Happy 5 month day Zack!

Dear Zack,
Mom and Dad love you so much! We can't even believe you are already 5 months old...where does the time go?! You are currently teething and drooling like a champ...today the daycare even asked us to supply our own bibs because they can't keep up with you!
This week we started feeding you yogurt for breakfast and you seem to be enjoying it much better than the rice cereal we give you at night. Bedtime has become much less of a chore...you always seem to be tired and "ready" for bed at 6:30 (we really wish it was a little bit later but you get a little cranky if we keep you up much later than that)...You are still a very very happy, smiley, laid back, and mellow baby! You LOVE people, "talking", playing in the exersaucer or your new car, or just rolling around on the ground! You love laughing at your doggies and grabbing for their ear and you are really trying to crawl but just haven't figured out that your knees need to be on the ground, not up in a downward dog yoga pose! Oh well...You are going to be sitting up and mobile before we know it!
You are truly our little angel and we enjoy every second that we spend with you!!!!
Love Mom and Dad

Fun weekend Pics!

I love playing in my new car! Thanks Aunt Diane and Uncle Tommy!

Sitting up in my rocking chair

Back to School...

In the immortal words of Billy Madison, "Back to school. Back to school. To prove to Dad I'm not a fool." After cutting class most all of last week to hang out with his grandparents, Zack was back at daycare Monday and very excited. When I dropped him off he went back to his staring at a baby crawling and proceeded to start his "swimming" (attempting to crawl, but with his legs and arms in the air).

It does suck to drop him off in the morning. I don't cry like Jess did...not even close, but it's awkward. "Alright, bye little buddy. Be a good boy Zack."

Picking him up at night is just as bad and maybe worse. When I walked in today, he looked over at me and went back to what he was doing. He could really give a crap that I was there.

The good news is that Zack seems to be getting back on a schedule. After daycare, he comes home and we feed him rice cereal and a bottle and he crashes. The past 2 nights he has been out like a light...he didn't even fight it. Now we just need consistency on sleeping through the night. I guess we're already "those parents" pushing him for more. Oh well.

Real Food

So Zack had a doctor's appointment Friday and he's chubbing up well. He seems to have gotten his February Fat a bit early, because he's up to 16 pounds. He's gone from being in the 16th percentile on weight to 56th. At this rate, he'll be sumo class by his 1st birthday.

I don't even think that we had to explain to the doctor how Porky is always hungry and wants to eat, as I think he went after her hand. She thought maybe it was time to give our little butterball some real food. Since I'm still getting overruled on steaks, Zack got rice cereal. Saturday morning he was in for a surprise and I'm not so sure he was a big fan. 2 days in, he's still not sure what to think and he probably spits out as much as he swallows, but he's getting better at eating real food. Here are the pics of his 1st adventure in eating food.

1st Bite...Open Up!

"What the hell are you guys doing to me?"
"Not another bite!"

"Stop it already."
"Ha, I have the container, no more of this crap for me."

GO GATORS!!!!

Pics from Connecticut

We had a blast in Connecticut! Zack got to meet his great-grandparents, Ganny and Pop-Pop, and lots of my Aunts, Uncles, and Cousins! I wish we took more pictures, but here are a few...


In the meantime, I am getting very behind in my personal life as Zack and work are taking first priority...I am sure with some time, I will learn how all of the working moms in the world learn to juggle their family, friends, career, social life etc...In the meantime, bare with us as we adjust to our new schedule!

In his new "outfit" from his Daddy..."why in the world am I dressed like a bear?!"

With Ganny
With Cousin Christen

Party Time Is Over

For our last full day in New York I wanted to take Zack to the Financial District and we had to do some shopping. Getting him in the cab, diaper bag off the BOB, and the BOB in the trunk was a bit stressful. We walked around SoHo and finally found onesies for Zack from a street vendor, Beastie Boys, Metallica, and Che (to match his Dad). Then we walked south to the Financial District.

I realized earlier in the morning that heading down there on 9/11 may not be the best thing to do...not for fear of something happening, but it's just a wierd day and it was. We walked past the WTC site, checked out the NYSE, walked through the 9/11 memorial, saw the Statue of Liberty, and then went to see the Bull before heading back to the hotel. We probably walked 10 miles in flip-flops. I think Zack was sick of his seat, but he had a pretty good life in there. He had his seat, toys, he could look at Dad, take naps, he got his bottles in there. I envy his life.

We had to wrap up our shopping and get back to the hotel to meet Zack's babysitter, because Mama and Daddy were going out. We met up with Kelly and a couple vendors for a great dinner and then went out to get nutty. Stop 1 was a Japanese place for a couple drinks so we could come up with a game plan. From there, we went to Hogs & Heffers and where things got out of control, although we had to cut things short to get back to Zack. We ended up in a towncar, because we couldn't find a cab, argued over the price, got dropped off 5 blocks from our hotel...yeah, we were in great shape. We had a great time though.

Yesterday, when we finally woke up...Are you sure you don't want to sleep in Zack? We were dragging ass and finally got our rental car at about 3pm...not quite noon as planned. They were out of compact cars and asked if we'd be alright with an upgrade to an SUV...seriously lady, we almost needed 2 cabs just to schlep all our crap over here, do you think that we'd object to a bigger car? (We still filled the Jeep to max capacity.) Traffic sucked and our 2 hour trip to Connecticut took 4+ hours, but we made it and Zack was ready to show off and get attention from more family.

More pics...

Zack at Uni Qlo with the robot (and some troll like woman in the background)

NYSE
Father and Son at the Statue of Liberty (OK, I think something is wrong with our camera. Every pic in the day is overexposed...if someone knows how to fix this on a Canon SD750, please let us know.)
Zack wanted to ride the bull, but I knew I'd get in trouble from the wife for that...and maybe arrested too.
Dinner...when the wine started flowing

Hogs & Heffers...woo-hoo it's a party!

