Beach Bum

As I mentioned earlier, Zach and I made a trip down to Galveston over the 4th of July weekend. These are some pics of Zach enjoying the beach. I can't wait to see how he likes the beach in Destin when we go for our first offical family vacation soon!

Chunky Monkey

A few questions came to mind when I saw these pictures I took of Zach playing with his new favorite toy; a basketball hoop that makes crowd noises when the hoop is pushed down.

1. When did my child become a huge chunk ball? He was long and skinny at birth and now look at those cankles and wrist rolls!

2. Why does his onesie look like a worn out undershirt? Could I not find some bleach that day?

3. And why don't people think it is cute when my thighs look so round and mushy? No one is trying squeeze those and coo "Oooo sweet baby". No one.

Prunes, Prunes the Magical Fruit

"...the more you eat, the more you toot. The more you toot the better you feel, so let's have prunes with every meal!" Well, maybe not with every meal, but for Zachary, prunes are the magical fruit and he gets them with oatmeal almost every morning. I will not go into detail as to why he needs them, I think everyone can get my drift on that one. The other downside to prunes (again, I am not going to mention the first, larger downside) is that Zach likes to smear them all over his face and then eat the strap on his highchair making it a slick, brown mess. Gross me out.

My Sweet Boy

I am so in love with my child right now. I think that is due to a mix of things - and the fact that I am his mother and that is a requirement for the job. But anyway, I am done bfeeding, so there are all sorts of hormones coursing about me which makes conversely full of love for him and full of tears for how big he is getting. Too, this age is just so much fun with him sitting up, knowing who we are and smiling and giggling. But, the biggest thing, I think is the fact that he is a really good baby.
I am so blessed and lucky to have gotten a good natured baby for my first baby. He loves people, likes to "sing" and "talk" to you in a very loud, very high pitched voice, LOVES our dog (more on sweet Norman later), really he just likes everything except for baths right now. Weird I know, we have not figured that out just yet. As corny as I feel it is to type it, he is a joy and so much fun to be around. I am going to bookmark this post for when he turns 2 and someone will need to remind me how sweet my baby once was.

Long Week

What a delay in my postings, I know. Last week was a long, long week in the Wall house. I volunteered at a day camp for kids with diabetes out in Spring, Texas, Alex went to St. Louis and London and Zach got a long vacation with his grandparents - which was a huge help to me. I am back at work, Alex is back in Texas and Zach is back being his sweet and happy self at daycare. Mrs. Carson claims he is starting to "scoot" around, but I have seen no evidence of that yet. He is just loving sitting up and reaching for his toys.

Zach hamming it up for Mrs. Caldwell

It is official

Zachary can sit up! While I realize that technically for others this is really not a big deal, everyone reading this can sit up (unless they ate too much Mexican food then they really should lie down). But for Zach it is a HUGE deal. He has been trying to sit up for months and finally, right around his 6 month birthday, he did it. Each week he can sit up for longer and longer without falling over. Well, he falls, but it takes awhile and usually he is not upset about it. But tonight we took him to a restaurant and put him in the highchair there. I was concerned it was not enough structure for him, but as you can see from the pictures, he did just fine. He ate his apples and watched the other people and was happy as a little clam. My baby is getting so big.

Where is this child's mother?

Oh that is right, she is holding him and drinking a beer - again. Totally up for Mother of the Year. And no, he did not get any beer (obviously) but insisted on trying to gnaw on the top of the bottle. Maybe he is starting to teethe....

Happy 4th of July!

Zach had a great 4th of July weekend. He went on a "vacation" to his grandparents Wall on Friday night where he got to stay up late, take walks and have his every whim catered too. On Saturday he was found harassing his friend Tyler (who is a month younger) by pulling out his pacifier and trying to pull him over - I am not making this up. Luckily Tyler was a pretty good sport about it... you know, about my child being a bully.

Zach did a lot of swimming at his grandparents house, which he loves as everyone who reads this knows. Alex and I brought Norman out to pick up Zach so it was a family swim day with Norman dog paddling around the pool chasing tennis balls and Zachary being pulled around in his pink float. I got to lounge on my own pool float and watch the commotion.

Sunday we went down to Galveston where his grandparents were as well as my Papa, and cousins Emily and Sarah. We took him down to the beach and sat under an umbrella. I (of course) forgot to bring baby sunscreen so we just slathered him with some adult 40 and called it good. He did just fine and no sun touched that white, white skin. He loved seeing my parent's dog Louisa and especially loved to grab a hold of her whiskers and pull her towards his open mouth. Luckily, she did not mind either. Zach is very lucky to have understanding friends and pets around him.

Pretending to be innocent...

Let me just pull you down and get that pacifer

Zach on a raft

In his 4th of July outfit

Neurons Firing

I love it when I can see Zach's brain working. Those little times when he is about to do something new and you happen to be there and get to watch. This happened in the bath the other day when he realized that if he moved his hand holding the pink plastic toy to the left, it would hit the wall and make a whacking sound. I watched his eyes follow the plastic toy and make the connection that he made that sound - and he liked it. He did it over and over again, until the urge to eat the toy grew too strong. Babies really are amazing, as little as they can do (like refusing to roll front to back), their brains are growing bigger and smarter every day.