Christmas 2009

Well I have to start off Christmas by saying that we had a blast in Iowa the weekend prior to Christmas with Charlie's family! What a true blessing they are! Zachery had a blast with all his cousins, aunts, uncles, and grandparents!! I think someone counted a total of 57 people! Zachery did a great job working the party, going from group to group, wanting to hold babies, and playing with babies. He truly hated to leave! He cried when we told we had to leave. He kept asking 5 more minutes 5 more minutes, it was very sweet! I think it was a treasure to watch him play with grandpa, grandma, and all his cousins, aunts and uncles! He just absolutely loves being around people!! Even though it was a short trip, he remembers everyone and loves them all!

Can you believe it we had an official white Christmas here in Dallas, the first since 1926. Apparently there has to be at least 2 or 3 inches of snow on the ground to officially be a "White Christmas". It truly felt like Christmas. But it is only in Texas that you can wear shorts one day, which was the 23rd of December and have to wear long johns the next, which was the 24th of December, Christmas Eve. It was truly crazy!! We didn't actually adventure out and play in the snow until the day after Christmas. The snow was very powdery, but it was tons of fun to throw up in the air and Zachery had a blast! He attempted to make his first snow angel, unfortunately they didn't turn out very well, but it was fun to try!

Christmas was wonderful! Zachery woke up and wanted to play with his trains in his room, just like almost every other morning. But Charlie said, "Zachery who's presents are these in the living room?" and he came running out of his room and wanted to "open them". He first played with the dinosaurs that were on top of and surrounding his presents, which was fun! Then he started opening presents. He was truly spoiled this year by grandparents, great grandparents, aunts & uncles, friends, and of course mom and dad! The main presents this year were a new addition to his train set that goes round and round and a battery operated car set that of course goes round and round! A picture of both of them are below. He really wasn't in the mood for pictures for some reason on Christmas, but I was able to get one of him and his crazy smile!

Charlie started potty training on Monday, the day after we got back from Iowa, and he is doing a GREAT job. Both of them are! I think Charlie said the toughest day was probably the first day and we are still really struggling with the poop thing, but we have extra grocery bags in our backpack so when we are out and about and he poops his pants we have something to put the wet underwear. He is actually really good at telling us when he has to go to the bathroom, I think he goes about 20 times a day and I don't think I am over exaggerating this time! We are trying to get him to "hold it" ... but he loves saying "Hey Zachery!" after he goes. We are still a little frighted about going poop, but we are working on that with silly songs. I will spare you or rather me the embarrassment of what these silly songs sound like, but they are very fun! Speaking of singing our little man is a singer! He loves singing and it is so much fun to hear him sing! I am trying to get it on video so we can share him with all of you, but it is hard to catch, but I am ready whenever he spontaneously starts singing.

He has really started mimicking us, more so than the last time we said that! It is crazy! It is so much fun to hear him try and say really big words like astronauts or tyrannosaurous rex. He actually does a really good job! Okay the story for this entry is on Christmas night we were watching a movie, Fly me to the Moon (totally recommend by the way!) Baby Zayne kicked me and I said to Zachery "Zachery we have to tell Baby Zayne to stop kicking mommy", so Zachery pretended to take Baby Zayne out of my tummy, play with him and tell him not to kick mommy that it wasn't nice and once he was done playing (which was about 30 seconds by the way) he put him back into my tummy. I am sure Zachery is going to think when Baby Zayne is actually here why he can't just put him back into my tummy, LOL!! But it truly was a sweet and funny moment all at the same time!

The painting below Zachery painted in November 2009 when we were finishing up the baby's room. I have promised many of you that I would take a picture and post it ... and I finally got around to doing it! We wish you all a truly blessed 2010!

Argus Christmas Party 2009

The company I work for, Argus, had their Christmas Party the first weekend in December and Charlie and I went all by ourselves this year! Yes, Zachery stayed with his best friend Ava and had a blast! Charlie and I had a blast too. We were able to go to a movie, Blindside, which was absolutely amazing and totally recommend! Then we were able to get all dressed up and mingle with my co-workers, which is always a nice time! Thank goodness I had a nice dress from when I was pregnant with Zachery, so I could wear it this year with Baby Zayne! Doesn't Charlie look GREAT in his suit! I think he enjoys wearing it every once and a while.

