first christmas

Zane made it to SC to visit his Aunt Ginger and Uncle John for Christmas.  Our flights to SC went great.  When we booked our tickets for the red eye flight out of Seattle, it sounded like a perfect plan.  Then as Zane got more set in his sleeping schedule, we got more and more nervous.  We were worried, but it worked out ok.  He was a champ!  There was a whole chorus of crying babies all the way to Houston, and Zane slept the whole way.  Then he got a surprise visit from Grandma and Grandpa at the airport during our layover, and he even took a little nap again since he still would normally have been asleep at home.  The second flight went smoothly too...

We had a great time in SC, and there was even snow for Zane's first Christmas!!  He had a good time hanging out with his cousins and got to meet a few friends for the first time too.  We went to look at lights, went to the Christmas Eve party, opened presents, went to different restaurants, watched his cousins go sledding, celebrated Matthew's 10th birthday, and played... it was a busy trip.  We managed to keep him on Seattle time so that he wouldn't miss out on everything.  Overall, it was a fun trip! 

Then our flight was delayed for the first leg of the trip back home.  Zane handled the first flight really well again, so we thought we were in the clear. But because our first flight was delayed so much, we missed our connection in Houston and actually had to rush to catch the next flight to Seattle.  Thankfully we managed to get seats on it - two middle seats about 10 rows apart.  Blah! 

Zane picked up a cold while we were gone, so he was feeling yucky, and I think he'd just had enough... he fell asleep right away at the beginning of the flight, but then half way woke up and cried for a minute or two about every hour.  Then the plane started to descend for landing... he was upset and let everyone know about it.  At least he waited until the end of the trip. :)

He was happy to be back in his own bed again when we got home, and he and Molly took some great big naps yesterday.  Hopefully his cold clears up soon because he's got another tooth getting ready to pop out...

happy 10 months (and a day)!!!

Zane turned 10 months old yesterday!  He finished up his week playing with Grandma and Grandpa, and then woke up from his first nap on Saturday to just boring ol' Mommy and Molly... but his 2nd top tooth (the top right one) had one corner officially through his gums, and the rest of it surfaced by Sunday morning.  His gums were bulging for most of  the week, but now he has 4 teeth! 

On Saturday night, Zane hung out with our wonderful neighbor and spent some extra snuggle time rocking to sleep while we went to a Christmas party .  Then on Sunday, we did the last of our shopping, and Zane got to go to his very first holiday party. 

Now we're looking forward to Zane's reaction to his cousins in a few days (and definitely not thinking about flying with our busy, mobile 10 month old...  eek!).  He was only one month old the last time he saw them - a lot has happened since then!  Here's another t-shirt picture:

Santa!!!

Zane got to meet Santa for the very first time this past weekend, and I got to pick up the pictures today.  As you can see from the picture, it went very well and, after almost crying, Zane decided to smile. :)  I think he convinced Santa that he should make the nice list this year.

Zane got another big surprise this week.... a visit from his grandparents!  He's been taking a vacation and is staying home with them Wednesday, Thursday and Friday.  He's been showing them all of his new moves.  He even showed them how he eats his green beans now too.  His second top tooth is almost bursting out, so he showed his extra cranky side to them when they first arrived.  Looks like he's going to have both top teeth before Christmas!

All I want for Christmas is my two front teeth....

 

Zane got his first top tooth on Thursday!  Maybe he'll get his second one by Christmas.  He now has three very sharp little teeth in there.  He had one rough night before it broke the surface and then went back to sleeping all night again.  Woohoo!

Our busy little man is crawling and cruising at every opportunity now. He can move from object to object, and he's slowly working on sitting down from standing - it's hard!  His most favorite things to do now are still chewing on our phones, crawling as fast as possible to splash in Molly's water bowl before we can stop him, and closing the drain every time I open it at the end of his bath at night.  It can take a few minutes now for the water to drain out :)  He's also been making a waving motion off and on for the last few weeks, and he sometimes pairs it with a "ba ba" so it sounds like he's saying bye-bye. 

We also baked our first batch of gingerbread cookies last weekend for Zane to share with his teachers.  While we were baking, Molly got to pose with the molasses - Molasses and molasses. :)

a picture speaks...

