I found Palmolive had a nice, piquant after-dinner flavor

Merry Christmas!

Zach had his first visit to Santa! As you can see, he was stunned to see just how big Santa really is. He did a great job though; no tears, and no fussing. Although his smile was ruined by the lady taking the picture. He was totally ready to smile big just like dad taught him when the lady shook some can with rocks in it...obviously that caused a bit of alarm because his picture came out a little more surprised than happy. Oh well...it was a great first Santa Pic.

Speaking of Santa, we are in full swing with Christmas right around the corner. We had a little Christmas gathering as you can see below, mostly to test the limits of how loud we could be without waking Zach...the answer is not very...besides, he thought it was pretty lousy of us to put him to sleep right when we started to play games.


Last week, Zach got another visitor friend. Linda brought her son Aidan to visit. He is a little older than Zachy. In this picture, Zach wonders what that stuff is on top of Aidan's head and secretly hopes that he can grow some of that stuff...or at least put it in his mouth.


AND, segueing nicely from putting things in his mouth, Zach has started to eat rice cereal. This started from Zach not feeling good for a couple weeks after Thanksgiving. He was congested and went through his first cold...it wasn't fun for him, but he pushed through. However, during the cold, he decided that he was not about to further his frustration and eat from a bottle so he went through an understandably fussy period. We thought that maybe he would be more interested in the spoon (since everything is going in his mouth these days anyway) and what d' you know, he took to it like a zombie to brains.

We don't feed him very much, or every night, but it's a good way to try to get him to sleep longer through the night. He doing a pretty good job of that still (right now he's going from about 730-430 with the occasional "re-swaddle and comfort" sessions throughout). I'm still looking forward to his sleep training though. Especially with Kelly going back to work in January.

He's still growing and doing new things what seems like every day (see the Fun Facts below) but we're trying to keep him on a pretty consistent schedule.

He still gets his bath pretty much every night. He recently got a rash on his back and chest which could have been from getting over his cold, but I think it might have also been from putting bubble bath in his bathwater. I had pretty sensitive skin and since Zach is basically my doppelganger, we can only assume that he does too...so now my water/soap ratio is favoring the water side much more.

He is definitely laughing a lot more now. Apparently Token is hilarious because Zach can't stop cracking up when he walks by. The "super-secret move to always get Zach to laugh" is to put his arms up by his head and shake him around...raspberrys on the tummy also raise the hilarity ante.

Did I mention before that everything is currently going in his mouth? Well to him, this includes items that are in no way small enough to fit.

Well, bye bye for now...the next time I post, Zach will have had his first Christmas! ....or at my current rate, he will have had his second birthday.

Fun Facts:

• As mentioned, Zach eats everything (or at least tries to).
  
• Zach is definitely able to hold his body up when he is being held...when I pick him up and put pressure on his stomach, it looks like he's either flexing his tummy muscles like a body builder, or taking the dump of the century.
• He's "sort of" sitting up when we prop him...he falls to one side or the other most of the time...we blame it on t he sheer girth of his body.
• He JUST started really giving us good raspberries...he loves his tongue and uses it frequently.
• He is really responding well to people now. He definitely knows us and the grandparents (and he shows it in his face) and he gets nervous around big crowds.
• Zach is still as diabolical as ever, making sure to sleep the 4-5 hours that I'm up after him, but starting to cry the instant I get into bed and get comfortable.

-pf

Ah, a bear in his natural habitat...a Studebaker

Last weekend Zachary went on his biggest vacation ever. Think National Lampoon's Vacation, but not as much Christie Brinkley, and more poop-diapers. We traveled to Lake Mojave which is right on the Nevada/Arizona border. The drive was nice: beautiful scenic views, majestic blue skies, the world's tallest thermometer....Zach saw none of this. He slept most of the way there and most of the way back. Turns out he's a pretty good traveler! It took us about 4.5 hours to get there and the weather was great, even considering the fact that we left Burbank while it was still raining.

