Lou, give me a milk.....chocolate

So I noticed in the comments section of the last blog that someone complained about the lack of posts in this busy time. Let's call her "Katie H."....no that's too obvious...let's just say "K. Hardin" wants to know what's been going on. Well, to quench her undying thirst for family-blogging awesomeness, here's what's been happening in the life of a boy named Zach: Debbie, Kathy, Kathie, and Cathi threw Zach a "Welcome Baby" Shower. Kelly and Zach attended. I went to see District 9. It was awesome. (The movie, not the shower...actually the shower was awesome too, but I wasn't there to be able to testify to that....however, I heard from reliable sources that it was indeed awesome) Zach got a bunch of cool new clothes, a wipe warmer (for those oh-so-cold late-night diaper changes), a swing, and a Baby Einstein jumper....not sure how jumping will make Zach more like Einstein, but who am I to question a multi-national corporation?

The Kathys and the Debbie (and Kel and Zach)

 
Here is Dani with Zach and Kelly. The big pin Kelly is wearing is one of two terrible(ly cute) pictures of Zachary that everyone at the party got.

Also, we got a dinner visit from Scott and Jenny.

Jenny looks like a real natural and Scott looks like a real....great guy.

We were really happy to have them over to meet Zach for the first time, and to see our house, also for the first time...Scott you have to remind me of the name of the wine you brought. Kelly and I both liked it and want more.

Last weekend, we celebrated Uncle Bob's birthday at Jennifer and Andy's house with all the cousins. Zach was great as usual and was held by most of the family (including some of the bigger kids)

78 takes and that was the best one...

And finally, here is a shot of "post-bath Zach" in his classy, 400 thread-count robe. He is really enjoying bath time. His favorite part is waiting until right after the bath to potty on himself when he's getting dried off.

"I coulda been a contenda"

Fun Facts:

• Zach slept for 5 hours straight one night this week thanks to Katie's amazing bottle feeding skills...he was so excited about it, that he didn't sleep longer than 3 hours in a row for the rest of the week.
• Sunday night Kelly and I attended our 10 year High School reunion. We had a great time and like the rest of the people there, can't believe we have been out of high school for 10 years already. Grandma and Grandpa (and Kirie, Steph and Chloe) babysat.
• Zach is doing a lot of talking, read: "making funny noises", and smiling. Still mostly due to gas, but we're definitely getting somewhere. He was fascinated by great-grandpa Jack this morning...he was smiling and yelling at him. Pretty soon, I'm sure we will be able to catch some good video of him.
  

-pf

Hey, Boo

Zach is one month old! We can't believe it's already been a month since we brought him home. I guess all those people who constantly remind us that "life is short" and that "they grow up so fast" and that "it will be over before you know it" are right...bummer.

Yesterday was Zach's longest time away from mommy as she was at a baby shower (not another one for Zach) so he spent the day with his dad. Needless to say he had a great time. We had SO much fun playing video games on the couch, then watching TV on the couch, then falling asleep in a bag of Doritos on the couch. What a day...

This morning Zach was smiling a lot....I still don't feel like they are genuine smiles of happiness as most of the time they come after a really big burp, but it's still fun. He's also making a lot of more baby-sounding noises (coos and squeaks) as opposed to guttural grunts and snorts that come from gorging himself on milk.

I figured today I would put up some videos.

Here's mommy and Zachy during play time

Here's daddy and Zachy's play-time (which will later be used in a court case against me as I am clearly abusing my child)

Here is Zach in his crib, surrounded by his "friends"

...here's another, cuter angle:


...and here is Z-A-C-H-A-R-Y:

Fun Facts:

• The "Station" fire is now closing in on Acton and Agua Dulce...that means it's sort of close to us. We are not too worried right now, but the smoke is insane over here.
• Tonight we are going over to Jennifer and Andy's house for Uncle Bob's birthday...Zach can't wait to see all his cousins...I mean sleep through the party.
  