This picture pretty much sums up Molly's feelings about Zane's new found mobility - she's somewhat terrified at moments, but she still has to be at the center of everything. :)  We put Zane in his Christmas pj's to get a picture for this year's Christmas card, and I couldn't stop laughing when I came across this one.  So here's a sneak peak of Zane's Christmas picture ;)

We put up our tree this past weekend, and he's only tugged on it really hard once so far... it has a different look to it this year without any breakable ornaments and none of the small ones around the bottom.  We'll do our best to keep Christmas ornaments off his new food list. :)  Now that he got the all clear for almost all foods, Zane's tried out cheddar cheese, cottage cheese, turkey, and egg yolks.  Yum! 

Happy Thanksgiving!

Zane celebrated his very first Thanksgiving today, and he got to try turkey for the first time!  He seemed to be a fan, and had some bread, mashed potatoes, carrots, and parsnips to go along with the turkey.  Yum!

Hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving with family and friends!  Around here, we're pretty thankful for our little mobile man! 

once, twice, three times the baby...

Zane had his 9 month check up today and he's still growing by leaps and bounds.  He is now 20 lbs 5 oz and 29.5 inches long!  That puts him in the 46th and 90th %.  He's just about a half pound shy of tripling his birth weight.  Since he's caught up on all of his vaccines, he only had to get his first flu shot.  His second one will be in about a month, and I'm already not looking forward to it because he's feeling pretty pitiful tonight so far! 

We finally lowered Zane's crib mattress this weekend, and the picture from above is from when he tested the height out.  He's getting tall!  He's only got another couple of inches in his current car seat, but hopefully it takes him at least another 3 months to get there.

Zane also got to experience his first snow!  That's right, it snowed!  It flurried a little on Sunday with no accumulation, but this morning, there was snow on the ground.  Zane giggled when he looked out his window.  He spent a short day at daycare (and I spent a very short day at work) because they closed early along with the school district.  It looks like we might have another snow day tomorrow... hopefully he takes some big naps so I can get some stuff done.  Here's a picture from our front door early in the afternoon before it started accumulating in the street:

 

happy 9 months!!!

Zane turned 9 months old yesterday! He has now spent as much time outside of my belly as he was in my belly! Zane had another busy week crawling around, exploring, and chomping on his new favorite teething ring - our phones.  He also got to try out whole green beans, banana chunks and peach slices.  They were a big hit.  His new found crawling skills have also inspired him to roll over a few times because he was so mad about being stuck on his back instead of crawling.  Then today he managed to pull himself up to standing several times rather than kneeling like he has been lately.  His next step is going to be learning how to sit down from standing.  I feel some scratches and bruises coming...

Our monthly t-shirt pictures are turning more and more into action shots... I did manage to get one of him stretched out on his back before he rolled over on me - our photo shoot may be relocated to the floor next month. :)

 

it's official...

Zane is now crawling on his hands and knees in just about any direction he so desires!  He started this past Wednesday and hasn't stopped since.  He is officially trouble now! He even wore his big kid pj's to show us how grown up he is.  Thankfully he's not the speediest yet, as we just started seriously baby proofing the house this weekend (we're procrastinators!), and we still have a few more things to do to make it a little more Zane friendly. 

Wednesday was a big day for Zane - not only did he start crawling on his hands and knees, but his second tooth broke the surface! Now he has his two bottom teeth. You can see the first one a little bit in this picture (they're still coming up so very slowly):

His most favorite activities now are crawling as quickly to Molly's water bowl as he possibly can and blowing raspberries on our arms -  it's a little messy, but I couldn't stop laughing when it happened.  He's also been trying out some new finger foods like butternut squash and pear bits.  Here's a picture of him inspecting the kitchen drawers for the first time:

mini yogi

Zane's first tooth finally broke through his gums sometime Tuesday, and it's still taking forever to pop all the way out!  It's just teasing us.  I haven't been able to get a picture of it, but I did get a shot of him working on his downward dog yoga pose while he was testing different ways to move forward.  He's been moving forward in short tentative bursts all week, and it seems like he used a different technique every time - pulling himself forward with both arms and sliding on his belly on the wood floor; moving his knees forward, splatting and repeating; moving his hands forward and splatting... you get the idea.  Zane also showed us that he can pull himself up to standing from a sitting position.  

