I give love a bad name

Before Christmas, Zach's godfather Chris invited Alex, Zach and me to join him at his holiday party. Sounds odd you say? Well it is not odd if the holiday party we were invited too is with 3,000 other people and is hosted by this bazillonaire attorney for whom Chris' firm works. Said bazillionaire throws this part each year where he puts up a carnival including various bounce houses, Ferris wheel, tilt-a-whirls and serves all the carnival fare you could want in addition to catering in BBQ and Mexican food. Plus he always has a famous act preform.

This year was Bon Jovi. For those of you know have only known me post college let me be clear. I LOVE Bon Jovi. I love the long hair-sprayed Bon Jovi, I love the new short hair (that really accentuates his cheek bones) Bon Jovi. I love that the band has been together forever AND he has been married to his high school sweetheart this entire time too. I. LOVE. Bon Jovi. And Chris, knowing my love well, invited us to this party so I could see Bon Jovi.

The bazillionaire's land was amazing. He has built huge mansions, a medieval village, pens for his ostrich, kangaroo and lemurs and has a 3/4 scale working train chugging around it all. We walked around, saw the animals, ate some BBQ and then it was time to go into the music tent. I got a wee bit too excited. At the door to the tent I turned around to Alex (who had Zach in the stroller) and screeched "It is too loud for Zach!!" then flew through the doors to find a seat -without a glance back to my husband and son. Whoops.

So Zach and Alex had fun riding the train, eating cotton candy and seeing the animal (again), while Chris and I had fun watching Bon Jovi. Fabulous!

Dog? Dog? Dog?

Zach loves Norman. Norman is not so sure about Zach.

Last week when I picked up Zach from school he was thrilled to find out that Norman was in the back of the car. The entire ride home consisted of him saying "dog, dog, dog" for the very long 10 minutes it takes to get home. Norman on the other hand was trying to alternativly leap out of the car and lick Zach for any food that might have been on his clothes.

Beautiful Baby?

It has happened. I have gone off the deep-end as a mother. Sigh. I have entered my child into the Live with Regis and Kelly Beautiful Baby contest. Yes I, Kinsey Wall, believe that my baby is more beautiful than all the babies in the land.

Actually that is not true. I have seen with my own eyes babies that are cuter than Zach. And those are some darn cute babies - you know who you are. I figure those darling babies and the following are why his chances are pretty slim:

• There are thousands of people as crazy as me who will be sending in their own pics. Thousands and thousands of us, I am not lying.
• Last year a baby girl who was the age Zach is now won, so I think they will most likely pick an older baby. Those interns that have to cull through all the pictures have an agenda I tell you.

Oh but the semi-rational side of me was not to be listened to mind you - my crazy self was not deterred. I have been thinking about this for a week (minimum) and have been very concerned about not having the best picture of Zach. It is really hard to get a picture of Zach where he does not have snot clinging to his nose/face, he is actually looking at the camera, and he is not talking.

Alex is familiar with this crazy person he married and indulged me when I ordered him into the bathroom to try to make Zach smile while in the tub. He did not even bat an eye. That picture did not work for me, his eyes looked crooked. I settled on this one I took today. A picture that I had to get by changing my child's clothing after school and then chasing him around the back porch with my camera. Oh, did I mention that it has been really stressful two weeks at work, Alex has barely been home during those weeks AND Zach is going to one nap? Yet what am I the most worried about? The perfect picture of my child to send to some contest. I am going to just head on over and sign up for Toddlers and Tiaras now while I am on the crazy train. Toot toot!

Big Climber

This weekend it warmed up enough to take Zach to the park next to the zoo. It is really an awesome park. There are 3 different jungle gyms all for varying ages. The one we spent time on had the cushy ground covering, small slides and perfectly sized structures for my little scooter. He really liked climbing the stairs and going down the slide. Especially when a little girl showed up and was showing him how to do it. My little ladies man.

The Hut

For his birthday Zach received this pop up play hut, complete with crawl/scoot through tunnel. He absolutely loves it. It took some time for him to figure out how to scoot in over the lip of the hut, but he finally did and spends quite a bit of time going in and out and hiding behind the flaps.

As I am desperate for him to learn that I am "mama" I play a lot of peekaboo with said flaps screaming "Where is Mama? Where is Mama? There she is!". And yes, I feel like a crazy person speaking of myself in the 3rd person and Norman just wants to know why I am making such a ruckus at this giant green hut. Oh and Zach? He just smiles and laughs - but refuses to say "There is my mama!".

