Babysitting Hot Dog

This weekend Zack had the pleasure of babysitting his class pet, Hot Dog the Guinea Pig. Every weekend one of the students gets to take Hot Dog home and take care of him and this weekend we were the lucky ones! Zack LOVES him. Here are a few pics:

Cousin Chris was our resident rodent expert...He has a chinchilla, so we had him hold Hot Dog for Zack to play with.

Breakfast time-4carrots and a piece of lettuce. The thing can eat-we were impressed!

Here you go Hot Dog!

We were cleaning out Zack's drawers this weekend, king of getting ready for fall and Zack decided he wanted to wear his ill fitting winter hat from last year! Next he put on his new shoes and started jumping around the house...it was too cute even if the outfit is quite unfortunate! :-)

Gainesville Fun!

We just got back from Gainesville for the Florida - Tennessee game. While the Gators were underwhelming at best, we had a great time taking Zack to his 1st football game and spending some time with the family at the lake and of course tailgating. Zack was great with his baby cousin, except that he really didn't want to share toys. He shared food with him, gave him hugs, crawled with him (since Spencer isn't walking yet), stole Spencer's sippy cup 999 times, and only swatted him once (Spencer hit back many more times though...he has just learned to hit/slap and is trying it out on everyone).

As we were getting ready to leave, we realized that a few bug bites Zack had were swelling and blistering. Yummy! At least we had a doctor at the lake to diagnose him, although Zack was not a fan of getting bandaged up to prevent him from scratching. Oh well, yet another reason we can't move to Florida...Sorry Jess.

Here are some pics from this weekend.

Hangin' with Cousin Spencer at the Lake House...This is when Mommy realized her baby isn't really a baby any more...He is soooo big when compared to Spencer (10 months). Also realized we should probably have another one sooner rather then later so Z-Man doesn't grow up to be a spoiled brat!

First time on skis...Dad, Gramma and Grandpa were very proud of Z-Man, but a lil bummed out that he wouldn't hold on with 2 hands...and of course his unwillingness to wear a life vest is really the only thing that is keeping him from getting pulled by the boat. Maybe he will ski for real at Thanksgiving?

Bath Time for the babies! (AKA - blackmail!)

Faux Hawks for the boys! The ladies just love it!

Tailgating is tough work...a little nap before kickoff.

Running to catch kickoff...just a standard 50 yard return.

First time in the SWAMP!!! This was a very monumental day for the fam!

"No really Mom & Dad, I'm sweating my ass off."

"Don't mind me, I found a better place to watch the game in the F Club. A/C, snacks, leather couch full of chicks. I'm good."

"I can even play with Mom and Nonni in the F Club."

Summer Pics

Alright, here are the pics from this summer that we promised.


Look, I found a fun place to play.
Hanging out with distant relatives at the Cousins Weekend.

I got the stick.

Alright, I got up here, but not sure about getting down.

Just helping Noni clean up.

Corn is good.

Couch commander.


Even in this outfit, I'll smile!

Grumpy introduced me to my new favorite food...milkshakes.

Hanging with the big kids at the zoo.

Hey turtle, you look thirsty, have some juice.

Much better.

I want to drive Dad.


Hold on, what the heck is going on here.
I'm flying!

Being silly with Daddy at the lake.

Everybody look at me cause I'm sailin on a boat

Yeah, never thought I'd be on a boat
It's a big blue watery road

I got my swim trunks, and my flippie-floppies
I'm flippin burgers, you at Kinko's straight flippin copies

We're Back...

It's been 3 months since we updated the blog. Ridiculous, I know. As usual, things have been crazy and it was just too easy to find reasons not to update the blog. Plus HP and Gateway computers suck and being computer-less for a few weeks didn't help our cause.

So what's Zack been up to? Zack has settled in to our new apartment across the river. The dogs are having a tougher adjustment to apartment living...and Mom and Dad are probably having the hardest time with it. Zack loved the pool at our apartment complex this summer, and since my schedule was pretty open, we would walk down the hall and go swimming most days. There are also a ton of playgrounds around and Zack really enjoys the slides, climbing, and finding places to hide. Of course though his favorite thing to do is show off for the Moms and flirt with the older girls.

Zack also seems to be checking off states on his been there list. Between road trips to Florida and Maine and a quick trip out to LA, Zack has been to 15 states this summer (CA, NY, NJ, CT, PA, WV, MD, VA, NC, SC, GA, FL, MA, NH, and ME). All told he's up to 19 states now (NV, AZ, CO, and TX too).