The trip itself was great. Zach was amazing...most of the time. He slept a lot out on the lake and throughout the night; better than at home even! (Which makes me realize we should go on vacation more often) The group consisted of us, Nonie and Papa, Greg and Jordan, Ryan, Mary and Molly, and Scott, Hadar, Noah and Talia. All the other kids were great too. Zach was the youngest though and the only non-walker there, so he was being chauffeured (by arm) the entire time.

Here are some pictures of our extended weekend:

Here is Zach "driving" the boat on Papa's lap...'look mom! no hands!...or eyes!'

Greg and Jordan were excellent babysitters and Zach fell in love with Jordan...or more specifically, Jordan's hair.

Here is the dude himself ready to shred the wake...or take a nap...yeah, probably take a nap.

Papa, Nonie and the Man on our beach

Dad introducing him to lake water, which Clearly, he was not into.

Ryan, Mary, Molly, Pete, Kelly & Zach...under the "professional" Easy-up.

Cousin Talia busy washing off her bucket so that she could pour water back into the lake...a task that consumed most of her time.

Molly is not a big fan of her life-jacket, but she did like being pull around in the biscuit by her dad.

Here is Noah tying down the other easy-up saving us all from the wind that would kick up every so often.

Finally, here are a couple video clips from the weekend. The first is Zach cheering on the Dodgers...who stink.

The second video clip is a shot from Ryan and Mary's boat while were getting ready to go out on the lake.

So Zach's first vacation turned out great. (You can see all the pictures in my Picasa gallery on the right) We all had such a great time that we will probably go back next year when Zach will be able to walk...and if he's really my son, he'll be able to ski too.

Fun Facts:

• Zach can roll over from his stomach to his back now. It doesn't always happen, but he can't be constantly performing!...he's not a circus animal gosh!
• Zach sleeps longer through the night if he gets more sleep during the day...the more daytime sleep, the more nighttime sleep...go figure.
• I (and I guess a few others) got sick the last day of the trip...so if you want to get a cold, go to Lake Mojave...?
• The Dodgers stink and Zach is pretty upset that they didn't win the World Series (like they did the year his dad was born), but fortunately, the Laker season is gearing up so he will be ready to cheer.
  

-pf

It's not my fault I'm the biggest and the strongest; I don't even exercise

Well little Zach is only 6 days old now and he can already lift up his head. No joke! This morning, I was lying with him in bed with him on my chest tummy-side down and he was lifting his head up and looking at me. Granted, the sheer will to do so was probably spurred on by him trying to find out if I had any milk to give him; but no matter what part of my shirt or face he tries to latch on, I'm sorry to say, I've got nothing for him...that's mommy's job. Speaking of, Kel is doing great with breastfeeding. She used the pump today for the first time. It reminded me of the Discovery channel special I saw one time on automated cow milking but she got enough out for a full bottle and we froze it. They last frozen for a good 5 months, so she is going to try to build up a stock.

We Skyped to Bethany the other morning in Japan. It was so awesome to be able to show Zach through video. She thinks he has Williams' freak chest (a little bump where the sternum is for those of you not aware with Will's "freak feature." Also, we got some more family visits and a few calls from people wanting to visit so we are excited about that. (Great) Grandpa Jack came to visit today and that was really special. Zach was so excited to meet his great grandpa that he pooped his diaper immediately.

Several people have commented on who they think Zachary looks more like; me or Kel. I think me, (mainly because that comment is usually followed by "he's SO cute!" but Kelly disagrees for some reason). Here's some evidence:
It's pretty much the same routine over here. He is getting more cute (to us) by the day and we are loving him more all the time. Here are some pictures to tide you over:

Cuuuuuuuute!

Suuuper Cuuuuuuute!!



Kirsten and Stephanie were over today and they taught him
how to say I love you in sign and suck his fingers at the same time.

Fun Facts:

• We now have a pack-n'-play downstairs (courtesy of Grandpa) and a Bassinet (courtesy of Uncle Michael and Aunt Patti) upstairs so I don't have to transfer the bassinet up and down stairs every day.
• Kelly's milk is in! (Is it weird that I'm excited about that?)
• I thought that my computer had broken today, hence the delay in post...I most likely lost 75% of my followers due to that down-time. (75% translates to 1.5 people)

-pf