-pf

Asps... very dangerous...you go first.

Question: Why is it that every time I change Zach's diaper in the middle of the night he waits until the exact instant I put down the new one to lay down a fresh turd? You may say "ahhh...he's just a baby...he doesn't know what he's doing." Well, you are wrong. I'm convinced he's a genius....an evil genius technically. He knows the perfect time to strike; he understands the comedic and ironic timing of it and plans it all out. I can picture him plotting when Kelly and I aren't looking, going over strategy, running through it, and pulling it off perfectly, then laughing manically to himself as I curse and grab another diaper. Or maybe it's him and Kelly teaming up to do this to me as I'm the one who has to change diapers throughout the graveyard shift.

Anyway, now that I've gotten my poop-stration out, we've been having a good week. Zach is almost a month old!! and we have had a lot going on. Here are some pictures:

Kelly's wonderful aunts threw Zach a "Welcome to the World" shower

Zach looked cute (of course) in his stylish Ralph Lauren...later he played through the back-nine at Lakeside

Wendy visited Zach and brought delicious muffins

Becky came and visited with Mary, Molly and Trey and brought Kelly lunch...thanks a lot for excluding me ladies

Jake, Joel...

...Kim and Alexa came to visit on Sunday and brought the dogs! (Sadie and Trapper)

Zach "learned" to accept his baby bjorn and now likes all things Swedish....except Swedish fish....gross

Zach also got visits from Hadar and Dani but there are no pictures to prove it...you'll just have to believe me.

He also had his first "outing" with mom and Nonie to Babies R Us and he got to stay with Grandma and Grandpa (and Chloe) on Friday night when mom and dad were at Tanner and Sarah's wedding shower.

Here is a picture of him "smiling" that Kelly wanted me to post.
Personally, I think he looks like Popeye...you be the judge:

Finally, here is some surprise (to me) footage Kelly took for comparison purposes. She made me put this up too. Personally, I think Zach is much more talented than me.

Like father, like son...I guess (also, my snore sounds exactly like the fake snore from Ferris Bueller's computer)

Fun Facts:

• Zach can climb up our bodies when he's on his stomach. We both feel like he could climb all the way over us and he can really roll around too...he's very active.
• He pulls Kelly's hair when he's feeding and when he gets his diaper changed, he grabs on to the blinds...he's either trying to escape, or brace himself for the next big poop.
• He's much more alert all the time. This is nice during the day, but when mom is trying to get him back to sleep and dad is snoring like a bear in the middle of the night, apparently it's not so fun.
  

-pf

You called down the thunder, well now you got it

It's been a while since I've updated this thing, but a lot has been going on. Over the weekend, we (Kelly and I) got a night out at Rick and Christine's wedding while Zach stayed home with Nonie and Papa. He even has his own crib there, even though he was apparently being held all night by his grandparents! Zach had a great night, and his umbilical cord finally came off! (Nonie thought we might want to keep it, but Papa correctly assumed that we would not and promptly threw it away).

We had a great time, and the reception was in the same Castaways room as ours was!...no fires though.

Over the weekend Zach got more visitors from family and friends.

Jonathan brought us sandwiches and his awesome self.

Uncle Ron and Uncle Dan got to visit with Zach for a while on Saturday.

On Friday night, we celebrated Super/Great Nonie's 90th birthday at our house. Here is Uncle Greg lulling Z-man to sleep.

On Sunday we also got visits from:

Joanne-buddy, who made us awesome cookies

Leah-buddy, who posted pictures of her with Zach online before me!

...and Greg-buddy! (That's a big yawn, not a scream)

I went back to work on Monday so Kelly has been pretty tired "working" with Zach all day. She has had a few visitors throughout the week, and last night, Mary and Ryan came over with Molly.

