When Melissa and I aren't busy with our respective jobs, we've been running around trying to get all our holiday plans nailed down. Meanwhile, Zach just runs around the house when he isn't sleeping. It's entertaining, but also exhausting and time consuming.
Zach's new thing is to play in our couch cushions. He likes it when you make them into a fort and then to play peek-a-boo from behind the cushions.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
