Zach at 9 months, take 2

We actually did our 9 month pictures 3 weeks ago but I wanted to buy his online with a coupon I had, so I had to wait for the email, which didnt come so I had it re-sent and it still didnt come so I put him in the same shirt and took the photos again. I'm glad I did cuz they came out better!

9 month update:

• His 3rd tooth just popped thru; it's front upper right.
• Likes to play drums with drumsticks, put things in his mouth, push items around the house, roll cars on the ground with brother, clap, wave, take baths and splash water.
• Hates getting in his car seat, diaper changes, getting dressed, when a cupboard wont open, when you take things away.
• Still wont properly drink anything from a cup or bottle - just makes a big mess.
• He's drooling like a mega freak right now. His shirts seem to always have a wet ring around the collar.
• Loves to be tickled and play peek-a-boo by himself (well, he's looking at me but he uncovers and covers up with the blanket all by himself... "Where's Zachy? There he is!")

You want the tooth, you can't handle the tooth!

Tuesday was Nate's first trip to the dentist. I got some advice to talk to him about how the dentist was going to look at his teeth and count his teeth and "tickle" his teeth and to NOT saying things like "the dentist wont hurt you" or "the dentist wont give you a shot" cuz that just puts scary thoughts in their heads. So that's what we did and the experience was... awesome!
Nate did SO GOOD! Rarely do I have the chance to brag on how friendly and cute and polite N8 is. He let them take the x-rays, clean his teeth and even scrap build-up off a few teeth up front! He was in charge of the suction straw and loved suctioning every time the dentist asked him too (and a few x-tra times when she wasnt ready) One funny thing he kept doing was every time the dentist asked him to move a certain way or do something, she would say "thank you" and he would have to answer "you're welcome" even while she still had her instruments in his mouth - many times it came out a garbled "oo elcom."
Nate had no cavities and good news for his "monster tooth" as I call it. When he was teething, his front left 2 teeth came out as 1 tooth leaving a large gap in the middle of the top row so we were always worried his adult teeth would do the same but in the x-ray there are 2 regular teeth there just waiting to come down - yea!
Here's video of our perfect little patient, listen close and you might catch a "oo elcom"
And check out Zachy on the go:
Usually he gets PISSED OFF when he runs into something and cant continue. This time he wanted my camera but it's kinda funny to see such a little cute guy get so mad!

Mr. T says, "Be cool, stay in school!"

Wednesday was Nate's first day of school at the Frost Early Education Center. I took a picture of him in front of the house cuz that's what my mom did for us every year. It was weird just leaving him but he was a breeze to drop off and he was excited to go. There were only 3 other kids in his class (with 3 teachers) They learned about going to the dentist so that's convenient since he's going next week and 1 of the other moms recognized me (well recognized me as in "Hey, you're Jen's sister.") but it's still cool to have a connection with another mom. So did they decide to keep him??? Well not yet, they asked us to come back next week but we still are not enrolled yet.

Doctor, doctor give me the news

Tuesday we took Nate to his 3 year check-up. He was 40 inches (no shoes) and 39 lbs. which made him 90% for height and 95% for weight - hmm, I guess he is eating something! I thought it was so funny to have him wear a gown but Nate liked to spin in his "dress" as he called it. Here he is spinning and playing with the faucet you step on.

Unfortunately he had to get a shot (2 actually cuz they talked me into that darn flu shot) He took the 1st one ok then the 2nd really hurt him and he cried a little (darn flu shot) then he got a Bees sticker and a yellow sucker and it was mostly better. Kaiser has been giving us books every visit now, this time was Goodnight Gorilla which was cute, Nate already memorized a bunch of the pages.

Thank you Mr. Washington

Presidents Day and Ryan didnt have to go to work, yea! We packed up lunch and headed up to Lytle Creek with the Vandes for the afternoon.

The boys couldnt get enough of throwing rocks and sticks into the water. I think Haley's favorite part was picking the flowers.

Here Ryan and Jim are doing some "Dad Duties": potty breaks for the little guys!

Even Zach had fun in his carrier. He was so excited to be outside he would wiggle his arms and legs like crazy!

Rainbow mohawks

Every afternoon right now, the sun makes "rainbows" in our living room. Nate thinks they are "so pitty."

Cousin fun!

On Saturday all 4 Reynolds kids hung out with us for the afternoon. Ryan took the big kids exploring in the wash/dirt area beyond our back fence and then they had a picnic in the backyard before heading to the playground down the street. I was on little guy duty. Zach and Chase had fun playing together, here they are auditioning for a mariachi band:

Whachu say?

