Those three little words

I'm doing a terrible job of updating our blog chronologically, but there are things Zach said lately I don't want to forget so I'm going with those first!

The best... we drove home from my parents' in Milwaukee (ok, Menomonee Falls) on Saturday night, intentionally leaving an hour before Zach's bedtime so he'd sleep the bulk of the drive. It took him a while to fall asleep (that's a whole 'nother story), and he woke up when we got home since our goofy dog started barking at the mailbox when we pulled up to get the mail. I carried him into the house, and he was clearly ready for his own bed, since he mumbled "night night?" As I laid him down in his crib, I said my usual "good night, buddy, I love you, sleep tight." And he said... I love you mama, and rolled over and went right back to sleep. He's said a casual "love you" in response to us saying it to him, but I'd never heard him say it like that before! What a Christmas present! And today, when we dropped Scott off at work, he said it to him too. Perhaps my favorite milestone of all. :)

My other story occurred today, when Zach got up from his nap crying and clearly not ready to wake up yet. We snuggled in his rocking chair and he zonked right out, sleeping for quite a while. When he started making these low moaning-type sounds, I thought he was just waking up kind of hard, until I listened closer and heard the words "mama" and "doctor." And then - clear as day - he said "no more monkeys jumping on the bed!" He opened his eyes, looked at me, and said "is that how it goes mama?" It took me a while to stop laughing to be able to respond! For those of you who don't have to read childrens' books or sing childrens' songs over and over - those lines are from the book/song "Five little monkeys jumping on the bed," which was the second-to-last book we had read before Zach took his nap. Perhaps he was dreaming about those monkeys falling off the bed and bonking their heads...

Since I have millions of pictures to share - here's one of Zach on Christmas Eve, playing with the piano he got from G&G Klicka. He's quite the pianist - he bangs on the keys as he's singing one of his favorite songs - lately Jingle Bells.

Purple... pride?!?!???

It pains me to post these pictures, it really does. The boy should be dressed in green, not purple! But, the outfit was a gift from our friends the Herrmanns, and we did get together with friends to watch the Vikings game. And these kids are just way too cute...

Sylvia (5 mos) and Zach (23 mos)


Sylvia, Zach, and Kasey (10 mos)

As much as he loves Sylvia and Kasey, Zach was not thrilled to pose for these pictures. When all of the cameras stopped flashing, he immediately said "all done?" He scooted away so fast Sylvia fell over sideways... oops!

(I have so much to catch up on, this post is already out of order! This is from before we left for Milwaukee. And still more to come!)

Winter wonderland

We drove down to Milwaukee on Tuesday afternoon, to spend Christmas with the Klicka family. The drive was uneventful, other than the fact that our ears were ringing a little from listening to Zach talk non-stop. We are very thankful for our portable dvd player and Elmo dvds - they make the 5 hour trip bearable!

Apparently someone wanted to make sure Zach had a white Christmas... Milwaukee had already gotten 40+ inches of snow this month, and the great big white flakes started falling again on Christmas Eve and just kept going all day. Since it was relatively warm (compared to Minneapolis anyway!), we took Zach out to have his first real experience playing in the snow.

I think, in the end, it took us longer to get Zach into his many layers than he actually played outside. He isn't thrilled to wear mittens, let alone wet mittens! So after a few snowballs and a little ride on the sled, he headed back inside to play with grandpa's trains.

More to come - we've got lots of pictures to share!

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas from our family to yours!

Just like Daddy

Today was "just like Daddy" day at our house... first, Zach decided to shave. "Look mama, Zach shaving just like daddy!"

Next he found a belt in my closet, wrapped it around his waist and headed for the stairs, declaring "You going to work, see ya later!" (he still mixes up "you" and "I") I had no idea he knew what a belt was, but I guess he pays more attention than I thought when Scott heads off in the morning!

PS... check out the new teeth in the second picture - he's finally getting more teeth!

Zach update

Perhaps it's obvious, but in case it isn't, I'll point out that we created this blog not only to keep our distant friends and family up on our adventures, but also as sort of a "baby book" (toddler book?) for Zach. So bear with me while I document a few things about Zach for posterity...

Zach is still obsessed with anything involving letters and numbers. He can say the entire alphabet (he left out either M or N for a long time!), and while he gets lost between 14 and 18, can count up into the 30s. He continues to seek out letters everywhere he goes, and since Scott has been teaching him to "spell" with his toy letters in the tub, he wants to know what everything spells. The other day he was reading the letters etched on the toilet handle (who knew there was a word there?), G-E-R-B-E-R, and then he said "spells cat!" And he was so proud of himself. It was hilarious. He also rearranges the magnetic numbers on the fridge regularly and then asks me what it spells.

Most of our Zach adventures continue to revolve around the things he says. He's up to 7 and 8 word sentences, usually pointing something out to one of us, or narrating what's happening, ie "mama, girl said thank you!" That's a favorite of mine, when he refers to someone he doesn't know as "girl" or "guy" - kind of embarrassing, since they can usually hear him loud and clear. He's gotten to the point that he is trying so hard to communicate that he has to slow down, you can literally see him struggling to get the words out. So much to say.

