ZMC - Toothless no more!

**Addition: Attached picture of Zach's first tooth. Not a great picture, but at least you can see the white of the tooth. **

Zachary has a tooth if you can believe it! 4 months is not unheard of to get teeth (a friend's daughter got 2 at 4 months), but it's a little early I think. Not that it's any indication of his development or intellect - he's totally average as far as we're concerned! :) I noticed it on Monday, after dropping Staci off at the airport. I asked Art to stick his finger in Zach's mouth, certain he'd be shocked, instead I got "I felt that the other day but wasn't sure what it was". So all those people that said he was teething were right. In fact, I think he's getting his second tooth already. It's just very barely poking out, whereas the first tooth is quite visible. Art and I are hoping to hold him off of "solid" foods until we get settled in Germany. However, he does enjoy licking fruits quite a bit - Staci has a video of him licking a pineapple. Monday night though, he didn't lick the carrot like he normally does, he bit it, and we thought "that's it, no more food" since he seems to be pretty interested in eating! We'll mention it to the peditrician next week when he has his 4 month appointment (and shots).

9.27.06 - Happy Birthday Dexter!

Dexter is one year old this month, and we 'decided' that today, the 27th, would be his birth date, simply because we adopted him on the 27th (of January). I'm trying to spend extra time with him today and give him lots of treats since it is his birthday.

On a separate note, I talked with the German consulate today (in the US) about Dexter. They gave me the website of the form that needs to be filled out by the vet. They said as long as I have that info, and his shots are up-to-date, then there will be no problems bringing him into the country. I also asked if she had heard of customs performing euthanasia on a pet who's documents weren't in order or something like that (Someone told Art's mom that this sometimes happens). She didn't know what euthanizing meant, and when I explained it, she was horrified. She said, 'no way', they would never kill a pet on the spot, and she's never heard of it even though she gets tons of calls a day about pets into and out of the country. She said it's very routine, bringing pets, and there rarely is an issue.

So, it looks like Dexter is good to go to Dusseldorf with us. We've made his reservation w/ Delta and everything. It costs less for him to fly over ($100) than it does for us to HOLD Zachary (not even his own seat - $262). Sheesh. Maybe we should put Zach in the belly of the plane. :)

This picture of Dexter is very common. The sink is one of his favorite places to sit.

W.A.C. - He's DONE!!

Praise the Lord! Art is done with his dissertation! He completed it on Thursday, but had to make the corrections from his advisor, Dr. Saxena, on Monday, as well as some formatting changes. He stayed at work late on Monday and completed it. It has now been sent to his defense committee for review. WHEW! We are all breathing easier now that the dissertation is out the door and off our (the entire family 'suffered') shoulders. Art is very proud of his work and feels it is a good paper. Now all that is left is to create a presentation for the defense on October 20th. Please continue to pray that his defense will go well.

Now the evenings are to be devoted to packing and family time...much better than hours holed up at the computer. Art can now go to bed at the same time I do. Even Dexter should benefit from Art's being done with the dissertation.

Aunt Staci Visits Dexter

Staci didn't come to visit JUST Zachary and Shayna. She also came to visit Dexter - much to his chagrin some of the time. Staci 'forced' Dexter to 'hug' her several times a day, yet, he still came to her to cuddle occassionally, even grooming her. Very interesting cat, that Dexter! This month he turns into a cat - no longer a kitten. Buying cat chow instead of kitten chow made me a little sad (I'm having a hard time w/ all the changes).

Aunt Staci Visits Zachary

Zachary and I loved to have Aunt Staci here. It was great for me to have someone to hand Zach off to so I could get some work done! I also loved watching Staci make Zach laugh. I know she enjoyed spending so much one-on-one time with him. Art was gone w/ 9 other guys on a camping trip. The went to North NM, but had to turn back from where they wanted to go because there was 3" of snow on the ground, and still falling!! The went down about 3000 feet in elevation and ended up 'car camping' (instead of backpacking - hiking w/ all their gear to a campsite) which I found very funny. Art said the trip was great for everyone. It was perfect for Staci to come the weekend that Art was gone. We didn't do too much outside of the house, other than small errands and eating out for lunch, but it was still fun. What I found the funniest: Staci started borrowing my clothes, b/c of Zach's spit-up! In Staci's defense, she brought very little clothing and didn't want to have to keep washing clothes (whereas I don't change unless I get pooped on! :) ) Staci and I did get to watch 2 movies, one each night after Zach went to bed. Staci and I got plently of time of just us to chat and catch up, while Zach was napping. He napped more this weekend than he has in a very long time, could be the runny nose (cold?) he's had. We finally went and got him some infant decongestant, and that helped a lot. Aunt Staci could give Zach's Nana a run for the money with "rocking to sleep". Staci was an old pro. Zachary loved it, b/c he doesn't get such nice treatment anymore. His mean 'ole mom makes him go to sleep mostly on his own, with no holding - just some back patting. Now we're looking forward to Aunt Staci coming to visit in Germany!

