Baby Shark do do, do do.

Last year for Halloween Zachariah was going to be a pirate. It was the CUTEST costume and he was in a major pirate phase, so I was pretty excited about him wearing it. Turns out he was terrified of the costume (you can see part of it here), so we returned it and he wore a Halloween shirt instead.

To avoid the same thing happening this year we let Zachariah pick out his costume and had him try it on IN the store to make sure he liked it. Wanna know what he picked?

A shark! Why a cute little pirate costume is more scary than a shark eating your head, I will never know. But I do know that he is going to be the CUTEST shark on the block!

Look, it even has a little dorsal fin on the back!

Watch out world! You have a cute little boy disguised as a cute little shark coming to eat all of your candy tonight!

And he has let me know that if he doesn't get lots of suckers, he just might chomp you.

Don't say I didn't warn you. He is pretty fierce.

Happy Trick or Treating everyone!!

Hot Coco For The Win!

A few days ago I told Zachariah that we would have to bring out the hot chocolate if it got any colder in the mornings. Well, yesterday morning it was in the upper 40's and he heard me telling Daniel how chilly I was, so he excitedly asked, "Mama! Can we drink hot chocolate?!" Since this weather puts me in a fabulous mood (most of the time at least) and since he was pretty much adorable, I agreed. Under ONE condition though. I made Zachariah agree to let me take pictures while he enjoyed his hot beverage! :)

Oh, did I mention that this was Zachariah's first ever cup of hot chocolate? Well, it was. I mean, he may have had some at a family members house last year, but not that I know of. So unless I find out differently we are counting this as his first!

And I think its pretty safe to say that he enjoyed it. In fact, he enjoyed it so much that after I got done take pictures he finished off what was left in MY mug as well!

I love this cute little goober. :)

Say It Aint So

In a little less than a month my son will be turning three.

THREE!

He is obviously moving out of the toddler stage and into the "boyhood" stage real quick like. And that makes me sad. But I have a few more weeks until I have to deal with this age change issue, so I am going to just ignore it now, ok?

I took this picture the other day. He had just woken up from his nap. He has adorable bed head, his paci in his mouth and his blue blanket under his nose, (along with gung-gung, this is something he does not sleep without). Ever since he was a baby (not infant, baby. like, 6 months old or something) he HAS to put his blanket or gung-gung under his nose in order to fall asleep. He also does this when he is tired/wishing he was going to sleep. I have no idea why, but it is just something he does. And I LOVE it. It is one of the cutest things ever.

Anyway. I am very glad I took this picture. This is something I want to always remember. It is part of who he was as a baby and part of who he is as a toddler, and no matter how old he gets I want to be able to look back and remember this exact face. This groggy, yet obviously happy face of my baby. I just can't get enough.

My Beautiful Child

First things first. Thanks for those who let me know their opinion on the crib situation in the post below! Whether it was by comment on my blog, email or facebook, I really appreciate the feedback! I am personally leaning towards crib number two... but we will see how it goes! I will keep you posted! :)

Ok. Now, for the blog post...

Since I have been puking for the past 2.5 months I have not taken very many pictures. In fact, I have not so much as thought about picking up my camera! I enjoy taking pictures and so I have been kinda missing the whole taking-pictures-for-fun-thing that I had going on. And once I can get my act together I hope to trot on over to my friend Shelley's house and take some pictures of her ADORABLE baby girl. :)

Anyway. All that to say that the other day I was laying on the couch, per my usual, when I looked over to see Zachariah playing at the window. He was being SO incredibly cute and so I decided to heave myself off the comfy piece of furniture and grab my camera. It took me a while to remember where I keep the thing, but once I found it I got all up in Zachariah's play space so I could show you some pictures of his adorableness.

You can thank me later. :)

See his cute little dinosaur? That dinosaur lives in the blinds (no joke. that is his home now.) and Zachariah loves to periodically come over and make him "ride the elevator" or "walk up some steps".