He also loves to look at blogs - including our own. He constantly requests to watch the two old videos of him that we have on our blog, and now Ava singing Jingle Bells is a big favorite. Zach has always loved looking at pictures of people he knows, as well as talking about who "goes" with who. For example, we ask who "goes with" Aunt Mandy, and he'll list his cousins Bryn and Maryn. What cracks us up is what he says when we ask him who goes with Uncle Andy... instead of saying his cousins Chase and Sophie, he says Uncle Mick! He's always done that, connected his two uncles, who I think have only met once, at our wedding. But according to Zach, they go together! :)

Books continue to be the most popular toy in our house, although he's always thrilled to play any kind of ball, or with his little people animals. He's got way too many of our books memorized, and often randomly quotes them - lately "zoom boom rockets shoot by", from his book Jamberry. I have no idea why he says it, but we hear it regularly.

Zach is also learning a lot of new songs, especially lately. A favorite is Old McDonald, or as Zach says it, "Ol Dee Donald". He often gets hung up in the same spot - moo moo here, moo moo here, over and over again. He now loves Take Me Out to the Ball Game, although we have to interrupt as he's counting the strikes, or he just keeps counting past three and forgets the rest of the song.

Whew. I think that's enough for now!

Ho ho ho!

We had a trauma-free Santa visit! Whoo hoo!!

We have to give credit to the jolly 'ol elf himself - he was a great santa! Rather than plopping Zach down on the bearded stranger's lap, we let him walk up at his own pace, and show his "cowabungadee" (his new nickname for his comfort toy/blanket) to Santa. We had decided a picture of Zach standing near Santa's knee was good enough for us, especially after we saw the trauma of the little boy in front of us in line - that kid might be scarred for life. So anyway, after admiring Zach's cow, Santa plunked himself right down on the floor next to Zach! And he had a great deep "ho ho ho" and a real beard - perhaps this was the real guy...

Wicked bed head

Think you wake up with bad hair? Check this out!

I had been planning to take Zach in for a haircut today anyway, and after trying to comb this rats nest out, I made an appointment fast! Now he looks about a year older...

Our brown-eyed boy

I realized I forgot to mention in my last post what the girls do while the guys are drinking themselves silly at the 12 Beers of Xmas. In the past, Liz, the hostess with the absolute mostest, has organized a tasting of the 12 truffles of Xmas at a local coffee/dessert shop after a dinner outing. And that is harder than you might think, even though we divided the truffles up! Liz mixed things up this year; the plan was for a long, relaxing dinner at a very nice restaurant. When we arrived we found special menus indicating that our first course was dessert! I admit it threw me for a minute, but I managed to recover and happily ate my s'mores ice cream before my meal. I recommend you implement the dessert-first plan at least once in your life!

So a big thanks to Liz and Zac for another great party - we're already looking forward to next year!

It's fun to play...

at the YMCA!! We trekked through the snow to the Y this afternoon, for some family swim time. Zach has been lukewarm about swimming in the past, whether in little wading pools or big pools with me or Grandma Cookie. He approached the water cautiously again today, but 45 minutes later he was jumping off the edge into Scott's arms! Progress! I think it helps that the water is 91 degrees.

We had a fun weekend - a win at curling Friday night and the annual 12 Beers of Xmas at the Owens' house on Saturday. What is the 12 Beers of Xmas, you ask? Well, it started out as a college tradition for our friend Zac, and has evolved into 24 guys getting together to drink 12 different beers (and not light beers, I assure you). And while it's not a race, there is a prize for the first one done with all 12 beers. You do not want to know how quickly the first guy got done, or what most of the guys look like around 11 pm (the party starts at 4). I think Scott has learned over the years, so he set a nice pace for himself.

Perhaps the best part of the weekend? Zach was kind enough to sleep until 8 AM this morning! Big thank-you to Jenny Rose for watching him for us, and for whatever she put in his milk to make him sleep that late.

The pizza man

As I may have mentioned before, one of the things Zach inherited from both his parents is a deep love of pizza. So I had to laugh this morning when he looked in the mirror, saw the new scrape below his left eye, and said "Zach has pizza on face."

Yesterday when I told Zach the plan to go to Macy's with his friends, he responded "good idea mama!" It's nice to get some positive feedback. :)

While we haven't gotten the snow that the Klickas have gotten in Milwaukee, it's darn cold here. So we're practicing wearing our mittens! If you see Zach, please tell him how awesome he looks when he wears his mittens.

The letter Z

We joined the YMCA this week (we need to fight off the winter blues somehow). As I was putting his shoes on, I told Zach we were going to go to the Y to go swimming. He paused for a moment, and then looked at me and said "Zach go to letter Z!" I love the way his mind works!

We went to the Christmas display at the downtown Macy's yesterday with some friends, which is becoming an annual tradition. This year's theme was "a day in the life of an elf", complete with elves making toys, gathering Santa's mail, etc. Zach seemed to like the animals decorating the tree the best - a polar bear with a penguin on his head, a dancing pig, and Zach's favorite animal -a donkey! I lugged my camera all the way down there, only to discover the battery was dead. Our friends took some pictures, so hopefully they'll share so I can share them with you.

Christmas is coming

One thing I'm not thankful for... whatever instinct dogs have that causes them to roll in things that stink. Teri and I took Koskie for a walk on Thanksgiving (despite a crazy cold wind), and right before we made it safely home, Koskie found a yellowish putrid substance to happily thrash his body around on. Hopefully giving our dog a bath isn't a new Willard family Thanksgiving tradition.