He's still working on his puff eating technique, and Molly is reaping the rewards.  For every puff Zane eats, I think she's eating at least 5 as they get tossed overboard.  The new foods include lentils, cherries, and cinnamon (ok, not a food, but his first spice).  Who knew that cherries could turn your oatmeal bright purple: 

... and your face, your hands, your arms, your tray, your mommy's hands and arms... we won't even mention what it does to your diapers!  They seemed to be pretty tasty though. :)

In other exciting news, Zane's been stringing together lots of ba's, ma's, da's and ga's together, and he's even been saying "ma ma" by itself.  Not to anyone or anything in particular, but I know that's what he means. ;)

happy halloween!!

Zane celebrated his very first Halloween dressed up as a monkey!  It's hard to believe he's finally gotten to wear his Halloween costume - we bought it about a year ago on clearance and have been pretty excited about it ever since.  :)  Zane started off the weekend by attending his very first Halloween party on Friday at the end of the day at daycare.  It was pretty cute to see all of the kids together in their costumes!  Yesterday we finally carved Zane's pumpkins. He was very helpful and even helped to get the rest of the decorations up.  Here he is posing with the finished product:

 

Then today we took advantage of the sunshine and checked out a playground near our house.  Zane tried out the baby swing for the first time, and he giggled away. :)  He slid down the slide with his dad, and I spun around on the merry-go-round with him too.  Zane got to enjoy a little picnic lunch at the park and successfully added broccoli to his food list.  When we got home, he took a big 2 hour nap, and he woke up rested and ready to greet trick-or-treaters in his monkey costume.

 

hot stuff

It had to happen eventually, I suppose.  Zane had his first fever on Sunday and Monday. :(  So like any new parents, we spent some time on the phone with the after hours nurse on Sunday afternoon and took him to the pediatrician on Monday.  I think I took his temperature no fewer than 50 times!  His fever spiked at about 102 both nights, so we stared at the monitor a lot. :)  It turned out that it was a quick viral infection, and he powered through it by being a little whiny and extra snuggly.  Then he stayed fever free on Tuesday and got to go back to daycare today. 

Since he went to the doctor, we got an extra weight check for him.  He was fully clothed and diapered, but he weighed in at 20 lbs 6 oz!  He's getting big.  He's still getting longer and longer by the day, and he made the switch to his 9-12 month size sleepers this weekend. 

In more exciting news, Zane got to try puffs last week for the first time.  He seems to like them, and he even managed to pick up a few tonight at dinner and get them directly into his mouth.  The tricky thing about puffs is that they have a tendency to get lost in tightly clenched fists, and then when you put the puff in your mouth (surrounded by a fist), for some reason it doesn't stay in there...  he's figuring it out though!   

happy 8 months!

Zane is 8 months old today!  His t-shirt pictures are getting harder and harder to capture now that he doesn't stay still. :)  I forgot to mention one of his big new steps from last week - he's taking baths in the regular bath tub!  He's been sitting up in our big baby bathtub, but we decided to try out the regular bathtub.  Now he has more room for toys.  Zane added blueberries and cantaloupe to his new food list.  Hopefully this next month brings a tooth, more sleep and some forward moving crawling!

host with the most

Zane has had another busy week.  He co-hosted his first party yesterday with me to celebrate his dad's upcoming birthday by watching the Michigan football game with friends.  Even though he was napping when the guests arrived, he fully turned on his charm once he woke up.  Zane also showed off his new skills by moving backwards, turning, and bouncing.  He's moving around more and more every day it seems.  He still goes backward from a crawling position, but he's scooting around sideways and in a circle while sitting now.  Zane also finally showed us a re-do of the big roll over he did back in July like it was no big thing, and then he continued to move all around in his own way without doing it again. :)   

Zane still has a big toothless grin, but he's been having a really hard time sleeping - waking up once or twice a night crying before going back to sleep - this last week.  Which means we all have a hard time sleeping.  Early this morning was particularly rough.  I'm pretty sure I can see something starting to push up, but no one else seems to see anything in there... maybe it's wishful thinking on my part that it's about to break through soon so that we can go back to sleeping all night again.  

We also went to a pumpkin patch today with some friends in search of the Great Pumpkin.  It was a gorgeous fall day, so it seemed like a good photo op.  It was actually really bright and sunny, but our Seattle baby isn't a huge fan of sunshine when it's that bright.  We managed to get a few good shots though, and he even got to sit on a big tractor:

 Zane's special message for tonight:  Happy Birthday Eve, Daddy!!!!

mini scooter

Zane had a fun surprise this week - a visit from his grandparents!  He stayed home from daycare with them on Thursday and Friday, and he had a good time showing them what a busy bee he is.  He got to try pumpkin for the first time and his first non-pureed solid food - a mum mum cracker.  :)  He wasn't too sure what to make of it at first, but he ended up eating about half of it.  Big stuff!  Zane also managed to go from a crawling position to sitting all by himself this week, and he's getting faster at scooting backwards.  I think he's going to start moving forward pretty soon...

