Say CHEESE!

That's right, he is definitely smiling now! Capturing on camera is still not the easiest, but its getting better! :)

Today we went to visit my office after lunch with Kerri. Zach was so good. Slept most of the time and then woke up and even graced a few special people with some smiling! Of course everyone thought he was adorable which I have to agree with ;) It was fun to see people. We laughed that he was so good with all the noise there because he was used to it after nine months in my tummy! (I work on the trade floor so its always loud and often accompanied by shouting!)

So now after the busy week, I am on my own. Matt has already headed out for the NCAA games tonight and wont be home till probably midnight since the second game probably wont start until nine or so. I'm going to look for him on tv, I think they have pretty good seats. If my folks don't come over, I may order a pizza and a chick flick and call it a night. woohoo!

And for your viewing pleasure...the Z MAN!

Zach is a rockstar and mommy is insane...

So I do not know what I was thinking today...I think it was the desperation speaking, I went and took my son to the hair salon today..... I needed the full do too, highlights and hair cut, as the last appointment I had was the week or so before Zach was born so its been at least 2 months. For those of you highlighters out there...know how your hair can stretch it and stretch it and then you wake up one morning and you have 2 inch roots? That's what happened to me.

So anyway...we went. I fed and changed Z before we took the 40 minute drive to get to the salon (yes, I know, insane. I have been with Bettye for like 5 years now and when she moved out to Humble I followed because we all know how hard it is to find a good stylist...especially one that can do both your cut AND highlights!) AND...a quick aside, I do not have good luck with the diaper changes before heading out the door. Today I heard toots as we were packing up so I of course wanted to change him before getting on the road. Well....apparently he was not done because as soon as I had the diaper off and was working on wipies, I looked back down to a big pile of POO on the changing pad. And oh wait...here comes the geyser too! Amazing we did not get any pee or poop on either of us, just the pad, so life could go on.

Zach is great in his car seat for the hour and a half of foils getting on and such and JUST as it was time to rinse, he started talking and I knew it was time to eat. I wish I had a camera for the rest of this. I hurriedly made up a bottle and ended up feeding him while my head was back and I was getting my hair washed and rinsed and he was a CHAMP! Then back to the normal chair and he sat in my lap looking around while Bettye cut and dried my hair. She was so great being understanding with us for feeding and diapering and kept telling me to relax cause I was so stressed about him freaking out and bothering people. Everyone just thought he was really cute and luckily it was all women in there at the time so if he was screaming, I think everyone would have been understanding. Anyway, I so totally appreciate her letting me bring him and allowing me to get my hair done. I seriously feel like a new woman.

And speaking of that too, I had my 6 week post partum check up yesterday and am all good. I was excited to learn I was actually 4lbs lighter than I was at my 6 week pregnant check up. Now to start working on taking off the weight I gained over the year of fertility treatments. WOOHOO!

So that's what's going on in the world of Wittliffs. We have had a tough couple of days with fussiness but think we have decided its a growth spurt as the kid just wants to eat, so we are feeding him more frequently and it seems to be helping! And praise the Lord for the swing! Man, it is a lifesaver! Thanks to Kevin and Sabra (my bosses) for that, it is definitely his favorite soother!

Matt will be at the NCAA games tomorrow night and Sunday so I am up to my own devices, whatever will I do?!? :D

Easter!

We had a great weekend! Friday was the big March Madness day off and we had a great time. It was a good break but I was ready to come back to my baby boo. Saturday mom came back over and we went shopping for Z's Easter outfit. The one I originally purchased was TOO big so the mission was on! We ended up finding the cutest little outfit at Cotton Tots! He looked PRECIOUS! **Notice his cute shoes...those were MATT'S baby shoes! **

Easter Sunday was a great day. Time of reflection on Christ's gift to us and on all of our blessings this year. Zach made it to church for the first time and was perfect, slept the whole time. We told Dr Wende that was a compliment ;-) Mom and Dad and Chris and KA all came over for lunch at our place afterwards. It was a great afternoon spent with family!

pump and dump and a busy week!

