Halloween Parade and Parade and Parade

Each year at Zach's school there are two Halloween parades; one on Thursday for the Tuesday-Thursday kids and one on Friday for the Mon-Wed-Fri kids. My baby is an every day kid so he gets to parade his sweet little heart out.  Last year we did not go to either as watching Zach be pushed around in the Bye-Bye Buggy was not really worth missing work. But this year he is oh so mobile and fitting perfectly in his Lederhosen.

For the past two weeks his class has been practicing parading by doing a spider parade with spiders on Popsicle sticks. Apparently there has been talk of shaking their spiders. Zachary thought this meant a full body shake, which we figured out about halfway through the parade. The kids before you see Zach are all in his class, they are: his best friend Ben the giraffe, the twins as bumble bees, Tony (aka the bitter) as a skeleton, Ella as something with a big hat, his girlfriend Abby as a pink cowgirl and then Zach. Bringing up the rear are Olivia as a super cute strawberry and Katia as something green. You can tell I only really cared about Zach.

Zach had a full cheering section made up of his Grandpa Vince, Godmother Alison and her boyfriend (and cameraman) Chris. Alex arrived just as we finished the parade. Of course.

Luckily my neigborhood mom's group had a Halloween fair at the park where there was yet another parade. Alex was there this time and got to parade with Zach.

Heading to the park with Ollie

Parading with Daddy 

Family portrait courtesy of goldfish (and Ollie)

Not all organic and flax seed

While yes, I am that crazy mother that packs Flax Seed crackers for a snack and makes her child eat buckwheat pancakes mixed with banana puree, sweet potato puree and blueberrys, here is evidence that even I cave to pizza on a Saturday night. This was the second night of Zach and I's weekend together when his father left us for a wedding in New Mexico. Pizza on the couch was easy and fun. The downside? He can now say 'pizza' which is just awesome, as he likes to scream it when I try to serve him rice balls or bean burgers. Luckily I have tricked him into thinking that quesadillas (with sweet potato puree and tofu) are pizza. I am sure this is all going to paid back to me someday.

All I ask for is one drawer

As any mother knows, privacy is just not happening with kids. I won't go into details but let's just say th large purple top to an under the bed storage box accompanied me to the bathroom yesterday. I have accepted this lack of priacy and space to myself. I am not a girl that really needed a whole lot of privacy anyway. Living in a sorority house and growing up with one bathroom for my sister and mom (Daddy had his own) took care of that.

All I ask for is one drawer. Just one - my makeup/hair/whatever-I-want-drawer in the bathroom. Even with all the entertaining Zach does in our bathroom (and there is a lot) I have NEVER let him in that drawer. It is my stuff. That baby is everywhere else! My closet - OK, whatever come on in and try on my undies and bracelets. The kitchen - sure, let me get you that stool so you can get your dirty hands in our dinner. And we don't need to mention the bathroom again.

So flash forward to me returning home from welcoming my baby niece into the world and what do I see? A headband that I do not remember leaving on the bedroom floor, my face wipes moved to a higher cabinet and my hairbrushes in the grip of a crazed munchkin.

It is safe to say that Alex got a "talking to" that rivaled the our-baby-needs-to-be-fed discussion. I am not messing around about that drawer.

Ready to Go

I don't know where Zach thinks he is going, but I am glad he has on a hat. You know he is not wearing sunscreen as I, being the neglectful mother, believe that once it is October I don't need to coat my son from head to two in sunscreen. Good luck to you big boy.

Arts and Crafts

In my constant attempt to keep Zach busy after school I thought about the stamps that I have been carrying around since I was about 10. I remember loving these when I was little, I loved how precise they were and hated when the colors ran across the stamp pad. I definitely was Type A even then.

At Gymboree and music class they get stamps at the end of class and all the kids love it. I thought that maybe Zach would like to stamp on paper with my little stamps. He figured out the process and liked to call out the "dog", "cat", "moo" and "horse",  but mainly wanted to put those stamp on his legs and feet. We ended up putting his hands and foot prints on the paper too.

It must be Fall

Most people know that Autumn is in the air because Walgreen's has been taken over by orange, the weather has a hint of non-miserable to it and school buses are all around. Here in the Wall household, we know it is Fall when we make our first trip to the ER.

