Love In Bloom

So a friend of a friend has just opened a fabulous new maternity store in Raleigh. I'm excited about Love in Bloom as I've seen it grow from a thought to the grand opening that took place this weekend. If you or any of your friends are expecting, planning on having little ones, or need gifts please check out Love in Bloom. Click on the logo to visit Love in Bloom's website.

Oh and you're helping stimulate the economy and keeping business local. You've done your civic duty. It's a win win!

Eight Months

Zachary turned 8 months old today. Can you believe it? I need to take a picture today and post it so you can see just how big he's gotten. He's making great strides towards sitting up unassisted. He really wants to stand, which isn't allowed right now. On the other hand, he is starting to rock on his hands and knees, which means he's starting the process of crawling. His developmental specialist said it's not very common for that to happen as crawling is more difficult than sitting up. My response, "That's how we roll!" Way to go big boy! His birth wasn't the conventional way, so why in the world would we follow the books of milestones? Seriously, what were they thinking?

What He's Up To

This is an extension of an earlier post.

Zachary has found his voice. He found it a while back, but recently when he "talks" it is with lots of emotion.

He has finally figured out how to click his tongue. He thinks it's fantastic and does it often.

Maggie (AKA Puppy) is his newest fascination. He loves her. He loves laughing at her. He loves when she gets on a running spell and goes crazy all over the house. He loves her bark and appears is the only one in this house who thinks her bark is cool.

He loves to be tickled and his biggest tickle spot is on his back.

Chubalicious

We have a mini butter ball on our hands!!! Zachary has tipped the scales. He now weighs 14 lbs and shows no signs of slacking off on the weight gain. Way to go little, er, I mean BIG man!

Roll Call

Alright my friends, many of you have e-mailed me to let me know you're going to walk May 2nd at the March for Babies. If you'll personally be joining us and walking with Ol' Fat Zach himself, please either comment here or send me an e-mail. I wanted to get a nice, neat list drawn up.

Thanks!

For the Record

This is simply for me to keep up with Zachary and his growth and progress. I've done a horrible job of keeping a baby book for him. I haven't written on one page. Thank goodness for this blog.

Zachary has finally found his left foot on his own. He thinks he hit he jackpot! The right foot is ok, but the left foot is waaay better.

Zachary is getting better at sitting up. We still have to be close by, but he's getting there. I bet in a couple of weeks he'll be sitting alone.

He rolls all over the place and I do mean all.over.the.place.

He gets on his knees and rocks back and forth. We think he's going to work on crawling before the books "think" he should. Stay tuned.

He's drooling everywhere. He's either teething or getting ready to or he's preparing his palate for those tasty baby foods. We haven't started those yet and hope to get the green light from the doctor in a couple of week. I believe he'll take to those quite nicely.

He's still a breastfed baby, but I'm really ready to give it up. I just can't bring myself to "jump". Pumping is for the birds and I feel like I've spent more time with it than I have my own family. I'm to the point I'm not making enough to keep up with his demand. I guess I knew that would happen since our nursing relationship isn't like most, but we've made it 8 months. I'm going to ask the doctor what I should do. Stay tuned.

He's really talking up a storm too. He's working hard on his consonant sounds. Nonnie practices every day. If you say the word Nonnie to him he's cackles. I better watch Nonnie or she'll put the twinkle in his eye.

We're in size 3 month clothes now too and about to bust those seams. I need to pack away the little clothes, but can't bring myself to do it.

Nonnie is his caregiver during the work day. There is no one in the whole wide world I'd rather watch my sweetie pie (other than me). I'm so thankful she's offered to and thankful Zachary gets special time with her.

He tolerates the carseat a little better now. He'll give us good stretches of time with no crying. We made it through a couple of meals this week and nonoise. YIPPEE!

Who We're Pulling For

As if you didn't know. I'd like to point out the double chin and the start of wrist bands (clearly noticeable on the left arm). The thighs are getting the chub rolls and the belly, the belly is straight copy of Buddha's. I love a chubby baby. Gosh, I love a chubby baby! Ever so thankful to God that I didn't actually have to birth a chubby baby (though I gladly would have). I bet monkey man is close to 14 lbs. We'll find out on March 23rd.

Ol' Fat Zach Goes to the Beach

We decided to make a weekend of it at the beach. Granted it rained the whole time, but it was the family quality time that counts. This was also the weekend for my Morehead City Half Marathon. I don't think it's meant for this race to go on without Mother Nature crying all over it. It rained from start to finish. Granted it wasn't nearly as bad as last year, but it was wet. I managed to shave 6 minutes off my time and came in at 1:58:17. It just happened our house was right on the road we run down so I got to see my cute little monkeys at miles 7 and 9. Andrew was yelling, "Good job exercising, Mommy!" Don't you love it? He's a nut!

Ol' Fat Zach enjoyed the beach. He slept like a champ and was very smart the whole time. He enjoyed the fresh air I suppose. He's done a lot of growing in the past few weeks. I'm pretty sure we're well over 13 lbs and may even be teetering on the 14 lb mark. See for yourself. He's working hard on sitting up and he wants to move when you place him on his tummy. He starts wiggling his legs like he's got somewhere to go. We still don't have teeth, but I'm in no hurry.

Lastly, thank you, thank you, thank you to everyone who has donated to the March of Dimes. It means more to us than you'll ever know.

Can you stand the chubbiness?

This looks like a baby mugshot

Good Ol' Indian(a) Jones