Here I am World, Ready or Not, May 6, 2002

Archived Updates

9/4/02 Squeeky Clean.

Hello all! I have to be honest, there just isn't that much to report for this week. I've had a pretty stable routine lately and a bit of a vacation from vacationing! My evening routine is now perfected... I'm asleep after my tubby at 9:30pm and don't usually wake again until about 7:30 or 8am. I'm still working on regulating a nap though... that's much tougher. I pretty much fall asleep whenever I so choose, and everyone around me just has to deal with it! To be honest, there have even been days that I choose NOT to take a nappy at all... and then, everyone around me just has to deal with that too! Oh, and now that I'm less of a bobble head, Mommy plays "airplane" with me... check out the shots of that!

I went to a luncheon at Mommy's work the other day, that was cool. After the initial shock of so many new faces, I was able to settle into a nice nap. I shot a smile at a few folks, but purposefully didn't try to to overwhelm anyone!

I have a doctor's appointment this Friday... yep, my 4 monther! Can you believe it? I'm a third of a year already! I think Mommy and Daddy are torn between "gosh, the time sure goes by quickly" and "did we even have lives before Zachy?" I'll have a full report for you all after the appointment, but as a sneak preview... I was 15.9 pounds last week at my, "oh my god, he has a low-grade fever" appointment! Pretty funny story to go along with that too... my Uncle Brad got to take me because Mommy was tied up in a conference call at work (she mutters sometimes about "work-life balance")! Anyway, the nurse didn't seem too impressed with Brad's familiarity with my medical history, but I think he did great!

Other than that, it's football season now and that has caught my undivided attention... I've even learned to laugh in honor of the event! I mean it, real laughs... genuine noises from my belly! Gotta tell you, when you see those Redskins play...you have no choice but to learn to laugh!

Well, full report to come post doctor's visit... until then, you can take a look at the progress on my new house! We've been out there to visit it quite a bit lately. Now that the humidity has broken, we're really taking advantage of the cart paths on the unopened golf course! Until later...


8/14/02 A Day at the Beach!!!!

So, my first family vacation with Mommy and Daddy has come and gone! We spent a whole week in the outerbanks! I went with the Walker side of the family and had no lack of people to play with me and love me all up! Oh man... the ocean is something else! I spent quite a few hours on the beach... no worries though gang... I have a beach tent so I didn't get burned! Yep, I took three long naps on the beach under two umbrellas and my tent! I'm telling you though, I love my nursery at home, but Mommy and Daddy HAVE to get me my own ocean surf and sea breeze! Nothing helps me sleep better!

Speaking of sleep, I've got it! I mean I've got it down pat! I play with Mommy and Daddy for a few hours every night, then around 9:30ish I get my tubby, then either mom or dad read me a story... Dr. Seuss is still my favorite... and then I eat and go to sleep. If all works according to plan, I give my 'rents about 7-9 hours. I tried to pull a fast one on them by falling asleep at 7:30 with no bath and then waking up at 4... but I don't think that flew with them!

So, now that we're back from vacation I've had my first 2 weeks of babysitters. Last week I got to spend three whole days with Grandma, What fun!! For a Grandma she's got some en-er-gy! she wore me out playing. That first night I slept 8 hours straight!!!! Then, this week, I spent my first week with Kim, my next-door neighbor who's wonderful enough to watch little 'ole me twice a week! I have great fun there... and their house looks remarkably similar to ours! Oh, and on the topic of houses.. Mommy's lost her mind! Yeah, I've caught her a couple of times picking up lint from the floor! Something about our house being for sale!?!? I don't really understand, all I know is that out of no where I'm getting packed up and we're off on a walk... LIKE THREE TIMES A DAY... while strangers parade around our place. Anywho, back to Kim's... there's a little girl there, and she's CUTE!! I think she loves me... I'm going to marry her someday!

Developmentally, I'm a full time roller, a perfect 'head-lifter", I kick my feet like crazy in my tub, I've taken to spitting up a bit (but that's just so that Mommy and Daddy don't get to cocky), I stand up when helped appropriately, and I laugh and smile like I'm being paid to do so! Basically, I'm as happy as a clam... and since Mommy and Daddy just dropped another $100 on cutesy clothes for me in honor of football season, I'm looking pretty good too!

Oh, and before I go... take a look at my stint as a model...


7/26/02 Yeah Baby...Hearing Tests are over!

