A Few of Our Recent Favorites!!!

Couchbed Friday nights. The splash game. Zach's first encounter with playdoh. Zach in the box.

Zachy Bear

So our Zachary Thomas is now 13.5 months old and is living large, I mean L-A-R-G-E!!! He is now over 28 pounds and feels like every pound of it each time I pick him up. He is a cute little guy with an adorable smile and an infectious laugh! I absolutely love it when his Papa Daddy gets him laughing by tickling his neck with kisses!

Poor Zach is going through a tough time right now... He's wanting to talk, but he can't quite get his desires vocalized. He's wanting to walk , but his little legs probably aren't quite strong enough to support his 28 pounds. He wants to play with all the toys his brother does, but unfortunately big bro isn't the greatest at sharing his favorite toys (and this too shall pass, right???). He loves to climb, but doesn't understand why Mommy won't let him at the steps. And oh, did I mention that he is cutting ALL OF HIS MOLARS right now??? Poor kiddo!!! Serenity now!!!

All that to say, he is a sweet little guy that loves to explore and is amazingly apt at entertaining himself right up until Mommy starts preparing dinner! I'm loving my time with Zach in the mornings that Nate has preschool. It's fun to sit down and have some playtime with just him and being able to focus on just him. The other day I took him to the park and was able to walk him around to all the pint-sized attractions we normally don't have time for when I'm trying to keep up with Nate, too. We had the best time swinging, climbing and sliding! I love my little bear!

Can You Say "PACHYCEPHALOSAURUS?"

Nate can!

Nate had his first Show and Tell today. At the preschool open house a couple of weeks ago, Nate was given a brown lunch bag to take home and decorate and today was his scheduled day to bring it in filled with some of his favorite items to share with his class. Nate took this order very seriously and stuffed that little brown lunch bag full of his favorite goodies! Items included you might ponder??? Hot chocolate mix, his M&M hot chocolate mug, Thomas the Train, Gordon, and Henry, Quackly (a teenie beenie babie from a McDonald's Happy Meal), and his dinosaur "bath sticks."

"What in the world are bath sticks?" you are probably asking yourself right now. I believe in most other homes they are commonly referred to as "grow capsules." You know, the little plastic capsules with sponge shapes inside that grow larger as the plastic casing dissolves away in the water. Nate coined the term "bath sticks" the instant he saw them months and months ago in the Target One Spot and now has several of his buddies referring to them as the same. Anyway, Nate is slightly obsessed with his bath sticks and the other night right before bath time he asked if he could keep them in their wrapper so he could carry them around with him for a few more days. So that is how they ended up in his Show and Tell bag. The funny thing is that this is the second round of dinosaur bath sticks we have purchased from Target. Yes, we were conned by new packaging of the same old merchandise. The first set we had listed all of the names of the 12 dinosaurs on the back. This set did not, but Nate can still tell you what they are: Pteranodon, dimetrodon, stegosaurus, anklyosaurus, iguanodon, velociraptor, parasaurolophus, etc. and my personal favorite, the pachycephalosaurus. It is one of the most hilarious things I have every heard to hear my little 3 year old son say clear as day a word most adults would have a hard time saying, "pachycephalosaurus." Try it, it's not the easiest word to roll off your tongue!

Nate's First Day of Preschool!!!

Well, Nate the Great started preschool last week and he is absolutely loving every minute of it!!! He walked right in without glancing back!!! I did much better dropping him off for his first day then I ever imagined. Jamie took some time off from work that morning to come with us, but more as a support for me than my boy. I kept it together and managed to drop him off without shedding a tear... I comforted myself with a mocha from the Starbucks right across the street from Nate's preschool on the way home (That's probably not going to be good for our budget... Way too convenient!).

Nate's teacher's name is Ms. Rachael and she seems really sweet. Last Thursday when I picked him up from school, she said "Wow, he's so smart! He counted all the way to 22 without even pausing!" Of course I was bursting with pride inside and wanted to shout, "I know, he's brilliant!" or "He only counted to 22, because he can actually count up to 30!" I instead managed a small, polite "thanks" instead.

I think it's going to be a wonderful year! I absolutely love hearing what he did every day at school from his point of view... I love the way he describes things! So far his favorite activity has been playing with the "super cool basketball toy." He's definitely his father's son!