ZMC - Beach bum

Nothing really to report, just wanted to post this picture of Zach in his 'beach bum' outfit from 9.13.06. It's getting too cold here for him to wear it again...maybe later in the week when it's going to be 75+ degrees.

Zach is loving having his Aunt Staci here to fawn over, and I'm so relieved she's here since Art is out galavanting in the woods w/ 9 other church-friend guys.

Zachary picked up a cold while in DC and Aunt Staci is getting the fun of having drool, spit-up, AND snot all over her clothes. She's ready to do a load of laundry already! :)

Z.M.C & Dexter - almost pals!

Just a few stories about Dexter and Zachary. Dex does seem to have affection for Zachary now, not a lot, but some; particularily during two times: when Zach is asleep and when Zach is crying/screaming.

Ocassionally if I'm real tired, I'll put Zach down for his nap in our bed, where he loves to be and generally takes a longer nap, so I can nap at the same time. More often than not, Dexter jumps into bed purring, wanting to be pet (80% of the time waking me from my nap). He squeezes in between us, but had been trying to avoid Zach most of the time. So the first picture is Dexter during a nap cuddle-attack. Recently however, Dexter seems to be a little more affectionate towards Zachary. He ocassionally rubs his head on Zach's arm or head while he's purring. The second picture, though you can't see it very well, is of Dexter grooming Zach on the elbow. I was afraid that would wake Zach up, but he slept right through it. He does pull his arm away from the licking if he's awake though.

As most of you have heard, Dexter will attempt to lick Zach's head, presumably to calm him, when Zach is screaming. Sometimes it works, other times it makes it worse. When it gets worse, Dex then bites us on the feet, as though telling us to make him stop. On Tuesday, I saw Dexter's best attempt to soothe Zachary. Zach was lying in his boppy on the bed and I was playing with him by 'chewing' on his hands (hey, whatever makes him laugh!). I accidentally used my teeth and hurt Zach (no mother of the year awards here) which of course started him screaming. I picked him up and held him to my chest, while leaning backwards in bed up against the headboard. Dexter came over to lick his head but couldn't really reach him, so Dexter puts his paws up on Zach's back, leans forward -laying on Zach -to reach his head. He started licking his head and Zach gave out a tremendous wail that caused Dexter's ears to flatten. But Dexter did try again, and Zachary did calm down some.

Dexter doesn't want much to do with Zach when Zach's awake, but Dex sure does like to check him out while he's asleep. He jumps on his crib (which always makes us sit straight up in bed) to look at him, and will 'check on him' when Zach's napping on the floor or the chair (or in our bed). He's starting to show a little more interest in him while he's awake, but not much. Zachary has started noticing Dexter as well. I'm not sure he knows what to think yet.

We think that Dexter finally sees Zach as part of the family...hopefully.

Dexter - still a destroyer

Art thinks this is very funny. Somehow Art got a small hole in his shower curtian. For weeks Dexter was infatuated with this hole (maybe the light coming through it?), and attacked it. Finally he got his claws caught in it and ripped a huge gash in the curtain. Well, that turned into a HUGE new game for Dexter. He now sits in the bathtub, waiting for some unsuspecting person to walk near the tub, or put their head near the gash in the curtain so he can try to jump through the gash to get you. I took maybe 15 pictures trying to get one of Dexter 1/2 way through the gash at an attack attempt but to no avail. The attached picture is of him stalking through the curtain. Art agrees with Dexter, thinking it is a fabulous game.

Z.M.C. - First flight

Zachary flew on his first airplane on 9/14. The three of us flew to D.C. to visit the entire Counts clan. Zach did great on the flights. Art gave him a B+ and I have him an A- for the flights to D.C., and we both gave him an A+ for the flights back - mainly because he slept the entire flights, waking only to eat. He is such a little flirt. He would start to get fussy on the plane and a flight attendant would come talk to him, and he'd smile real big at her and just wiggle with joy. He's going to be trouble with the ladies! :)

Zach (we're thinking of shortening this to Zac) did not do so well in another crib. He napped in the pack & play, which Railey let us borrow, with no problems, but sleeping at night was a huge issue. The first night he just refused. After about 3 hours of him waking up screaming his 'panic' scream, we finally just let him sleep in our bed so we could get some sleep. Of course he had no problem sleeping there, and slept until about 6am before wanting to be fed. The second night was a little better, and the third night was slightly better than that. All three nights he woke up screaming after about an hour after falling asleep, but by the third night, he only did that once, instead of repeatedly like the other nights.

Our flights were delayed coming home, and we got home about 2 hours after we were scheduled. We were hoping Zach (Zac?) would just stay asleep so we could put him to bed, but he woke up at the airport and stayed awake in the car, babbling to himself. I fed him when we got home (12:30am), and was hoping he'd fall asleep eating, but he didn't. So I just put him in his crib awake, hoping for the best. What was VERY cute is that he rolled over on his side, smiled real big, and started "petting" the side of his crib, as though saying "I'm HOME!" He batted his bears (on a mobile) a bit, started sucking his thumb/fingers and fell asleep with no problem. We were very relieved! But we thought it was very cute that he seemed to be happy to be home... even though it was 55 degrees in the house (we had left the swamp cooler on for Dexter, not knowing that it would get so cold). It was so cold that we had Zach sleep in a hat and Art slept in his jeans - b/c it was "too cold to change".