Special Note from Dad: I was proud of that character this weekend--eating big kid food (that I wouldn't touch with a ten foot pole), standing up like a big boy with some assistance, and screaming out randomly like James Brown ("Aaaaaaaakkk").  Sadly, he had to witness a big loss from his Michigan Wolverines this weekend, and that just bummed him out.  Luckily, he's resilient and was giggling like a hyena within a few minutes.  It didn't hurt that his mom's Carolina Gamecocks knocked off the #1 team in the country, but he still felt his pop's pain.  Such a sweet and plump fellow...

Message from Zane this week: "Happy 63rd Birthday, Grandpa!"

boots

We had a great weekend with some of our really good friends who were in town visiting from Dallas.  They even brought Zane his very first pair of cowboy boots!  Zane got to try out his new boots and show off how much he likes to jump... all the time! :)

We stayed so busy that Zane actually slept from about 7:30p last night until 7:15a this morning.  It was very exciting!  He also did great eating at the different restaurants we went to and showed off his new sitting skills.  Zane has now checked off parsnips, papaya, nectarines, barley and mangoes from his new food list.  They've all been a big hit, and pumpkin is next on our list.  Yum!

Zane also says, "Happy Birthday, Uncle John!!!"

tiny dancer

Zane and I have been having our own little Saturday morning dance parties, and lately I've been trying to change up the music to broaden his horizons beyond top 40. :)  Most recently we broke out some Spanish guitar music and the Bollywood station on Pandora - I think he may have a future as a world famous Bollywood star if his dad's super athlete plans don't pan out...

Zane's been keeping busy rotating and scooting around on the floor.  He even keeps attempting to get his knees up under his belly, which generally scoots him backwards.  Sometimes he even hangs out on all fours for a minute or two and rocks back and forth before he splats.  It's exciting and a little nerve wracking all at the same time - I think he's going to be chasing Molly down pretty soon. He's been especially intrigued by her tags on her collar lately.  Thankfully he's not quite strong enough to pull her to his face to shove them in his mouth, because I'm pretty sure that's what he's trying to do :)

Still no visit from the tooth fairy...

happy 7 months!

Zane is 7 months old today!  I thought I was going to get to report on a tooth, but no such luck, just more teething.  We felt like he had been teething for months, but he set us straight this week.  It's real now! He only had one night this past week that he didn't wake up at least once in the middle of the night, and he's been showing his cranky side more (like above - it hurts!).  Teething tablets and chomping in general seem to help him a little.  I hope it pops through soon.

He's doing really great sitting, so we decided to give a restaurant high chair a try since he's not a fan of hanging out in his car seat anymore.  He did great and seemed very proud of himself:

Here is a 7 month t shirt picture taken very quickly before a mini-meltdown before his bath tonight:

jump, sit, grab, repeat...

That's pretty much what occupies Zane's time these days.  He's still reaching for things with his full handed grab and perfecting his hops.  There really isn't an opportunity he would turn down to work on his bouncing skills lately, and his sitting is coming a long way too - he can sit for more than 10 minutes on his own sometimes before toppling over.  That's a major improvement in just one week!

There's also the all important eating aspect of his day; we've added in pears and plums most recently. Sticking with the "p" theme, parsnips are going to be his next new veggie.  I'd never tried them before today when I made our stash for the freezer, so Zane's expanding my veggie horizons too. :)

I was flying solo again Thursday, Friday, Saturday and today, so Zane and I had a pretty busy weekend.  The picture above is from when all of his stuffed animals decided to jump into his crib with him to wish him a good morning.  Zane got to go to his first ever football party yesterday, and it was a good game day for our household - GO GAMECOCKS!!!! :)  Zane did wear some maize and blue to sit in as a substitute for his dad while watching the Michigan game, but I think he was secretly wishing he was wearing some garnet and black with me...

just the two (3) of us...

