Another month gone by

In a little more than a week, Zach will be fifteen months old. A toddler, pure and simple. I barely have time for much internet these days. My little Facebook farm goes untended and my status goes un-updated, much like this poor blog.

August was a month of travel for little Zach man. We went camping the first weekend, which he did not like at first but quickly fell in love with being able to run around in grass all day long. The second weekend we went to Chicago to visit Grandma Liz's side of the family, all of whom had never met Zach before. There were lots of pictures taken, but unfortunately most were on other people's cameras, as ours met an untimely demise at the hands of a leaky sippy cup full of milk. We did get to go downtown for a day though, and went to the Shedd Aquarium and Oceanarium, which of course Zach ADORED. There were "dogs" aplenty! (Everything is a dog these days.) Zach got to stay in a fancy hotel crib with a mattress softer than his one at home, and he came back very accustomed to sleeping on pillowy comfort, which made us switch him into a pillowtop twin mattress on the floor instead of his toddler bed so he would finally sleep. Silly boy.

We unfortunately ended the month with a lovely round of the stomach flu being passed through the family. Brad avoided it (so far!), but Zach managed to share it with me and I wish he really hadn't. I spent the majority of this past Thursday getting sick, and still haven't been able to eat a full meal since. You'd think I'd lose some weight, but nope! Only a half a stupid pound gone!

Brad's 28th birthday was kind of low-key this year, thanks to Zach and I being the barf twins. We did manage to go climbing at an indoor rock climbing gym with Brad's best friend Gil (Zach's Godfather). Even I did it! It was a blast and we really do intend to go back soon, especially as I start to feel more like myself.

Now we move on to September. Grandma Liz has started back to school, Daddy's work has its final "summer hours" this week (although Brad very rarely got out as early as everyone else did anyways), and Zach and I spend our mornings watching the big yellow school buses go by the front window.

Milestones..... Zach can now identify the letter A out of others (one out of 26 isn't bad, right?). He has begun to put some words together to form small sentences... "Hi Daddy", "I did it" or "I did that", "Good dog", "Hi kitty", and "What's that?" are favorites. I think he is getting in all four of his molars, but he won't let me get a finger in his mouth to verify this theory. Running and climbing are very much a part of our everyday tasks now too.

And lastly, I will close with some pictures from our travels (which if you're on my Facebook, you've probably already seen).


Zach enjoying the campfire


Zach with Mommy and Daddy on the water taxi in Chicago

At the Aquarium (I love the look on his face!)

Pointing at some sting rays

Zach giving Brad his birthday card and "reading" it to him.