Two other funny stories from the last week:
Thanksgiving night Teri had finished giving Zach her special super-long fun bath, and we could hear them happily playing up in Zach's room. Since it was a decent amount of time past his bedtime, I decided to play the bad guy and go up and hurry bedtime along. When I walked in and asked Zach if he was ready for night-night, he responded with "mama, go downstairs," and he actually waved me away! He clearly has figured out who is more likely to give him his way, and it isn't mean 'ol mom.

I know I won't be able to do the other story justice; I think a video camera would be required for that. But try to picture it... Bubba Gump includes jello with their kids' meals - something.Zach had never had before. He made quite the mess as he caused it to wiggle and jiggle, and he was giggling as hard as his stained-blue lips would allow. :)

Today was Christmas-decorating day. We put the tree up and some of the decorations around the house while Zach was napping, so when he got up he was pretty amazed at all the santas around the house. He kept saying - Daddy, look at that Santa! We tried to get him to participate in the tree-decorating, but I think that lasted for about three ornaments. We didn't put up a tree last year, since we weren't home much and were concerned about what a new walker would do with a lighted tree. This year will be interesting. So far he's pulled his dinosaur ornament (a gift to him from the Nowaks last year) off the tree about four times...

Too much

As I sit here recovering from eating too much (and we haven't even had dessert yet!), I have come to the conclusion that I have too much to be thankful for. I'll start with what I am the most thankful for:
Our little family - everybody healthy and happy.

I'm also thankful that I have in-laws whose company I actually enjoy. I'm very aware many people can't say that! We've had a great week, centered around eating (not counting today's dinner, which Teri and I cooked together, I've cooked exactly one meal since Saturday) and Zach. Oh, and shopping. :) We will all be sad to say good-bye tomorrow.

I'm also thankful for my own parents, who are hopefully enjoying the holiday in sunny Florida. We miss you!

I could go on and on, as we have a lot of family and friends to be thankful for. But I'll keep it short and hope you know how much we love and appreciate all of you. I also hope this holiday finds all of you surrounded by loved ones and good cheer!

The first thanksgiving in our new house!

May the force be with you

I don't know why, but that picture makes me think of Star Wars. Odd, I know, since it has Disney characters on it.

The sweatshirt is courtesy of "Grandma Cookie", as she is now known. Before Scott's parents got here, Zach was pretty confused - he seemed to think he had three grandmas, and they were all called Grandma K (the third grandma is my friend Cindy's mom, who occasionally baby-sits for us, and treats Zach as if he was her grandson). Alan jokingly suggested Grandma Cookie, since Cookie was Teri's nickname growing up - and Zach seized on that immediately. So the confusion has been eliminated!

We are definitely going to have a sad little boy when Scott's parents leave. He woke up in the middle of his nap today asking "grandma go?", which is his version of "where did grandma go?" The pictures below show how raptly Zach was listening as Grandma was telling him very entertaining and different versions of the 3 Little Pigs and the 3 Bears...

I forgot to mention some of our weekend excitement in my last post;He' we thought we were going to have our first trip to urgent care for a sprain/break of some sort. Zach fell sort of funny while chasing his football on Saturday, and cried quite a bit afterwards, which is very unusual for him (he's a tough kid.) He kept pointing to his right foot and saying "this one hurts." That night he could put his weight on it, but he didn't want to walk. And when he did walk - what a pathetic sight. I couldn't stand it! Since urgent care was already closed, we decided to see how it was Sunday and make a decision then. Fortunately, it just kept getting better and better, and by Sunday afternoon he was running and jumping on it. Whew. I suspect we'll be in the emergency room and/or urgent care many times for all sorts of bumps and bruises as this boy gets older, but I'm glad we were able to postpone our first trip!

Upside-right

That's my new favorite word: upside-right. Zach was looking at a book with a monkey hanging upside-down in a tree. He pointed out that the monkey was upside-down, and then turned the book the other way and said "upside-right!" Makes sense to me.

The other goofy thing he's been saying lately is a quote from his book The Potty Book for Boys, a gift from our big-boy friend Aiden (who was generous enough to give it to Zach when he no longer needed it). Several times over the last few days we've heard him say "uh-oh had accident, pants are very wet." Sometimes he even goes on to the next line, where the parents aren't upset about the wet pants, you know the potty-training drill. Anyway, a few times when he's said it, we've actually had a leaky-diaper situation, so I guess it's Zach's unique way of telling us he's wet and uncomfortable. Needless to say, when he said it this morning while sitting on my lap - I jumped up right away! But it was a false alarm... a wet diaper, but no leaks. Whew.

G&G Willard are here for Thanksgiving week. We've had lots of adventures - I'll fill you in more when I've got some pictures to post too. But needless to say - Zach is LOVING all the extra attention.

Zach eat it?

Zach and I tried a new adventure this afternoon - baking cookies. As anyone who knows me knows, baking is not exactly my forte. But I thought we'd give it a shot. And I discovered Zach was definitely excited about the concept, but not really into the execution. I spent the entire time trying to keep him from eating the batter in its various stages - including a concoction of eggs, chocolate chips,and vanilla. Yum! Every time we dumped in a new ingredient and I told him to mix, he'd say "Zach eat it?"

