Wednesday, February 25, 2009

52 weeks = 1 year


Finally, the birthday pictures!

Grandma, Grandpa, Nonnie and Nonno all came into town for the big event on Friday, so we went out to dinner that night.

Zack was thrilled.

In all honesty, he was very good, especially since we were at the restaurant for about 2 hours.

We had to take a pooch picture on the big day, along with his new favorite giraffe. I'd say he's grown a bit.

He had an early morning jam session.

Of course there was cake.


It took him awhile to get into the cake (literally and figuratively)...





...but he got the hang of it.




He opened gifts...


...and took his new horse for a spin.


He needed a bath to get all that coconut cake out of his hair. He's stretched out a bit over the past year, wouldn't you say?


And on Sunday?

On Sunday we rested.


Thanks to Geoff for taking most, if not all, of the great shots of Zack with the cake and opening his gifts.

Sunday, February 22, 2009

52 weeks

Hello!

A belated Happy Valentine's Day!


There will be birthday pictures soon, as soon as I talk the computer into letting me download the pictures. Suffice it to say that we had a lovely day and Zack is now wondering where all his adoring fans are. He's finding himself a bit bored when left only with Rob and I.

Wednesday, February 11, 2009

Week 51

Zack wanted thank you all for the concern and wants you to know that he's feeling much better now.

In fact, I think his appetite has returned 120%.

I've always known that there are innate behaviors and there are learned behaviors--that's pretty much what I've studied for the past number of years. What's interesting as a parent is coming to realize which behaviors are which. So the ability to let someone know that you're about to vomit and could use a receptacle into which to vomit?

Yeah, that would be totally learned.

And Zack hasn't learned it yet.

He is working very hard at learning to walk and talk, though. Every now and then when he's cruising he forgets what he's doing and lets go--then plops on the ground. One of these days he's not going to plop, or at least not so quickly.

I remember when I was little, it must have been before 2nd grade, when I knew what cursive writing was, didn't know how to write in cursive, but thought it was the coolest thing, so I'd "write" things. Things that in retrospect looked like lots and lots of cursive lower-case l's. I'm reminded of this because it seems as if that's what Zack is doing with words. He knows there's something in this language thing, thinks it's really cool, can't quite put it all together, but is trying with all his might to make it work. We often do a double take. He's imitating us more closely. I also think that he sometimes tries to say "woof" when he hears or sees dogs. It's a very soft "ffff" sound. He pretty consistently says "mamamamama" when he's upset and wants me, particularly if he's got to crawl after me. He says "da" when he looks at things. He also says "dadada" but that doesn't seem to be as specific (Rob may argue with me there.).

He's found the tupperware drawer and the pot lid drawer. I left before Rob and Zack this morning, but came home a bit later to work from home. I could tell where Zack had been as Rob was getting things ready to go--paper recycling all over the mudroom, tupperware on the kitchen floor, dish towels pulled off the oven handle, etc. etc. etc.

As always, he goes through the day happy and charming. He's looking forward to cake and fun next weekend!

Monday, February 02, 2009

Week 50

Zack started feeling under the weather last night. He had a fever and got cranky and a bit floppy. This is how he spent most of the Super Bowl.
At least we could put him to good use.

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He still had a fever this morning and was even floppier. He'd look at us like "I want to be my happy, cheerful self, but I seem to have been run over by a truck in the middle of the night. What gives?!"

He's staying home with Rob today, following doctor's orders. Hopefully the fever will break today and he'll be back to him self tomorrow.