First off, thanks to my mom who babysat Z man today so I could have a break and watch the March Madness with the crew. It was good to see folks but weird to be out in a bar setting again!! Z Man got a few presents from folks too which is always nice (thanks Crellers and Agnews!). Beth brought some awesome little finger puppets home from her trip to Peru for the Z man, they are so cute! Aaron said they are like my very own 'Manger Babies". Fun shall ensue for sure! Thanks guys!! :) Did enjoy a few frosty beverages and of course KH's yummy cheese fries and pizzas. It was weird to have more than one beer...it has been a VERY long time for that! Unfortunately though, I had to come home and pump and dump. Which for someone with supply issues...I think I shed a tear as I poured that liquid gold down the drain!! But anyway, it was a nice couple hours away. As the responsible one though, I headed home and left hubby there with the boys to his own devices!

So this week we were busy. Wednesday we meet Kerri at Nordie's for lunch. Ah, just like the good old days! We had a great time and did a little shopping before Kerri had to get back to work. Zach and I stayed and kept on shopping. We bought some options for Easter (which mom and I tried on tonight and I think are just too big, UGH) and a dress for mom and tie for dad. We will be matching for Sunday. Zach is such a good shopper. He slept the whole time and when he did wake up, we just nursed and changed a diaper in the fitting room and just kept on shopping. What a guy!

Thursday we had a visit from PS and Claude which was wonderful as always. Claude held him the whole time and soothed him to sleep. It was so good to see them and catch up! Z Man loves his PS and Claudie and I think they are pretty partial to him too! ;)

Anyway, it has been a good and busy week. Tomorrow I am hoping I can have Matt watch Z while I go get a pedicure. Its a pretty major necessity. I'm figuring Matt wont be up for much more than lazying around the house after his day at Knuckleheads so it should work out. Then I need to grocery shop for Easter lunch and get to Target for a few last minute things for Zach's basket! Hopefully we make it through church on Sunday without too much fussying! I will let you know how it goes!!!

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Mommy made sure I wore my green today so I wouldn't get pinched! And boy I am looking cute. We had a mini photo shoot in my St Patty's pjs and even captured a bit of a smile!

This weekend Grandpa Dan and Grandma Manda came to visit me. It was good to see them and get some quality cuddle time in there too. Grandpa and I had a good nap together too. And we got a pic of the 3 generations of Wittliff men together!

Last night was selection Sunday. Dad was quite excited and is looking forward to me loving basketball one day too! He was kinda sad about the Aggies seating but at least they are in the Big Dance for the 3rd year in a row!

And today I am FIVE weeks old! Can you believe it? Time is flying by!! Must take hippo pic tonight!

Hope you all have a great St Patty's Day...drink some green beer for my mommy!

Love,

Zachary...aka The Z Man!

Dirty day!

Yeah, today was one of those days! We had a showing on our house and it was supposed to be from 12:30-1pm so around 12:15 I was trying to get out the door with Zach and Esther and decided to do a quick diaper change before we headed out. Well what would have been a routine change turned into a whole outfit change! ;-) Just as I got the diaper off...we had a fountain! However he didn't get me...he got himself! That's right, he peed in his eye! Poor little guy tinkled on his face! I had to laugh even though I probably shouldn't have. So we did a quick face wash and outfit change (of course pee got on that too) and out the door we went. I have yet to be peed on by Zach, or at least not directly. He has peed out diapers and onto me but never squirted me in the face yet!

So anyway...we had resolved to bath tonight after the tinkle experience. Fast forward a couple hours to a feeding time. All was going well and resting after eating when all of a sudden...BLAH. Not just a little spit up, but a whole liquid gush. I was taken by surprise too because a) we don't have spit up too often and b) if we do, it is usually preceded by crying and a burp. This one came out of nowhere. Z was laying there quietly and blah! All over me, him, and the boppy. Good thing we were bathing today! And to top it all off, during feeding...we had tooting. Good juicy toots so we knew a diaper change was due too. Went upstairs to clean up after the spit up and do a diaper change....and OH MY GOODNESS. This was a first. The poop out the back of the diaper. I actually had to call Matt in, I had never seen such a thing. Out the top and back of the diaper, all over the onesie, all over Z...my oh my. So this now called for immediate bathing. My son had now peed, barfed, and pooped ALL over himself all in one day!

