Spotted: A Tooth

Yes! It is true! Zach has a tiny, tiny tooth poking through on his bottom gum. I would not have even noticed had I not been telling my friend Beth about how Zach was super sleepy on Wednesday and kinda clingy. She asked (when I saw her Saturday) if he had gotten a tooth. After I shrugged and made a noise like "Huh? What? I was supposed to be watching for that", I stuck my finger into his mouth and felt a tiny line of not-soft-gum. Yippee! I don't know why I feel satisfaction as a mother when I had absolutely nothing to do with it, nor did I even know it had happened. I guess I am just glad he has one....but am now worried that he might only have one. What if the others can't break through? What if he is the weird, no crawling, no walking kid with just one tooth in his mouth at daycare?? At least he has hair, I suppose.

This will be quick

This blog is for Zachary; for our parents and friends who would like to know what he is doing/not doing. I am just interspersing a quick item about Alex and I - because it affects Zach, of course. Alex and I took our first solo trip since Zach to Banff, Alberta Canada. We actually stayed in a town called Kimberley about 3 hours East of Calgary. The weather was perfect, Alex made me do a lot of outdoorsy type of things, and we got to spend some time together when a little person was not making his presence known.

My parents came down to take care of Zach. My dad actually came down by himself and watched Zach for 2 nights and 2 days until my mom arrived. He thought we were crazy for leaving an 8 month old with a person who has not had an 8 month old in 28 years, but as I have said before - I will leave my child with anyone. Especially someone I am connected too by blood, as my Grandma Jane would say. And he did great! He got the schedule down, was even able to give him his ear infection medicine and only had to call in reinforcements via my sweet Aunt Vickie for ice and lunch. Granted he needed her both days, but technically I could use someone bringing me ice and lunch most days. And when my mom finally arrived they were able to tag team Zach (which is really much better) and he was happy and asleep when we arrived home. I so appreciated them both dropping everything to come help us.

Kinsey as the caddy
Lake Louise

No Stopping or Standing Allowed

What is Zachary doing? Why does he all of a sudden want to stand up all the time? He can not even crawl yet! He can't figure out how to get his legs unstuck and face plants on the ground, yet he reeeeeeeally wants to be standing up. I caved and bought this table toy (thanks to Wyatt's momma) which he loves. It sings, speaks in Spanish, counts and most likely bakes a cake while teaching my child sign language. It is an all in one entertainment machine. He really enjoys holding on to it and batting at all the items on the top. These pics had to be taken in 3 seconds though, as once he stops paying attention to the toy he falls over.

Fistfull of Puffs

HUGE news in our house - Zach can pick up food and put it into his mouth. I am sure some of you are asking, but hasn't he been putting everything into his mouth for months? Yes, yes he has. And I too don't understand the difference between picking up paper to eat and picking up food to eat....but let's just add that to the list of things I don't know about Zach.

So far it is limited to freeze dried yogurt, organic kale puffs (no joke), shredded cheese and smashed beans. This is great fun for him, and me, as I like to give him different food to try to eat and watch his reactions. He really does not like to eat fruit that way. Mash it up, put it on a spoon and he will squeal if you try to take it away. We do have to watch him as (like his father) he likes to stuff lots of food into his mouth at once and keep talking, leading to some fake choking, real coughing, his turning all red around the eyes, freaking out his momma, then returning to talking just as quickly.

Canyon Lake

Zach made his second trip to my parents house in Canyon Lake this past weekend. We drug our little man along to our annual friends toobing trip. While he did not get in the water, he had a great time with plenty of people to talk too, be held by and who would sing to him (The entire car was singing Old MacDonald Had a Farm at one point). I loved being able to hand him off to one of 11 people who were happy to have him. Well, if they were not happy, I didn't care, they seemed happy enough.

