Countdown to 2009!

Look at the fancy hat big sister made for the New Year's party!
Looks like Zachary prefers the gold one...

Uh-oh! Mark likes the gold one too! Watch out Zachary!

Thanks to everyone for celebrating the last day of 2008 with us! Cheers to good friends and loving family!

a new throne for Zachy

Zachary outgrew the infant seat - here he is in the upgrade. Doesn't look too happy? He really enjoyed his ride in it though! Loved the hanging toy, looking out the window, sitting upright... Elena wasn't so happy that he was on the other side of the car. Tough luck kiddo! Having Zachary sit by the door makes it easier for his mom to get him in and out!

forward ho!

Zachary is crawling forward now! He first started this on Sunday, 12/28. He can be very motivated to get to something - a toy or some one's feet. Listen to his concentration! Time to babyproof the house!

Snow trouble on Christmas

How much snow can there be? The pile on top of the barbecue tells part of the tale!

Daddy and Cody trying to walk through the snowdrifts tell another part of the story.

And Grandpa and Daddy trying (and succeeding) to remove the HEAVY snow from the porch roof tell the final chapter of this long and cold fable.

Ah, it's good to be on the inside looking out at the shiny icicles and the snowflakes that came down the size of potato chips.

Enjoy the snow!

Love,

Zachary

Zachy's first Christmas!

The stockings were hung, kinda, sorta close to the chimney (well, as long as in the same room counts) with care . . . .
Nana did a great job making his polar bear stocking - it's fuzzy and has a bell on it's scarf. Thank you so much Nana!

And our hopes of St. Nicholas coming proved true with the pile of presents under the tree. For the most part Zachy thought the wrapping paper was more interesting (not to mention tasty) than the present itself.

Zachy had a napless ride home from Kennewick and to ease his fussiness, he was given a present to devour.

Here he's trying to become a spokesmodel like his sister.

Daddy and Zachy taking stock of the musical crib toy--so far it has been a big hit just sitting on the floor. Maybe it will make it into the crib before he grows out of it. Not sure of what Fat Whitto (sitting on the back of the couch) makes of it...

This riding/walking toy may be just the push Zachy needs to get moving on his own. Who knows? Maybe he'll walk before he crawls.

Whaddya know? The presents taste just as good as the wrapping paper. Happy Holidays, everybody! And Happy First Christmas, Zachary!

Napping with the 'rents

Mr. Power Nap as Daddy calls him.
Oooh! A picture with Mommy - these are rare! We're at JCPenney waiting to see how our family photos turned out. A Ruzauskas group picture is becoming a holiday tradition. Our photographer this year came up with Zachary's new nickname -- Bubba Choo. Not the most attractive name, but it sure caught on quick!

My Family

Zachy entertaining Aunt Amy.
Nattie helps Zachary stack.

Ruby helps take care of the baby. Zachy really liked pulling her hair!

Nana gets a kick out of all his silly faces.

Aunt Sarah says he weighs almost as much as Tate!

A turn bouncing on PopPop's lap.

Tate tries to share his chips and they end up holding hands.

We made it to Kennewick!

Nana is excited to see us even if we did interrupt her Christmas wrapping.
Zachy is happy to be out of his tiny infant car seat. Hope the new car seat arrives soon...

Uncle Greg and Aunt Sarah came over with Ruby, Nattie, Tate, and Caleb the dog. With all the snow they got stuck trying to get in Nana's driveway! Jim and Aunt Amy help push, but it doesn't do any good. Uncle Greg ends up zooming past the house and successfully making it into the drive on his way back.

Aunt Amy is here!

Aunt Amy is here and she loves babies! Especially sweet babies. But she seemed to like cranky Zachary too.
She's waiting to hear his snoring...

Elena liked having Aunt Amy visit too. Aunt Amy loves to color in coloring books and laugh at silly things kids do.

Playing at Nana's house. Zachy is concerned that Nana has more toys than he does...

Crib photos

Just some cute pictures to share.
So serious.

Look at that BIG smile!

Snowy drive

The Sunday before the 25th and it looks like we'll have a white Christmas! Jim braves the roads to get us to dim sum (well worth it).
Ooh, Zachy waves to his mom who sits in the third row seats of the car.
At dim sum, the snow continued to fall. We had a wonderful meal that ended with a great big poopy diaper. The restaurant did not supply a changing table in either restroom (!?!) so Zachy was changed in the back of the car. A very memorable changing... The poop was everywhere and required an entire outfit change. And in the midst of cleaning poop, Zachy let his pee go. Good thing his mom has quick hands and only a few things got wet - his face, Elena's boots (washable, thank goodness), and his hat. And now we are out of baby wipes... :-)

Half a year old!

What a cutie!At Zachary's 6 month wellness visit, he weighed 19lbs 3oz (80th%), was 27 3/4" long (90th%), and with a head circumference of 17 1/4" (50th%). He looks very proportionate to us, despite the difference in percentile. His new carseat is on order and should arrive by Christmas - he has obviously outgrown the infant seat...
Is that a wink??? Zachary still makes all sorts of silly faces, some of which we are able to capture on camera. You've seen how mobile he is in the videos and seen his strength in the pictures where he pushes his body off the ground onto his hands and toes (downward dog position).
He still doesn't have any teeth and we keep introducing new solids to him. Zachary could care less if any of the food got in his stomach... He's happy just sitting up at the table with us, playing with his spoon. You can see he still has his dimple and his hair looks fuller every day. He is a happy, healthy, baby who has a smile for everyone!

Baby's first snow

Not even in the snow 10 seconds and he's already toppled over! Zachy is very mellow and just taking it all in I guess. Watching those crazy dogs run around him is enough activity for anyone!
He found the snow very tasty. And he probably wishes the snow suit wasn't so binding.

Pretty funny. The first time he was set in the snow he fell back without a nudge from Cody.

More Santa... er, Samta

Rainey went to see Samta at Sam's Cats & Dogs, Naturally and Zachary joined the picture. Elena went too, but she said she had already seen Santa. Instead, she watched the photo shoot and ate a chocolate donut. Rainey was very good for Samta (as was Zachary) and she came home with a shopping bag full of toys, treats, and food samples.

Two Videos

Next step: moving forward across the floor!

A video of Zachary sleeping? Make sure your volume is on and listen to him snore.

Belly off the floor

Zachy thinks it's time to start crawling! He gets up on his hands and knees and rocks back and forth and ends up scooching backwards. Silly boy does it over and over and eventually gets himself stuck against a wall or under a couch or between chairs...

Elena urges him to get moving!

Zachy has also been sitting up by himself. Don't think we posted this milestone yet either. And we're all still waiting for his teeth to appear.

Tree chopping

Here's our tree! We had to tour the whole farm after seeing this one just to make sure it was definitely the one. It has the best rich green color.
Zachy plays peek through the tree as we wait for Daddy to chop it down.

We're still waiting for the tree to fall so Zachary takes a cuddle with Terry.

Jim gave up on the manual hand saw provided by the tree farm and switched to his battery powered saw. But oops! The blade bent! And then the battery died. So Jim had to go back to the hand saw. Maybe getting a big tree wasn't the best idea... Or we should have brought a chainsaw...

Zachary is getting tired. Is the tree down yet?

Yay! It's down! Now to go home and trim and decorate! Wow! Look at that diameter! Good job Jim!