Somebody likes carrots!

Model baby?

I've been going to the "What to Expect When You're Expecting" website since I found out I was pregnant. I put Zachary's birthdate in there and so the homepage is customized for his age and what should be going on. When I logged in this morning I noticed this was the picture for the fifth month. Weird! I guess he's right where he's supposed to be!

My little yogi

I wish I was this flexible! Zachary has been very interested in his feet for a while, but the first time I personally witnessed his toe actually reaching his mouth was last week during the ice storm. But then tonight he was really going after them! He braces his other foot against the wall for leverage.

Pretty sneaky!

This morning I put Zachary in his jump-jump while I got my lunch and his bottle ready for the day. As is frequently the case, the jump-jump caused a big poop-poop. I took him upstairs and got him cleaned up, but there was a bit of a mess, so I laid him on his back on his quilt on the floor while I went to rinse out his pj's. Not two minutes later I went back in his room and he was on his tummy! Once again, he had a big old grin - as far as I know that's the first time he's gone from back to front. If it's not the first time, I don't want to know about it. :-)

Peas!

Today was the day - the day for Zachary to finally try solid food. We decided to skip cereal for now and go straight to vegetables (based on the recommendations of Momma's La Leche League internet friends), so Daddy picked his own favorite vegetable - peas - to start with. Zachary is still nursing a pretty bad cold with cough, but we decided to go for it anyway.

Mommy made Daddy buy organic peas.

Not suspecting what is to come...

Hey let me see that...

Oh wait, I changed my mind...

Well okay, I guess I'll try it.

What tha...?!

Darn, they remembered my bib - now Daddy's giving it a try.

Hey, that wasn't so bad!

That didn't mean I wanted more!

What exactly am I supposed to do with this stuff?

Yay, we're done!!

Now I'm going to have my bib for dessert.

Happy Birthday Aunt Cynthia!

Happy Birthday Grandma!

Pretty eyes

I like my quilt Aunt Ann!

The last few days...

Our little elf!

This outfit was a gift from Zachary's Great-aunt Mary Ellen and Uncle Ed in Florida... It's a little bit big but we figured we'd better try it on now and not wait until next Christmas!

We were practicing sitting up...

Five months old!

I can't believe Zachary is five months old today! So much so that I just typed 'Four months old' in the title and then had to change it. The last month especially has gone by so fast!

It seems like he's doing something new every day now. He is such a cheerful baby - always smiling and laughing. He is very interested in the world around him now, which can make feeding time challenging. He has much better control of his hands now and can pick up toys and move them from one hand to another with no trouble. He is just starting to pick up on the "how many times can I drop this and get mom to pick it up?" game. We can always get a good laugh out of him with a few (or twenty) rounds of Peekaboo! He especially likes it if you hide behind something and jump out.

He is almost ready to sit up - he is getting pretty good at "frog sitting", where he sits kind of hunched over with his hands propping him up. We can see him watching the other babies at school and making notes of what they are doing so he can try it out! He can now support himself standing up with us just holding onto his hands, which I just discovered. He loves watching the babies on his Baby Einstein video too. He really likes puppets, especially his fish puppet.

He loves jumping in his activity center and playing with his crinkly toys. He loves to roll around on the floor and crane his neck to see the TV from whatever position we put him down in. He's rolled front to back a few times now but hasn't quite made it back to front. He also loves to fling his legs into the air, grab his feet, and study them.

He's still very vocal - our favorite is "MmmmmmGooo!" :-)

He saw Tabitha's Starbellied Sneetch on her blog and was very jealous. Then lo and behold he opened his Christmas present from Grandmother and there it was! We were very excited. The cool pj's were made by his Aunt Kathleen.

Speaking of being jealous, Tootie went on a rampage when we left him in the house alone the other night. The living room was littered with toys and stuffed animals pulled from every room in the house. There were only a couple of casualties, primarily Zachary's favorite Pooh crinkle book, but most of the injuries were superficial. The Sneetch got it a little bit but after a quick trip through the washing machine was good as new. We still don't know if it was sibling rivalry or stress from the new dogs next door, but he's definitely lost his loose in the house alone priveleges for the time being!

First day of school

Charles goes back to school next week so today he took Zachary to daycare for a couple of hours to start easing him into it. He took him over there about 10 and I went from 11:15 to 12 to visit and feed him lunch, then Charles picked him up at about 1. I was feeling guilty because his nose was still a little stuffy and he still has a tiny cough, but when I got there I found that ALL the babies had somewhat snotty noses and ALL the babies were coughing a little bit! It actually made me feel happy that he got his first cold before he went to daycare - at least I don't have that guilt to contend with! Anyway, he seemed to be having a great time watching all the other babies and the ladies kept telling me what a pretty baby he is. I only cried a little when I left to go back to work - I'm sure it's much harder on me than him!

Cousins

First cold :-(

Zachary woke up yesterday with the sniffles - his nose was running and his little eyes were all red and drippy. It was sad. :-( I just hated to see him so uncomfortable. He rallied for the wedding and got to be in the pictures. He is much better this morning - still a little stuffy but back to his smiley self.

Introducing Mr. and Mrs. Robert Sladek :-)

The wedding was just beautiful! Jaime looked like a princess. It was a beautiful ceremony and the food at the reception was delish! A wonderful time was had by all - we love you two!