Adorable

I put this picture on my photoblog, but there are a total of 3 people that check that one. And since I like it so much, I am going to post it here too. :)


Hope everyone has a fabulous weekend!

Video For Your Friday Morning Enjoyment

Zachariah has started to get his groove on with The Wiggles here recently. He changes his moves almost every time he dances, so you never know what to expect! This kid cracks me up.





I think his dancing skills have improved from this video I took about a month ago, don't you?
:)

Boob Tube

I read an article this week on fostering smart TV habits. The article said that kids who watch more than 10 hours a week of TV are at an increased risk of becoming overweight, acting aggressively, being slower to learn at school, learning to stereotype people based on gender and race, and living in fear of violence and victimization.

I am not sure that I agree with all of that... but I do think that, in general, kids spend to much time in front of the television. Weather its watching TV shows or playing video games. So when I read that article my first thought was, "Geeze! Who would let their kid watch 10 hours of t.v. a week?!" So in order prove to myself that I was a better mother than those people, I made a rough estimate of how much TV I thought Zachariah watched in a week. Those hours added up way too fast.

With me watching my nephew for the past few weeks, it is not hard to come up with two hours spread out through the day that Zachariah will be watching TV. And if he watches two hours each weekday, then that adds up to 10 hours a week. Without even factoring the weekends. Or the extra stressful days where I turn the TV on a little more to save my sanity. And a lot of times he will be playing while watching TV, or in and out of the room during his movie/show. So it isn't like he is a bump on a log... but the TV is still on and available for him to watch.

Needless to say, I was shocked that its so easy for me to let my toddler watch more than 10 hours of TV in a week. And I am going to try to work on that. But in the meantime, I have made a poll. So participate... because I need to know if there are any other out there like me. :)

Admit it...

I have the cutest 17 month old in the whole wide world. :)

Oh how I love this kid.

Short and Sweet

I just wanted to give a big HAPPY BIRTHDAY shout out to my fabulous hubby! He turns 27 years old today... but amazingly enough, doesn't look a day older than 26. :)


Happy Birthday, baby!

Ideas?

I am in desperate need of some creative ideas for entertaining a toddler. Indoors.
Coloring doesn't really keep his attention for long. He plays with his toys, but that gets old. And with it being rainy/cold we cant really do much outside.

So do any of you have some suggestions?? He is getting stir crazy which, in turn, makes me crazy. :)

Playing With Blocks

Usually when Zachariah plays with his blocks he either kicks them under the furniture, or he impatiently waits for me to stack them up so he can knock them over and say "crash!". This morning when we were playing, he started building... so I grabbed the camera. I was cracking up at the faces he was making while stacking the blocks. He can be so expressive!

ah mazing

I would like to thank Jeremy for sharing this fabulous video with my hubby, so that he could share it with me. And now, because I am a nice person, I will share it with you.
Enjoy.

Happy 17 Months Zachariah!

Yep. My little monkey is 17 months old today.

This kid is constantly amazing me with his smarts. He knows just about every letter sound, he is learning his colors, he is LOVES identifying body parts (mainly facial features, but feet, hands, and belly button are frequently visited as well), and when asked, he will identify and make the appropriate noises of just about any animal.

He is a great eater, a great sleeper, and has one heck of a personality. He means the world to us, and we couldn't have asked for a more wonderful child.

Happy 17 months, Zachariah! I love you bunches!

Bliss

Zachariah is an EXCELLENT sleeper. He goes to bed in between 7:30 and 8 and doesn't wake up until 8 or 8:30 the next morning. Our night time routine is very simple. We change Z into his pj's, brush his teeth, kiss him and tell him good night. We lay him in his crib and he goes to sleep. End of song.

Last night was a bit unusual. Less than 5 min. after we put him down he started crying. It was the type of cry that told me he wasn't going to settle down unless one of us went in there. So I went in and he reached for me with this pitiful look in his eyes. There are times when I am a sucker for his cuteness... and so I ended up sitting in the glider and rocking him. We sat there for a little while just rocking, listening to his lullaby CD. He wasn't asleep, but he was content... just laying on me. I cant even remember the last time he sat in my lap for that long, but I was soaking up every second of this. I cant even explain how wonderful it was to be able hold my baby, without life interrupting us.

After about 10 minuets had passed, he sat straight up and look at me. Then let me know he wanted to get back in his crib. So I kissed him and laid him down with his blanky and paci, and we didn't hear another peep out of him all night.

As it turns out Zachariah just needed a little mommy time.
I am really glad too. Because I needed a little Zachariah time.

Cheddar Bunnies

I have recently started buying some of Annie's Homegrown food products. I am a bit paranoid about the ridiculous amount of preservatives that are in just about everything we eat. So I was really happy when I found that Annie's products are healthier, and reasonably priced too!

Zachariah really likes their organic version of Campbell's spaghettios and their Cheddar Bunnies! (We buy those instead of goldfish.) I tried them the other day and they are actually really tasty.

Anyway, I was on the website and found some other products that I really want to try. They have Bunny Grahams, Fruit snacks, all natural mac n cheese, cereals... you get the picture. Actually, how about you just click here to see some of their products.