It's been a busy week!  Zane's dad has been out of town for work since Sunday morning, so Zane, Molly and I have been hanging out without back up.  It was an adventure getting both Molly and Zane ready before work when I usually just walk Molly before I go. The picture is from us walking Molly one morning before I took Zane to daycare and hopped on the bus to head to work.  Thankfully, he's getting back home tonight just before Zane's bedtime, so I don't have to be a single parent for the rest of the week!

Since apricots, Zane's added avocado, banana, sweet potato, and, most recently, apple to his menu.  Surprisingly, apples don't seem to be a big hit with him.  He kept shutting his mouth, smiling and turning his head away today, and yesterday he even spit a few spoon fulls out.  When he likes something, he practically lunges at the spoon with a wide open mouth. :)  I brought back the dreaded green beans today, and that went over much more smoothly than the last time.  Maybe he'll like apples better in a couple of weeks too. 

His new "trick" is sitting.  He's still very wobbly, but he can sit up for a couple of minutes before he topples over now.  He keeps getting better every day, and I'm a little jealous of his core strength - but if I did as many supermans and leg lifts as he does on a daily basis, I'd be doing pretty well!  Zane's also starting to scoot backwards and get his knees up under himself when he's on his belly.  It's only a matter of time before we can say he's mobile!  He's getting slightly more regular with his naps now (still 3 a day), and he's staying awake between naps for  2 1/2 hours now.  That's a big step from getting really cranky one minute past the 2 hour mark. :)  Now, if only I could figure out how to schedule a nap into my day every few  hours...

string bean

Zane's 6 month check up was this morning, and everything went great.  Except maybe the part where he got shots in his big fat baby thighs, but he was only sad for a little bit before remembering that it was his morning happy time. He weighed in at 17 lbs 11 oz and measured 27 1/2 inches long.  That puts him at the 51st % for weight and 82nd % for height!!  His daddy's going to have to stop calling him a fat boy!

He's grown so much, we decided to compare the sizes of our favorite pjs - the beloved frog suit.  It's been one of our favorites (obviously, we have it in 4 different sizes!) since he was teeny tiny and the newborn size was too big on him.  It has even inspired its own song - "The Frog Suit Song."  But that's for another post. :)  Zane's now in the 6-9 month size, and he's most likely not going to make it all the way to 9 months in it. 

old school

Zane's sleeping habits and schedule have gone from sleeping anytime and anywhere, to loving being swaddled, to fighting the swaddle, and finally to preferring to be still and in a crib (well, at least the crib is still - he's all over the place!).  His latest development is sleeping in his own room all by himself since Friday night!  He's taken naps in his crib from the beginning, but we got spooked by all of the SIDS prevention tips in our baby prep classes and had him sleep in our room at night in the bassinet of the pack 'n play.   We were going to move him at 4 months after the peak SIDS risk was over, but then realized that while we have the a/c in our bedroom, Zane's room can get pretty toasty.  So... we waited until the 6 month mark, and it's staying pretty cool at night now.  He's also been sleeping from about 7:30/8 until 5:30ish in the morning for several weeks now.  He even surprises us and sleeps in past 6 occasionally, giving us a taste of even better things to come :)

Here's a look back at his fabulous daily stretching routine he used to do every morning when he was unswaddled:

happy half birthday!!!

Zane is 6 months old today.  I can't believe he's already halfway to his first birthday - time has flown by!  We have to wait until his appointment next week to get his measurements, but he's certainly grown a lot.  Everyone claims that babies grow a little slower the second half of their first year, but I'll only believe it when I see it. ;)

He's now added apricots (which lead to a few more diaper changes than expected... I won't go into details because I'm sweet like that!) and avocado to his growing list of foods.  Tomorrow he's going to have his first taste of a mushy, very ripe banana.  One of the other big things we tried out this week was letting Zane ride directly in the big jogging stroller instead of in his car seat on the stroller while we walked Molly.  I think he liked the new view, but I think it will be a while before we can take him for a run without the car seat.

New foods, more messes, new adventures, and lots of giggles.  I think that sums up the past month pretty well for us.  Here are his 6 month t-shirt pictures:

fun in the sun

Zane got to go on his first boat ride this weekend, and not on just any boat... it was a 54 foot party house boat, complete with a hot tub, slide and bbq grill.  We got to cruise around Lake Union and Lake Washington with some good friends, and Zane's newest friend - Captain Joy.  We were, ok, I was very excited about the chance to go get Zane some swim shorts.  I do realize he is not a doll, as someone frequently likes to remind me, but he was incredibly cute in his surf board swim trunks, swim shirt, sun hat and sandals, if I do say so myself. :)  He was even pretty cute in his tiny infant life vest.  Here's a shot of him trying it out the night before in his pjs:

We attempted to get our little adventurer into the water, but as soon as his feet hit the cold water, he let us know that it was not acceptable!  He did find the luke warm hot tub to be just right though. :)  The waves in the hot tub even helped to lull him to sleep for his next nap while he relaxed in his life vest and inner tube.  I think he could get used to that...

