First Tooth!!!

Breaking news (pun intended): Zachary's first tooth has finally surfaced! There's not a lot there, yet, just the very tip of the lower, center-right tooth (and the center-left one is not too far behind), but we're pretty jazzed. Our little baby is growing up! Though we're going to miss that toothless grin, we're looking forward to the big toothy smile that's going to take its place. Here's a glimpse of what's to come:

So far there have only been a couple of nights that he's woken up (and therefore, we've woken up) b/c of teething. We're leaving a pacifier at each end of his crib so he can find it at night (and he often does!) and sooth himself. Hopefully that trend will continue.

Look, Ma ... one hand!

Zachary has sort of been able to help hold his own bottle for awhile now, but just yesterday he drank the final ounce or so of his formula without any help from Daddy. Amazing in and of itself, no doubt. So today I thought I'd give it another try, this time with about three ounces left. Not only was he able to hold the bottle himself, as evidenced by the photo below ...

... he took it a step further, completely on his own, and finished off his meal with one hand!!!

And we didn't even have to send him to finishing school to teach him how to be so genteel (note extended pinky) :

Grandparents Ingersoll & Ankeny Visit

Two of Zach's three sets of grandparents visited him in the last month - what a lucky guy!

My folks, Liz and Bob (aka Nanna and Grandpa Bob) came to SF for a visit for the last two weeks of August. Considering that most of our time was spent watching Zach do the baby thing, we somehow managed to get out every now and then. One of our trips was to Stern Grove, an outdoor music venue in the city. We enjoyed a picnic lunch, listened to the SF Opera, and had an impromptu "play date" with some families of little ones who happened to set up camp in the vicinity.

It was great to have my parents here for such an extended stay, and not just because they did the dishes and were more than happy to babysit so Amy and I could get chores done or (gasp) have our "date night". No, the best part was that they got to see a bunch of "firsts". First solid food ... first time sitting up on his own ... and every grandparents' dream: the first cold, complete with runny nose.

Best of all, the end of their trip overlapped with the beginning of Grandma B and Grandpa J's visit, so they got to meet each other and Zach got to bask in the love of four ga-ga grandparents.

Jay and Barbara were here for Labor Day weekend. We mostly watched the Baby Channel... actually, Zach's getting to the point where he is very interactive and playful, so it's not so much watching as it is participating, which is so much more fun!!!

Lots of photos for your viewing pleasure:

Hangin' out with Grandpa Bob and Pachy the
Elephant in our back "yard".




"Whatchootalkinbout, Nanna?"




Playing out in the back "yard" with mommy.








Bundled up at Stern Grove.




Bought these mittens and the moose
hat in Jackson - soooooo CUTE!




Grandpa Bob talking to Zachary about all the
fun things they're going to do in the city.




Nanna demonstrating to Zach how to open wide.
She's obviously done this before.




Zachary always gets a kick out of seeing
that handsome baby in the mirror.




What? Is there something wrong with
documenting my son's first snotty nose?




Proud grandparents Ankeny and Ingersoll.




I think they're enjoying themselves.




Another proud grandparents shot.




Sweetest. Baby. Ever.




Monkey see, monkey do. Can't say which is which in this case.




Did I mention that Zachary is the Sweetest. Baby. Ever.




Grandma B and Grandpa Jay brought some presents
for Zachary. Here he is, sitting up all by himself,
not quite knowing what to do with the wrapping
paper... "you mean it's OK to rip this up and tear
it apart? You're kidding, right?"




In case I forgot to mention it: Sweetest. Baby. Ever.

goin' for a walk

father and son ready for a walk through the neighborhood!

First Solid Food!!!

Here it is, the long awaited video of Zachary's first meal of solid food:




The little guy is a fast learner, as you can see on this video of meals three, four and beyond:





I'll be adding photos of these meals soon for your continued viewing pleasure.

Zachary's First Camping Trip

As I mentioned in the previous post, we went on our first family camping trip last weekend. We stayed in a cabin at Hendy Woods State Park, which "features two virgin redwood groves; Big Hendy with a self-guided discovery trail and Little Hendy. The Navarro River runs the length of the park.

"Located in the middle of the Anderson Valley wine district, this park is warmer and less foggy than redwood parks along the coast. The park is well known for a fallen redwood stump that was home for a man known locally as the Hendy Woods Hermit."