Anyway, it was almost comical. You just have to laugh. This is our life as parents now! Funnier even cause Zach was not upset about this at all. There was not a single tear or cry during this time! All in a days work for the Z Man! I'm sure there will be more adventures to come soon!

Big Brother

So I know I usually don't post about reality TV quite like the way my Ginster does...but Big Brother has gotten so ridiculously funny, I had to post. OK, so I hated the whole "couples"thing that started the season off, but now that they are broken up, it is SO good. Seriously, have these people never watched the show before? They are all terrible at game playing! They trust everyone and no one therefore they all end up stirring the pot and it is HI-larious. Plus I was really proud of Ryan this week for not being a follower and putting up James! Talk about making things interesting. And I'm starting to like frog face (Adam). He is soo tweedle dee about things but I think he may make it far because he is so darn goofy. Anyway, its been a really good episode tonight with all the gossiping and vote changing...I cant wait to see who comes back in the house!! :) Any one else out there watching BB?

On a baby note...my list from the pediatrician said we are supposed to be working on a bed time. Question, what is a "bedtime" for a baby when they are still eating every few hours? Zach has a bottle around nine and then 11 or 12. But he stays on the couch sleeping next to us until about 10ish because I like to stare at him. Call me crazy, I know! So....what do you all do? Feed a bottle and then put in crib??? Then I miss out on time with him :(

Happy 1 Month Birthday!

Happy 1 month birthday Zachary!! I truly cannot believe a month has already passed. You are such a good little man and I am enjoying every minute with you...even the minutes when you are screaming cause I know they will pass! ;-) My favorite time of day with you is in the morning when we have our snuggle time in bed together after your feeding. We stare at each other and talk and babble and I think you are starting to smile! I cannot wait for the day when you are really smiling and talking it up! I am enjoying everything about you...even your screams and toots...and cannot wait to see what the next month has in store for us!

Paranoia!

So the Today show had two interesting subjects on today...cord blood and vaccines. Two things I am totally up in the air on. The first segment was about a family who's little boy was diagnosed with cerebral palsy around 2 years of ages and his parents happened to have banked his cord blood. After his diagnosis, they entered in a experimental study at Duke and he received a transfusion of his own stem cells. His progress was almost immediate. He had not spoken hardly ever and within days was vocal. All kinds of changes for the good. Enough that the doctors said the disease could practically go away. Very interesting and I hope they continue to do more research on it. We had decided not to bank Zach's cord blood. Its a fairly new process and fairly expensive upfront. About $2000 for the collection and storage for the first year and then about $125 every year thereafter. Kinda like an insurance policy since you never know if you would use it or not, but maybe for the next baby I will think more about it now....

And the next is the highly controversial segment on vaccines. Some people are now saying that vaccines are linked to autism as I'm sure you have heard. Well this segment showed both extremes. One mother gave her twin boys the standard vaccines and after the 15 month shots saw a total regression. They went back to like a 9 month milestones and worse. Another mom chose not to get the shots and her little girl got spinal meningitis. So the extremes of both. Some friends recommended reading The Vaccine Book by Dr Sears I think it was? Its a really tough decision. Obviously I would never want my child to get sick and or potentially die due to not getting vaccines, but at the same time, it would be horrible to go through the experience of vaccinating him and then see him totally regress too. Apparently a family won some lawsuit this week due to their child being diagnosed with autism related to the shots. It appears that the MMR shot at 15 months that seems to be in question the most, as well as the mercury in the DPT shots. So what do you do? The risk of infectious disease would seem to outweigh the chances of negative effects of the vaccines, especially since the CDC says there is no correlation. Then how do you explain how seemingly "normal" children go from happy kiddos to non-vocal and hardly recognizing their parents??? I don't know? Is it coincidence due to the timing of the shots and the developmental stages of kids? Who knows, but its just another thing to think about...

