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