Yes, last week Zach and I (to be met by Alex) scooted on up to Texas Children's Hospital because Zach was having trouble breathing. It turned out to be a bad case of croup, but it was terrifying.

When I got him from school he seemed fine, a little tired but nothing abnormal. As we were hanging out and playing he started having this cough that sounded like he could not clear the phlegm out of his throat and started to breathe rapidly. I tried giving him his inhaler from the spring with no change. He got a steamy bath but when I laid him down to put his clothes on, it was obvious that he was struggling to breathe, which is when I started to freak out.

I threw some clothes on my crying baby - stopping only to comb his hair - and into the car we went. Given that it was 6pm there was some traffic and I almost hopped up on the median but contained myself. Turns out, when you fly into the ER, throwing your keys to the valet and announce that you baby can not breathe, they take you pretty seriously.

The doctor and nurses were awesome, they listened to me and were great with Zach. When the doctor first saw Zach she said, "Oh sweetie, you look like you don't feel good. But your hair looks great!" He was  not quite as amused as Alex and I were.

Just like Daddy

Zach has figured out how to wear "Daddy shoes", though he can't really maneuver super well in them. No matter, that does not stop the exclamation of "Daddy shoes! Daddy shoes!" whenever he seems them.

Baby Bailey's Bath

When I saw this picture of my new niece getting her first bath I could only think how angelic she looked and very unlike her cousin looked during his first bath. 

Pretty Shoes

As mentioned, Zach loves to wear everyone's shoes and mine are the easiest to fit into. He also enjoys his pajamas with shoes (aka the footed pajamas) like the ones he is wearing in the video below. These have monkey faces and are then stuffed into my turquoise flats. All in all it was a lovely outfit choice by Zachary.

A new Little; but A Little Bailey this time

Zachary's cousin is here! My sister gave birth to Charlotte Bailey last Wednesday and we are all in love. As you can see below she has a full head of dark, dark hair and looks just like her daddy. I think that is going to be Lauren's nose eventually though. And she is as stubborn as us as well.

I went up the day before she was born to be the dog sitter/house sitter/food runner. Which meant that Alex was in charge of Zach for 3 nights and 2 daycare days. That is the longest he has ever solely been in charge. I have left my child before (we all know I have zero hesitancy about that) but with his previous job it was impossible for Alex to 100% be able to get Zach from school on time meaning that his sweet parents always jumped in. This time he did have help in the form of Zach's best friend at school Ben's parents who picked him up from school with Ben and kept him until Alex could get him around 6:30. What a change a job makes I tell you! Of course the Wall's got him too....they said they had not seen him in a while and that was the only reason they were going to take him. Now, while that was true, I really think Liv can't let Alex get in trouble. And let's face it, I will do the exact same thing down the road.

But back to Charlotte. My mom sent pictures and Zach is focused on his "Entie" and "Baby". He is currently obsessed with throwing things in the trash so he kept throwing away his Auntie and then getting very distraught when he could not find her. Luckily her mother and grandmother are taking much better care of her than her cousin.

I bought this Woobie online before she was born

 and we laughed at her trying to get out of it. She is still a bit too tiny

for normal size swaddlers but she can't get out of this one!

Sucking her thumb for the first time with her

Auntie who is missing that sweet little cuddler.

Random Zachary

Here are some photos I found on my phone of Zach at Dave and Tami's wedding:

Zach was very helpful pushing the cart when we were leaving the hotel. This was really foreshadowing to him wanting to be helpful all the time now. At home he helps with all sorts of chores. He loves to push around the Swifter Sweeper so I just put a pad on the bottom and he goes to down. He runs into many things but does get up some of the pesky dirt. Same with laundry, he is excellent at putting items into the washer and from the washer to the dryer. You hear a lot of "HEAVY" calls when he is holding wet "daddy shirt" headed for the dryer.

I love these guys in the pic below. They are Zach's cousins, the Morris kiddos: Pat, Danny, Abby, Jack and Emilie. They are just some of the best kids (I guess adults now) I know and I want Zach to be just like them. From my first Thanksgiving with the Walls they have just taken me in as one of them - even when I refuse to play soccer. They are genuine and fun, sweet and kind plus they love my baby. How could I not love them!?

Here they were walking all over the hotel with Zach while I was eating breakfast and generally hiding from my child (yes, yes a common theme in my life). I would like them to come back to Texas tonight. Please.