Nate was evaluated for speech issues on Friday at Frost Early Education Center. He always seemed a little behind the other kids in this area so we had him tested. I was torn the whole time between wanting him to not need help, but also feeling like I wanted him to qualify too. After Miss Nancy intitally met him she thought for sure he was in, Sweet let's get him the help he needs. Then Miss Shelley took him to do the actual test and he didnt quite qualify, Well that's ok, he's doing good on his own. Then she scored it and there were some issues he had trouble with like pronouns, Cool lets get him in the class. Then Miss Nancy did her color/number match/count test and he knew way more then they were expecting, Yea he's smart! So after everything he was in the middle of the normal range but just under the median line - not qualifying for the class. But they asked me to bring him in 1 day next week and have him stay so they could get to know him and see if there are areas they can help him in.

So Wednesday will be his very first day of school (although he may not return till August) I'm kinda hoping he'll get to stay so he has extra learning time before preschool. It's only 1 day a week for 1 1/2 hours and it's thru the county so it's free. It will definately be wierd to leave my baby with strangers and get in my car and drive away - yikes!

What's up Chuck?

Friday Ryan was off work so we took Nate on his first visit to Chuck E Cheese's. It's changed alot since we took Ryan's nephew Blake there like 10 years ago. There used to be more climbing things (I remember cuz me & Ryan thought we had to stay with Blake and climb thru with him - we were way wrong)

Nate had fun - he only would watch the crazy the robot guys from a distance and mainly wanted to climb but he did like a few of the ball throwing games.

We cashed in our tickets for awesome Chuck E Cheese bubbles that Nate just loved. Totally worth it eh?

We were painting the other day and Nate wanted to be "Anakin shirt-off" so I painted him up to match the part, he loved running around fighting like Anakin. He did not like when I scrubbed the paint off. I guess we wont be doing that again for a while.
For those of you w/o little boys obsessed with Star Wars, this is Anakin Skywalker from the Clone Wars cartoon series when the slug/bugs made crazy warpaint like lines on him to go rescue the distorted ratmen guys with guns for arms.

Love... is a many splendored thing

Happy Heart Day! Today Ryan came home to suprise new bedding and a cool wall quote for Valentines day (and a shirt and a book but those arent as exciting.)

So I found out that I'm obsessed with seasonal decorations, our old apartment felt too cluttery to decorate for anything but Christmas. But now that I have all this space... and a fireplace... I've been pulling out every decoration I can find! It all makes me so happy that I cant explain it. Most of my decorations are old ones, from the dollar store, from Michaels with a coupon or made out of things around the house. I re-arrage them a little everyday, I look at them and smile, :) Here'a a sampling of the V-day decor.

.

Yum yum yum yum yum, delicioso

Today Nate and I made Valentine cupcakes for Ryan to take to work and me to take to Flipside Service Planning meeting (sorry Flipside office folks, we met off-site) I LOVE making cupcakes but I rarely eat them. Nate had a fun time helping me (and tasting) but hands down his favorite part was licking the beaters (3 times)
Who needs a cupcake? The frosting is the best part!

Here's my favorite frosting tip in case you never heard it: put your frosting in a ziplock storage bag, squeeze to 1 corner, cut of 1/4 inch of the corner and you have a perfect pastry bag for icing cupcakes that is super easy to use and faster than doing it with a knife. My best cupcake tip is: if your cupcakes run over the top sides of your liners and look like mushrooms, heat your oven to 375 degrees and when you put your cupcakes in, turn it down to 350.


Here is my recipe for:
Vanilla Bean Cream Cheese Frosting
(adapted from my mom's recipe in the Flipside cookbook)
1 8oz package of cream cheese
1 cube (1/2 cup) butter, softened
1 box (1 lb.) of powdered sugar
2 tsp vanilla bean paste (shout out to Jen for getting me this from Trader Joe's)
(if you dont have vanilla bean paste, use 1 tsp regular vanilla extract)

Cream all ingredients with an electric beater.
- Makes enough to cover 1 cake or 24 cupcakes.
- Excellent on carrot cake, chocolate cake or brownies too.

Jenn Corbett: my cupcakes miss you!

Just kickin it

Sometimes when you cant get a good picture of both your boys in the same shot, you have to bust out your Photoshop skills and pretend.What do you think... am I teething or what?

Go Speed Racer!

Today was Flipside's 3rd Annual Pinecar Derby and it was awesome if I do say so myself. Nate's car (which daddy built) won the award for "Most Hard Core Racer"

I think the most exciting parts for Nate were sitting in a real racecar and the grab bag he got at the end.

As hard as daddy tried, Nate's car wasnt the fastest, the competition was really tough this year in the 3 and under category. Nate didnt seem to be bothered by it in the least bit.

Those were the days...

Ryan's mom gave me some awesome pictures of him and his family growing up so I thought I'd share a couple with you guys. :)Ryan calls this the "skunk" look.