But as you can see - he definitely enjoyed the result!

I also thought I'd blog about two of Zach's favorite things these days - Elmo and Koskie. Elmo isn't new - he's been oddly fixated on that red muppet for what seems like forever. But he recently discovered the puppet that G&G Klicka gave him - including the secret button that makes Elmo talk. He loves it!

He also has discovered he loves our poor dog. The picture below captures pretty well what a great dog we have - check out the "I'm putting up with it but please get this little boy off me" look on Koskie's face as Zach "hugs" him. He has been a tremendously patient dog, putting up with Zach's new fascination with "diving" on him (it's not as bad as it sounds, but it does result in Zach basically laying on poor Koskie). This dog deserves a lot more walks than he's been getting lately!

Morning greetings

Zach greets us in the morning one of two ways: if he hasn't gotten enough sleep - with screaming and crying; if he slept in - with some sort of commentary. Usually that commentary is something like "mama coming?" or "Zach go downstairs." I just had to blog about this morning, when he slept until 7:15. I could hear him chattering, so I went up to get him and was greeted with: "Zach tooting." Good morning to you!

Too busy to eat

Lately I've noticed Zach hasn't been particularly interested in eating. He's always been like that in the morning, he's up for hours before he wants to eat (he does NOT get that from me, I wake up starving!). But lately he hasn't wanted to eat lunch or dinner either. He's happy to eat once we get him in the chair, but it's getting him in his chair that's the issue. I was wondering if he was just too busy playing to eat, which is a phenomenon I'd heard about but assumed happened at a later age (3??). The great thing about having a kid that talks is that you no longer have to guess... when I asked him if he wanted to eat lunch the other day, his simple response was - "no, mama, PLAY!" That answers that question!

And speaking of lunch, Zach just experienced his first juicy lucy at Matt's Bar in Minneapolis. Well, he mostly ate french fries, but it's the experience that counts. For those of you that have been there, picture three women, three 21-month olds, and a baby crammed into one booth. We were right by the front door, so every time someone walked in they'd do a double-take - are we in the right place?!?!? Hilarious. But we made it through lunch without any disasters, just a few sippy cups thrown and one sleeve dunked in ketchup (and it wasn't even Zach's)! Not bad.

To have and to hold

We agreed a while ago that we would try to make weddings "date nights" whenever possible, and we were able to manage that again this weekend, thanks to my friend Cindy's parents. Thank you again Paul and Lynn!!

My friend Pam (we met working at Andersen, and have been getting together as part of "GNO" - girls night out - for years) married Sean on Saturday, so first we headed down to Lakeville for the ceremony. Zach came along for this part, although he didn't last long in the church - as soon as the first song ended, he clapped and hollered "hooray - you did it!" Nice recognition for the pianist, but in the reverent hush of the church... not quite appropriate. So Scott headed out to let him run around in the vestibule, and discovered the best-stocked nursery we'd ever seen. Needless to say, Zach had a great time, playing with all those toys and our friends' daughter Marin. After the wedding, we took Zach up to Paul and Lynn's, who were kind enough to watch Zach overnight. Then off to the party...

Smiling Marin; the happy couple

GNO girls; not sure what Knitter and Jenny are doing... but it looks fun!

Cutting a rug (what does that mean, anyway???)

Great dancing, huh?; our version of the Rockettes

We crashed at a hotel downtown, to avoid driving all the way back out to Woodbury and then back again to get Zach. It was good to sleep in a little - we needed it! When we picked Zach up, he barely looked up from playing to greet us. I guess he didn't miss us much - we should go out more often!

Note to self

It is not a good idea to give couscous to a toddler who isn't proficient with a spoon.

Nice try buddy

Ok, one more story: Zach and Scott, like all men, have always battled over ownership of our remote controls. The rule is that remotes are Daddy's, so Zach doesn't get to play with them, but of course, all those buttons are way too tempting. As a result, Zach makes regular attempts at grabbing them, and if Scott catches him, he often says "nice try buddy." So yesterday, as Scott was figuring out where to put his high-def antenna (we now have Scott's dream tv hanging over the fireplace), Zach managed to get his hands on a remote. When Scott turned around, Zach was racing towards him, saying "nice try buddy!"

In other news, on Friday I had the opportunity to see what life would be like if we had a three month old baby, when I baby-sat my college friend Jenny's daughter Katelyn. And not surprisingly, I learned that both Zach and I are glad he doesn't have a sibling already! I have to cut Zach some slack... he has a pretty unpleasant cold, and we were not on our home territory, so he was constantly hearing "don't touch that, put that back." But he is definitely used to being the center of attention; almost every time I picked up Katelyn he'd say "mama down!", or "Katelyn chair!", while pointing at her bouncy chair. Or, my favorite - "mama snuggle you?" I enjoyed the one-on-one time with Katelyn while Zach was napping, but spending the rest of the day with the two of them gave me even more appreciation for people who have young kids close in age (you go Rebecca)!

Umm... maybe

This morning, as I was making Zach's breakfast, he walked into the kitchen with his sunglasses strapped across his head at a funny angle and said "mama - pirate!" It was one of those moments that made me wish I had a video camera constantly running, to catch all the funny things that this boy does and says. Of course, there'd have to be a lot of editing, deleting things like tantrums and 6 am wakenings, but at least then I wouldn't forget all the fun moments.

