Christmas

 Merry Christmas!!!  Zac's first Christmas!!!

We had a very simple Christmas this year.  Since we had made a few large purchases this year including some larger medical expenses to get little man here, we decided not to buy any presents this year...we almost didn't even get a Christmas tree.  I did get one, but it was only a small 4' tree.

We did put up lights on the house.  It was 80 degrees outside and Jer and Cody did it in shorts and a t-shirt and were worried about getting sunburned!

Christmas eve we went over to our friends house for games and food.  We played a few games and got some really good laughs in.  Unfortunately, now that we are responsible parents, we had to leave around 8:30 to put the kid to bed...as much as we would like to stay, little man gets VERY grumpy when it is time for bed so it really isn't fun for anyone if we make him stay up.

As far as gifts go, I...I mean Santa...did get us something for our stockings.  Jer and I got new slippers and Zac got some bath toys.  Since he is now starting to sit up better, bath time is much more fun and these toys are perfect for chewing on in the tub.

Other than opening our stockings and a few small gifts from family and friends, we just spent the day relaxing.  We went to dinner at a friends house which was very nice to not have to cook.  It is hard to make a good Christmas dinner for just 2 people.  I did make candied yams for the first time ever in my life.  People said they tasted good, I wouldn't know, I don't care for them at all so they just tasted like yams to me.

Rice Cereal

Zac has been eating rice cereal for a while now, but only in a bottle before he goes to bed.  Since he has become increasingly interested in what we are eating, I thought it may be time to try to spoon feed him some rice cereal.  We have only tried a few times...he is not very good at spoon eating yet, he spits most of it out and then rubs it all over his face. We will keep trying.

Fun pics from Thanksgiving

This thanksgiving we headed to St. George to visit Jer's Grandparents.  Zac is their first great grand child so they were eager to meet him as well.

Great grandparents Kent and Diane



Great Grandpa Kent LOVED Zac





A lineage of Kents






Zac and Ozzy...almost best buds

Zac LOVES Ozzy!  He gets so excited to see him!

This is the first time Zac got to really lay on Ozzy.  Zac was SO excited and was just grinning and laughing it up.  Ozzy on the other hand was not as excited.  We had to force him to sit still for a few minutes to let Zac touch him and stuff.



Ozzy decided it was time to stand up.

5 Months

Little Man is 5 months old.  Crazy.  He is getting SO BIG!  he is already close to 18 pounds.  And already into the 6-9 months clothes.  Now if only we could get that hair to grow as fast as he is!

I am always curious to see what each month milestone brings.  It seems like shortly after he reaches one of these milestones, something significant changes.  So far month 5 has brought on a little thing called curiosity.  He is always grabbing at things and looking around.  I can't nurse him around noise anymore because he just wants to look around. 

He will now sit in a high chair at restaurants...SOOOO happy about this.

He can't quite site up on his own yet...but he is getting there.  He will sit for a minute or so and then fall to the side.  Definitely not an unsupervised activity. 

He is rolling like crazy.  Back to front and front to back.  He definitely favors one side, but he can do both.  And he is also learning how to scoot.  If there is something he wants in front of him...he will tuck his knees in and push them out to scoot forward. 

He has been favoring sleeping on his side lately.  He starts out on his tummy...rolls to his side...and wakes up on his back (usually about a foot away from where he started in the crib). 

Jer is frustrated that Zac is a side sleeper because I am also a side sleeper (I also sleep with my arm over my head!).  Jer just wants SOMETHING about this kid to be his.  Well by the looks of it, I think Zac got the sticky outiness (yes...real word) of Jer's ears and his blue eyes.  Isn't that enough?!

Jer as a baby!

Also, I was hoping that hitting 5 months there would be a change with his spitting up problem.  He has always been a bit of a spitter, but about a month ago it started getting really bad and only got worse.  He would spit up after ever meal and between meals.  He was grumpy from spitting up, he smelt bad, I smelt bad and was just frustrated.

Sorry for the gross picture...but this is an example of how bad his spitting up was.

So every time I have taken him to the doctor I have mentioned that he spits up a lot.  The doctor always had one excuse or another as to why he would spit up.  At first he thought it may be a mild milk allergy...so I backed off dairy for a while.  Then Zac was sick which caused him to intake a lot more saliva and them spit it up. 

Well a couple days ago I had it!  No more excuses...he shouldn't ALWAYS be spitting up!  I took him to the doctor for the sole purpose of getting a resolution to this problem.  FINALLY, the doctor agreed with me.  Zac is now on some meds for acid reflux.  The Doctor said that it would probably take about 7-10 days for it to start working....well he has only spit up a few times in the last 3 days so I am going to say that the meds are already starting to work.  Zac absolutely HATES the medicine and it is almost torture trying to get him to swallow, but it is so worth it!

Stuff

So here is just some stuff that is going on. 

Zac likes his Baby Einstein.  Here is a picture of him watching it (he will watch for about 15-20 minutes before being done, which is enough for me as well).  As you can see...Ozzy is a big fan as well.  Lately Zac has been watching baby Noah, that is all about animals.  It drives Ozzy crazy. 

We are making progress with Tummy Time.  He still doesn't love to just hang out on his tummy, but it is getting better.  We have been working on rolling from back to stomach the last few days (he has been able to roll from tummy to back for a few months).  He is getting stronger by the day.

 Look at him try to get on his knees.  It is only a matter of time before is up on his hands and knees and ready to crawl.  I fear for that day.  He always like to be moving, once he is mobile, no more sitting around!

 Zac and mom.  We hang out a lot.  Jer takes over when he gets home from work which is very nice!  I get tired.  Being a constant entertainer takes a lot of energy.

