17 months!

Yikes! When did my baby get so old? Zach can do so many things, it's kind of sad that there really aren't many physical milestones left for him to do. He runs all over the place and climbs everything! He is such a little dare devil that I am constantly afraid we're going to end up in the ER soon. He loves to climb onto the couch and stand up and walk across it, mostly because I tell him not to. A couple weeks ago he wrapped his legs and arms around the armrest on our arm chair and rolled off of it and landed on the dog bed. He was inches from hitting his head on the window sill and I almost had a heart attack but he was fine. I'm trying to let go a little because I know he needs to test and learn what he can and cannot do on his own but it sure is frightening! Whenever he figures out a new trick he gets so proud of himself and that is my favorite part, the giant grin when he accomplishes something and the boost of self confidence he gets.

The biggest milestones these days are verbal. Zachery is a little slower than his peers when it comes to talking but he's getting there. Knowing his father I figured that he would excel at this, haha. For months the only things he has said with any regularity are 'mama' and 'this' and he does use this in the right context. I feel like a damn parrot because all day I am naming whatever 'this' he is pointing to but I know he is understanding. He has 2 different sea horse toys in his bath toys so when I name one of them he will search for the other one because he knows they are the same name. It is really amazing to watch because when I ask him to bring me something he knows exactly what it is, he just won't say it. I figure one day he is going to look at me and say something like 'nice weather today, huh mommy?' and I'll just fall over in shock :). Zach has probably said about 20-25 different words but none of them have been consistent until very recent. We have now added 'bye' (pronounced as BEE along with a wave) and 'cookie' (pronounced by Zach as COOK). We had our most interesting verbal experience last week. Whenever he is on the changing table after his bath or when changing his diaper he points to different body parts and asks 'this?' so I name them for him. Well, he is a boy so one of his favorite things to grab is his penis so when he asks we tell him it's his penis. Last week I was changing his diaper and naming body parts when I named his penis. He looked up at me and repeated 'my penis?' (pronounced as MY PEIS) and it was all I could do not to burst out laughing. It was so cute and of course that was his first 2 word phrase. I can't wait until he has his own children one day so I can remind him of this-priceless!

I have started looking into potty training methods after a little issue we had a couple weeks ago. When your baby shows you that he can take off his own diaper you really shouldn't put him to bed anymore without pants...I went in one afternoon to get him from his nap and he had taken off his diaper...and he had pooped...and he had it EVERYWHERE. This was by far the most disgusting thing I have had to deal with since becoming a mom. I stripped his shirt off him, turned on the tub and scrubbed that little body until it was pink. I must have used 3 different washcloths and half a bottle of baby wash. I threw everything in the washer in the hottest water he had to soak and took bleach and water and scrubbed his crib down. We had to leave the house because it was so unpleasant...not fun. After that I bought a potty and a kids book and we have been trying to get him on board but it hasn't happened yet. Yesterday I came across this article http://www.babycenter.com/0_potty-training-in-three-days-or-less_10310078.bc which talks about a method where you potty train your baby in about 3 days. I showed it to Matt and we are going to try it the first weekend in August-it's the next weekend where we have NOTHING going on and can commit to being home all weekend to do this. I know it's kind of early to some people but if I can get him potty trained at a year and a half I will be one happy momma! If he doesn't take to it we'll try again in a few months but you never know until you try :)

The most exciting thing we've done in the last month was take Zach on his first trip to Disneyland. We went on Father's Day (Matt is such a trooper!) and it was great. I got a season pass so I plan to take him a couple times a month, it is a fun thing to keep us busy and out of the house! Here are a few pictures from the last month:

Zach and his friend Sammy at the zoo. Zach said 'goat'!

My funny boy playing at Chip n Dale's Treehouse at Disneyland

Although he doesn't look happy, the Jungle Cruise was his favorite ride :)

Playing in Toon Town!

The only family shot I got of us at Disneyland-such a fun family day!

Maycations Part 2

So part 2 of our May travels takes us first to Omaha(ish), Nebraska to visit my family and celebrate my cousin Daniel's graduation. We flew out there at 6:45am the day after we returned from San Diego. The take off went well, I fed him his bottle and he did great. Soon after that he crashed and slept until we were getting off at our layover in Salt Lake City. The take off from SLC did not go as well-he screamed and cried and layed on the ground and had a tantrum. Finally we were able to get Matt's Ipad going to one of his videos and he calmed down. We got to a very cold Omaha and my Uncle Eddie picked us up and took us to their house which is in a very small town called Kennard. We just hung out at the house and relaxed all day with family. My parents and brother were there as well as my Uncle and Aunt and my 3 cousins (it was their house we stayed at) and my Grandpa Lenaeus. The next day, Sunday was Daniel's graduation from high school. It was so surreal to watch him graduate because I remember when he was born, I remember playing with him and holding him and thinking he was the most amazing little thing ever and now I have my own amazing little man. I can't fathom the day when I have to watch my boy walk across the stage and get his high school diploma; I am so glad that we were able to make the trip out there. Another reason that it was so important to me to get out there was that my grandfather was going to be there. He lives in Florida so I don't get to see him often and I wanted to make sure he got to see my son-the first great grandchild on the Lenaeus side. We stayed in Nebraska a couple days after the graduation and spent a lot of time together. Zach really had fun watching my cousin Jake, who just finished the 5th grade and is very athletic. Zachery is really starting to get interested in sports and playing with balls (hehe) so he loved watching Jake play basketball at the party with his buddies. On our last night we got to see one of Jake's baseball games (where he did awesome-I can't wait to watch Zach play baseball!!) and Zachery actually watched a couple innings which is remarkable for how active he is-he never sits down! We had such a great time visiting my family and I am so grateful that they had us out there!

Here are my parents, brother, Matt, Zach and me with Daniel

Here are all the Lenaeus':Me, Zach, Uncle Eddie, Jake, Daniel, Grandpa, Rob, Rachael

My favorite picture I took of my little man playing in the yard

Zachery giving me kissed through the storm door

My happy boy after his cupcake at the graduation party

Eating katsup at lunch with the men

Zach LOVED the giant lawn at my Aunt and Uncle's house

Zach playing with Jake before his baseball game

The last trip of the month was to Las Vegas for my family reunion. This was for the Thrush family, my mom's dad's family (if you are able to follow that!). We have the reunion every other year and in the past it was always held at a park in Overton (about and hour outside of Vegas) but this year my parents hosted the reunion at their house in Vegas. Now there were a whole lot of people there that I didn't know and really didn't have any chance to get to know since I was chasing a 16 month old around the house. Zach did really well considering all of the new faces and the fact that he feels like that is his house and all these people invaded it. He played in the pool a little bit and tried to even play with some of the other babies towards the end. Later that night we went to dinner with my best friend Carly, her husband Kevin and their little guy, Aiden. Zach was not at his best during dinner. It is really getting to be too difficult to go to a restaurant with him, he wants to run around everywhere and he is so picky with his food I never know if he's going to eat what we get him! The trip to Vegas was short and busy but it was nice to visit with my family and see my bestest :)

After all of these trips I have decided that I am not flying with Zach again until he's at least 2 and when we do he is getting his own seat! I started having a panic attack because he was so upset on the flights home (which is understandable since our first flight out of Omaha was cancelled and we spent about 10 hours in an airport or on an airplane that day) and I'm just not looking forward to ever experiencing that again, lol. I feel like I need a vacation from all of these vacations but we had the best times and are always reminded of how lucky we are to have the family and friends we do!