Well folks, much to share!!! First, and perhaps the greatest news my parents have received since my birth... my hearing is PERFECT!!! Yep, after months of nervousness (ok, panic), we got the good word from Dr. Milmoe that my hearing is normal despite the fact that I refuse to pass any of the standard tests offered to people my age! Truth is, knowing that Mommy and Daddy would stop at nothing to be sure I saw the very best Drs... .I knew I'd be able to score a trip to Georgetown! Oh and I WILL be back one day... the party scene looked great! Long story short, sure enough, my little ear canals gave everyone a scare. Apparently, when all these technicians were pulling at my ears to get the probes in, they flattened my ear canals and sound was delayed in getting to my middle ear! You should have seen the delight in Mommy and Nanni's faces when the Dr. told them I didn't need to come back unless Mommy wanted me to! I think I may have even seen them cry a bit! Thanks to everyone for their thoughts, prayers, and well-wishes while we navigated the unknown of "otolaryntology"...cool word huh?

Well, with that nightmare behind us, let me tell you about what I've been up to... .First, I had to endure yet another horrific trip to the pediatrician. After learning that I'm in the 98th percentile for size, we moved on to the more serious business. To my fellow baby friends, if you hear the expression "two month check-up"... RUN SCREAMING!! Can you believe they gave me 4 shots at once!?! Good grief!

Another HUGE change in my world is that my Mommy has started going back to work! Yep, for the last two weeks, my Nanni has been staying with me and we've had a ball! It's like Mommy's never left... .we read, and sing, and play, and have tummy time, and nap, and eat...just like when Mommy's here. It's been a bit of an adjustment for us both, and we miss each other a lot, but things are going pretty smoothly thus far. Oh, and I've done a brilliant job of saving up all my cuteness for the hours of 5:30 - 10pm... .just before my tubby! I laugh and smile and talk like crazy as soon as Mommy and Daddy walk in the door... they're eating it all up... in fact, the other day, they squabbled over who got to hold me first!

Well, I need to get to bed because I've had a heck of a day today. I did some modeling this morning... .yeah, the three month gig (although I'm only 11 weeks!). Mom had to squeeze it in because we're leaving for vacation tomorrow. This will be my farthest trip yet... .I'm going to the Outerbanks!


7/8/02 OH MY, Where to Start!!!

This has been quite an incredible 2 weeks! Gone are the nice quiet lazy weekends, I'm a mover and a shaker now! Last week the theme was "hearing tests". Between technical problems with the machine, the probes falling out of my ears and the 'learning-on-the-job technician'... . lets just say comical would be and understatement. I wasn't pleased with this cutting into my lunch time either & I let everyone know! We have to meet someone called an ENT this week to sift through the results. I'm gonna go ahead and thank Daddy now for these TINY ear canals, SHEEESH!! ... What did they want from me I was only 8 WEEKS OLD!!!

This week and weekend were much more fun!!! I got to go and meet another Great Grandparent, Grandma Cale. She got to hold me and I showed her what a good screamer I am ;). I also spent some time with Grandma Walker at her house and played on her neat new screened-in porch while Mommy ran errands. Then, for the 4th of July, we went to Aunt Brenda & Uncle John's, where I got to meet Uncle Tim. We had lots of cool picnic food and then there were FIREWORKS. Have you seen these things!! Big explosions in the sky...talk about contrasting lights and darks for me to look at, OH YEAH! I think Mommy would really like me to be a pyrotechnician... don't you?

This weekend I got to go on another road trip to Nanni & Poppop Smith's for Uncle Brett's graduation party, he just finished college at Shippensburg. Well at this party were LOTS of new people for me to meet!!!!! All the Aunts, Uncles, Cousins, and Great Aunts & Uncles from Mommy's family and ANOTHER Great Grandparent, Nana Smith, Wow, thats 4 Great Grandparents, Neato!!!!!! I got to spend a little time with everyone and tried to hold all of them.

6/25/02 Well, check "nap" off my list of things-to-do....

So another two weeks have come and gone and again, I have much to report. We've had a couple of nice quiet and lazy weekends at home lately (which has been a bit of a change to my hectic lifestyle thus far)! Last weekend I went out to Dominion Valley... that's gonna be my new neighborhood as of December. It was great fun because they were having a fair... Mommy got some great shots of Daddy and I eyeing the snowcones! We actually went there the other night too... to see how things were progressing and low and behold... my house has started!!!

Last week, my Nanni Smith came to visit again...but this time she brought my Nana and Poppop Ankrum with her! It was great... not for at least 10 hours had I been so fussed over! They even brought me a souvenir from their trip to South Carolina!

