ZMC - Happy Halloween

Zachary's first halloween. Art and I had no intention of taking him trick-or-treating, but the family had other ideas. His pumpkin costume was courtesy of his Nana. Zach went to one house for candy, accompanied by his mom, dad, Aunt Staci, Poppa, and Nana. He also rang the doorbell to try and trick his Grandma. His mom enjoyed his yummy chocolate candy and is now planning on taking him every hear to several houses! :)

ZMC - 5 Months Old

Trick-or-treat! Zachary is 5 months old today! His Nana bought him an orange and black outfit that says 'my first halloween' on it to wear for the day. He got to go outside and play with a big pumkin, which he really enjoyed, then got to go to visit Nana at her work and be lavished with attention there. All in all it was a good day to turn 5 months old.

SSC & WAC - Aquarium

Art's graduation present from my family was a trip for the two of us to the GA Aquarium, followed by lunch - WITHOUT Zach.

We attempted to get to the aquarium when it opened at 9am and were close - 9:30am. It was great because no one was there. We were able to see all 5 of the areas with much traffic at all. It is an amazing Aquarium and we really enjoyed it. Some of our favorite things were shown in these pictures - the penguins, the jellyfish, and the sea dragon (related to the sea horse). Our favorite jellyfish is one that reflects light, but looks like it is producing running lights. Very neat! They were very tiny though. I would love to be surrounded by them while scuba diving. I loved the sea horses because they are so darn cute, but then I saw the sea dragons, which are just cool. The penguins have this very cool habitat that allows humans to crawl under it and pop up in the middle of the habitat surrounded by plexiglass, so we can get an up-close view of the penguins. Very fun.

They had a lot of exhibits where you can touch the animals which is fun. We got to 'pet' stingrays, sea urchins, shrimp, and a few other things. Art freaked out the museum volunteer when he asked if he could eat the shrimp, and just pop their heads off. She said 'wow, that's violent', and Art followed up with 'those professional shrimpers are able to pop their heads off with one hand'. She looked EXTREMELY uncomfortable.

It was a great present, and wonderful that I got to partake as well.

Z.M.C - Visit with Oma Sweet

Attached are some pictures of Zachary with his Oma Sweet in Savannah. We had a nice trip and a great visit with Art's parents and Oma Sweet. Oma had a train that she had been saving for about 20 years for Art's child. Zach loved watching it go around the tracks. Unfortunatley the camera died prior to that. We also had a nice visit with Mr. Eaton (Joel's Granddad) and Laura, Patrick, Emma, and Sarah Brodmann.

10.20.06 -Dr. Awesome at last

Today was Art's defense date for his disseration. We were up late last night getting everything ready - like finding Art's tie, belt and dress socks, as well as ironing his shirt. Why this had to be done at 9pm is a mystery. :)

Art left very early (before 8am) to make sure he did not encounter any horrible traffic. He picked Corbett up at the hotel and they went to get the room set up. Most of the family showed up for the defense (my three parents, Art's two parents, Staci, Janneke, and Karl), plus at least 4 other outside people that came just to hear the talk. Art did a great job presenting and the presentation looked great with the exception of a few misspellings. The family then went to the student center to wait for Art, while his committee members grilled him on his dissertation work. They took FOREVER! After over an hour and a half, a smiling Art appeared with Corbett and Dr. Saxena. The entire group (minus Karl who had to go back to work, plus Joy who got out of class) went for lunch at the Old Spaghetti Factory. I had some embarassing moments when I got us lost bc I missed the turn to the Spag Factory and had to double back on a different road. Sigh. Lunch was great though and it was fun to have everyone there who had been such a huge support to Art.

Now the only thing left is to make changes to the dissertation - which will not be so easy, given it is on a Mac - and get it submitted. All the committee members signed off on it - permission to GRADUATE!

The picture is a proud Zachary with his proud Daddy (even though Zach slept the entire presentation), and one of our proud family.

ZMC - Solid food eater

Zachary has started on solid foods - a hilarious term for runny fruits and veggies that are almost liquid.

