ZMC - Growing up

Zach is growing up so fast, we can hardly believe it. He is exerting his will in many ways, and throwing tantrums when he does not get what he wants. One of the more miserable ways is with meals now. He does NOT want to eat anything from the spoon, and only wants to feed himself food from his tray. That would be mostly ok if he would eat all of his food, but he does not. He eats the corn, peas (which he LOVES - some of you may remember his gagging at baby-food peas, but now he loves 'adult' peas, he must have gotten a sodium addiction from Papi), carrots, and eggplant if there is nothing else. Oh, fruits too, but those are w/ breakfast and lunch. So we are forcing him to eat 5 bites from the spoon, then give him 8 or so pieces to feed himself, then 5 bites, etc. It is a HUGE struggle, with him screaming, crying, spitting food out, and basically throwing a tantrum. But he does eat the bites, even if he is crying while eating. Then all smiles and giggles while feeding himself. Such a struggle from a kid that LOVED meal time not too long ago. Sigh. He is also deciding when to obey "no". One cute time was today when I walked into the living room, catching him playing with the keyboard & mouse (big no-no), and cleared my throat w/ a loud "UH UM", and he took off, cruising down the length of the couch w/ a big smile like "what?!". I will have to beware how I discipline him in case he copies it like Lora did w/ Monica, and now she has an arm-crossing, foot-stomping, throat clearing toddler. :) Zach mostly does mind when told no, or some variation, except w/ the stereo - he can't resist all the shiny buttons and lights. We wonder if he is teething, b/c he has been spitting out some of his favorite foods - banana and mango.

As the picture shows, he is also learning how to drive! Some of the other cute pictures (IMHO) are w/ his light-up music toy (thanks to the Eatons), which he has learned to just push the button when he wants music. One is a picture of him drinking cow's milk for the first time. (He is currently getting one bottle of cow's milk a day since both my supply and our formula ran out for the 4pm bottle - still nursing at 8am, noon, and 8pm for now). One is of him in his "home-boy" pants, or as Art says, his plumber look, which only happens w/ pants that are too too big. The last is a father-son chat that occured while waiting for the tram to church.