I love seeing his imagination at work. I could seriously watch him play for hours. It is the cutest and most entertaining thing to hear him come up with voices for his toys and to see what "trials" he will have them conquer. Today this dino is just getting a lot of exercise going from one level to another. :)

And I am now getting roared at. That was Z's not so subtle way of telling me I was cramping his style with my camera. :)

I just love this kid. His hair rocks my socks, his eyes melt me and I could just kiss that face all day long. God has truly blessed me, and I am so incredibly thankful. I cant imagine life without this awesome kid. :)

Zachariah's New Shirt

Zachariah has a new shirt and he has been DYING to share it with you all, but I have made him wait for a few weeks before showing it off. Partially because I am a mean mommy and partially because I like to keep secrets.

Ok, fine. Its only because I like to keep secrets. But the time has come and Zachariah just couldn't wait another moment to model his new shirt. So without further adieu, here is the new addition to our two year olds wardrobe...

You like? :)

Well, the shirt doesn't lie! I am about 7 weeks pregnant and my due date is February 12, 2011. Come early next year, ZACHARIAH IS GOING TO BE A BIG BROTHER!

And you know what?

We couldn't possibly be more excited about it! :)

Post Nap Ergo Propter Nap

I know, I know. I have been slacking again. But hey, at least I have an excuse this time! I have been plagued with a sickness. Some kind of stomach bug has attacked me and I have been out of commission for quite a few days. But have no fear, I have just what the doctor ordered: A dose of Zachariah cuteness for this lovely Monday afternoon! :)

The other day I was editing some pictures at the kitchen table when Zachariah woke up from his nap. He was still VERY groggy and just walked up to me, climbed in my lap and then flopped himself up on the kitchen table. I typically do not allow Zachariah to take up residency on our table, but he was really working the cute factor that afternoon. So I just smirked and went on with my editing.

After a few moments he started waking up (for real this time) and getting very giggly. It may have had something to do with a particular Queen song that Pandora decided to play for us, but I am not positive. :)

Appropriate shirt, no?

And then he ate my apple while we rocked out to Pandora. :)

If you cant tell, post nap bonding is my favorite. He is in such a fun, loving and happy mood during that time and I love to take advantage of it whenever possible!!!

Hope everyone has a happy Monday!

Honkey The Donkey

Funny story:

A while back the kids were coloring pictures of a donkey in Sunday School. Zachariah, being the bright kid that he is, let everyone know that he thought he was coloring a dragon. His friend Emma (who is the closest kid at church to his age) said, "No Zachariah. That's not a dragon, its a HONKEY!".

Fast forward to a month or so ago:

When Zachariah broke his arm, Emma came over and brought Zachariah something to make him feel better. She, with the help of her mom and siblings, brought a YUMMY cookie and a Webkinz toy! Can anyone guess what animal the Webkinz was? It was a donkey! We appropriately named it Honkey the Donkey. (And yes, Zachariah really does call it Honkey.) I love that it is "their thing". I didn't know two year olds could have "things" or inside jokes, but they do. And its absolutely hilarious.

Fast forward to earlier this week:

Here is Zachariah's book shelf. The bottom half of the bookshelf (the half that is visible) holds all of his stuffed animals and books. The books are in the green bins. The bins keep me from having to worry about the books being displayed in a nice, organized fashion. Its fabulous.

But that is beside the point!

You may or may not have noticed Honkey the Donkey and a randomly placed book on the top shelf. Usually Honkey is one of two animals that Zachariah takes to bed with him, but on this day he choose not to have any animals share his bed. (I guess he was feeling a bit claustrophobic.) Z had been reading books at the beginning of nap time, and before he fell asleep he propped a book up next to Honkey so he could read it.

Is that not hilariously cute? I am sure its just one of those "you had to be there" sort of things, but it just cracked me up!

Anyway, Zachariah REALLY loves his Honkey. And I just thought I should share the cuteness with everyone. :)

Sprinkler Fun on Memorial Day!

Happy Day After Memorial Day!!!!

