said, “Here’s your eye daddy”. This made Abby happy. She then proceeded to say, “I got your eye mommy”. I told her she has to give it back so mommy can drive. She did.

Then at bed time Abby read me 2 stories. First she picked a nature book that has lots of words in it. She said she just wanted to look at the pictures. She then told me stories about the pictures like one page had reindeer and snow. She said that the reindeer were cold and the way she said it was like she was cold, brrrrrr. Then she picked Brown Bear, Brown Bear What Do You See. She knew that certain parts of it were repeated, but I guess didn’t know what. She would say, “Bear what do you see, see, see. I see a bird looking at me, me, me. She did it for each page and on several pages remember the animal next without looking at the picture. For the last one she said, “Children what do you see, see, see. Everything!” She then proceeded to point at the animals and say what all of them were. It was great. I loved being read to.

I know this post is late and out of order, but we just got the pictures to go with it from my mom. We had forgotten our camera at my parent’s house.  Every year, for as long as I can remember, my home town celebrates a Lilac festival. It has a craft show, tons of food, music, a parade, and of course lilacs. Though, because of the warmer weather the peak of the lilacs was a the week before the festival. Many of the lilacs were already gone.

The weather was perfect. Not too hot, not too cold, and most importantly not raining. We always come a little early to get good seats for the parade. We have a spot. We always look around the crafts for a bit before the parade and then on the way back get food. We got funnel cake, fried dough, onion rings, and lemonade. Yum!

Abby also got a tattoo before the parade. She picked the little mermaid. It was on for several days, which Abby loved.

Abby had a great time watching the parade. She especially liked the horses and the dogs. My high school band was there. Definitely wasn’t the band I remembered, but they don’t have the same director or discipline. (Thanks, MC, for a great experience.) Zach had a good time as well. He liked all the music.

After the parade we went over to the food tent for some grub. We had roast beef sandwiches, fresh potato chips, and cheese fries. All very good. Then we went back over to the crafts. Abby picked a pop gun for her gift. She also got a beautiful glass mushroom from my dad’s cousin who is a glass blower that travels to various festivals like this one to sell his goods. He was so nice. The second he saw Abby he immediately offered her a mushroom and allowed her to pick the color of her choice. She of course picked purple.

It was a great day. I can’t wait until next year. I hope next year there are more flowers.

I love that it is warm enough out already for a sprinkler. We got Abby a sprinkler last year at the end of the year. She was very excited to use it. Her friends from the neighborhood came over to join in the fun.

Every year over memorial day weekend since the birth of my nephew we have gone to my brother-in law’s place to celebrate his birthday. Also, my niece was born around that time as well (brother and sister) so for the past 2 years we have celebrated both. This was the first year in 2 years I have been able to go. Two years ago Abby was sick and then last year I was 36 weeks pregnant with Zach. Doctor said I couldn’t go more than an hour away and my brother-in laws is 3 1/2 hours away.

We had tons of fun this year. They had a moon bounce that Abby loved.

The food was good and the games were fun. We have found a new love. We loved the game ladder ball. We had so much fun with it that we bought it for home.

We celebrated my nephews birthday on Monday with just the family. Abby loved playing with a squirt gun that my nephew had.

It’s great being with family!

Well…I am finally getting back to blogging. Took about a month hiatus. Not that I really wanted to, but it has been crazy busy with traveling and daily life. Zach is now 11 months old. I missed his 10 month post so I am going to integrate everything he has done on the past 2 months in this post.

That’s right people. I can crawl now. I still go back and forth between crawling on my hands and knees and doing the army crawl, but I am getting better and better each day. I really started to crawl on my hands and knees in a more consistent manner about 2 days ago. Mom and dad are so proud.

I am also starting to try to pull myself up to standing. I can get on my knees by myself and if someone stands me up I can stay standing holding on to something. I will keep trying. Can’t move into the toddler classroom until I can walk.

Zach can also sit up on his own. He can go from the laying down or crawling position to the sitting position and then back again. He has really grown in the last 2 months.

Food…I love it. I am eating mostly finger food now, with only 4 bottles a day.