The only downside is that it was 3.5 hr drive from SF. (The State Parks website and Google say less than 3, but that's in a world without Bay Area weekend warrior traffic.) We have plenty of camping options a lot closer to home, and next time we'll take advantage of one of them. This was a bit of special situation b/c the reservation for the cabin more or less fell into our laps.

Zachary did great for about the first 2.5 hours of the drive in both directions, but the last hour was really tough. He got cranky, tired and hungry, and Amy ended up feeding him while he was in the car seat. That was really the toughest part of the whole weekend. That and getting the temperature in the cabin right. The wood stove worked great, too great. But it only held two medium sized logs, and by 2 or 3 in the morning it got chilly. Brrrrr ...

Our own, semi-private, cabin in the woods



Zach is getting real good at reaching out and grabbing ... everything.
The name of the cabin is "Ringtail", the one next door was "Puma".
Campsites and cabins at state and national parks have to have clever,
nature-themed names, it's the law.



The cabin had a table and full-size bunk buds. We slept on an
airmatress on the bottom and let Zach have the top bunk ...
JUST KIDDING!!!



... no, no, there's the Pack n Play that Zach slept in. And we only
moved it near the wood burning stove in the morning, to help
dry out his blanket. Which was wet, and not for the reason you might think ...



... but because daddy got a little complacent. Remember how I
said earlier that Zach has gotten really good at reaching
out and grabbing? Well, once he's got a grip, he pulls.
In this case, it was my cereal bowl, full to the brim with
cereal and milk, which spilled all over the floor (see highligted
area in the photo). Thankfully, nobody cried. Except maybe Amy,
who graciously volunteered to clean the mess up.



Zach was very interested in the trees.



Here's the stump of one of them.



We took a short walk down to the Navarro river.



Family portrait!



We stopped at an organic apple orchard on the
way back. It was just about a mile from the park,
and we needed a place to stop and feed Zachary.
We also needed a little refreshment ourselves, and
their self-serve farm stand, complete with cold,
fresh apple juice was just begging us to stop.



The apples and pears they had for sale. So colorful, so yummy!



They had this amazing garden out back, shaded by
a stand of trees they had landscaped (arborscaped?)
into an archway/collonade/gazebo. Very cool.
... and there's Zach, reaching for his bottle. I guess
if you put enough things in your mouth, eventually
you hit paydirt!

Everything in the mouth

Amy, Zachary and I went on our first camping trip last weekend. It was just an overnight, up in the Anderson Valley, Mendocino County, about a 3 hr drive. It was pretty posh, for camping at a State Park: we had a cabin, wood burning stove, running water nearby. It went fairly well, and we gained some confidence that we can do longer trips in the future. I'll get the photos and a short video clip from the trip up soon. In the meantime, here are some shots from the last few weeks:

Zachary learning about dogs, cats and pigs....

... and trying to find out what they taste like ... like the title of the post says, *everything* goes in the mouth.

And two toys in the mouth are always better than one!

And what post would be complete without photos of Zach getting down with his cute self on his activity mat.

Growling IS Funny!

Sorry for the orange-ish tone and poor lighting, we're still figuring out the video function on the new camera ... sharing in laughter with Zachary has got to be purest joy I've ever experienced ...

Playing catchup ...

Zachary is getting bigger, holding his head up when he's on his tummy like a pro, almost can sit up on his own, drools like Niagra Falls, puts everything in his mouth, coos and ahhs and giggles and raspberries A LOT, is eating 4 meals a day, sleeping 11 hours at night (with only the occasional wake up at 3 AM - what a champ!) and is a general joy to be around ... except for when he's overtired and cranky, which tends to happen in the early evening right before last meal of the day... he's definitely happier in the morning.

yup, that's your bottle ...

...fascinating!

Zachary in his new Exersaucer MEGA, a gift from Big G



I think he likes it ...



oh yeah, THIS rocks!

We've been getting together with two other families who we met while going through the adoption process. We all ended up with our children at about the same time. Since May we've been getting together once a month to check in, hang out and have fun. Here are some shots from the play group we hosted at our place a couple of weeks ago:

Zach, Emi & Atticus



Whatever Emi wants ...



... Emi gets ;) .. of course, it didn't hurt that Zach was showing some skin!



Meanwhile, Atticus has some ideas of his own

Finally, we leave you with some shots of Zachary and his amazing drool. Not only does he drool like a leaky faucet, he raspberries and blows bubbles, too!

Notice the spittle-soaked shirt - Zachary dresses to impress

"Zzzrrrrrbbbrrrrrrtttt!!!"

Best. Bubble. EVER.