Ryan holding Zachy

Molly and her mommy

The two moms playing baby-swap...coming soon to Fox

Kelly getting a healthy dose of 1-year old action

So it's been a good couple weeks. Today actually marks his 3 Week Birthday, and to celebrate, Kelly has an amazing poop story: earlier today, my mom and sisters were over visiting, and Kelly and my mom took Zach upstairs to change him. Little did they know, Zach had a present in store for them. Not only did he let loose the fire hose, but he unleashed the gunnite poop attack as well. Kelly's main comment was that he had "quite a strong stream" for such a little guy. Well he ruined his outfit, the changing pad, and both Kelly and my mom's hands, but he wasn't done yet; at his next changing, he let go of a splatter-shot of projectile poop as soon as the diaper was off again causing a change of clothes, several spent wipes, and a night of laundry. Kelly was happy to hand him off to me when I got home and has learned to never change him again directly following his nap.

And so life goes on for little Zachary...

I'll hopefully be posting again soon with some video of him snoring...and maybe some of me snoring too just for fun.

Fun Facts:

• Baby poop can be all different colors of the rainbow depending on what the mom eats....last night he had neon orange poop....don't have a clue where that came from.
• Zach is smiling (mostly because of gas) every once in a while and tonight Kelly says she heard him laugh...although I think that according to her, he can also do stochastic calculus so I'm not sure if I can completely trust her on that.
• I think I mentioned a feeding frenzy a few posts back...it's still going on. As I speak he's on his third feeding in the last 2 hours.
  

You're the doc, Doc

This morning we went to Zachary's two-week appointment and everything is going great. The doctor's actual words were "perfect" but of course, I don't keep track of those things....it's just that word "perfect"... it sounds so nice. You know, like a Perfect test score, or a Perfect game. Really, by definition, it can't get any better than that...but not one to dwell on his Perfection, I'm just happy to know that he's doing well....Perfectly well to be exact.

However, he does have a little "issue" that apparently most babies have. Acne. I know, I thought it was saved only for the embarrassment of teenagers in their most vulnerable years too! The doctor (and our What to Expect... book) said that it's completely normal and that it peaks around 2-3 weeks and should go away within a month. I guess it's just another one of those weird baby things.

Here's a picture to embarrass him 13 years from now. It's not bad...just around the forehead and around his nose.

Some other interesting stuff we learned:

• When he was born, Zach could only see about a foot or so in front of him, and only in black and white. At this point it's getting better, and he can see most colors, but it's still not great. Objects close up are kind of hard to focus on and objects far away are blurred:

I can only assume that from up close, I look like this to him:

...and from a distance, this is what you would look like on approach:

• Pretty soon (within a few weeks) he should be able to start "cooing" and making more distinguishable noises. That would be him talking to us. We are supposed to talk back to him but Kelly tells me the noises I make are annoying compared to his "sweet" gurgling...I can only assume Zach loves my noises. Here's some video of him laying on the bed being cute...make sure to listen for his sneeze at about 1:01 in. It's one of the cutest things he does right now.
  

Recent visitors to the house have included Great-Grandma Leisel, Uncle Will, Nick and Nikki.

Great-Grandma Leisel and sleepy Zach

Uncle Will and interested Zach

Nick and fidgety Zach

Nikki and hungry Zach

He also visited Nonie and Papa's (which was the furthest he's ever traveled in his entire life) and played in his other crib.

Zach loves visiting his grandparents

We also introduced Zach to the bottle (since Kelly has been filling up the freezer with frozen pumped milk-sicles) and he chugged that puppy like a freshman.

2.0 fluid ounces per minute...BAM!

That's all for now!

Fun Facts:

• I'm going back to work on Monday so it will be Kelly on her own (I'm sure there will be visitors) in the months ahead.
• Saturday night will be Zach's first sleepover at Nonie and Papa's house. Kelly and I are going to Christine and Rick's wedding.
• I changed the navigation image at the top of the blog per William's request. Was it better before? William will definitely let me know it's my fault if it doesn't look good.
  

-pf