Then, if that weren't enough, Zane got to check out the Amazon.com company picnic yesterday.  He scored a frisbee for himself, and he was very excited about trying to chew on it. :)  We also got a beach ball that he was entertained by for a little while.

It was a fun-filled weekend with lots of things to do outside and enjoy the great summer weather!

barking baby

Last Tuesday night we were woken up by what we thought was the sound of Molly with kennel cough.... and then we realized it was coming from Zane!  He was breathing ok through his nose, and staying elevated seemed to help, but we were still pretty worried about him, so we brought him into bed with us.  At least he slept a lot better after that!  I took him to the pediatrician the next morning, and after explaining the weird cough, he quickly said Zane had croup.  Thankfully, it wasn't nearly as bad as it could have been, and as long as we kept him elevated, it kept the seal-like barking coughs to a minimum (although his dad was tickled that he sounded just like an old man coughing!) 

He was feeling a lot better by the weekend, so we took him to watch the Blue Angels air show for the end of Seafair, a big month-long summer celebration in Seattle.  He didn't really care too much about the planes, but he did some good lake- and people-watching.  Here's a picture of him sporting his fabulous ear plugs:

Zane's appetite didn't go away much when he was sick; in fact, it's even stronger now than it's ever been, so we think he might be having another growth spurt.  He's added green beans, peas and peaches to his list of foods.  He had been doing great with all of them, until he revisited green beans yesterday at daycare and was not a fan!  We're not giving up, though...we'll keep bringing them back so he can change his mind about them a few more times.  :)  His dad still cannot believe his son is loving vegetables since he's so picky himself when it comes to produce!

Zane did share his croupy love with me, so that's my excuse for slacking on the posts!  I did figure out how to add videos, so here's a short video of him giggling tonight before his bath to prove that he's feeling better (I was inspired by his shirt that says "chomp chomp" on it, in case you're wondering):

mini contortionist

Zane had a pretty busy week!  He found out that his toes reach his mouth, so I've pulled off a number of pairs of soggy socks :)  We had some friends in town visiting this weekend, so Zane got to add to his list of Seattle activities.  He took his first trip to Pike Place Market and Gasworks Park.  I think he was intrigued by all of the different kinds of produce at the Market that he's going to get to  try soon.  We also ventured to our neighborhood farmers' market, the Olympic Sculpture Park, and a friend's "local-off" cookout competition featuring local ingredients.  Zane helped make some thai iced tea ice cream using local farm fresh eggs and dairy... we thought that was a tasty way to highlight those ingredients and satisfy his dad's craving for thai iced tea.  We didn't win, but it was fun and yummy.  

The weekend seemed to revolve a lot around food, and Zane got to add some new veggies to his repertoire this week - yellow squash and butternut squash.  Yellow squash seems to be his favorite so far, much to his dad's dismay!  Zane may look like a mini version of his dad, but at least I can say he's my kid too since he seems to really like his veggies. :)  Let's hope it stays that way!  We're going to move beyond the yellow veggies next and try some green beans. 

don't throw out the baby with the bath water...

Zane tried his first veggie today - carrots!!! It was very exciting.  We picked out some carrots at the grocery store today, and he anxiously watched as they were steamed, pureed and strained.  He seemed pretty excited about them by the time he got to try them, and even though he made a few weird faces, he ate his whole bowl (maybe 2 whole tablespoons).  He had 4 days of rice cereal followed by 3 days of oatmeal leading up to the carrots.  We're going to puree some more veggies and stock our freezer so he can keep expanding his culinary horizons. 

Everyone was happy after the carrots, and I stuck his little orange face and body in the bathtub.  Then disaster struck in the form of poo in the bathtub!  Apparently all of the extra fiber did its work :)  Maybe we're lucky for making it 5 months, but this was a new one for us!  Needless to say, Zane, his bathtub and the big bathtub are all sparklingly clean now :)  Luckily for his dad, he was conveniently downstairs working while all of the drama ensued.  Seems suspicious if you ask me...

happy 5 months!!!