Zachery loved staying at Ava's so much that when he saw us come through the door he started crying and clinging onto my leg all at the same time. Which just told us that he loved being at Ava's house and had a blast and that he missed us too. When we left he was crying and when we said we were going to have McDonald's for dinner he stopped crying, crazy huh? But then he told us all about his stay with Ava. It was so sweet! He even asked for Ava the next morning.

Bundled Up and Ready to Go

Every year the City that we live in has a Santa Village at the City Center and we try and go. This year it was cold and Zach and I wanted to walk up there with our friends. So we bundled up and walked up to the City Center. This year was GREAT! He went into the different houses and thoroughly enjoyed getting candy and stickers! His favorite house was the fireman house where he was allowed to try on the fireman's jacket and "helmet", it was so much fun we had to go through twice! Plus he hugged the fireman dog SPOT, at least 6 times (he was a man dressed up as a dog). We had hot chocolate too. We didn't bring our camera, unfortunately, but we will make sure we have it next year! It was such a fun night with friends! It definitely gets us into the Christmas Spirit!

Oops I almost forgot, one morning Zachery woke up with this crazy curl on top of his head, we couldn't resist taking a picture, it was just to darn cute!

Somersault

So I came home one day and Zachery was doing somersaults! It was so AWESOME! We have a couple other videos but he was a little distracted with the TV on, so we decided to just upload this video!

3rd Birthday Celebration

Zachery's birthday was very exciting this year! The main birthday present was a marble set. He thoroughly enjoys watching things go "round and round" as he puts it. He really could have cared less about the clothes Mom and Dad gave him, but I hear it is good to give things that they need so they will appreciate all the things that they have, guess we still need to work on that one.

Let's see we went to his favorite place to eat, McDonald's with his best friend Ava. Then we came home to sing Happy Birthday and eat cupcakes. In the video listen closely because you will hear Zachery singing then ask, "can I blow on it?". Ava gave Zachery a Thomas the train engine, which was a huge hit! It is even motorized and fits on his current track, so he was able to watch it go "round and round" too! What a GREAT birthday!!

Soccer Socks

As most of you know Zachery is very active and loves sports, pretty much all sports! Anyways, apparently one morning as Charlie and Zachery were playing Uno (or should I say attempting to play Uno because Zach just throws the cards), they decided to put soccer socks on ... or should I say shin guards on. Charlie was able to get a couple of good photos ... I guess we should start think about putting him in organized sports.

Zayne's Room

Charlie finished the computer / baby room last week. Below are a couple of video's showing the new room off ... sorry we forgot to take a before picture! What we did was take everything out of the computer room, re-textured the lower half of the room. Painted and replaced the floor boards, trim, and added crown molding. We discarded ALOT of STUFF!! It is amazing what we want to hold on to when we don't even use it .... in let's say 6 or 7 years. We still need to make pillow's for the window bench and I need to paint a picture to go over Zayne's crib, but other than that we are done! Enjoy!

Silly Expressions

Can you believe that we are rapidly approaching the Holiday Season? To think that Thanksgiving is only a week away, followed by Zachery's Birthday, and then Christmas! We have a very busy couple of months! We will not be traveling this year for Thanksgiving, which we are all excited about. We will be able to start own family traditions, not sure what that will entail, but it will be fun to find out.

We didn't think it was possible for Zachery to talk more, boy were we wrong! He is mimicking what we say often and he talks and talks about what we are still not sure, but you are able to understand a word here and there. These pictures and video were from the other night when he was talking non-stop about dinosaur toes. Don't ask us why he thinks dinosaur toes or toes in general are so interesting but he does. It is actually very cute. Once we got the camera out all he wanted to do was take pictures. He loves the camera!! He makes us laugh everyday and we are thoroughly enjoying this time with him and always asking ourselves, what is he going to say next ... Happy Holidays!