 Zac has an activity jumper thingy, he absolutely loves it.  He will spend 20-30 minutes at a time in this thing.  There is so much to do and look at.  The seat spins around and while he is playing he will make a few rotations around it.



And then there is Ozzy.  He shows some interest in Zac.  He will even give him kisses...

The 4 Month mark was quite a changing point in Zac.  He kind of stopped sleeping through the night (Boo!) and started waking up once to eat again.  So...since we are starting to feel the sleep deprivation we started the other night to give him a few ounces of milk with rice cereal mixed in.  The first night he went from 9:30 to 4:30 and then last night he went from 9 pm to 7 am.  YES!  However, that could have been the tylenol...he has been a little sick this week, so we have given him a little tylenol here and there to help when he is really grumpy.

Also, since he hit 4 months, his attitude toward the car seat and stroller has dramatically changed.  He has been doing soooo much better.  It is nice to go on walks and to drive the car again...YAY!

He is starting to grab at things more and more...and he is so aware and alert.  He is always looking around and just taking everything in.  He has started to notice Ozzy more and will sit and watch him for a while.  I am sure they will be great friends...eventually.

Poor Puppy

So our poor puppy has allergies.  Most likely our grass.  His paws get all covered with hives and then he licks them a lot and then they get really irritated.  He is on meds to clear everything up, but still won't leave his feet alone.  Here is our solution...

SOCKS!

Minnesota and Florida

So Zac is a traveling man...over the past month he has been to New Jersey, Minnesota, and Florida.  And next week he is going to Vegas and St. George and then the week after that he is going to visit Grandmas and Grandpas in UT.

So here are some pictures from Minnesota (where we went to visit Amelia).

Why we decided November would be a good time to visit Minnesota is still a question I am asking myself.  It was cold.  We went to see the St. Anthony falls which is in downtown Minneapolis.



We all had to get bundled up because it was chilly out.  Zac doesn't own a coat, so we put him in the thickest sweater he owns and then bundled him up in a fleece blanket.

With a hat.



Love, love, LOOOOVE this picture!

Zac wasn't loving the stroller, so this is the only way Jer could keep him happy.



The rest of the weekend we pretty much just hung out with Amelia and her family.  Lots of fun.   And here are a few more random pictures.

The next weekend, we went to Florida for Jer to attend a continuing ed course.  We went to Clearwater Beach while Jer went to class.  That night we had dinner on the beach.



All this traveling wore everyone out

3 and 4 months

So I realized I didn't post a 3 month picture...well I kinda did but it was mixed into my AWESOME collage.  So here is a 3 month picture.

 And here is 4 months...I know not the best picture.

Tradition

My mom sang this song to me in the bathtub.  Now I sing it to Zac in the bathtub....well at least the chorus and with a bit more enthusiam.  He loves it!

Elf Yourself!!

Love It!

Family Resemblance

That cute baby on the right would be me.  Looks like Zac got my nose and ears for sure.  He has my lovely huge forehead.  He does have a little bit of a perma-glare, which we can attribute to my side of the fam.  He definitely has blue eyes and they are going to stay blue (they get more blue every day), that we can give Jer and his genes props for. 

Have we mentioned that we have named Zac's double chin....it was so big we had to give it a name...it's name is Carl.  LOOK...I had a Carl too!

We Like Him...

We may be completely biased...but this kid is A-dor-a-ble! 

This was his very first real photo shoot.  We spent WAY too much money on these, but oh well.  They are cute.  We won't ever spend that much again. 

T-i-double-guh-err

SOOOOO cute right?!

Everything on the costume seemed to fit all right considering it was for a 0-3 month old...except for the hood.  I mean really what 0-3 month old baby has a head that big?

Drawing the nose and whiskers was not with out protest, but we got them on.  Happy to say they lasted most of the evening.

We took our little Tigger to the stake trunk or treat.  Although he ended up sleeping through most of it.

Jer dressed up as Batman!

"I'm Batman!"

And I...well...let's just say I confused the children



Check out those eyebrows!



But as a family...I would say we were awesome!

Lately...

So in an attempt to not overload this with pictures...I made a collage...whatever.  I need to work on my collage skills.  I think it is cute. 

So what's been going on.

Well we went to Austin

Jer baptized some people

Grandma Jude came for a visit and we visited the Alamo

And in between all of this....we took lots of pictures of Zac.  That's about it.

So what has little man been up to:

He is starting to make a lot more noise these days.  He likes to coo and laugh and blow bubbles.

He has found his hands and apparently they taste awesome!

He is a finger sucker...I will explain.  He isn't sucking on his fingers all day, right now mostly when he is going to sleep.  Quite funny to watch.  If his head is facing his right hand, he sucks his thumb and if his head is facing his left hand...index finger it is.  Don't know why he has a preference on each hand.

He is an awesome sleeper (most of the time...last night being an exception night with him waking up every 3 hours).  And he is getting really good at putting himself to sleep.  He has a routine, we call it the 3 B's.  Bath, something that rhymes with toob but starts with a 'B', and Bed.  As long as we go in the right order, you can lay him down in his crib (assuming he is not really peeved) and he will stick his thumb (or index finger as mentioned above) in his mouth and go to sleep.

He HATES being strapped into things...car seat...hates it.  Stroller....hates it.  The only exception is the Bjorn....LOVES it.  Mostly I think because he likes to suck on it.

He LOVES to stand...don't even think about making him sit.  He would stand all day if I was patient enough to hold him up.  But sometimes when his little legs are just shaking from being tired, I just have to make him sit and rest for a few minutes.

Toys are starting to interest him now.  Not too much yet, but at least he will stare at them and bat and grab at them a little.