So instead I grabbed a post-it note (notice the product placement) and jotted down some of the things Zach has been saying recently, and I'll try to capture them here.

As I've mentioned before, you do learn alot about your own speech patterns when they're echoed back at you. We've been a big chagrined to realize how much we must say "um". One culprit is the game "I Spy", since every time Zach says he spies something pink (which he always does, even if there's nothing pink in the vicinity), we say "umm... is it xxx?" But it is odd to hear a toddler say um. He's even been known to say "umm... thinking", while tapping his temple.

The one I can't figure out is "maybe". I don't think we say it very often, but yet he says it at random times. For example, this morning he wanted me to go downstairs with him, so he said "mama, downstairs. maybe?" In a way, the right context, but so weird to hear!

My other favorite recent story is from last night; we both curled so it was Adam's turn to watch the kids - Zach and Sylvia, Adam and Jamie's daughter (which Zach pronounces "Syl-wah-wah" - hee hee). We got back to their house around 11, and the dog barking woke Zach up, so he was crying by the time I got to him. He stopped when he saw me, and then looked past me and saw Adam and said "Hey-yo Adam" (he still can't say his Ls well). It was such a Zach moment, to wake up crying and then happily greet a friend.

The pics above are from our adventures this morning; he was trying to fill dad's shoes! At least he picked the good ones - Scott's UW crocs. :) And fun with the aforementioned "cool guy shades", including dressing up his kitty.

I also realized I never posted any pictures of Zach in his Halloween costume - so here are a couple, including one with just a few girls at our neighborhood halloween party.

Our Halloween in review

We are having the most amazing weather, for September or October, let alone November. We're trying to get outside as much as we can, while we can. Koskie and I took a long walk Sunday afternoon, and I found myself wishing I had shorts on! I love it! Of course, then by 5 pm it was totally dark... I don't love that. Ugh. Winter here we come.

I had planned to upload all sorts of our Halloween pictures (using Scott's computer), to do sort of a pictoral Halloween in review. But then his computer lost our wireless connection and wouldn't connect again, so I decided to take that as a sign and give up.

So above is the one picture I got to upload - Zach and Kasey, our friends Matt and Jenny's then 8-month old, at the pumpkin patch. Cute, aren't they? Zach loves Kasey; all babies are Kasey to him. :)

A picture!

This is what we look like, in case you forgot:

This picture is from a couple weeks ago; our pumpking patch outing with the Roses. I probably have better pictures to post, but this was intended to be a test in my on-going quest to figure out why I can't post pictures. So... I can upload pictures from Scott's work computer, but not ours. Now I just have to figure out what the difference is. Simple, right?

Gump around

I forgot to mention Zach's latest accomplishment on my last post - jumping! Or "gumping," as he says it. Yep, both feet leave the ground at the same time. His vertical is nothing to write home about, but he's very proud of himself. So needless to say, we are spending a lot of time jumping around the house; our neighbors probably think we're a bit odd.

An educational weekend

Zach loves Dancing with the Stars. Friends had told me that their kids got a kick out of it, so he watched two dances before he went to bed tonight. After he saw the first one, he said - again! Dance again! Unfortunately, the second dancer was Cloris Leachman...

We are back from our weekend adventures. Zach, my friend Cindy and I drove to Milwaukee Thursday so Zach could spend the weekend with G&G Klicka while Cindy and I jumped on the train to Chicago. The detour through Milwaukee enabled Scott go on Rosie's 4th (3rd?) annual bachelor party. Yes, you read that right.

Before I forget - another big thanks to my parents for making the weekend possible!

The end result is that we all had good weekends. Cindy had never been to Chicago, so in addition to shopping and eating, we did some of the more touristy stuff like the architecture boat tour, the top of the Sears tower, etc. We got to see my friend Amy for brunch too; it was great to catch up with her. But I have to say the highlight was seeing the musical Jersey Boys - if you get the chance - GO!!!

I don't think there's much to tell about Scott's weekend... it was the usual golf and gambling, with more than a few beverages thrown in. 'Nuff said.

As for Zach, I learned on the drive down and once we got to my parents what a ham our son is. He loves to recite his ABCs (he's getting much closer, only forgets a few letters here and there, and sometimes can make it all the way thru), count (he gets to 13 accurately, twenty inaccurately), and sing songs. I knew that. What I didn't know was the lengths he'd go to get all attention on him! We were having a nice dinner with my parents, and if he wasn't the focus, he'd start yelling "hi grandma!!" until we acknowledged him, and then he'd launch into one of his routines, getting louder and louder as he finished. And then he cheers for himself; a nice big "yay", or our new favorite "Zach did it!" His confidence definitely isn't lacking. :)

Holy cow mama!

This morning provided another example of why we need to watch what we say...

I was taking Zach's diaper off, asking him if he'd pooped, and he responded with "yes, pooped. Holy cow!" It took me a minute, since holy sounded more like "hody", but after I figured it out, I asked if that's what he said. His response - "mama, holy cow mama!"

I guess holy cow is better than the alternative!

