Zachary's Baby

Yesterday during our picnic lunch, while Zachary was playing, I was holding a sleeping baby in my arms. Zach climbed into a patio chair like mine and says "I want baby, TOOOO". So I replied, "well go get one!" :)

Zach took good care of his baby Elmo until he left him in the swing for a couple of hours! ;-)

Zoobilee!

Thanks to my wonderful inlaws, the last couple of years we have been given a zoo membership for Christmas. We LOVE it and get the most use of it too! The zoo has an annual Members only event once a year where they close the zoo early and reopen it for...you guessed it, members only! We went this year and my mom and the Aday clan joined us! I think Zach and JP had the most fun playing while we ate our picnic! So cute! It tuckered us all out but we look forward to making it an annual event for our family!!

Thanks to my wonderful inlaws, the last couple of years we have been given a zoo membership for Christmas. We LOVE it and get the most use of it too! The zoo has an annual Members only event once a year where they close the zoo early and reopen it for...you guessed it, members only! We went this year and my mom and the Aday clan joined us! I think Zach and JP had the most fun playing while we ate our picnic! So cute! It tuckered us all out but we look forward to making it an annual event for our family!!

Easter

Happy Easter! Well....a couple weeks late! ;-)

Brotherly Love...we got no good pics!

New Easter Tricycle

The Huntin!

Easter Egg Coloring the day before....

Park Picnic & Play!

One of our fav things to do on the weekends is to pack up and head over to Meyer Park for a picnic lunch and play! The boys love being outside, and Zach can play soccer, walk trails, climb on playground, feed ducks/nutrias, etc! It always wears him out and good for the whole family to be getting some outside activity!! Mark goes along for the ride and always has fun too!

Dandelions...Make a wish!

The Stand Off

The Z and I had one today...and in the end, no one was really the winner! Has this ever happened to you? And I wonder where he gets it from!! ;-)

So on our day off I was thinking we may go to the nearby bounce house to expend some energy this morning. All was going well in our world. Mark and I were dressed and Zach was playing with his leggos. I told him if he wanted to go to the bounce house, we needed to get dressed and put up the blocks. He started and got about a 1/3 put up and then moved on to riding his motorcycle around the house. I gently reminded him that if he wanted to go, we needed to a) get dressed and b)put the blocks up. Thankfully a dirty diaper was also calling that took care of the getting dressed part as I had him up on the dresser anyway! So...downstairs we went again...reminder #3 about the blocks. He put a few more up and then moved on to cars. Gentle reminder #3 that before we moved on to the next mess, we need to clean up the first one! I am sure you can see where this is going....For whatever reason, the little dude WOULD NOT PICK UP THE DANG BLOCKS! All of this resulted in lots of No, no mommy and a couple of time outs for Z and his toys and tears....I amazingly never lost my cool but I felt like I got in too far that I couldn't give in! Ever been there before? Time out for him, time out for toys, taking away of toys, sitting together to clean up....nothing worked! ARGH. Finally after the last time out while he was sitting at the top of the stairs whining, I just took Mark out to the back yard to enjoy the sun shine, too much time wasted already. I could see out of the corner of my eye that Z has decided to wander out too. We hugged and made up and had a picnic on the patio complete with music and dancing and the day was not a total loss...but those blocks never did get picked up and no bounce house either.

Before the night was over, Matt helped him pick up the blocks and I got a "saw-ee" too. All of the toys were released from their time out and all was still well in the house.

But what to do in these situations? Do you give in for the sake of not wasting the day/sweating the small stuff...or hold strong as he needs to learn consequences too?? I obviously held strong and feel perhaps a lesson was learned...I guess we shall see when the next time it is time to clean up! :)

Babies, babies, babies

Just a little shout of Congrats to my friends Shannon (bailey) and Christine (nick and alex) who both delivered babies this week!

Mommies and babies are all doing well and just so stinkin adorable....am I crazy for saying it makes me want another already!?!?! Ha, don't worry, it ain't happening but nothing is sweeter than seeing those little newborn babies....

On my own "baby" front...my boys are doing well. After last week's tough transition back into full time daycare, I am happy to report that this week has gone better. It is still hectic, but at least it has not been tear-filled so far. Mark is the doll of the newborn room. Everyone just loves him in there and are marveled by how easy he is to make laugh and smile. I tell you, he is just a little lover! We finally moved him out of the bassinett but he is still in our room ( in the pack n play). I know I need to move him, but with working and not consistent sleeping yet, I just havent done it yet.

And Zachary is doing really well too. (And randomly...I dont think I ever posted too much about it, but he gave up the paci cold turkey about 2 months, so proud!) I swear you would never know that he was a little late to talk these days too cause he just jibber jaws all the time now! Car rides are especially fun with the "what's that?" and repeating and pointing out "Macs". He also LOVES "Finding Nemo" and of course "Cars" and pretty soon I may have both of them memorized.

The nanny hunt still continues. We have 2 more to meet this week. Praying we have found someone by beginning of May because I have to go out of town for work overnight and it would definitely be easier on Matt. Fingers crossed!!

Anyway, hope you are all doing well out in this big world! I need to get better about blogging again...but with working full time, it aint easy! :)

and some cuteness

Just a swingin....

Mark is now enjoyin the swing too!

new use for food coloring... the BATH TUB! He loves the magic colors!

Sweetest face

Big Boy!!!

Back to the Future pic...

Check out this freaky pic of Z...I didnt think you could get double exposure pics with digital cameras!

I am so behind

where do I even begin???

Well first things first....Matt has a J.O.B.!! Wahoo!! He got the offer the Friday I was in Dallas and started this Monday. It is a good job with lots of opportunity and I am excited for him! I was slow in spreading the news cause he was slow in telling people until everything was signed sealed delivered! :) but yay, after 8 months, he is working again and excited about being back in the grind!

So thanks to that, we are in the NANNY HUNT! Let me just say, Tues-Thurs were NOT the best mornings of my life. After 8 months of Z waking up when he wanted, eating breakfast with daddy, leisurely getting dressed, playing and getting to school around 10ish, Zach was not all to pleased to be awaken at 6am and out the door within 30 minutes. YOWSA. Poor baby boy. Between wardrobe battle and "mommy hold you" it was a rough couple mornings. Thursday was actually better and no tears but still confirms the fact that we want to get a nanny. Life would be much easier to have nanny there and be able to leave and let boys slumber as long as they want. I went ahead and signed Zach up for a MDO in the fall so hopefully we find someone by then! :) More to come on this process later...

Let's see, on other notes, the boys are both doing great despite all the changes this week. Mark of course is none the wiser, he just smiles and goes along for the ride. He is quite the hit at day care and that makes mommy happy. he is also HUGE I think! His little legs are about to hang off the car seat! And of course those chubby cheeks and thighs....I could eat him up!!!

And Zach, well, he just cracks me up these days. Some recent moments that have made me smile/laugh...

*When driving in the car and sucking down his juice box to the empty, I hear loads of laughing!! I ask whats so funny...."my apple juice tooted!" :)

*At the day care Easter egg hunt, apparently Zach was finding all the eggs, opening them up for "condy" and leaving the eggs behind as carnage!

*And while watching Nemo today, when Nemo's daddy was sad....Z says "Nemo daddy sad...I kiss him" and proceeded to kiss the tv!! SO SWEET!

I need to do better in posting and will definitely be working on that!!

Please keep my Grammy in your prayers. She was admitted to the ICU today and not sure what all is going on yet....so very thankful for the visit up to see her 2 weeks ago!!