In early August, the 3 of us hopped in the car and drove to Florida to pick up the dogs. We learned a few things along the way:

• Toddlers do not like to be in car seats for 20 hours...even if you split it up over the course of 3 days. Hence, I drove back with the dogs, while Jess and Zack flew. The trip was also significantly faster, 18 hours straight through the night.
• If you let a toddler run around a hotel room with no diaper, he WILL violate the hotel room. Nothing like turning around and seeing that your son just took a dump on the hotel room floor...except watching him do it again the next morning, after he peed on the corner of the bed. All you can do is laugh. If anyone is planning on staying at the aloft in Charlotte, avoid room 818.
• Toddlers don't realize that syrup is not a food group.
• After a day of driving a swanky Thai restaurant is not the best choice for dinner. Mexican is better, but expect a fair amount of chips, guac, and rice to be flying.
• Zack really missed his dogs and was so excited to see his best friends when we finally got to Palm Beach Gardens.
• If you let your toddler son sleep in the bed and wake up in the morning and he is missing...look under the bed where you will certainly find a smiling kid that is very proud to have found such a good hiding spot.
  
• After 3 months in Florida, never fail the day before we are leaving to come home, the dogs will be horse playing and Sierra will get injured and need an emergency vet trip
  

Maine was also a new adventure for Zack and he learned a few things.

• Dad is a pushover and also a milkshake fan, so he scores on road trips without Mom. I mean who can turn down a Fribble or DQ? That's just stupid.
• Lobsters are fun to play with (some may call it torture).
• Wearing a life vest sucks, but the wind blowing in your face is a lot of fun.
• Safety wasn't a concern when his Dad was his age. Zack used my highchair from when I was a baby and there was no straps or anything to hold him in place.
• He's not so sure about amusement parks or water parks, but splashing in the water and flirting are fun.
• Water gets deeper the further into a lake you walk, but people tend to grab you when you make it neck deep trying to follow your Dad swimming.
• Stairs are fun...falling down stairs, not fun, but he'll get up and start climbing again.

In LA and Carlsbad, Zack learned a few more things.

• If you let an 11 year old girl and her friend play with you, they will be obsessed and not leave the house, even if it drives Uncle Jim crazy on his birthday. They'll even babysit so Mom and Dad can go to the Hollywood Bowl, which is awesome!
  
• Not all dogs like Zack. Some will snarl, growl, and nip. It seems that small dogs do not like it when you sneak up on them and grab them. However, a fat drooling bulldog will let you hug him and slobber on you.
• Not all dogs will let you taunt them with your food or share nicely. Unlike Foster and Sierra, if you offer dogs a bite of your cookie, some of them will take the whole cookie, not just a bite.
• Seriously, guacamole is awesome and no one seems to mind if a baby is double-dipping (or keeps dipping until the chip is totally waterlogged).
• Dick's meatballs are still awesome!
• Business Elite is the only way to travel. Dad expected the worst flying back to JFK from LAX, but aside from throwing some things around the cabin, trying to get our neighbor's attention, Zack was great. Something about the almost lay flat seats and being able to look out the window seems to help.
  

It seems that we were out of town more than we were in town this summer. In addition, we also had a couple of trips to SF without Zack, to get moved, see friends, and go to TK & Afrika's wedding in Napa. Salima and Matt's wedding down in the Dirty South. Then there were the bachelor parties and random other trips. Throw in a trip to CT for a family reunion where Zack ran wild the entire day and a trip to the Adirondacks with Cara and Chip, and we're exhausted and the Pathfinder has probably an extra 5,000+ miles on it.

The last thing...After a trip to the doctor last week, we're happy to report that Zack is not allergic to peanuts, after a couple scares. He broke out with hives in Florida and they flared up again. We put together than he had peanut butter before both episodes and as such he hasn't had peanut butter in a month. We have no idea what the real cause was, probably viral, but the allergy skin testing confirmed he can eat a jar of peanut butter...which he probably would if we let him. His only allergies seem to be grass, cats, and cockroaches (thanks Mom). Jess was devastated to hear about the cockroaches, because now Zack and I have a medical reason why we can't move to Florida. Sorry to kill your (pipe) dream Jess.

Alright, so this rambling novel kind of makes up for us being MIA for a few months. We'll get some pictures up in the next day or so and we will definitely be better about keeping everyone posted on Zack's crazy life...of course we'll be out of town next weekend (Gainesville for Zack's 1st football game and hopefully 1st time water skiing), so we'll post an update when we get home (errr, I mean back to our apartment).