Zach started on the hot lunch program at daycare on June 1st when he turned 11 months. So far he has been doing great. He gets the same food as Abby just cut up real small and smaller portions. He has eaten everything they said except he had a hard time chewing the turkey. Guess he needs more than the 5 teeth he now has. He has 2 lower teeth and 3 upper teeth. Right now his favorite foods are yogurt, puffs, bitter biscuits, and freeze dried yogurt drops. He will eat just about anything you put in front of him. Also, things you do not. Tonight he tried to eat a creepy crawly bug. Daddy got it out of his mouth before he actually ate it. If he sees a speck of anything on the floor he picks it up and in the mouth it goes. He also loves to try and eat the grass outside.

About a month ago now we switched Zach from pumped milk to formula. He also is no longer nursing. It has been a nice change. He is no longer getting up during the night to feed. He will generally sleep from about 8pm – 6am with taking 2 naps during the day. He definitely sleeps better at home on the weekends for his naps then he does at school.

Zach also said his first word. “Dat” Zach likes to point at things and say, “Dat”. He gets very excited when we tell him the answer. He also says mama and dada. He loves to babble too. He personality is starting to show as well. He is a very happy boy. Whenever you walk in the room he gets a big smile. He also knows what he wants. If you tried to give him something he doesn’t want he pushes it away or throws it on the floor.

Lastly, Zach loves to play games. When we ask Zach, “How big is Zach?”, he will put his arms up and get a big smile. “So big!” If he wants to play sometimes he will start it by lifting his hands up until we say, “So big!” He also likes to play a game we used to do with Abby too. We will set up a block tower and Zach will crawl over and knock it down. Then we will go to the other side of the room and build another one. Once he sees us building it he is on his way over to knock it down. Better work fast to build the tower.

I can’t wait! Next month I turn 1!

It has been so beautiful here that we took out the outside toys including the badminton rackets. I tried to show Abby how to use them with the birdies, but she does not quite have the coordination yet to play very well. Instead Abby decided to play with the rackets in her own way. “I’m a butterfly.” She then proceeded to request both Mommy and Daddy be butterflies with her at times. So creative, now look at her fly.

Zach is now 9 months old. He is 23 lbs. 12 oz. He has not had his well baby visit yet so I am not sure how long he is yet. He was sick again with an ear infection, which is why I know his weight. That’s right folks another ear infection. Of course the talk of tubes in the ears came up. I am hoping spring will help him and he will not get another infection for a long while. I don’t want him to have tubes and all the issues (baths and pools) that go along with that.

Zach is now on a daily breathing treatment of a steroid called Pulmicort. He does it twice a day every day. This is to help him to not get so sick all the time and when he does get sick to help him breath better and not wheeze. There is talk about him possibly having asthma, but he is too young to test. We actually found out that this treatment for children under 3 can help prevent asthma in later years. We are hoping all goes well and it does.

Zach is not only rolling around every where but he is trying to crawl. He gets up on his hand and knees and rocks, but has not move forward yet up on his hands and knees. He has started the army crawl. He pushes with his toes and pulls with his arms. He also can go from a sitting position onto his stomach in a controlled manner. He doesn’t just flop over anymore. He is trying to get back up in a sitting position, but can only get half way. Keep trying buddy.

Zach is also eating more solid foods. He typically has something solid with each bottle at daycare, fruit, yogurt, or rice cereal and then he has dinner with us. He loves eating finger foods now like puffs and bread stuff. He especially likes waffles and pancakes.

Zach can now waive hi and bye. He even does it to the tv when it is on with a movie for Abby. This morning he waived to a Gummie Bear, Tubby Gummie. He can also clap open handed as well. We are also starting, “How big is Zach, so big.” He sometimes will lift his arms for this and other times just smile and laugh at it.

Lastly, Zach has 2 bottom teeth and one tooth coming in on the top. He will probably have both top teeth by the end of this month. His gums are very swollen and at times it seems to bother him. We have been giving him cold teethers from the fridge and he seems to like that. I love the teeth, but at times I missing the toothless baby smile.