Okay!

18 months old?!?!? A year and a half??? What?? How can we be the parents of a boy who is well on his way to two? When did this happen?

While for the most part, the first year and a half of Zach's life have flown by, at the same time, it sure seems like FOREVER ago that we were experiencing what our friends Adam and Jamie are experiencing now - sleepless nights, the witching hour from 5-8 pm, swaddling, worrying constantly about feeding, and snuggling away with a newborn on your chest. I do miss the snuggling, but not the rest! I'm a broken record; every month I say - no, THIS is the best age! And it just keeps getting better.

We always looked forward to when Zach would start talking, focusing on how it would be so much easier when he could tell us what he wanted. But we never realized how darn funny it would be! I really do need to get some more video out here, because there is nothing more hilarious than the way Zach says "ok" right now. He still hardly ever says "yes", now his answer to most things is "ohhh-KAAY" (much better than the constant "no" we heard before). He has the funniest inflections; most of his sentences end up sounding like questions. We're going to have to watch what we're saying even more now, since he's also echoing us at some of the most unexpected times. You should hear this little guy yell at Koskie like we do - he does a wicked impersonation!

It's also been amazing to discover how much he really understands. After we'd been gone for about 10 days in Hudson, when I pulled up in front of the house, Zach instantly said "Koskie?". I was amazed - after all that time away, he not only recognized our house, but remembered our dog, who he hadn't seen in a long time. Today at the mall with G&G Willard, he looked at one of the rides, which was an orange bus, and said "beep beep" (sing it with me - the horn on the bus goes beep beep beep!). A few minutes later, he was mooing loudly and pointing; when I followed his finger I saw a fairly abstract drawing of a cow on a sign way up near the roof. Brilliant, I tell you.

I've been working on Zach's scrapbook again lately (I'm all the way to his 3rd week of life - yahoo!), and it's been very moving to go through all the pictures. He's grown into such a funny, good-natured little boy. It really makes me wonder and look forward to what the next eighteen months bring!

With his frog - at 1 week, and at 18 months.