PICTURE OF THE WEEK

Melissa's family's visit

We were so blessed to have Melissa, Kevin, and their son Jackson come and visit us for the weekend. Ahhhh having a friend here during the day to actually converse in adult language with, I loved it! The weather was soooo perfect too and we all soaked it up!

The first night that they arrived, Zackary had just taken a two hour nap. I know, crazy huh, mark it on the calendar...first substantial nap in his crib ever! It was momentous. And look, he is loving Kevin. Usually he breeds a sort of shyness with strangers, but Kevin took him so Ben and I could eat our dinner, and he loved him! Melissa was close by too chatting it up with Z-man and he just stared at her! So cute. Zackary has this one grunting noise that him and Ben do back and forth to each other as though communicating in a secret language. He was showing it off for Kevin and Melissa and they were getting a kick out of it. He was in SUCH a happy mood, and all I kept thinking was, so this is what it must be like!!!!

Zackary was so cute when we put Jackson next to him. He just touched his head like, "hello, want to play." My little man is growing up so fast!
Sunday evening, Ben and Kevin were at Ben's golf course finishing a round of golf, so Melissa helped in the evening routine by watching Zackary as I took care of Bentley. He did so well with her. They all played in the front room. I was proud of him!

"My mom gave me this cup to play with, it's the best toy ever. My mom puts stuff in it and I shake it all around, I drop it and pick it back up too, and it is fun to chew. Want to try it? You should tell your mom to get you one!"

PICTURE OF THE WEEK

Big Corona

We live in front of the ocean and only yesterday happened to take Zackary down to introduce him to the waves and sand for the first time. As I expected he wasn't all that excited. We let him sit with us on the sand, and feel the cool ocean water in between his toes. Then we walked along the jetty where he seemed to really like watching the water crash up on the rocks. He was enthralled more with all the children laughing, running and yelling! I think he will love the ocean, I just hope the sun doesn't turn his pale skin into lobster skin. No matter how much sunscreen we put on, it doesn't seem enough to me! It was a fun adventure for us. The other big first this weekend was starting sweet potatoes (his first real food besides the cereals). He loved it!!! He ate it all yesterday and today. I decided to make as much of his baby food as possible, and it actually was very easy! So 5 days of this food and then on to carrots maybe!

"Muffin" "buggars" "jujubee"

Along with a general update of my little 6 1/2 month old muffin man I wanted to write some of our daily events that take place to keep Z-Man clean, happy and entertained!!! First, he is doing great! He rolls all over my bed, if I wasn't on the end of it he would roll off. He loves to sit, stand, hold onto his feet, swing, laugh, and so much more. After every nap (about three a day 9, 12, 3) he sits or lays in my lap and we sing songs like monkeys bouncing on the bed, patty cake, if you're happy and you know it, and abc's. Then I have cards with pictures of animals on them and we sit and look at them talking about the animals and how they sound...he loves this. He takes the cards and holds them looking at the pictures...so cute! Also, when he wakes up in the morning I always sing "Rise up this morning, smile at the rising sun, 3 little birds sittin on the doorstep singing sweet songs, a melody pure and true, singing this is my message to you...don't worry about a thing, cause every little things gonna be alright, etc." He LOVES this...and smiles the WHOLE time. Ben and I have been singing this to him since he was born, every morning.
Here are some more of his cuteness...


Taking his nap in his crib on his back on St. Patrick's Day-this picture is huge. He used to only nap on his tummy. He loves cuddling with his burp cloth that mommy sleeps with!

We have now started him on oat cereal which I have to say is going worse than the rice cereal. He just doesn't really like it. He knows how to swallow...but spits it out. So I think I might just start a vege...like winter squash or sweet potatoes. We are feeding him once a day after his 4pm feedings. If any of you have ideas, please let me know!


Zackary has many play areas set up for him around the house. Three in our bedroom..the doorway swing, saucer, and the drums (floor play area!). Here he is playing the drums with grandma...so funny! He loves it! Dad is really good at it. We have three play areas in the living room. Another saucer that he walks around, another swing and a floor gym. We also spend a lot of time sitting on pillows and looking at all the people, trucks, flowers and doggies outside! The swing seems to really help soothe him before a nap (great idea from grandma)! In the kitchen we have his highchair, and a bouncer chair. He likes the bouncer in the evening around 5. He sits in it sucking on his pacifier, playing with his feet while watching us cook and eat. Some nights he is talking and spitting and some nights he is super quiet. He enjoys the highchair in the morning while I am eating breakfast but he in the evening he likes his bouncer. He also loves going outside. I have him in the Bjorn a lot while I water or we just walk around and look at all the plants. Yesterday I had him sitting with me on the front porch blowing bubbles everywhere...that was fun!

