MatHoblog

I uploaded a bunch of new photos to our new photo site:

http://hobblog.spaces.live.com

There is an album for October and also for November with lots of pics.

 Zachary had done a lot in the last couple of months.  He is now walking about with some confidence.  Falling regularly but bouncing back up.  At first he'd just walk around, turning 180 degrees and walking back and forth, just showing off.  Now he just walks with a purpose.  And that purpose is usually to be up to no good.  As he gets taller he is reaching over things more, and grabbing and pulling anything that comes to hand and tossing them aside!

His preference is for anything with wheels.  Anything material or fluffy he quickly discards, but if it rotates or has rotating parts he is fascinated and will sit there spinning it.  A favorite is any kind of luggage bag which he will upend (closed or not) to get to the wheels and start spinning them.  Imagine his delight when I show him that instead of just banging on a pot lid, he can spin it!

 We have all been sick lately.  Zachary is congested and crankier but is getting better.  Some interesting nasal adventures.

Two big travel destinations in November were Kathy's friend Charlene's wedding to Ronnie in US Virgin Islands.  4 hr flights each way made for fun but manageable flights with Z on the lap.  USVI was great with sunny weather the whole time.  Z enjoyed water time - initially crying but soon getting used to it and having a ball.  We did some snorkelling and should have some underwater shots later.

Zach is still making lots of speaking noises but no consistent words.  He will try to copy in some situations.  I say "tickle, tickle, tickle" and he sometimes says "ickle, ickle, ickle"!  He says 'ka" for cat sometimes too.

 

Hi folks, I've been uploading pics to here:

http://picasaweb.google.com/matnkat

There is an album for each month with some commentary along with the pics.

Zachary started crawling all of a sudden about June 30 and then had a great time at Grandma's place in Wisconsin for a week crawling all around the kitchen and living area stopping only to beat on some pots and play with some historic toys from a bygone era (Kathy's childhood).  We had a week off in Wisconsin.

Zachary is sometimes emulating sounds like copying dad pushing a toy car and saying 'broommmm' a little.  Also mum's 'uh-oh' when dropping something.  Not consistently but enough to notice.  More teeth came through this month, now four at the bottom.

The latest April pics are here:

http://picasaweb.google.com/matnkat/Zachary200704

Starting from some continued Easter pictures when Kathy found time to dress Zachary in a bunny suit and capture more blackmail potential.

Then some with the visiting Grandma.  He is becoming more of a handful going out as he does not like to sit still in his stroller.  As he uses a high-chair at home we can start to try this out and about too.

There are some pictures from Central Park on a nice sunny day, the weather is getting nice now.

Zach is till teething so some grumpy momemts on and off.  Two teeth only, the others must be waiting to all come through at once, sometime while we are out at a restaurant.

Lots of new foods being tried out: still stewed and mushy foods only just now - lots of veges but some meats now too.

Kathy took him to a musical session on a recent Friday and all had a great time...

... the best thing at home is when Zachary is lying on his tummy on his floor mat with his toys, the only thinge he can do is push himself slowly backwards.  So when he sees a toy he particularly likes he gets all excited and starts pushing himself away in the opposite direction, moving further and further away!

Hi folks, here is another batch of pics, not the really latest (NZ Grandma was here for a long weekend over Easter, but pics are still in the camera!):

http://picasaweb.google.com/matnkat/Zachary200703

Zachary is trying various new foods and is getting much better at eating - meaning a little less mess than the pictures indicate!  He is now sitting up comfortably and enjoys sitting on his mat and reaching out to his toys, only getting grumpy when they eventually all fall out of arms reach.  No sign of any crawling yet.  He is exploring some consonant sounds with some Dahs and Kahs.

All good here otherwise, NZ is in the cricket world cup and I can see some games online with various degrees of success.

-M

 Mat failed to mention a VERY important milestone for Zach - his 1st tooth!!! Won't be long before he'll be enjoying meat pie while watching cricket and rugby with Daddy.