This would not happen if I stayed at home

Zach got his first bite at school this week. Apparently he was playing with a toy another child wanted and that child decided to bite my baby and take his toy. The other child didn't just take a little nibble, no, no, he (or she - they would not tell me who the culprit was), left 6 teeth marks on my child's cheek. The bottom two drew blood!

At first I started laughing - my default when I don't know what to do, as inappropriate as that is - but it just seemed so absurd that he had gotten hurt that day given he was happy as can be eating cheerios when I arrived. But later it sunk in and I got sad for him. You never want your baby to be hurt, and though I know it is just a surface wound it is still highly pitiful.

The perils of daycare I suppose. But given what transpired when I attempted to take a picture of the wounds it is more likely that if I stayed home I might try to bite him myself.

Note the 4 red marks under his right (your left) eye and the two below those.

Oh that is not a hug for mommy. No. He wants my camera

And then got really, really mad when I would not let him have it.

PS Yes, my child is shirtless in January. Don't judge me, I wanted to see that baby pudge.

Toddler

Wow, that happened really, really fast. One day Zach was a baby and now he thinks he is a toddler who, though still scooting around, now throws fits when i leave the room and kicks his legs franticly in an attempt to NOT have his diaper put on, as a start. What? When did this happen? He has only been a year old for like 5 minutes.

Bedhead

We got Zach's hair cut this past weekend and though now he has a total friar cut which I am NOT pleased about, his morning/nap hair does look a bit better. Ahh the sleep of a baby with no worries.

Stalking my baby

via my awesome video monitor. I tell anyone who will listen how much I loooooove the video monitor. It was great when he was tiny as I could just look on the monitor to determine if I really need to go in there. I could see if wrapped in his blanket, chocking on his pacifier or someone was trying to take him. All totally normal things a sleep deprived new mom is worried about, while sleeping 6 feet away.

And now that he is bigger I just like to watch him on the monitor. You can turn the volume off and just watch the lights. If he gets in the red, you know you are in trouble. We have it hung on the wall above his bed, so we get a birds eye view of him. I watch him standing up and banging on the crib rail, sitting up and taking off his socks, laying down and rolling back and forth and eventually sleeping. Oh the sleeping is just the sweetest thing. I always, always want to go in there and scoop him up - but I obviously never, never do.

My neighbor across the street can stalk him too if she carries her monitor into the front of her house. You can't have too many eyes on your baby I say.

A New Year; Same Baby

We spent New Year's Eve with our friends Scott and Jen and their son Tyler. Tyler is about 3 weeks younger than Zach and they are most always doing all the same things (silence on what that says about my son). When we arrived both boys were in the pajamas and getting ready to go to bed. However, once they caught sight of each other there was no winding down to be had. Zach took the opportunity to climb the stairs and try to steal all the remotes and cell phones in sight. Tyler thought he was loony for continuing to head for the stairs, after all Tyler gets to climb them all he wants. But he sweetly climbed up as well, chatting the whole way.

Tyler also was a good baby and let us take a pic with the hats I purchased (of course I did). Zachary could simply not be bothered, what with all the stairs to distract him. I am really starting to dislike this baby having a mind of his own and the ability to move away from me and my paparazzi lens.

Tyler looking so angelic in his hat, Zach in the background eating a tag from the hat he refused to wear.

The clappers I brought were a huge hit. Mainly for banging into the floor and each other.

Darling boy in his feathers!

Merry 2nd Christmas

I really can't be sure that it counts as his second Christmas since he was only 2 days old and we were still in the hospital for his first. But technically, this is his second one. We spent the morning in Denton with my family and the evening in Houston with the Walls. Zachary received entirely too many gifts, everyone was overly generous so we are stocked up with toys for the next few month. I plan to dole them out slowly.

Everyone really wanted Zach to tear at the paper and throw around the tissue paper. Instead he focused on one thing - usually a very intriguing white tag and refused to have anything to do with anything else.

Loving his trike from Uncle Dave - note that his feet are no where near the pedals, but he loves to hold on like he is not strapped in.

With his sweet Auntie Charldean

Pretending to sled - MUCH better than the actual sledding attempt

About 2 seconds before he ripped the antlers off his head

Trying on his Papa's hat