Zane is 5 months old today!!  He still looks so little to us, but when we look back through his pictures, he looks gigantic. :)  This has been a pretty fun and exciting month for Zane...  he's broken free of the swaddle, laughed a lot, rolled, bounced, and had his first few bites of solid food.  He's also developing more of his sweet and silly sides.  We're still amazed on a regular basis at how generally happy, laid back and good natured Zane is.  While we're enjoying every moment with him and reminiscing already over just how tiny he was, I can't wait to watch him grow and see who he's going to be. :) 

Here's his monthly t-shirt picture:

yummy

We did it!  Zane hung out in his highchair for a few times this week, and after going to the Bite of Seattle food festival today with some friends and watching everyone else eat, Zane ate his first solid food!  It was quite the team effort, but Zane ended up being the only one wearing rice cereal.  After a really big bottle, he was still willing to try it out.  He didn't seem completely sure about it and made a few funny faces, but he did swallow a few spoonfuls of soupy rice cereal.  Hopefully tomorrow will be even more successful!  It's hard to believe our tiny munchkin is ready for us to start introducing new foods to him. 

busy bee

We had a busy weekend that involved moving a lot of furniture around... and then we realized we went over a full week without a blog post!  Gasp.  Zane's 20 weeks and 3 days old today .  He definitely likes hanging onto his cute fat baby feet a lot still, as you can see above, but he hasn't had any encore performances of the big roll over.  He does seem awfully close to being able to roll from his back to his front also.  He swings his legs from side to side and can roll all the way onto both sides.  He even managed to spin himself completely perpendicular in his crib one day by swinging his legs a few times.  He's been pretty talkative lately too, and it seems like he's trying hard to start mimicking some of the sounds we make.

Zane got his first taste of summer in Seattle this past weekend... finally!  Although it's disappeared again today, the weatherman promises it's coming back later this week.  Normally summer in Seattle means cloudless blue skies and temperatures in the 70s and low 80s.  Recently it's been in the low 60s and still rainy... then late last week it hit the 90s for a few days, just in time for our neighborhood summer street festival.  So Zane got to stroll along with us and do some good people watching, and then he got to see his dad's favorite part of summerfest - the food! 

That's right, Zane's starting to get really interested in watching us eat.  He even thinks it's a little funny sometimes, but he's been really curious in general.  We've been trying to make a better effort of eating dinner with him before he goes to bed, and we're really excited because we get to start introducing him to solid foods soon now that he's old enough and showing interest.  The plan is to try out some rice cereal next weekend for the first time.  It should be pretty exciting, even if he spits it right back out at us. :)

Good night for now... oh, one last important note... Zane wishes his Great Grandma a very happy birthday!!!

Happy 4th of July!

Once we discovered that Zane was ready to sleep with his arms free (with the exception of a few rough starts to the night when a certain someone, who shall remain nameless to protect his innocence, kept poking him in the eye, grabbing his ear and wacking him upside the head) it became a a pretty uneventful week, and then along came the weekend... Zane's been checking out his feet a lot the last couple of weeks, and Friday night he finally just reached out and grabbed one!  I have a feeling we'll see if his toes are as tasty as his fingers pretty soon.

Then on Saturday he had a really busy day when we went to Northwest Trek with some friends.  He got to see all sorts of fun PacNW animals like cariboo, bison, black tailed deer, mountain goats, eagles, beavers, wolverines, cougars, brown bears, and fishers... but the most interesting thing to our little naturalist was all of the trees.  Lots and lots of fun trees to stare at!

Then this morning Zane got to participate in his first ever July 4th parade!  We decided to check it out with our neighbor and her grandsons to see what it was all about, and she even made sure Zane was festive like everyone else.  There were lots of kids out in their red, white and blue.  It was very cute!

And then, as if that wasn't enough for one weekend, Zane did something really spectacular when we got home and he woke up from his nap (the parade wiped him out!)....

drum roll please.....

He rolled over!!!  3 times from his tummy to his back!  Dad missed it by about 5 minutes, but hopefully he'll get to see him do it again tomorrow when we're all home for the last day of our holiday weekend.

So, it still turned out to be a pretty exciting 4th, even if it's the first year we didn't get to go watch the fireworks show and had to watch it on tv...