Then all of this gets me thinking, what should Zach be doing at this point? Anything yet? He is 1 month old today! Most milestones I see are at the 2-3 month stage so not a lot to judge yet.

Anyway, just more things to add to the list of worries and decisions but I guess that is just part of being a parent...

Daylight Savings and Babies Don't Mix!

I am pooped today. This whole time change thing was not fun last night. Z Man has moved from being fussy around dinner time to bedtime! We feed around 10pm and then usually get fussy from 11-midnight. Well since infants don't get the whole daylight savings thing...that became fussy from 11 to 1am! Like I said, I am tired. I would get him calm, get up to move to bed, and screams began again. We also have noticed little guy is more hungry and ready to move up on his bottle amounts too. The good thing is, he will sleep for about 4 to 5 hours at night which I am quite impressed by. I think he went down finally around 1am and was up around 6am or a little before. Not too shabby!

Today Zach is also FOUR WEEKS OLD! Oh my goodness, where is the time going?? It still seems like just yesterday he was in my belly! He is a good baby so far still. The normal cries and fussy times but usually fairly consolable. We enjoy our morning cuddle times a lot. Zach eats around 6-7am and then he comes in bed to cuddle with me until the next feeding. We chat, cuddle, snooze, etc. Its during this time where I think I have started to see a little smile coming out while we are having our face to face time! I cannot wait to see a full fledged one!

Anyway, its a rainy dreary day today so we are just cuddling up on the couch today watching Birth Day on Discovery Health. Makes me cry every time when those little ones pop out!! This lady just had her baby without any medication. Ouchie. Good for her, but man was I happy to have that epi! I could feel PLENTY at the end so I cannot imagine how it would have been without the epidural. The next lady chose the epi, my kinda girl. Her anesthesiologist is blabbering to the TV crew all about the epi and its effects...poor lady has a look on her face like "shut up doc and just give me the darn drugs!!" I think she is even laughing some about this babbling doc!

Well I had planned to maybe go out today to BRU for some supplies but this weather isn't baby conducive so we will probably just stay in. It can wait till tomorrow. Hope everyone has a good Monday!!

Visitors!

Zach had a busy week of seeing some familiar faces and also meeting some new ones!! Friends have been great and really helping us out with meals and we are SO GRATEFUL as mommy hasn't QUITE yet gotten back into the cooking mode. I made one meal last night and that was an accomplishment! So thank you to all of you for the grub, it was/is delightful!

Z Man also made his FIRST trip to Grandma and Granpa's on Saturday. We opened the door to flashbulbs...grandma had to capture the first time he came for a visit. Z had some very special visitors waiting for us at the house too...Aunt Jan and Uncle Jeff and Grammy! The first of the three great grandmas to meet him. He is pretty lucky to even have 3 great grandmas! So we got a nice 4 generation picture, love it! All in all, it was a good weekend with friends and family. We did have to miss Zach's first invite to a birthday party since the fam was in town...so a special birthday shout out to Alex...Happy 2 years tomorrow, buddy!!! :)

Karaoke on Demand and Z's too sexy for his shirt!

So Thursday night Matt and I discovered a new entertainment while chillin on the couch. Yes, this is the life of new parents ;-) While perusing the new Comcast On Demand set up...we see a channel called "Karaoke on Demand" and were intrigued and decided to check it out. It is exactly what it sounds like, a karaoke channel! You scroll through different groups of songs like 70s, 80s, 90s, etc and then select your song and then its just like the karaoke at the bars! We tried out "Every Rose has its Thorns" in honor of brett and Rock of Love. We were laughing for sure. Next I did some Brit "Lucky" in honor of sue...I remember she always liked that song. And Matt and I even did a duo of BNL "Million Dollars". Good times were had by all! Definitely need to take use of this new toy the next time the crew is together!! Matt and I decided we could pre-party for Allison's birthday with it! :) You must check it out if you are a Comcast user. They also have Scene It- on demand like the game...you get like 15 minutes of fun!

