Zachary Is 10 Months Old!

Zachary has changed so much in the last month. At nine months he had some big leaps - he learned to crawl and became quite good at it very quickly, and he also sprouted his first teeth. Since then he has been a different boy - once content to sit and watch others around him, he is now constantly on the go, and always looking for new places to explore, and more stuff to put in his little mouth! When we came home from our vacation he suddenly realized there was a whole new world in this house just waiting for him to discover, and I think he's covered every inch. Within only days of being home he decided that crawling was for babies, and started pushing my stool around the house. It seems to be a slower process to me, but I think he feels like a bigger kid because he's "walking" like we do! He's had his hands in the cat food more times than I can count, and has a vision for dirt on the floor like no one I know! If there is a small rock, piece of cat fur, or anything else on our floor he will find it in seconds. One day while he was at daycare I swept, vacuumed and mopped the entire downstairs....within three minutes of being home he found a piece of dried up corn on the floor and popped it into his mouth...oh boy.



However, I have to say that in the last few days it seems as though he is beginning to understand what he is not supposed to do. Now when he picks things up he shows them to me (just like his sister used to do) and if I tell him, "No no, Zachary" he doesn't put it in his mouth. Also, at bedtime when I put him in his crib he will now lift his head with a big smile like he's going to sit up and play, but if I say, "No no, Zachary. It's night night time" he puts his head back down and goes to sleep. No...he doesn't always listen to the "no nos"...if he's crawling toward a cat's tail and we tell him "no no" he starts crawling faster....he'll learn.



He's a good boy, and I'm actually anxious for him to get just a little bit bigger so that he can really play with his sister - all he wants to do!

As for little Lexi Loo...she is back to preschool and loving it. She really enjoys New England Montessori, and although she misses some of her friends that are no longer there, she has made lots of new friends and always has great stories to tell about their adventures. She has also started another gymnastics class with her friend Riley on Tuesday afternoons. It's not a mom/tot class, so she's still getting used to going in without me, but I think it's good for her. I'm hoping by the end of the session she'll be completely comfortable with it, and we'll be able to put her into more classes on her own. In a few weeks we'll be doing another swim class at the YMCA...that one I have to go in with her, so it looks like bathing suit season does not end for this Mama.

Last weekend she helped Ahren paint the front steps. She is such a good little helper, so serious about each job she is given, and she really does a good job! It seems amazing to me that a four year old could really help paint, but she did great. I wish I had gotten a picture of her cute painting outfit, but Zach and I were busy doing the grocery shopping.

Breckenridge 2009 - Devan and Jen's Wedding

On the second Wednesday of our beach vacation we left the beach to board a plane to Colorado for Devan and Jen's Wedding. We were very excited for the wedding, to be visiting a state that three of the four of us had never been to before, and to get to spend some time with the Lippman family. The wedding was in Breckenridge which is somewhere around 10 or 11,000 feet up. This meant that we were dealing with both a time change, and high altitude, and while it did affect us all a bit, I was very impressed with how well the kids handled everything. They are always so easy to take along because they handle even the craziest of situations with ease.
We had a few days before the wedding to stroll around and enjoy a little bit of Breckenridge. It was especially exciting because there was a Labor Day Festival going on while we were there, so there were some fun activities for Lexi to do.
The wedding itself was phenomenal! Ahren was the best man and Lexi was the flower girl, and I was very proud of both of them for playing their parts so well! During the ceremony (outdoors) it rained a bit and even hailed for a minute or two and while some of the adults ran for cover, Lexi sat stoically in her seat and listened quietly. Zachary, who I had not noticed had woken from his nap, also sat quietly in his stroller through the ceremony...but luckily for him he was totally covered up! The reception was a blast, although both kids were simply exhausted and Lexi fell asleep far earlier than is her norm at weddings. After holding her in my arms for over an hour, we finally made a bed out of chairs for her and let her sleep next to her already sleeping brother while mom and dad got to have some fun.
Our time in Colorado was fantastic, and we are all simply thrilled to be welcoming Jen into the family! We love her so much, and most of all we love how much Devan loves her. They are a wonderful couple and we wish them the best of luck.
Again, here are just a few of the pictures from the trip. To see the entire album and a video of Lexi as the flower girl, you can go here.

Salisbury Beach 2009

It seems as though the more we do, the harder it gets for me to keep the blog updated, so that every time I sit down to write about our adventures the task seems almost overwhelming. The last two weeks of summer were crazy, with lots of vacation and events. The first "leg" of our vacation was our yearly beach vacation with Gigi, Poppy and Great-Gram. While we were there we had a little party to celebrate Lexi's 4th birthday, and then just did a whole lotta nuthin. It was fantastic! We did have some pretty wild weather with a hurricane and then a tropical depression both passing through on the two weekends we were there. However, the hurricane only made for some wild waves but the sun was still shining bright, making it a better deck day than beach day.

Lexi and Zachary had a wonderful time playing on the beach while we were there. We had a lot of visits from cousins and friends, so Lexi almost always had someone to play with. That child probably ran a marathon on the beach each day, back and forth to the water building sand castles and digging holes. She had a blast and she was such a pleasure to watch as well! Zachary also enjoyed his first beach vacation. At exactly nine months (our first day at the beach) Zach finally mastered crawling, and also sprouted two teeth, so I thought for sure he would be cranky, but he was not and loved digging, crawling in and eating the sand. His favorite part of any day was when someone would make him a pool of water - either with the plastic pool or in the sand at low tide. He would sit and play in the water until he turned blue, just laughing and splashing. Zach even took a beach nap or two...something Lexi has never done!

Our time at the beach was short, as we had to take off early in the second week to fly out to Colorado for Devan and Jen's wedding, but it was a wonderful time, and we're really looking forward to next year. Here are some of the pictures. To see the whole album you can go here (some pictures are missing from the album, but I am going to update that soon).