Well, on the "official development" front, I'm still growing like a weed! I went to the pediatrician today to get my ears cleaned in preparation for my hearing tests and they weighed me again... TWELVE POUNDS FOLKS!! Yep, it's 12 pounds 5 ounces to be precise, but who's counting! Did I mention that I'm not even wearing my size 1 diapers anymore!?!?! How about that I've outgrown almost ALL my 0-3 month clothes!?! Do you believe this? Mom was getting worried... thinking we should start saving for a dietician consultation or something, but my doctor says my growth is exceptionally healthy and that Mommy and Daddy should save for FOOD for my teens instead! There is a small price to pay for getting so big though... I can't roll over anymore! I mean, I still know how and still really want to, I just can't get my big tush over anymore... MOST FRUSTRATING!

I've started to do other neat things in place of rolling over though... I hold my head up like a champ now, I mimic mommy and daddy when they make faces at me, I'm sleeping in 5-6 hour stretches at night, I've scaled back my eating to every 3 or 4 hours, I 'coo' when spoken to, and I smile pretty nicely now too (if I do say so myself)!

Well, enough for now... I've got more clothes to grow out of!

6/11/02 Peaceful, Easy Feeling....

Here I am again.....but now I'm 5 weeks old!! OLDER THAN A MONTH...with a couple of cool things to report...

First, last weekend Mommy and Daddy took me to Great Falls Park! We had a blast...had a mini-picnic (ok, really just cookies and chips, but I'm getting to be a handful, so let's give mommy and break!), went on a hike, got some pictures of the falls, and then we all just relaxed on a blanket for a while.

Also, I've been keeping up on my sports....hockey playoffs and my first championship fight. Yep, I got to stay up and watch Lewis clobber Tyson (much to Mommy's dismay)!

Well, most interesting developmentally is that I'm 10 pounds 13 ounces as of today. Oh, and I've totally revamped my nice eating /sleeping schedule to keep my parents on their toes! I eat every 2 hours now as a result of a growth spurt (as if I need to grow anymore!) AND, to really shake things up....my days and nights are COMPLETELY backwards!!! Yeppers....I sleep angelically all afternoon (with an occaisional wail for no reason whatsoever, just to keep things interesting), and then not a blink all night! I think it's taking it's toll on Mom...she's even got Daddy staying up with me a bit some nights and HE HAS TO GO TO WORK IN THE MORNING!!! To add to the mayhem, when I'm crying at night, I insist on being danced around! That way, everyone is forced to be up and about and no one is likely to fall asleep on me. This is great fun for me now, though all good things must end, so I guess eventually I'll have to fall into line with the rest of the world and sleep when it's dark!

5/30/02 Rollin' Rollin' Rollin'

So I'm tearing up on a month old now folks!!! I'm dangero usly close to being on a good routine now too...not bad for someone that was only supposed to be here yesterday!! I'm eating about every 4 hours like clockwork...I've decided after the surprise of my arrival, Mommy and Daddy needed a break! Apparently I don't need too much more than that either....I'm up to 8 pounds 11 ounces!!! Oh, and those newborn diapers are a thing of the past!! Yep, about a week ago Mom had to bag up the extras and pack 'em away with her maternity clothes! We're gonna save them for my little brother or sister someday!

Oh hey....some of you aren't gonna believe this, but... I ROLL OVER NOW!!! Yep, I'm serious...I've got witnesses!! First time was two Sundays ago... Nanni & Poppop Smith and Daddy saw me do it! Mommy missed it, so she thought it was a fluke. Having to prove her wrong, I did it again..TWICE..and this time I made sure folks saw it. Not only did Mommy and Daddy see me, but Nanni, Kim, Courtney, Brad, and Sara all got to watch!

Now that the weather is nice, we've been taking walks like crazy....although, I've slept through every single solitary one of them! Something about that stroller just puts me in a zone! Mommy and I were really putting some miles on that travel system, so Daddy bought me a jog stroller! It's pretty sweet...it's made for big kids and babies like me...so for now I face backwards, but when I"m bigger (not that I'm not a beef-cake now of course!) I'll get to see what's coming!

Oh, and I saw another holiday already!!! Yep, my first Memorial Day...celebrated perfectly with a BBQ at Grandma and Grandpa's place. I have to admit though, I slept through a lot of it!

Hey, and one more thing....I have a new friend!! Yep...Mommy's friend Jenn had a boy...MAXWELL JOSEPH!! Now that I officially 'play' with my new toys...I'm anxious to meet him and share! Until next week.....

5/20/02 Weighing In & Sticking it Out!

OK, I got tricked! Mommy loaded me up for what I thought was going to be another fun car trip, but boy was I wrong. We went back to the Doctor where they looked me over and weighed me again, business as usual...BUT THEN.... Doc pulls out this HUGE needle for my Hep B shot. That thing must have been 2 feet long. Thank gosh Daddy wasn't there, he doesn't like needles at all! Then....she got me with it, right in the leg. That Smarts!!!!! I am not a fan of those at all. After the sting went away the Doc wanted to see how my muscles were coming along. She held me up by the tummy and I did my best Superman pose for her....neck up, arms and legs out!!! She said I was REALLY strong, but I need some more tummy time so my arms will catch up with my legs, See, I rolled over the first time from my tummy to my back yesterday, mostly through leg leverage. Pretty soon I wanna start doing push-ups!!

