Zachary Funnies

On April 21, I was in my bedroom while I left Zachary in the living room. I was going back and forth checking on him. I decided I better not leave him out there when I found him hanging from the door handle of our entertainment center. Look at his cute little feet!

Yesterday, April 28, he was in my bedroom with me. He was pulling himself up our dresser drawers by the handles--they are perfect-sized knobs for his little hands. All of a sudden, Mark's t-shirt drawer opened on Zachary. Zachary looked at me with the most hilarious "What just happened" looks. He was so surprised! I couldn't stop laughing. And then the drawer pinned him down, which confused the poor boy even more.

Just this morning, I found Zachary high-centered on the rungs of one of our kitchen chairs. Instead of backing out of the situation, he pushed himself even further onto the rungs. What a nut. I think he's related.

Zachary - 7 Months

Dear Zachary,

I can't believe how fast this month went. Sheesh.

Every day you are pulling up on something new. Bookshelves, cabinets, walls, couches, chairs, our bed, your crib. Everything. It's kind of scary. Your dad and I are going to bolt the tall bookshelves to the wall because I'm afraid of you climbing up one of them. And just this past weekend you finally figured out how to sit down from standing up. Before you either had to fall down or cry to get help.

Your sense of humor is so great. It makes me so happy when you recognize what I'm saying and you start smiling because you know it's going to be fun or funny.

Your crawling is so much faster now. Just this morning you spent two hours playing by yourself. You crawled around our house studying things and playing with things. I think you're so glad that you can crawl. Oh, and Sunday night, April 18th, you and I had our first chase session. I chased you down the hallway. You were laughing and looking back over your shoulder as you crawled to get away from me. And me, I was laughing, and growling, and trying to imprint that moment in my memory bank forever.

Tonight while I was cooking dinner, I had another of those "I want to remember this forever" moments. You crawled over by me and you were by my feet. You pulled up on my shorts and you were trying to get me to pick you up. I would every chance I could, when I didn't need both hands. When I needed two hands, I would put you down. Thankfully you weren't in a sad mood--so you didn't cry. As I watched you, I was so grateful that Heavenly Father sent you to me. And I recognized again, like I do so often, that you are growing so fast and you won't be crawling around my feet for long.

I just love you so much. You are so much fun. You make your dad and me so happy.

Love, Your Mom

The Zachary Dance

Andrea caught Zachary doing a little dance in his crib.

Easter in Ferron

We had a fun, short trip this past weekend. We went to Ferron. We went because it was Easter and because it was General Conference. Mark didn't have church obligations, so I convinced him to go. I loved being there.

Zachary got his first taste of mangos. He was given some strips of dried mango and we let him slime them up.

We tried to go fly kites, but it was TOO windy. I stayed in the truck and took pictures. I know—I’m a wimp.

Zachary got his first sucker (which only lasted about 60 seconds before it was taken away from him).

And we just generally relaxed, enjoyed each other's company, and listened to the Prophet's voice.

It was a really good Easter.

On the way back to our house, we stopped in Provo to see my brother and his family. They were blessed with a new baby girl last Tuesday. It was really great to see how tiny she was compared to Zachary's six month size.

You can't quite see it in the picture, but Zachary really liked her a lot.

Four Things to Remember

Zachary, there are four things that I wanted to remember about the last few days--things that I can't wait until your 7-month-birthday to post about.

First Cold
Last Sunday night, April 28, you got your first cold. This is the first time you've been sick. You were sneezing all day, with a few coughs thrown in. But, Sunday night and Monday morning, you woke me up SIX times. That was a rough night for both of us. I felt so bad for you because you were so sad and you were so congested.

I had your daddy give you a blessing. You haven't fully recovered since then, but you have been able to sleep at night and you have been happy again. Thank goodness for the Priesthood!

First Trip Down the Hall
Monday, April 29, you made your first trip down the hall by yourself. Crawling. On hands and knees. I've mentioned before that you've been crawling, but not very well. But, this trip was the turning point in your crawling. You've decided that now it's worth doing it the right way and that you can get where you want to go.

I had just changed your diaper. I left you in your bedroom to go take care of it. When I came back, you were playing with some things on the floor so I just left you. Then you started crying a bit, a "Where are you?" cry. I called you to. I checked on you and you were headed to your bedroom door. So I just called to you again and left.