The above picture is part of our nightly routine before bedtime! I first nurse him for around 10-20 minutes 6pm and then Dad reads him a book and then we dress him for bed on our bed and talk to him a little. This part has gotten increasingly difficult as he can roll now both directions, and thinks it is funny to not let Dad dress him in his PJ's. Side note: we have totally stopped swaddling now (that was an ordeal...one night cold turkey and crying it out with great results) and we put him in PJ's and a sleep sack. Tonight though I didn't realize that they were all dirty so he is just in PJ's...see how that goes! The doctor said NO BLANKETS...so we have the heater on low! After we dress him for bed I sing a song to him (right now it's Fools Rush In by Elvis) and then it's off to bed with Dad. He holds him and sings him the same U2 song every night within five min. it's off to bed at 6:30! He's sleeping till a 4am feeding and then up at 6:30-7am. Even though he is sleeping 11 hours a night and taking three naps he still seems tired. His naps are not that long, we are trying to work on improving that. Putting him to bed at 6:30pm has helped with his naps some (30 to now 40min naps) but it's still a work in progress. He has been doing this really fast head twitching thing for a couple seconds after naps or when he's getting tired. It's involuntary, and it is worrying us both. I videotaped it and showed the ped, but she didn't really seemed to concerned. I guess if he keeps it up we are going to seek out a neurologist. I know that the nervous system isn't fully controllable at this age, but it's weird and you have to follow your motherly instinct right! An update on this next time.
Oh the days of sleeping...sweet memories! :)

Vegas Babies

This past weekend Zackary went on his second trip to Las Vegas. One of my closest friends lives there so a bunch of us decided to meet up. There were three babies all relatively close in age and one toddler and the husbands! It was a fun weekend in all. Although Zackary and I got no sleep, we managed to smile and enjoy our time with everyone. It's hard to function on little sleep...and I felt so bad for him, he was really thrown off of his schedule, even today being at home it's been a struggle to know when to put him down for his naps. The weather was beautiful though and Ben got a golf day with the boys so that made him happy! My friend that lives in Las Vegas has a backyard swing that Zackary and I went on everyday and he loved it! It would put him to sleep after awhile.

A week before we left for Vegas we started him on some organic brown rice cereal. It was so funny to watch him spit it out and make a nasty face..but continue to reach for it and want it. He still isn't eating it really well, maybe cause I use water not formula or breast milk?. We are also struggling with him not sleeping through the night which is really making him tired (and us!). My last post talked about not swaddling him anymore, but we still are. We are realizing though that the time is drawing near to start sleep sacks because he gets his arm out of the swaddle every night and wakes us up crying. We have to cold turkey and just stop...and let him cry so he starts sleeping again all night and taking better naps. I feel bad for him. He is reaching for me now and giving me hugs, so cute, and laughs a lot for his daddy. He wants to eat the TV remote and his crab bath toy. He's rolling over really well from stomach to back. We also have this oldie Elvis CD for babies that he loves. We played it a lot while in Vegas and it really calms his down. He's off to sleep now, I better join him!

We are all growing up too fast

Ben turned 32 in February and we had a fun evening together while Grandma babysat. But we made sure to come home and have candles and cake with Zackary. He loves light right now, so I knew the candles would be a big hit. He was all dressed up for his Dad's big day and we enjoyed the first candle moment with him.
This past weekend Zackary got baptised at my Serbian Orthodox Church. It was such a special experience. There were 8 different symbolic moments throughout the ceremony. He did really well. Mama had to hold him in the beginning until he calmed down and realized it was ok and then Uncle Ryan held him for the rest. He was dunked up to his chest in the warm holy water, but what was interesting was how fasinated he was with the church and everything that was going on. He was looking all around and taking it in like he knew that God was with him and holding him tight! We all went to my Aunt's house after the ceremony for lunch. It was a special moment for him and I am so happy we did it.

It's funny because in the beginning of his life he would just watch Bentley while smiling and talking to him. Now he reaches out for him and guess what, Bentley runs away as fast as possible and hides. I guess that is what I have to look forward to in the future when he can crawl and walk. Bentley's going to have to come up with some great hiding places! I hope they become friends at some point.

"I'm cool like Dada!" I read that it's really important to protect their sensitive eyes from the sun so we bought him some UV protected glasses and he loved them. It was so funny! What a stud!

"Outside with Mama." I decided to take him outside with me in his saucer during one of our unseasonably hot winter days and we had fun! He loves going with me outside and looking at all the flowers and leaves. We started doing that around the 3-4th week of his life. Nature really distracts him and pulls his attention and it's so fun to watch!


So, Ben and I just went through the past month and a half of pictures and wow, time flies fast when you are raising a child. Things have definitely gotten easier than what they were the first three months. He does not cry as much. It's only if he's tired, bored or hungry. Some of his favorite toys are his jump and go swing, his exer-saucer, his drums mommy made for him and a Graco swing that sits him upright. He loves his Bijorn and stroller walks with daddy and story time before bed.

Some of his latest developmental achievements are:
sitting up on own, standing with help, push-ups, crunches, laughing, rolling over (with help), reaching for mom and dad, smiling all the time, blowing bubbles and little spitting, talking more frequently, stares at us while we eat and drink, drops things and picks them back up repetitiously, loves running water, and bath time and attacks his Tasmanian devil that his Uncle Chris bought him. Everything goes straight into his mouth, and he really loves his HABA toys.

He is exclusively breastfeeding still every 3 hours during the day. We put him down for bed around 7-7:30pm and he wakes around 4am to feed and then back to bed until 7am. I really think he is awake at 6am but I leave him to hang out with his friends in his crib until 7am. We are still double swaddling him as well, which when we try not to he HATES it. We might cold turkey it this weekend, and stop...will update about that next time!