I had another other first this week too, My first POWER OUTAGE! On Friday we had a big storm and suddenly the lights went out. Mommy & Daddy lit a bunch of candles and we sat around with the neighbors, Courtney and Skylar. Skylar is almost 2 and she wasn't scared...so neither was I!!!! That was a lot of fun!

I had a nice visit last week with my Aunt Kristin. She held me all day and all night...she thought everything I did was CUTE CUTE CUTE....of course, she's right! Oh, and we had another road trip over the weekend to see Uncle Brett's new apartment....the place is great, but he wasn't so exicted about Mommy changing me on his new bed! Nanni and Poppop Smith slept over that weekend too....they love me all up!

5/13/02 What a first week!

7 Down..... A stellar Doctors appt this morning capped off a most exciting week (my most exciting to date!!) I'm back up to 6lbs 2ozs (more than my birth weight!!!) and no trace of yellowing anymore. Doc says it usually takes 2 weeks to get back up to birth weight. Not me! I think I have my Mommy's sense of efficiency. Why take 2 when I can knock it out in 1...in fact, I think I'll do some particle physics later in the week. :)

Anyways, I've got a lot to talk about this week, My first Road Trip (to Shippensburg,Pa), my first Graduation (Uncle Brett graduated from College), tons more visitors, and my first Mother's Day (Mommy loved my present)!!!

Yep, after my clean bill of health from the pediatrician last week, we got the green light on going to graduation! Not only did I see Uncle Brett graduate, but I met my Great-Nana and Poppop Ankrum! They were delighted to see me...I surprised them...no one was expecting me to be up for a road trip so soon! Truth is, I slept through a lot, but woke up enough for everyone to snap a few pictures of me! After graduation, I was feeling so good that Mommy, Daddy and I even did some outlet shopping...I'm not sure how I feel about that...shopping may not be my gig...I mean, there are games to be watched on ESPN!

Sunday was Mother's Day....what a special day for Mommy and me! More visitors too!! I got to meet my Aunt Stephanie & Uncle Kevin along with all my cousins.....Amanda, Katie, and George. I got mommy a beautiful charm, a little boy's head, Just Like Me! Holidays are such fun, I can't wait for more.

Today was another first too! The first day that mommy and I got to play by ourselves, daddy had to go back to work. We played ALLLLL day. I can't wait to do it again tomorrow.

Also I got my name in the press already, I'm gonna have a big future!

5/8/02 Home at Last!!!!!!!

So after the requisite 48 hour slumber party, we packed up ship and headed home. The morning entertainment included a revolving door of doctor visits. Mom says they were prepping me for discharge, but I think they were just gonna miss me! Just about everything checked out, I've got a trace of Jaundice so we're heading to the Pediatrician tomorrow but other than that I'm a champ!!!! Mom's not doing too bad either....I think i heard her say that on a scale of 1 to 10, she had NO pain!! Good thing I wasn't a few weeks later -- it could have been a whole different story!

Following a brief drive in a WAY too tight carseat (fireman's orders), I got to see my new digs! The whole place is decorated....balloons, signs, streamers. and bows....even the inside has balloons and flowers on every level! Mom and Dad told me that there were a lot of people to love me, but this is incredible! Thanks everyone!!

The only thing I'm a little leary of are these three fuzzy guys that think they own the joint.....I don't think ANY of these flowers and gifts are from THEM!

Oh and my new room....IT RULES!!! You can take a look at the pictures, but there is plenty to keep me interested. For a while I'll be in my beautiful bassinet with mommy and daddy, but if i keep up this late-night crying schedule, I might be in there sooner than I think!!!

Looking foward to meeting more of you....and seeing some of the pictures you all have taken with me! Be sure to check out Dad's new touch to my site....the "Holding Me Hall of Fame!"

5/6/02 Well Hello There World

Well, I hit the 37 week mark and decided "Thats Enough, I Want Out!" I think Mom and Dad were only too happy to have me.

So Last night I start my final game of in utero hopscotch as Mom, Dad and I began our voyage to Labor & Delivery, It must have been those 4 fajitas Mom put back last night.

So after a short 12 hours and 52 minutes at 8:52 this morning, I made my grand entrance.

Sorry for such a quick intro but I've got tests to take, diapers to fill and all the other things newborn must do to acclimate his surroundings!!!!

 





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