Baseball Practice

I meant to upload these videos a couple of weeks ago, but they take a bit to load. We had our sonogram this week and found out that we are having a little boy! We are so very excited and it seems like Zachery is getting excited too ... but one can never tell what is going through a "almost" 3 year old's mind. But Zachery has already asked to see the baby's DVD several times, yes they actually gave us a free DVD of our sonogram. Everything looks good and the baby is currently 9 ounces and they projected the due date a day earlier than what our doctor originally projected, so March 17, 2010 it is! Other than that we are preparing the computer room / baby room. It has been a very slow process, but we were able to finish the texturizing on the lower half of the walls this week! We might be able to paint the ceiling and prime the texture this weekend, but we will see I might be thinking a little big for my britches. In addition to baseball Zachery has been asking to "play soccer with kids" alot lately! So I think we will probably start looking into that, but will see if he continues to ask once my soccer season is over, which is in a couple of weeks. Last night we were running back and forth in the backyard dribbling and passing the ball, it was so much fun!! Zachery still enjoys falling down, so many times he would kick the ball hard and fall down ... he is so funny!! So Zachery thinks my hard hat is a helmet, so he tries to put it on like a helmet and run around with it on, it is HILARIOUS!!! He can barely see and we are waiting for him to run into a tree or something. What a fun age!!!

Richardson Symphony Carnival

We were invited to go to the Richardson Symphony Orchestra Carnival this year with some friends of ours. So Zach and I had a date night! Since Zachery has been going to the jump house he is not afraid of the jump house, look at how tall the Texas Twister is .... Yikes, I was so scared for him. I think the toughest thing for Zach was having to wait in line. After he went down the slide the first time he cut in line and went again before I could stop him, it was cute the first time but not the second ... I was able to catch up to him before he cut in line again. He was very upset but it was all better after we got a snow cone and rode on the train. Later we got our face painted with a football and then they all got glow in the dark necklaces. Oh boy, the kids just ran around the grass throwing the necklaces and each other, while listening to the Orchestra play ... it was a beautiful way to experience the symphony orchestra play! Needless to say, Zachery did not want to leave and we had the second worst "melt-down" when we need to leave.

Balloon Festival 2009

Can you believe it is that time of year again ... September 2009 Balloon Festival. It was so much fun this year. We actually went to some of the booths they had and Zach was able to throw a football, how fun! He was very upset when we left the football throwing booth! He really enjoyed seeing the "big" balloons take off. In one of the photos below he was practicing his web shooting, like spider man. Don't ask us where he picked that up, he doesn't even watch, read, or play videos regarding spider man. The balloon that Charlie is holding in our family photo was a huge hit with Zach, it actually kept his attention at home for at least a week! So I guess it was worth the $5. We actually experienced our fist major break down when we left the Balloon Festival this year.

Building Confidence

Well I am sad to say that the pools are closed here in our little city, so we are trying to figure out what we can do as we transition into fall, with 90 degree weather still learking around with the exception of the past couple of days. It has been raining like crazy, which has been GREAT! I am not sure if we have told you about this place called Boomerangs but it has approximately 7 huge inflatable bounce houses and Zachery loves it! We have been a couple of times and each time he builds confidence and jumps higher, especially if he is watching the older kids as they jump prior to sliding down the slides. We love watching him run around and after about 2 hours he is walking to each jump house, he is finally getting worn out. So the picture of him sliding through one of the obstacle courses is from Boomerangs. Since we are on the topic of confidence, he has started to jump off even higher things at some of the play areas that we visit. One of the pictures below is of him climbing backwards up an elephant trunk. At that same play area there is a camel that he climbs up and then will proceed to climb over the head and swing his leg around so he can use the camels head as a slide. It made me nervous when I saw him do it for the first time, but Charlie just smiled and said "its his new thing". Zachery wants to be like Daddy, hammering nails and screwing in screws. So Charlie got a piece of wood and started a couple of holes for Zach and he loves using the screw driver and hammer. Don't you just love how much he concentrates? "Play Tools?", is what Zach will say when he would like to play with the hammer and screw driver.