It's not just me

I'm delighted to report it's not just me! Others are having problems uploading images to their blogs too. I finally got an error that was helpful (as opposed to "internet explorer cannot display this page"), so I was able to find others with similar errors out on the blogger user group forum. That's the good news. The not so good news is that they haven't fixed it yet - but I should be happy they are working on it. I guess that's as much as you can ask for when using a free service.

In Zach news, I've noticed lately that he's definitely confused when it comes to pronouns - particularly "me" vs "you". He has been saying "snuggle you?" and "carry you" - and he clearly does not mean he wants to carry one of us. But it was really obvious the other day when we were playing our new game - he runs from the kitchen into the living room and crashes into me as I sit on the floor - he kept saying "knock me!". You try explaining to a toddler how personal pronouns work - it isn't easy!

I also may have found the cable that I need to download video - yahoo. Haven't had a chance to try it out yet, but maybe once this issue with uploading photos is fixed, I'll be able to do video too! With all the chattering Zach is doing these days, we need to get it on video. Especially him "reading" his books and singing, which he does all the time these days.

A month in pictures

Since I still haven't found the solution to my photo uploading problem, I'm trying something else. Below is a link to a snapfish album, that contains pictures from all the events I already mentioned - the visit from Mary and Kelly, our playdates at the sculpture garden and Kenwood Park, "truck day", and pumpkin adventures in Cokato. Hope you enjoy them!

http://www2.snapfish.com/share/p=829181224334062411/l=430619542/g=86576253/otsc=SYE/otsi=SALB

We also just unpacked the video camera; we need to capture Zach's latest talent - singing. And trust me, I use the term "singing" loosely. For some reason, one of Zach's favorite songs is Do Re Me. I sang it to him the first time in the car when he was crabby and I was drawing a blank on a good kids' song. And a few days later, I realized he was singing it himself. Here's how his version goes:

"doh...deer...fee deer...ray...sun...me...name m'self...fa...run...so...bread...la...so...tea...bread...back doh-oh-oh-oh!"

He also loves Twinkle Twinkle, pronounced "Tinkle Tinkle", and the Itsy Bitsy Spider. Ring around the Rosie is a favorite game, although he refuses to actually fall down most of the time.

As I feared, we also really need to be careful what we say these days. The other day I was stuck behind someone who was merging onto the highway at 40 mph (despite a very long, downhill on-ramp - UGH!). In my irritation, I said "hit the gas, lady!", and seconds later, a little voice from the backseat said "gas lady!". And it wasn't so much what he said, but how he said it - he had my tone perfectly. Yikes.

Hobber Dobber

That's right, curling season has begun. The Willard rink started the year off with a win on Friday night. It's a nice change to curl on Fridays instead of Sundays... no need to rush home since it's not a school night. We curled with Jamie and Adam this week (we have a 5 person team, so our team will rotate weekly between the three guys - Rosie is the other guy), so we were fortunate to have Jamie's mom and her husband volunteer to not only babysit Sylvia, but Zach as well. Thank you again Charleen and Mike! It was a fun night - good to have some adults-only time.

Saturday was all about the kids. We started off our morning at "truck day" in Woodbury - sure wish I could post the pictures. There were all sorts of trucks parked at the library here, everything from fire trucks to a UPS truck to a school bus, and the kids got to climb around and in them. Zach is all about driving lately, so he got a pretty big kick out of sitting in those seats, turning the wheel. It was hilarious to walk towards the parking lots and hear constant horn honking. :)

Saturday afternoon we headed out to Cokato Lake, back to the Brodd Family Compound, for pumpkin carving with our friends. We stopped at a pumpkin patch along the way, and Zach was delighted to find a cow nearby. He walked up to the fence, stopped, and said "big!" I always forget how big cows really are too! The cow cooperated by mooing, and Zach's eyes got huge. We eventually got his attention back to the pumpkins, and picked one out, although once we got to the Brodd's, he wasn't the least bit interested in carving it. However, our friend Kirsten cleverly brought along some golf tees and a toy hammer, so he did have fun pounding the "nails" into the pumpkin. In addition to the pumpkin fun, Zach played a lot of football with the other kids and some of the dads too, we feasted on chili and all sorts of yummy snacks and desserts, and hung out by the bonfire (it gets dark so early these days!). It was oddly warm for this time of year, so it was good to be outside. A good day with our friends and their kids, wish I could show you the pictures. Sigh.

Mysterious disappearances and shocks

I forgot to mention two other things on my last post...

We closed on our Mpls house last week, and unlike the closing on this house, it was anything but smooth. We could call the story "the mysterious case of the disappearing closer"; the buyers' title guy called an hour before the closing with a "family emergency". I put the term in quotes because not only did he never identify this emergency, he also was completely out of contact for 2 days. With today's technology - how is that even possible? Anyway, so without the mountains of paperwork to be signed, let alone the check for us, the closing didn't quite happen that day. But it did get done a couple days later, so fortunately we are no longer the owners of two houses. Whew.

And the other thing - some of you have asked how Zach adapted to the new house. The answer is - very well! No major hiccups at all, he seems to love it here, particularly his new room. Koskie, on the hand, is a different case. The first few days he was one nervous dog, following us everywhere, worrying that he was going to get left behind or something. He's kind of a nervous dog anyway, so we weren't very surprised by that. Then he seemed to adjust... until we used the invisible fencing. Sigh.