I got my wish

Once I said to Alex, - very, very seriously - that it is very important to me that Zach be photogenic. Smart, healthy, blah, blah, blah. I don't want to be stuck dealing with years of pictures of our family with his eyes closed, mouth open because he is talking or chewing, and just generally looking like he has an IQ of 80...that position has been filled by the other Wall in my life. Alex told me I was being absurd and that "he won't care about that", to which I replied in a very high shrill pitch that "he WILL care, because I care, and YOU should care, because I care. How can we have family pictures? What about the Holiday cards??" Alex just stared at me and passed me the Cheez-Its.
It turns out that I needn't have worried. Zach is pretty darn photogenic, in fact if a camera focuses on him he turns his head and smiles until you are finished. I am not sure if it is the fact that he has been paparazzied since he was born, or the flash which makes him giggle, but I don't care. My baby loves to have his picture taken, and in our house where the rule is "if 2 out of 3 look good - the picture is good" that leaves only one person I have to worry about...and it is not the dog.

As close as it gets for now

Anyone that knows our dog Norman knows how he is scared of babies. Yes, scared. He is 50 pounds of shaking, barking, and terrified dog around anyone smaller than 5 feet tall. No, he was not an abused dog, adopted from some carny midgets. We brought him home when he was a puppy and no one has ever hit or kicked him. So when Zach came around Alex and I were very, very concerned that Norman would have to go live with his Aunt Lauren, if he and the baby could not get along.
I bought 2 books on adding a baby to the family - And Baby Makes Four was the title of one - and a CD of baby noises to get your dog ready for the new addition. What none of the books, internet sites, or Dog Whisperer addressed was how to combat the issue of the sight of a child/baby making your dog scared. They discussed the smell, sound, and toys that come with a baby, but not the actual baby that could make your dog cower in fear.
Luckily, Aunt Lauren was there to get us through. She worked with Norman to ignore Zach the first week and progressively he has gotten less fearful of him. For a while he did not love it when Zach was on the floor, but Norman would just lay behind me, his "protector" from the scary baby.
So imagine my shock when the other day I was at the computer, Zach was sitting on the floor next to me and Norman lays down not 5 feet from him. Zach was even able to make eye contact! We have come such a long, long way.
I should mention that Zachary loooooves Norman. He wants to pet him, grab his ears and watch him wherever he goes.

You Have Got to be Kidding Me

I am so glad that the week of August 17 - August 24 is over and far, far behind us. It was recouping from that week that caused a lag in my blogging. It was not the best in the Wall family.

First, Zach made his inaugural trip to the Texas Children's Hospital ER, after he awoke crying and holding his breath. Yes, holding his breath for 3-4 seconds at a time. Terrifying and totally weird. Once we got the the hospital he was (of course) acting completely normal, smiling and reaching for the doctors. They deemed him 100% healthy and said that it was a "stop breathing" behavioral problem......I'm sorry, what? My normally happy 8 month old, who can be distracted by a plastic yogurt container and his hands, is all of the sudden going to start holding his breath to get his way? Alex and I were both unimpressed with that diagnosis. But what were we going to do? It was 1am, his lungs and ears looked fine, and he was chatting away with the nurses.

The next day we were scheduled to see his doc anyway and upon a quick look in both his ears announced that he had a ear infection. "How did they not see this last night?" and "Did they use one of these?" (pointing to the ear light tool) were her immediate questions. So a round of Amoxicillin was ordered and Vince got the joy of giving it to him the first time. I had a dinner with friends planned - what, I was supposed to cancel?

You think I am done? Hardly.

Friday, I had what I believed to be a routine removal of a Basel cell skin cancer dot from my forehead. 10 stitches, a swollen eye and a giant bandage across the MIDDLE of my forehead later, I realized it was a teensy bit bigger deal then I thought. They got it all, told me I was fine and to ice my head. Luckily Alex was enlisted to pick up Zach that evening as I could not drive with the whole one eye swollen business.

While I was laying and icing, lightening struck our front yard. Scared Norman and I as it sounded like a shotgun went off in the house. Though Norm highly enjoyed the running about the house looking for fire business. Yup, blew out the cable (literally the plug flew from the wall, charred on the inside), burned out the phones, a TV, the computer and printer. Not to mention all the plugs in Zach's room, fan controls and the bathroom lights. No fire, and my baby was not there so really it was just shocking - and hard to ensure there was no fire with my eye swollen and my glasses not fitting correctly due to the GIANT bandage.

What is the result of all this you ask?? Why such a diatribe Kinsey?? As the pics below show, Zach was still his happy, happy self and I once again felt like the luckiest mom. That week ended with tired, annoyed parents, a freaked out dog and a baby covered in Amoxicillian - but not the least bit worse for wear.