And in case you wanted to know, I have found them at WalMart. I am sure they are at some other grocery stores too, but I haven't looked elsewhere yet.

That does it for my product review. If you have tried some of Annie's products before, let me know what you think of them!

My Sweet Baby

I am on my way to bed, but I wanted to post a couple pictures of my little model. As soon as I pulled out my camera Zachariah started posing. It was the first time in weeks that he has paid attention to the camera.


Daniel said it looks like he is practicing for his senior portraits. LOL

Cured!

Today is my first full day of keeping my newborn nephew. Thankfully Daniel has today off. It has been so wonderful having him here to keep Zachariah occupied. As we speak, Daddy and Z are at the park playing while Collin takes a nap.

The house is quieter than it has been in days. And I am loving every second of it.

And in case you wanted to know, my baby fever is gone. With no trace of it left behind. It is completely exhausting chasing after a toddler while tending to a newborn. I am just glad I don't have the sleepless nights to go along with it. I would be a basket case! I don't know how my parents (who had three kids in three years) did it. So yeah. I am definitely wanting to wait until Zachariah is a bit older before having another one. Getting him potty trained would be nice.

I am going to go watch some mind numbing TV until the baby wakes up. :)
Happy Monday everyone!

Water Battle of '09

Ever since the beginning of time, Zachariah has had a hatred for water. He just wont drink it. Every now and then when I trick him into taking a sip of it, he will just let it drool out of his mouth. I really wanted him to drink water in between meals so that he wont get so filled up on milk, but its been a losing battle.

Until I switched cups.
He will drink anything out of these straw cups. He LOVES them. They are cute, cheap, and actually spill proof. Thank you, Nuby!

And I absolutely love watching him drink out of it. The way his cute little cheeks and lips look as he is slurping through the straw. ADORABLE.


*And just FYI... I also put a few drops of lemon juice in the water so that it makes it a bit more appealing. I plan to wean him off of that one drop at a time though. :)

Have a great weekend!

New Baby in the House

While my sister-in-law goes back to work, I am keeping her oh-so-precious son... until they are ready to put him in daycare. So far things have gone smoothly, but I have only had him half days this week, so the real fun starts next week! :)

Zachariah has been doing great with the whole thing. I honestly think that he thought Collin was a baby doll at first. He didn't really pay him much attention, and when he did notice Collin, he just tried to take his paci out of his mouth. But now he gets SO excited when I wake him up in the morning and tell him that Baby Collin is here to play. He has been trying to share his toys with him, and tries to give him his paci when he drops it. Its quite adorable. Anyway. Here are a couple pictures from the past two days.

Isn't he a cutie??

The cousins watching TV together

That's it for now.
Happy Wednesday everyone!

Talk About an Active Baby!

I saw this video today, and it made me laugh. So I thought I would share it with you.
Take note that this baby is NOT crawling.

Rant

A door to door sales lady came to my house today. Usually I don't answer the door, because I don't like to be inconvenienced... but my blinds were open and she saw me, so I felt trapped. To make a long story short, she ended up coming in my house and fed me a ton of statistics trying to convince me to buy some cancer insurance from her. I fed her my usual line of "I don't think we can afford that, considering we can barely pay our bills, but I will talk to my husband and give you a call if we decide to go with it". She didn't give me a card, she claimed she was only in town for one week and sat there trying to fill out paperwork to sign me up anyway... saying I could cancel in 30 days if I change my mind. HA! Yeah. Not so much.

She is going to come by again on Friday in hopes of catching Daniel at home... but I am going to make it a point not to be here. I cant handle that crap.

Anyway, if an "insurance agent" from Family Heritage comes to your door, please save yourself 30 min. and shoo them away.

That's all of my ranting for now. :)

A Few Random Things

The past week or so, Zachariah has been SUPER cranky. Which makes mommy cranky. So that equals no fun. Well, I finally realized that he has two teeth coming in (on the top). They have actually already broken though his gum, and I just now noticed. I feel like an idiot. All the signs were there... the drooling, crankiness, shoving everything in his mouth. But I totally missed it. I might be losing my touch. lol. Anyway- that makes the tooth count come to a total of six chompers!

I got my new camera this weekend, and I absolutely love it. It has been a bit difficult to get used to though. I don't even think I have made it all the way through the manual yet! There is just so much to know! And I know it will take practice, but patience is not one of my strong points. So I am trying not to get too discouraged with it. :)

The Notebook has always been my standby for the movie to watch when I need a good cry. But it has now replaced with P.S. I Love You. Every five or ten minuets I had tears streaming down my face. So yeah... I liked it and recommend it if you haven't seen it yet.

Last but not least, I am going to be keeping my newborn nephew starting tomorrow. He had heart surgery when he was 3 weeks old and has recovered WONDERFULLY. I am going to be keeping him until his parents are ready to put him in daycare. So I am VERY excited about that. So I am sure I will be posting some pictures of him in the next few days!

Alright. I think that does it for now!
Hope everyone has a great Super Bowl night!