Not much longer and I saw you in the hallway while I was sitting on my rocking chair in the living room. I kept calling to you and you kept crying the "Why aren't you picking me up?" cry. But, you came. You came all the way from your crib to me in my rocking chair! I was so excited for you. And you weren't even feeling your best and you did it!

Since then, you've been getting a little bit faster each day. You've been crawling a little more regularly every day.
First Easter
I'm not really sure the Easter Bunny is going to come to our house. But, we did give you an Easter present this year. Actually, two.

The first was a Hungry Hungry Hippo stuffed animal. It's yellow. You helped me pick him out at Toys R Us last week.

The second is a walker/cart thingy. It says it's for babies 9 months and older, to help them learn how to walk. But, you are showing signs of walking already, so I figured this would be a good toy for you to have. You haven't quite figured out that you can WALK with it yet, but you sure do like to spin the little doodads on it.
Standing in the Crib
I've been standing you by the crib rail for a couple months now, most often just when I get you in the morning while I grab your clean clothes for the day. But, yesterday, April 5, you decided to pull yourself up. You did it four times yesterday. The third time you pulled yourself up facing the wall and you sure didn't like that. Actually, you didn't like it the first three times because then you didn't know what to do after you got pulled up. Ha!

Since you're kind of tall, your dad and I decided that we would already drop the crib bottom down so you won't pull yourself up and flip yourself out onto the floor and hurt yourself. You've already tried to pull up again, but it's about an inch too high for you to get a good grip. For now you're safe.
Love you Smarty Pants!

April Fools 2010

Mark got me. He got me good!

This morning he woke up and went about his normal routine, except for one thing. He totally made DINNER for breakfast! And it was ugly too! Ha! I walked out to a breakfast of PINK milk and GREEN Ramen noodles. Yah—milk and Ramen.

Ha! I think I laughed for a good 20 minutes. And I've been snickering about it the whole rest of the day.

Here are some comments from Mark's Facebook today.

Mark Hales: Made my wife an April's Fools Breakfast
Mary Malde Lee: consisting of....?
Andrea Hales: Pink milk (not strawberry milk) and green RAMEN NOODLES!
Beth Peless Potter: you are too kind markus. too kind. I bet Andrea was ECSTATIC! i mean, who WOULDN"T want that to eat.
Andrea Hales: The worst part was--we seriously ate it. THAT was breakfast. No "Ha, ha! Just teasing! Here's real breakfast." No! It was BREAKFAST! [I am married to a NUT!!!!!!!]
Mary Malde Lee: You are a brave woman (and very patient!) :)
Mark Hales: Of course it is breakfast!!! I am not going to waste food!!!
Andrea Hales: I know. And I love you.
Elaine Hales Harper: I am laughing my head off at you Mark! I don't know which is funnier--that you made it or that you wouldn't even consider not eating it!
Mark Hales: Oh.. the story would not be as memorable if we didn't eat it.

He Is His Father's Son

What do you think? Think he looks like his daddy?

Zachary's Wonderful Week

I just wanted to post to tell you about our genius son, Zachary. He had a pretty amazing week.
Since his half birthday he has been doing pretty good about the transition from sitting to crawling. But he has also since that day been working on the transition from crawling to sitting. He's been getting better, and this week I've even seen him transition without leaning on his hand. For instance, yesterday I saw him crawl over to a toy fish, pick it up, and then start chewing on it while holding it with both hands.

This week he has done a little bit of cruising. You know, holding onto something and then walking. Today at church he cruised across two chairs while holding onto the back. Crazy.

On Friday I heard him say "Mamamamama." Yes, he did. Okay, so he wasn't calling for me, but he did make that sound. And he's been doing it since then. He even said it to my mom while I was talking to her on the phone.

Zachary has been pulling up on things too. He has crawled over Mark and over me while we've been lying on the floor. He reaches up and tries to stand up.

Lastly, on Friday I was looking in his mouth. I think I see the beginnings of a tooth. I see a white spot that hasn't disappeared. A tooth! Yikes....

In so many ways I'm so proud of him because it seems like he's a little ahead of the curve when it comes to all these physical feats. But, in other ways, I keep thinking, "Slow down boy! Slow down! Just stay little for a while!"
P.S. This picture cracks me up. He was totally laughing when I went in to get him in the morning. What a cute kid.