Helloooo, lots of work and some playtime this year so far. I just uploaded a bunch of pictures to make up for some lost time. Some below and the rest in the photo gallery.
Zachary has been growing and learning a lot. He is basically twice his birth weight and he is about 5 months so I predict that by the time he is 12 years old he will be over 4 billion pounds and will have overtaken his cousin Molly.
It has been interesting watching him over the last couple of months learning what his hands are and carefully reaching out and touching something in front of him and feeling slowly with his fngers with big wide-open eyes and a surprised expression on his face. As the days and weeks went by his movements became more and more deliberate as he found out that he could have some effect on the world, but mostly he learned that multiple fingers and most of his entire fist fits into his mouth. Somtimes even parts of both hands. I don't know what evolutionary purpose this has. Maybe he will be a lion-tamer.
We got him the 'jumper' as be was getting sick of spending too much time in his slacker-chair. It is not a full-motion jumping-frame but he can stand in it on his toes and bounce a bit but mostly reach out and play with various items arrayed about him for 360 degrees of fun. He doesn't rotate by himself within it but we can turn him within the rotating 'turret'. He enjoys up to 20 minutes in it before getting cranky.
Kathy also picked out a nice high-chair which he enjoys sitting in for a bit too. He is enjoying sitting up more and it will be interesting to see if his balance improves, because right now he has none. It is hilarious.
He has been eating rice-cereal mixed into his formula too as we dilligently take a pre-loved diaper into the gastro-pediatrician for viewing and discussion as if it were the entrails of the first kill since the full moon. Kathy is still off the dairy and soy herself, but Zachary seems to be doing well.
He gets very 'noisy' at times! Gurgling, creaking, squeeking, laughing, and grunting. Every few days it is as if he has found a new sound to play with and that is his theme until he comes across the next one! By one definition his first words were "Hey Mat!" which is what Kathy and I both heard him emit one evening on his slacker-chair. I think we should wait and see. Unless he was meaning to say: "Hey Mat, boy do I have a surprise in my diaper for you!".
More soon,
-M