Today we took Z for his first portraits and got some good ones I think! Especially cause he was kinda fussy so I had no clue how they would turn out. We did a lot of Mommy & Me and Daddy & Me and family shots which I totally love. And of course, the Z man in the diaper on the black background are my favs for sure. I almost wish we had more of those! So here are a few of my fav images. All the pics taken are on our smugmug site which you can get to from my link list. Enjoy!!

A lesson in democracy

So our big outing for today was a trip to the polls! We went late in the day so I had my bag all loaded up in preparation for a loooong wait. As it turns out, I somehow JUST beat the late working crowd. And it was my lucky day to be a Wittliff too as the L to Z line was totally empty so we ZOOMED up to the front! WOOHOO! I think it took me longer to park, get into the stroller and into the school than it took me to stand in line and vote! Z had lots of smiles and grins in an otherwise kinda overcharged atmosphere! It was an important day at the polls and my son learned a valuable lesson in the importance of voting, even if he never remembers it! :)

We also had lunch with Auntie Becky! She came over to visit and brought me some grub which was much appreciated. I enjoyed the time to chat and catch up and of course hear how the Tim McGraw concert was. Sounded like the ladies had a FABULOUS time!

And as promised, here are Zach's 3 week hippo pics plus a smile preview pic from his bath today...I think it may be coming soon (or else he just had some gas!) ;-)

What a big boy I am getting to be! I am filling up the chair!


Is that a smile coming out???
A pic of the 2007 and 2008 babies! Cant wait to meet the next two! Yes, that's Zach with his head to the side not looking at the camera! He was snoozin!


And just a cute pic of the Z MAN!

Happy 3 weeks, Z Man!

Well, we have survived 3 weeks!! Gave my little man some extra hugs and kisses (if that is possible) at 4:14pm today. Unbelievable that he is almost a month old?!?! We had a good but very busy weekend.

Friday we ran errands and Auntie Al was over to help me with shower food and well and Gin and Jeff for a short visit. Saturday was the baby shower for MG and a big success. And Sunday was Sweet Caroline's baptism. She looked beautiful and it was very neat to be a part of welcoming into her Christian life. We did have to laugh though that Zach's first trip to church was to a Catholic church! ;-) Amy and Thomas had a lovely reception to follow at their house. All in all, a great weekend!

However, Z was a little fussy today. I think our schedule was all off. My mom called while he was being "fussy" and laughed as she basically told me, "You haven't seen fussy!" Apparently, I was VERY fussy as a baby. Imagine that! ;-)

So tonight I am missing out on the ladies' trip to see Tim McGraw at the Rodeo. We bought our tickets in Jan before Zachary was here and I thought I would be up for it. He may have been okay with Dad, but after our busy weekend and him still being little, I opted in better interest of staying home. I know the lovely ladies are having a good time though but there will be other times ahead!

Friday we are going to go take some family pics. Probably just portrait innovations since they seem to do well with the friends without spending several hundred dollars. I am so excited to have a family portrait and of course get Zach's announcements out. I cant wait!

And finally........after the many responses of "he is SO Matt", Grammy-Gram, aka Donna or Matt's mom sent me some pics of Matthew as a baby. My folks are still in FL for Astros Spring Training so I will post those when she gets back...but for now, I will leave you with Matt's baby pics. So, what do you think????

*3week hippo pic coming tonight after bath!

The Ginster's Shower

So today was the shower for Ginny and MG. Gin almost slipped and spilled the beans on MinGin's name but she caught herself before we even noticed. Ginny says the name IS in the Top 100 Names and is one she had never said aloud before....Hmmmmm......Wonder what it will be? I can wait though cause I know it will be just prefect whatever it is and its how momma and dad want to do it!!

Anyway, we had a great little shower today and Ginster got some good loot! I cannot believe she and Rox will be due in +/- 6 weeks!! I am so excited to meet the girls. They are going to be just presh! Tomorrow will be Caroline's baptism. We are going to do our best to be there the whole time and I think we will do great. I am hoping to get a pic of all the babies together too!

Here are a couple of pics from the weekend so far. Enjoy!