-K

Hi folks, we have enjoyed some warmer weather recently. A few good days as a taste of things to come.  Just uploaded a bunch of new photos from the last month so check out the gallery for photos or check the link below where I uploaded photos to the picasa website as a trial:

http://picasaweb.google.com/matnkat

The site is pretty convenient so I'll try it for a bit.  Navigating the pictures is easy (arrow keys work too) and it appears to preload the next picture ahead for faster viewing.  There is a slideshow mode too.

Zachary is onto some basic 'solid'(-like) food.  Namely rice cereal (porridge).  A fair amount of mess is made and it's hard to tell if he likes it or is just bemused by the whole experience.  He laughs at the cat when she goes by while the cat sometimes takes notice of him and gives him a sniff or a lick.  Perhaps he smells like catfood.

Zachary is prone to bursts of laughter and also squealing and other random noises.  This never happens when a phone is held out to him encouragingly however.

Zachary is 6 months old Sunday the 18th!  Naturally the amusement of this new toy has worn off and we are expecting him to start to work for his living.  Until then we will be keeping a tab of all his expenses and charging a interest rate sufficient to fund our retirement.

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

I had a week off work for the last week of the year so we went down the Washington DC for a few days.  We rented a car and drove there and back (not such a fun drive).  Once there we had a good relaxing time in the nice weather (50s) and enjoyed a few museums, the botanic gardens, the zoo, and some general walking around the mall area.  Nice trip!  The capitol building was closed early and the for the rest of the week (preparations for Ford's funeral) so we could only wander around there.  But it did mean a trip to the adjacent botanic gardens which is a mostly indoor sequence of separate halls under a huge greenhouse-style enclosure.  There were pandas at the zoon including an aging baby who needs to stop nursing, leave home, and get a job!  The subway in W.DC has carpet in the subway cars!  Back home for new year's celebration - just a quiet one at home but lots of fun times ahead for 2007 for sure.  Happy new year to you from all of us!

The day after Christmas we took Zachary to see the big Christmas tree at Rockefeller Plaza.  We tried out the front 'harness' to carry him instead of taking the stroller.  It was OK though we swapped turns during the trip - it's not as easy as just putting him in a stroller but more convenient for navigating the subway system and getting through crowds.  We met Antonio and had a feed too with Antonio having a go with the bottle.  At least with the stroller you have somewhere to put him while eating!  Kathy is off dairy and soy for the meanwhile so hwe menu choice is drastically reduced.  She is still in cheese withdrawal shock.

 

Ho ho ho, we had lots of fun today.  Zachary watched while dad slaved away opening the pressies.  Mum video'd the whole thing so watch out for upcoming movie previews at a theater near you.  Luckily I have 2x250Gb hard drives to store it all.  Thanks to all the senders of presents!

 

A fun December so far, busy at work, but fun at home...  Zachary is getting noisy. Cooing, sighing, urgling, caterwauling, singing (Guns 'N Roses style), and moaning. Zachary finds out that if his fist ends up near his mouth (either fist is fine), in it goes! Christmas is coming up so we have dne some preemptive gift opening!
	The "Whoosit" (sp?) is one of his favorite toys.  Lots of colors on one side, black & white on the other.

After a relaxing weekend we went into hospital by subway for a leisurely c-section! Look what popped out, starting off late (taking after mum I fear): 8'3" 21" long baby boy Zachary! He was delivered in a a room with views of the east river but did not seem too happy about it. Kathy was at the hospital for a few days, here are some pics...

	This one on the left is shortly after delivery in the recovery room where he fed well, looked about a little, and had a nice nap before they took him off for post-birth analysis for a few hours, when Kathy was transfered to her room.
Little Zachary is so tiny and we had a great time with the first diaper experience.  Sometimes he would wail and moan.  We learned how to do the burrito wrap and put sleeved items on an unwilling participant.
Look, a burrito wrap, yum!  Zachary had a number of visitors too, lots of people coming in to see what all the fuss was about and to whether or not Kathy was just faking the pregnancy the whole time.
And for the trip home...

Well, this picture makes the day before look quite relaxing! Not exactly.... Here is Kathy having a rest, taking time to smell the flowers, before diapers!

Only 4 weeks to go, hugeness prevails.  Kathy is off work now but the cat is wholly unimpressed with the whole affair!

One day at the mall we walked past an ice-cream store!