He got his first bite of food on Oct. 17th. We had been letting him 'lick' fruits and veggies for the past several months, and he had been getting increasingly interested in our food. We had planned on waiting until we got to Germany to start him on solid foods, but he let us know he was READY. His first try was a bit of a disaster - not because he didn't like it, but because he knocked over the bowl with the rice cereal in it. He took to his first food - rice cereal - like a champ! By the end of the week he was not only opening his mouth eagerly for more food (like a little bird), but he also started throwing temper tantrums when he finished all the food. The big picture is my favorite - it was the first meal he had. One is of him throwing a tantrum, another is of him and how messy he gets, and one is of him eagerly wanting more, complete with impatient sounds.

Editor's note: By December 3rd, he has now tried carrots, peas, squash, sweet potatoes, eggplant, zucchini, apples, pears, bananas, and peaches. The only thing he HATES are peas - gagging and everything. He is not a huge fan of zucchini and eggplant, but he will eat it. So far he LOVES all fruit, likes all 'yellow' veggies, and tolerates most 'green' veggies, except for peas. It is quite fun to introduce a new food and watch him have a confused look on his face, while he decides if he likes it or not. We are now making most of his food at home and freezing it in ice cube trays.

WAC - A successful end

Art (and I) threw his done-with-dissertation-and-going-away party on Saturday 10.7. It was a great time. We had about 30 people show up to eat low-country boil and bounce on the bounce house we rented. Art wanted to rent the inflatable sumo suits for the party, but after some research, we found they are WAY expensive (~$900), so the bounce house was a good alternative (~$100). The guests got off easy, because I accidentally bought shells-off shrimp for the boil, so they didn't have to peel the shells off. Lucky them! Most people were not totally enthralled w/ the boil, but everyone was game to try it. The only other "southerners" here couldn't make the party.

The bounce house was a lot of fun, and I even got to do a few front flips and back handsprings (with Art spotting), but I chickened out on the back flips - I guess having a child makes you think harder about 'stunts'. :) Art and 3 guy friends (only 4 adults allowed at a time) almost tore the castle down a few times with their 'rambunctious' jumping! Everyone seemed to have a good time, and there were still people hanging around after the 4 hour of castle rental were up. We have such good friends here in Albuquerque, it's going to be very sad to leave them! At least Art was pleased with his party though - a good end to a great run here in ABQ. Remember when I could say nothing nice about ABQ ("stupid albuquerque!")? Now I love it here - EXCEPT FOR THE WATER.

10.6.06 - Lazy Dexter

Dexter appears to have learned how to nap from Art. Art likes to hang off the bed - so much so that the feather bed starts to hang off the mattress. He prefers for his feet to be hanging off the bed. Now Dexter has apparently picked up this annoying habit! Still, he's so darn cute I had to capture it.

ZMC - 4 Months Old!

Zachary had his 4 month appointment this week, and all was good. He is now 15 lbs 7 oz (60th percentile) and 25 inches long (60th percentile). His head is up to 30-40th percentile (it's hard to tell exactly on the growth charts.

He got 3 shots again, just as he was trying so hard to go to sleep. After the nurse was done, Art scooped him up and he stopped screaming immediately, and started whimpering. By the time I had lugged everthing out to the car, Art had gotten Zach to go to sleep.

Our peditrician (who is from the Czech Republic) gave us lots of advice for baby stuff in Europe (like what Tylenol is called). AND, this shocked me, she gave us her home email address in case we have any questions for her before we get a peditrician there. She is so nice, I hate to leave her.

She said no problem waiting to start solid foods until we get there, but that we'll probably want to pretty quickly once there. She said to be prepared for him to not sleep through the night every night (he does now maybe 2x a week) until we start food. The breastmilk just doesn't keep him full.

He did get a little sick w/ the shots, but nowhere near as badly as his 2 month. Last night his fever got to 100.1 before his last dose of Tylenol, but even then, we were still able to get him giggling on the changing pad - what a trooper. This morning his fever was down to 99.1, and by the afternoon he was at a good 98.7.

For those of you that enjoy a good gross story: twice this week he had so much poop in his (disposable) diaper that he ended up having a huge blowout (requiring change of clothes) - big enough that he somehow got poop in his belly button. Sheesh.

Attached are some pictures taken on his 4 month birthday, or close to it. I wanted to finish changing the sheets, and he was unhappy lying in his crib, so I propped him up in the corner of his crib, and he was happy there for about 10 minutes. It is the perfect height for him to sit.