A New Wheeler

Zachary’s daycare had a swimming day yesterday, taking all the babies out to play in baby pools in the backyard.  Apparently, Zachary had a great time playing (not that we’re surprised…he loves the water).  Momma and Daddy are thinking we just might have to buy him his own little pool to play in at home.

Zachary’s first 4^th of July was spent enjoying America’s favorite pastime, hanging out at the ballpark.  We had a great time, despite the fact that the Aces didn’t manage to win the game.  It was a long, hot day, and Zachary handled it like a champ.  He napped for about an hour while we hung out waiting for the game to begin.  Then he was wide awake and very interested in what was going on all around him for the rest of the evening.

The game ended with a great fireworks display, which Zachary was absolutely mesmerized by.  He watched the fireworks for quite some time, then slowly drifted off to sleep in Daddy’s arms, still leaning up towards the sky. 

We hope you enjoy checking out the pictures from our day.

The weeks and months continue to fly by at an alarmingly rapid pace. As of yesterday, our little man is 7 months old, and I am truly flabbergasted by how that is possible. It seems like we have so many things to share with everyone, but it’s just so hard to find the time to sit down and do a real update these days. For now, here are some snippets of life with Zachary in the past couple months:

• As the pictures and video that we’ve already posted show, we have entered the world of “real” food. Zachary’s pediatrician gave us the go-ahead at his 6mos check up to start introducing solids (previously, we were just doing rice cereal, which he wasn’t all that interested in after the first couple of weeks). We didn’t waste any time and fed Zachary sweet potatoes that same night. He loved them, and we had a blast watching him experience his first bites. Since that first night, we’ve introduced apple sauce (likes, but probably doesn’t love, it), peas (loves them), green beans (eats them, but not too enthusiastically), carrots (seemed confused by them NOT being sweet potatoes at first but now eats them very well), and peaches (took a couple times but he seems to have decided that he loves them as well). We’ve also moved past rice cereal (he still gets it sometimes but definitely doesn’t prefer it) to oatmeal, which he eats very enthusiastically, especially when mixed with applesauce or peaches, and we have some barley in the cabinet waiting for him to try it out. With the exception of applesauce (the sugar-free, jarred is just as good), we are making all of his baby food. It’s been a fun experience all around.
• As soon as the weather starting getting warm, I began to itch for the opportunity to take Zachary swimming. James and I both love to swim, and we were excited to see if our little boy would follow suit. Considering how much he absolutely loves bath time, we were especially eager to get him in a pool. We had our first opportunity to take him swimming on 6/26 when a friend invited us to her apartment for a day of swimming and BBQing. The only thing more fantastic than how adorable Zachary looked in his little swim trunks and sunglasses (have you seen the pictures?) was watching him experience the swimming pool for the first time. The day was even more fun than what I’d imagined. Zachary loved hanging out in his little frog floatie! A couple weeks later, we headed back to our friend’s place for another BBQ and more swimming. This time, Zachary seemed to enjoy the pool even more. We went after dinner when the place was a lot less crowded than it had been the first time around, and there was lots of room for him to play. He spent some time in his floatie but seemed to prefer just hanging out being held by one of us this time. He kicked and splashed and just had a great time.
• Zachary now has FOUR teeth! His top two, front teeth broke through last weekend, after a long stretch of major teething pain. I’m hoping for a little bit of a break from teething now before we move onto the next ones!
• Zachary started sitting mostly by himself (with a pillow behind him or in between legs in case he fell) right around the 5mos mark, and he has been sitting unassisted for the last month +. And now he is getting so close to crawling! He will reach out to something that is slightly out of reach and end up on one knee, pushing himself up on both arms. The stretches of time before he falls onto his tummy are gradually getting longer. And even when he does fall, he still is doing the movements…just isn’t getting anywhere yet. You can see it in his face that he is trying so hard to figure out how to just coordinate it all so that he can actually move. He is a determined little boy and often starts fussing out of frustration when it just doesn’t happen.

We think our little man is SO cute that we’ve entered him in a monthly photo contest sponsored by Gerber.  The winners are selected by votes on the web site…won’t you please help us win?

Click HERE to vote for Zachary!

Not only did we get some pictures from Zachary’s first eating sweet potatoes but we also had to get video of the big event.

I had lots to say, but Zachary woke up from his nap before I had the chance to type up the post.  I promise an update is coming soon.  In the meantime, we’ve added some new pictures for everyone to catch up on how cute our little man continues to be:

Mmmm…sweet potatoes!
6-month Portraits
Swimming

About a week before Memorial Day weekend we find out there is to be a Picture Day with the Reno Aces.  They opened the gates early and let fan down to the field to take pictures with the players.  I have uploaded the ones with Zachary to the Picture Gallery here.  There are more of the day over on our family site.

Last weekend (Saturday, May 15), James and I took Zachary to his first baseball game.  We went to the game with our friends, Louie and Becka.  The Reno Aces (AAA team for the Diamondbacks) were playing the Iowa Cubs, and we all had a great time, despite the fact that the Aces got stomped on.  Zachary was a champ; handling the late evening out and all the fanfare like a real pro. 

You can see more pictures HERE.

In case you can’t see them, this is a picture of Zachary’s first two teeth.  Yep, that’s right, our baby has TWO teeth!  They arrived this past week, sometime between 8:00pm on Wednesday and Noon on Thursday.  Wednesday night, Zachary was using my knuckle as a teething toy, and there was nothing but the swollen gums he’s been fighting for quite some time now.  I discovered the teeth while visiting him at daycare on my lunch hour on Thursday.  They’re just barely poking through right now, but they are definitely on their way in!

This weekend, our little man had one of his biggest (at least, in my opinion) “firsts,” and not a single soul was there to witness it.  Sunday night, James and I put Zachary to bed then settled in our room for the night.  For several minutes, the sound of Zachary talking to himself filled our room via the monitor.  Suddenly, his contented talking turned into fussing and then some major screaming.  I rushed into his room to see what was going on and discovered him face down in his crib.  That’s right, he rolled over for the first time!  I was so excited to have him pass this milestone.  Of course, Zachary didn’t seem all too happy about it.  I guess that rolling over isn’t all that great of a thing when you can’t yet roll back the other way.  Still, though, Momma and Daddy celebrated this big moment in our little man’s life.  And we hope that the next time it happens will be witness not only by the both of us, but by the video camera as well!