As I think I mentioned before, we were thrilled to find the house already had IF installed, as it saved us the time and effort to do it ourselves. The previous owners left behind the collar, so we were all set. Except, that typically when IF is installed, little flags are put up around the perimeter of the yard, and someone comes out and does some training with your dog. Well, we took a few shortcuts and just tried to train him ourselves, and then came the inevitable day that he got shocked. Now the poor dog won't go in the backyard. The question "Koskie, want to go outside?", which used to elicit a lot of excitement and Koskie right by the door, now results in Koskie running upstairs and hiding, if he isn't already up there anyway. His favorite hiding spots are in my closet or behind the glider in Zach's room, in case you were wondering.

So, needless to say, now we need to go out and get the flags and train this dog properly, so he no longer thinks the backyard is a terror. The adventures continue!

Latest adventures

Still picture-free - sorry. Haven't had enough time to do more than basic trouble-shooting, so you're stuck with just words for now.

We had our neighborhood block party Saturday night, and it confirmed what we already knew - we live in a great neighborhood. It was a good way to meet neighbors we hadn't met, although it was pretty overwhelming. Too many new faces, especially when you factor in all the kids. I think Scott is already looking forward to next year, since he missed the golf outing prior to the party. Sounds like the guys had a good time... one of the gentlemen went home to "sleep" after the golf, even when some of the others went to try to get him up. :) We also found out that there's a neighborhood softball team, another chance for Scott to hang out with these guys next summer.

Zach, probably needless to say, had a great time. He was constantly surrounded by kids who wanted to entertain him. He got a bit overwhelmed at times, so he'd come and find one of us. But by the end of the night (well, the end of his night anyway), he was nodding off in his chair.

Friday night was an open house for our new night of curling in the mixed (2 guys, 2 girls) league. It's hard to believe curling starts next week already... we're looking forward to it, but at the same time curling means that it's winter - certainly not looking forward to that.

Lots of Zach updates - our little chatterbox has been saying all sorts of goofy things. I'll save most for my next blog, which hopefully will include some pictures, but some of my favorites are things that he says from his crib as he's waiting for us to go get him:

• Mommy... Koskie... down... carry... yeah, ok!
• Snuggle!! (he's into snuggling these days... I think a symptom of several new teeth making an appearance at the same time)

Oh, and one other funny thing I saw the other day as I was driving down the street towards our house... a little boy (8-ish) hanging from a street sign. Do you know how high a street sign is???

Suddenly a little boy

Still can't get pictures to post, and I have no idea why. Sigh.

Tonight I found myself looking at Zach and being amazed at how we suddenly are the parents of a little boy. And as silly as it sounds, it really does feel sudden. Besides that his legs look longer, and his face a little less chubby, it's that I find myself having conversations with my son! His vocabulary has not only expanded at an exponential rate, but he's actually initiating discussions, not just responding to questions. And he's starting to sing, at least sort of... the usual row, row, row your boat, itsy-bitsy spider, Old McDonald (he does a mean "EIEIO"), and of course, the Sesame Street theme song. He doesn't quite have the melodies down, so it's amusing, but he's trying!

A little less amusing (although sometimes I have to turn away so he doesn't see me laugh) is how he is responding to discipline. He has started another hitting phase (yippee), so I find myself often saying "we do not hit". I say it nice and slowly so he gets it and understands the importance, and typically about 30 seconds later my little parrot says - "NO... do... NOT... hit." Can drive me crazy - he understands, but he does it anyway!!!

No pictures...

Argh... I can't seem to get pictures uploaded. We finally got our wireless working, yahoo! But now I can't get pictures on here - and I have lots to share. I'll keep trying, I guess.

In the meantime, thank you to all of you who have been checking in to see how we're doing. We are definitely settling in; in fact I've reached a state of inertia when it comes to unpacking. We have all the fundamentals put away or at least accessible, with the rest of the boxes hidden in closets and rooms we don't use much. Which means I have zero motivation to keep unpacking. I do have to say our office is calling me... who knows what sort of important paperwork we have buried in a random box!?!?! But this truly is "home" already - which continues to amaze me. Although Scott probably won't feel completely at home until we get the new tv he's been lusting after. :) On Saturday we've been invited to the neighborhood block party - a good chance to meet and get to know more neighbors!

What I was going to blog about was our recent adventures with Zach's buddies. Last Wednesday we had our usual "playdate" (a word I never imagined I'd use) with friends; we met at the sculpture garden for this one. It's a beautiful setting, so I brought my camera and got some fun shots of the kids - Zach's friends Maggie and Clark were there this week - with the sculptures, flowers, and Zach dancing around in a puddle. Hopefully I'll be able to post those soon.

We also had fun last week with my college friend Mary and her daughter Kelly, who came to visit from the Ft Worth area. Kelly had just turned 1, and is absolutely adorable. It was really amazing to see what a difference 8 months makes - it's hard to remember when Zach was that age! While Mary and Kelly were here we spent lots of time just hanging out with the kids, up at my friend Cindy's (also a UW alum) house. The three kids, which includes Cindy's daughter Caitlin, who is 3, had a lot of fun playing together - the noise was staggering. Friday night we three ladies went out on the town, having dinner at Bellanotte in Minneapolis, followed by drinks on the patio the Chambers Hotel. We definitely enjoyed a night out - a long leisurely dinner is something we don't get to do very often! And again, I got some really fun shots of the kids, especially the three of them in the tub... but can't get them posted! UGH!