Ok, so I have about a bajillion things I am supposed to be doing right now, but I wanted to drop in and say a quick hello and show you some cute pictures. :) We had a great Memorial Day weekend complete with spending time with family, friends and sprinklers! I only brought my camera out during the sprinkler portion of our weekend, so that is all you have to look at today. Luckily my kid is cute enough that you don't NEED anything else in the blog post! :)

Ok, I am sorry to interrupt the cuteness, especially since we JUST got started, but does anyone remember the show Freakazoid that played on cartoon network back in the day? (Click the link. It is the intro song to the show.) I KNOW my Dad and my siblings will remember it, but does anyone outside of my crazy-go-nuts-family remember this show? Regardless, the picture above reminds me so much of the crazy looking run that Freakazoid does. And for those of you who have no idea what I am talking about, or just in case you need a refresher, watch this six second video.

Doesn't Zachariah look like he is doing that exact thing??

Oh man. I about died laughing when I looked at these pictures! Even if he was just trying to block the water from hitting his face, my son is doing the Freakazoid run! It serious cracks. me. up.

Ok. I'm over it now. Back to the cuteness.

And seriously. You don't get ANY cuter than this. Gah. He melts me. I just want to go wake him up from his nap and kiss his cute little face right now!

But I treasure my nap times, so I wont go do that.

Daddy played too! :)

Ahhh! There it is again! Bahahaha!

Sorry.

Anyway, I don't think its hard to tell that Zachariah loves playing in the sprinkler. And once it stops raining down here I am sure we will be setting up our little pool for him to play in too!

But for now the sprinkler does just fine for this little Freakazoid. I mean... boy.

Hope everyone had a great Memorial Day weekend!! :)

TCBY

Last week Z and I met up with my friend Rachel and her daughter Eva. Since the temperature is in the 90's now, we decided to take the kids for a refreshing treat at TCBY!

They were both adorable and fun, but I noticed a few distinct differences between the two kids.

The most obvious difference (besides gender, obviously) would be their size. I mean, Zachariah looks huge compared to Eva's dainty little self! And seriously, could they be any cuter looking at the ice cream flavors?? I think not.

The next few differences aren't quite as obvious at first glance, but once you sit down and pay close attention I think you will be able to see them.

She licked her frozen yogurt sweetly and carefully

while he shoveled MASSIVE spoonfuls of ice cream into his mouth in record time.

She giggled because her face was messy (which was totally adorable by the way)

and he got a brain freeze.

She posed with her mommy for a cute picture

And he... well he didn't so much as pay the camera a lick of attention. (Yes, pun intended.) Maybe hanging out with Eva will get him out of his photographic rebellious stage he is in.

Despite his knack for ignoring the camera, we had fun. And I think the messy faces were a pretty good indication of that. :)

I Think I Can

The other morning while I was cleaning up the house Z was playing quietly in his playroom. This almost never happens, so I decided to go see if everything was ok/what was keeping his attention for this long.

When I walked into the room I noticed he was building a train track. That may not seem like a big deal, but it really shocked me. You see, all he has is a beginners train track and it ONLY does a figure eight. You can not make it completely connect any other way. That being the case, Zachariah usually asks me to build the track for him and then he goes to town playing with it.

But this time he decided to start building it himself. When he saw me standing in the doorway he was more than halfway done and said, "Look Mama! I putting pieces together! I do it all by self!" He was so incredibly proud of himself. The cuteness was almost too much to bear. I couldn't stop smiling and praising him for the great job he was doing.

After he put whatever he considered the appropriate amount of pieces together, he let Thomas give the track a test run. I honestly thought he was going to get upset about the track being incomplete, but it didn't bother him one bit! He was just so proud of the fact that HE did it.

And I was proud of him to. Its funny how little things like this can make a a mommy so happy. I mean, technically its just a little ole' train track. But hearing the excitement in his voice and seeing the look on his face when he is able to do something new is just enough to make me giddy.

With that being said, I think I will go hug my little munchkin.

I hope everyone has a great Monday! :)

Mothers Day

I am afraid I don't have a super sweet/sentimental belated mothers day post for you to read today. And I don't even have a ton of cute pictures ready to show you of me and Zachariah. But I do have two pictures of us that were taken yesterday... which is actually a pretty big deal when you take in consideration Z's camera phobia. :)

Even though being a mommy is more challenging than I ever could have imagined, it is pretty much the most awesome thing ever. Zachariah has made me one heck of a happy Mom for the past 2.5 years and I wouldn't trade it for anything.

I hope all of you Mom's had a great Mothers Day! :)