All in all it was a great trip and we all had a really good time. One of the best all-family trips!

Attached are 2 pictures: One of Zachary taking a nap on the plane (you can see the arm rest), and the other of Art schlepping all the bags and Zach- we packed a back for Janneke and Karl each to bring to Germany for us when they come in November and December respectively.

ZMC - Head size evident

Zachary's head falls into the 25th percentile for his age group. We don't think it looks that small for him, until we get him next to kids that are 'close' to his age. The attached picture is of Zach and his friend Jonathan David, who is about 5 weeks older than him. It's amazing how small Zach's head looks! We're quite happy about it though, b/c he has done all 'head' motor skills relatively early. In fact, JD (from the picture) has not yet rolled over, likely due to his head and shoulder size, whereas tiny-head-Zach rolled over weeks and weeks ago. :) It just proves how interesting the range of normal is.

ZMC - Not always so happy

We realized that we had only been posting pictures of Zachary smiling. We don't want everyone to get the idea that he's happy ALL the time. He does live up to his "Zila Monster" nickname each and every day. Attached are a few pictures of him getting close to 'losing it'. He's not happy, but not in full screaming mode just yet.

Also interesting - it took me several days to get some crying pictures of Zach. Not because he didn't cry, but because he's infatuated with the red light on the camera. So when I'd try to take a picture, the red light would come on, and he'd stop momentarily. This will hopefully be a good trick in the future when he's crying, but it was inconvenient to the task at hand.

S.S.C - Sleep deprived & happy about it

I am indeed getting more sleep deprived instead of less the last couple of days. I'm happy about it, because I can't blame Zachary this time - it's Dexter's fault. Dexter is finally starting to be very cuddly again. I woke up to purring three times today - 4am, 7:30am (Zach slept until 8:15am), and 4pm (nap). He was very cuddly all three times and let me pet him for quite some time. He even rubbed his head against me - like the "good 'ole days". :) Apparently, his 4am cuddle-fest with me was not enough - as I was feeding Zach at 5am, I watched Dexter try to get Art to pet him several times. Dexter would get in Art's face and purr and try to get Art to pet him. Art would pet him one or two times then roll over. Dexter would just go to the other side and start over, butting Art in the face with his head. When Art (who never woke up enough to realize I wasn't in bed) had enough, Dexter showed his displeasure by biting Art's feet under the covers. I got to watch all this while feeding Zach. Usually, Dexter has a cuddle fit around 4-5am, and I'm usually the receipent, but it is fun to watch him harass Art as well. Sometimes Dexter will come to the edge of the bed purring, and I'll have to hold onto Zach (while he's eating), and lean forward so I can pet the purring monster. I was just thrilled today that he asked for cuddles several times during the DAY, and not just at some awful hour. I'm hoping we are getting our cuddle bug back.

We had quite a scare with Dexter today. We have started letting Dexter go out back by himself, unsupervised (we check on him every 5-10 minutes). This is the result of months of walking him on his leash, then walking behind him w/ his leash on, then letting him out by himself w/ the leash on and one of us watching him on the back porch to where we are now, open the door, let him go out, without a leash, and periodically check on him. Well today he'd been pretty bad. Twice he went to the side of the apartments instead of staying out back where I can see him. Then, after I brought him in once, he wasn't happy and after 5 minutes of meowing up the stairs at me (I was feeding Zach and didn't want to let Dex out), he promptly opened the screen door on his own and let himself out. All this should have told us that trouble was brewing. Sure enough, around 6:30pm, he had been out for about 15 minutes, and we couldn't find him. Art had just gotten home and dinner was cooking. We looked all around and couldn't find Dexter. I was starting to get very upset and crying. We both were praying that we'd find him and he'd be ok. We finally did find him - he was just sitting inside the fence where the pool was - 30 feet from our apartment, looking at us like we were crazy for calling him. Little brat. So now we have to rethink his freedom.

As a side note, I'm getting much less sleep deprived due to Zachary. The last 2 nights he woke up for his 'night feeding' at 4:30-5am, then went back to sleep until about 8am. So that's real nice for me!

The pictures are of Dexter today. One being nice and calm, the next is his response when I tried to pet him - typical Dexter - bite first, ask intentions later!

Z.M.C. - Nurse visit

Our little boy is no longer in the 50th percentile weight. He is now in the 60th percentile for weight among kids his age. He had an appointment with the nurse today to get a 'weight check', and get his info plotted on his charts. He now weighs 13 pounds 11 ounces (up from 11 lbs 8 oz at his 2 month appointment). Quite the little piglet! His next appointment is October 5th, where he will get his 4 month shots as well as weighed and measured.

The attached picture is because Zach got a new hat - courtesy of Joel & Emily. They sent us some old clothes from their boys and one outfit came with this hat which Art loves.