Turkey Weekend

Because my family atypically celebrates Thanksgiving the weekend after, we get two Turkey Days (and a lot of running around) every year. Here's a partial synopsis of the weekend from Zach's point of view.

Thanksgiving Day - Wake up. Eat breakfast. Get dressed up. Take off his nice clothes to eat first his Turkey dinner. Be his usual charming self for Mom's family.

Black Friday - Hang out with Dad and Grandpa while Mom and Grandma go shopping. Bust lip on coffee table. Have a ball playing out on the deck after Dad takes him out there to distract/calm him down from the busted lip. Drive home (no pictures, but Zach faces forward now).

Saturday After Thanksgiving - Run around Grandma and Grandpa's house. Climb up the steps over and over again. Eat Turkey again. Share with the dog. Eat half a piece of pumpkin pie. Call it a weekend.

Happy Birthday to Zach

This is almost two weeks overdue, but last weekend was Thanksgiving (post coming soon) and the end of the month is always hectic for us. Plus, Melissa and I are in disbelief that our son is a year old.

On to the party, we rented out our community club house for Zach's first birthday party. Zach had a good time. The kids a ham and clearly enjoys the spotlight. He also really enjoyed being around other small kids, even if he couldn't quite run around with them.

A friend of ours made the cakes. Party guests got a piece of Cookie Monster or Big Bird (pictured above), while Zach got to tear into his own little Elmo cake. It took him a bit to figure out what to do. As you can see, he quickly got the hang of it.

After receiving a small mountain of gifts, for which we are still trying to find room, what did Zach enjoy playing with most? Party balloons. Just something to keep in mind, you know, with Christmas coming and all.

Weekend Update

In one weeks time, Zach has progressed from timidly taking a couple steps to constantly wanting to walk the length of the house. He runs much more than his mom is comfortable with. He also developed enough balance to bend over and pick things up off the floor without falling.

The other big weekend development is that Zach turned into a chatterbox. No words yet, but his mouth was moving most of the weekend.

Between the two, Zach should be very entertaining at his birthday party this weekend.

These pictures have nothing to do with the above update. Zach is just vamping for the camera.

The Spaghetti Incident

I've been saying as Zach learns to walk that we're in the "Massive head wound" phase in Zach's development since he leads with his head as he falls. Zach still knocks his head on a regular basis, but I'd say we're firmly in the "Get a hose after dinner" phase now.

These pictures are from two nights. On the first night, Zach was making a mess, hamming for the camera, and using his dipper as well as he ever has. On the second night, we tried spaghetti. He couldn't grab the long noodles, but he got the sauce everywhere. As you can see, he did some mugging for the camera then too.

Don't miss Zach's top teeth in that first picture.

Baby Steps

Get it.

Halloween

Despite having never seen Winnie the Pooh before, Zach was Tigger for halloween. The outfit barely fit so Zach didn't wear it long and we weren't able to get many good pictures of him in it. He did look adorable though.

The Couch

After visiting friends and seeing Zach climb all over their child's couch, we decided to pick one up for Zach. Just like that couch, Zach can frequently be found climbing over the back and playing with the pull out cushion.

The couch has become part of our typical morning routine. We use it to put on his shoes. Also, if Zach gets up before Melissa and I are done getting ready, we can usually sit him down for couple minutes and he'll watch TV or play by himself a little.

What show could put that smile on Zach's face?

Sesame Street, of course.

Pumpkin Pickin'

So we made it out pumpkin picking last Saturday. We went to Merrymead Farm which is only a few miles away. As usual, Zach enjoyed everything - the pumpkins, the farm animals, and the hayride. He especially liked the cows.

Notice in most of the pictures Zach has a tiny pumpkin. We figured we'd get one he could hold and then we couldn't get it away from him. He loved that little pumpkin. Unfortunately, a few nights later, Izzy ruined it with bite marks.

More Pictures

I guess you can see his couch (more on that in a future post) and an activity table we got for him, but really there is no point to this post other than to share more pictures of Zach.

Valley Forge

Zach was laid up with Adenovirus for a week in September during that stretch of really nice weather. I was home with him for the day. His fever broke in the afternoon, so we decided to make a little trip to Valley Forge.

Conveniently for us, it's only a few miles away. Because Valley Forge is a national park, it would literally take an act of congress to allow hunting on the land. As a result, it's over populated with deer to the point where you are pretty much guaranteed to see some if you just drive through the park.

Like every other furry animal, Zach loved the deer. He smiled and pointed and jumped around in the stroller despite being under the weather. As you can see, we got surprisingly close to a doe and fawn. There were also 7 or 8 grazing under a patch of trees just off the path.