As a side note... today I discovered a big benefit to living in the suburbs - at least this particular one. I went to get my address changed on my driver's license - and what a pleasant experience. A very nice setting, lots of people ready to help me so no waiting - it took about 3 minutes total, and that was just because I had to chase Zach around while trying to fill out the form! Quite a change from our Mpls experiences.

Home sweet home

And internet, sweet internet! We finally got hooked up with cable and the internet on Wednesday... difficult to be disconnected, especially when Scott had to listen to the Twins/Sox game on the radio!! Anyway, hopefully you understand why it's been a while since I've blogged...

I’m actually surprised at how quickly our new house has started to feel like home, especially with all the unpacked boxes still surrounding us! But apparently home is not only where your heart is, but also where your stuff is, because once we had our “stuff” around us, we felt at home.

The move went as well as can be hoped for! It was a little warmer than one might have thought for a day in mid-September, but I guess that’s better than rain. Our friends were great – we had help all day, and got things done pretty quickly, I think. My parents did a great job of distracting Zach (we thought my mom was lost, they were at the park for so long!), so we were able to focus on loading, unloading, and starting to unpack.

Here are some pics of our efforts…

The enormous truck that didn’t quite fit all of our stuff (how is that possible???)

Relaxing with pizza and beer at the new house

Putting together the most important piece of furniture for our first night

Zach exploring his new front yard

Zach “helping” dad put together our new dining room chairs

As you can imagine, we've spent a lot of the week figuring out where to put stuff, especially all the boxes of things we've had in storage since March. As I write this, we are functional, at best! But despite being surrounded by boxes and empty walls (with HUGE holes in them... what did those people use to hang things???), we are loving the house. And we can't say enough about the neighborhood - we've met lots of our neighbors, especially the kids. Just one example: when Scott came home Monday night after work, he found Zach and me in the backyard, surrounded by six neighborhood girls, all of whom wanted to play with Zach! As Scott said, I just needed a magazine and a chair!

Kids galore - and maybe a babysitter!

I'll keep this short, since we've barely started moving and I'm already tired! Our closing went smoothly, and we hauled quite a bit over today using our cars and my parents' mini-van, but the big move day is tomorrow.

We got several unexpected bonuses today:

• we found out our new yard already has invisible fencing. One less thing for the to-do list!
• the sellers were throwing away one of those battery-powered kid-sized cars (a truck in this case), that we got to keep for Zach. I'm normally not a proponent of those - kids should power their cars with their legs Flintstone-style - but we couldn't let one just go in the garbage!!
• there are even more kids than we could have imagined in our neighborhood, they were everywhere! Water fights, tutus, trampolines - lots of fun going on. Zach is going to have a ball, just watching if nothing else.

We met a few more of the neighbors, and discovered directly behind us is a 14 year old girl who babysits! WHOO HOO!!

Zach's ABCs

The alphabet, as recited by Zach:

ABC HIJK NOP...

from there, it varies. If he can remember Q, he can usually get all the way to the end, which he likes since we make a big deal out of the last letter (you know, Z is for Zach). If he can't remember the elusive Q, he usually goes back to H and gets caught in an endless loop.

And yes, at our house, 13 still comes after 10, often followed by 16 and 18.

We had our usual Wednesday playdate this morning with Zach's buddies from our first ECFE class, and I got quite the kick out of this picture:

Doesn't it look like they're slow dancing high school style? And is it just me, or does Maggie look like she's humoring him???

One last time...

Here's Zach with some of his girls - Kasey (7 mos) and Sylvia (2 mos). The girls came over on Saturday for what will be our last get-together in our house - the "eat and drink it so we don't have to move it" party. We found some vermouth and other odd liquor that I think was from our wedding... and surprisingly, those bottles remained at the end of the night! But we got rid of lots of other odd assortments of food and drink, and had a good time while doing so.

There was some reminiscing about the house, unavoidable since two (Rosie and Adam) of the three guys lived here for a while, while the other (Aaron) was essentially an honorary roommate who usually crashed on the couch or the bed tucked in the spider web-y corner of the basement. There was talk of the "good 'ol days" when the pool table was in the living room and the fridge filled with nothing but beer. It made me wish I'd taken some "before" pictures of the house - we've come a long way. But take a look at the pictures and see how much these guys' parties have changed!

We definitely have mixed feelings about moving. This is the longest both Scott and I have lived in one place other than our parents' houses! Lots of fun memories, since this is where we first lived together, got Koskie, got married (yes Dad, in that order), brought Zach home, and then watched a lot of his major milestones occur. Not to mention all Scott's memories of when this was the bachelor pad, which I probably don't want to know too much about. :)

So we are counting down the days - this is the last Sunday we'll be living our house! - and looking forward to the amenities of our new house and neighborhood. But it was fun to try one more time to fit everyone (and the Bergums couldn't even make it!) in our little house for some good times.

(pictures... Zach with Kasey; Zach with Sylvia snoozing away; Jenny playing with the kids; Adam and Jamie; Aaron reading to Zach; Kasey saying goodbye to Scott; Aaron and Jen with Sylvia)