Mr. Mom

Appologies in advance...long post, but I'm trying to cram several into 1, because I was slacking.

Friday, Jess went back to work and I worked from home in the morning, before dropping Zack at daycare so I could go to the office. After work, I picked Zack up to go find trouble...trouble being pick up our Masshole friend from UF, Doogie (AKA Willie). Saturday Doogie had to head out early so we had a chance to pack for New York and get Zack ready to watch his 1st Gators game. Unfortunately someone had refused to take naps so he only watched about the 1st quarter of the game and got put to sleep.

At 4am we got up to head to the airport (Zack was anxious and got up at 12:30am and 2am also...thanks buddy). Getting to the plane was a debacle (car service got a flat, Zack wasn't on my ticket, and we looked like Sherpas with all our luggage), but we got upgraded to 1st Class, which took the edge off. Zack must have liked it because he was "talking" away the whole way to New York. Unfortunately we didn't get a picture of the little guy living it up in his seat, but maybe we'll score upgrades on the way home too.

This is our 3rd day in NY and it wouldn't be us if we weren't super busy and active. We wanted to keep Zack on West Coast time, but he's been alternating between the EDT and PDT. Basically, Mr. Mom just lets him make his own schedule. Jess asks when he ate and my answer is when he was hungry. What about naps? He'll only sleep when we're out walking/running. I've been having a blast with him though, just hanging out and being silly. I could get into this Mr. Mom gig, so I guess Jess needs to get some BIG raises.

Here are some of the things we've been doing here:

• - Dinner with Zack's "Gay Uncles" Stevie and Mason
• - Jogging in the park
• - Being tourists & doing some light shopping
• - Vendor lunches with all the ladies (Zack was a big fan since he is a ladies man)
• - Vendor dinner last night
• - We're still looking for the "I HEART MODELS" onesy for Zack since it's Fashion Week and the shows are a block away. I figure we get him that shirt and he can find some arm candy.
  

Some development/personality updates on Zack:

• - There are 4 ways to get him to stop screaming. 1) bottle, 2) throw him up in the air repeatedly, 3) help him stand up, and 4) let him look at himself in the mirror (he may be a bit of a narcissist)
• - Zack is teething and wants to eat real food, so let him gum bread to death (which he seems to prefer over tortillas covered in hot sauce)
• - Zack is still obsessed with boobs -- how come when he stares at girls boobs it's funny, but if I do it, it's pervy?
• - Zack flirts non-stop with Jess's vendors and then plays coy with them too (just working on his game)
  
• - Zack has mastered the art of spitting up on his Mom's outfits (she needed to change on the plane and he got her last night on the way to dinner too)
• - Zack is holding his own bottle now and even more impressive he palmed it yesterday and held it out to the side with only 1 hand...so cool
  

Alright, we need to get ready for another vendor lunch and then a run. Here are some pics of Zack in NY. In our next post I'll explain why most New Yorkers are a** holes ("most" of the ones we know though are in the minority). -Jeff

Zack hits Times Square...and the lighting couldn't be worse for a picture
Sleepy and confused baby on his run in the park (at the Jackie O Resevoir)
"Where's my damn bottle?"
Yup, this is where Zack prefers to sleep.

Harder than childbirth...

In my opinion, dropping your baby off at Day Care for the first time is harder than giving birth. ..no joke! A different kind of hard, but hard nonetheless. I had no idea of, and could not have prepared for the mental and emotional breakdown I had when I left Zack today at his new day care.

From Zack's perspective:
It was business as usual this morning...a bottle with Dad and playtime in the crib but Mom was acting a little strange, she didn't give me my morning cuddle time, instead she was on the treadmill, showering, and getting dressed up. It was fine with me, gave me more time to talk to my toys in the crib. But, before I knew it, we were in the car and off to somewhere new. This place was AMAZING. There were 4 girls there that wanted to talk to me, play with me, hold me, and teach me new things. I didn't even notice when mom left me there...she tried to say good-bye but I wasn't paying attention. I had already found a firetruck that I could honk the horn on! The day was great...I have never played with so many toys. I ate well, smiled lots and giggled for the girls. We took a walk, I took a couple of naps (one in the stroller and one in the swing) and I got to play with 4 other little kids like me. Some were crawling and I thought that was really cool. I spent alot of time watching the other kids and taking it all in. I was having such a good time but then Mom came and took me awy from my new friends. I hope I can go back tomorrow!

From my perspective:
OMG, that's the alarm, here we go! Bottles are ready (check!), Zack is fed (check), Zack is dressed (check), 2 extra outfits packed for my little drooler (check!), quick workout, shower, dressed, coffee, and out the door. Thoughts on the way to the daycare: This isn't that bad...we can totally do this! Zack is going to love his new daycare. It's so nice that he gets to socialize with other kids...And then we got there....I LOST IT like you would not believe. Zack went into the playroom with the biggest smile on his face. I watched him giggling as he was honking the horn on the firetruck and I STILL LOST IT! I knew he was in good hands, I knew he was going to have fun, I knew he would be FINE... He is the happiest and most social child I know...but I just felt so sad and so empty as I walked away. I surely hope it gets easier because if every morning is like this, we will definitely need stock in kleenex and waterproof mascara... :-(

Tomorrow is another day...wish us luck!

Happy 4 months Zack!!!

I am few days late as we were celebrating the day of Labor in Lake Tahoe, but Happy 4 month Day Zack! You have no idea how much we love you!!!!

Here's our little buddy in his new favorite toy--the Exersaucer!