One afternoon after his nap, he went into the living room and found the sports page from the Sunday paper and starting reading it. Charlie was able to catch him on camera. For some reason we have caught Zach sleeping at the end of his bed, which makes us nervous because there is a good foot gap in between the foot board and the mattress. I think one afternoon he actually slid down and was caught with his head barely sticking up from above the foot board and touching the floor. We are still trying to understand why he just doesn't get down off his bed when he wakes up and open the door, he just sits there and talks until we come and get him. I hope he continues to do that for a little bit, it reminds me that he hasn't grown up all that much, yet.

TENT & DANCING

When we were traveling alot when Zachery was a baby we purchased this wonderful small traveling size tent for him to sleep in, not that he actually slept in it during that time, but it was nice to have when we were traveling and didn't want to lug the pak-n-play. Anyways, I got it out the other month for him to play in and the other week he asked if he could sleep in his tent. So he has been taking naps in his tent, which is hilarious. We could resist taking a picture! Charlie has been taking Zachery to the mall periodically to play and at this particular mall there is an ice skating rink in the center and Zach enjoys watching the ice skaters circle the rink. So he will pretend like he is ice skating around the house and do the turns and jumps that they do on the rink. The video is a preview of our son pretending to ice skate. One can't help but laugh! What can we say our son LOVES sports!!

ZOO

We welcomed Charlie home about four weeks ago. I have to say it is wonderful to have him home! His time was a little switch around, but it only took him about a week to get back into his normal sleep schedule. The weekend after Charlie got back from Africa we went to the Zoo and Zachery had the best time! So we went the following two weekends. The second time we went we went with our friend Ava and they had the best time playing in the children's area at the zoo on this big spider web made out of rope. They also ran up and down the man made river that was in the children's area. It was fun to watch them interact with one another, they truly are best friends! The third time we went to the zoo we took the DART, which is the public train transportation here in the DFW Area. Zach loved riding the train.

Other than that we are just listening to Zach talk all the time and repeat almost everything we say. He has really gotten into movies this summer, like Ice Age, Horton, and he just started asking to watch the Jungle Book. Besides hanging out inside we have been spending alot of time at the pool this summer. The other week Zachery told us, "under water by myself". So we watch him get ready to go under water all by himself, which is hilarious to watch and then he does it! Over the past couple of weeks he has develop some confidence and will stay under for a longer period of time. He will also jump off the side of the pool and put his face in the water, which are all great learning steps for not being scared of the water! Yes, so one of our new words is "myself", he wants to do it himself. Another funny phrase he has been saying is "don't do that mommy or daddy, don't do that". He is growing up way to fast!

Silly Pictures

So Zach has been enjoying wearing our shoes, which has been precious! He has even worn my shoes outside and proceeded to walk to the park with them on. With the hot weather here over the past month or so, we have been frequenting the pool often! We found our goggles and enjoy wearing wearing them until they get foggy or water gets in them from falling in the pool. Yes, Zachery loves to fall forward and backwards into the pool, I just I am able to get a video of this before the season is over! It is absolutely hilarious!! We attempted to go watch the movie UP with Zach, I think on Father's Day. He did really well, until the scary dog part and we had to leave with only 30 minutes left in the movie, but that is OK. I love that he is so sensitive to all that!!

Cute story: So today I was picking Zach up from church nursery, I asked him for a kiss, so he put a hand on each cheek and gave me a kiss ... how sweet was that?? Anyways, we didn't do much for the Fourth of July. With Daddy out of the country it is hard to keep track of the little man and visit with friends!

Last weekend we went to a Ranger's baseball game and also saw the new Cowboys stadium, impressive huh?? Zach had a GREAT time the first 10 minutes, yelling "Go" and clapping when everyone else would clap ... and then we weren't interested any longer :) Oh the joys of having a 2 year old. Oh! Have I spoken about potty training?? We have no interest in it!! He pee's his pants and comes to me and says "I'm wet, Mommy, wet". Doesn't really care that he wet, just wanted me to know that he has gone to the bathroom in his pants :) I am really not looking forward to this!! Any suggestions would be GREAT!!!!