"Such a good boy"

In writing this post today, I have to start by saying that Zachary is a gift from God.  When I say that our baby is "such a good boy", I am giving total glory to God.  We are brand new, fumbling parents, learning every day.  The fact that we have been blessed with a good, happy, easy-going baby is truly a blessing.  I want to record our memories for Zachary to some day look back on these blog posts (we print our blog books) and remember how much we loved him, right from the beginning.  We would of course love him nonetheless if he were a "fussy" baby, but the fact that he is so mellow and good is something worth remembering.  Zachary is doing very well health wise.  He continues to put on weight and seems to be growing fast, right before our eyes.  We think he weighs about 15 pounds (6.8 kilos; we weighed ourselves on the home scale) and he is getting longer every day.  He is almost rolling over; he is sucking his thumb; he gurgles and giggles and makes all sorts of sounds;  he imitates daddy, like when daddy sticks his tongue out or when daddy points his foot;  he eats well every 3 to 4 hours (probably closer to every 4 hours now) and.....(drumroll!) last night he slept 7 hours!!!!!!!! Woo hooo!!  Of course Zev and I still feel tired (we are looking forward to sleeping in tomorrow!) but we are so happy for our son.  We say to each other "he is such a good boy" many times a day.  When people compliment him and ask us how he is doing, we say "he is such a good boy."  He smiles when I come to his crib in the mornings; smiles when he sees daddy come home at night; smiles while being fed and changed and is just a happy boy.  We maintain a simple schedule and he feeds on demand, but I think this helps him be a happy, well adjusted little boy.  I think that his first word is "hi" (I am telling you, I have heard him say "hi" to me in the mornings!)  Anyhoo, I am going to post some pictures for the family to see how our boy is doing.  Much love to all!

Zev, Fifi and Zachary xo

I love his thighs and his feet.  I like to kiss his feet and this makes him smile.

The view this morning, after I fed him and put him down for a nap.  He has been asleep from 6am until now!  Incidentally, he slept a lot yesterday....I remember reading in Dr. Sears' baby book that a well rested baby sleeps well at night...so true! 

Therefore, as it is written: "Let him who boasts boast in the Lord." 1 Cor 1:31

    

The Latest and Greatest!

So sorry about the lack of blogging lately; I have been wrapped up in a precious bundle of joy, who is, quite frankly, more fun to hang out with than sit in front of the computer! I have also been quite tired and trying to catch up on sleep (is that possible?!) and am behind on responding to emails and so forth...I hope that those of you who have emailed me understand. Time is so much more of a precious commodity with a newborn in the house! Life is going great though. It's official; Zev and I are in love with our little man. I am sure that every parent must think this, but we think that our baby is The Cutest Baby in the World. I am smiling as I write this! So, here is a recap of The Latest and Greatest in our lives lately.

We are LOVING the summertime and the fact that the days are long and the weather is great! Zachary and I have been rather busy with fun local events including Baby Garten (songs and rhymes with baby) on Tuesday mornings at the local library; Infant Massage with the local community council and we will be starting up with MOPS (Mothers of Preschoolers) through our church as well as baby swim lessons through the Y, in the fall. I love spreading the word about these great programs and it has been fun to meet up with Natalie and Megan, two fellow military wives who also had baby boys recently, at these events.

Speaking of Megan and Natalie, here we are with our precious boys (Megan with Brady and Natalie with James) at Shirley's house earlier this week. This was the first time we had met up since being pregnant!

Miss Shirley was so kind to host us for a delicious lunch at her house.

The three boys side by side...Our boys are only 11 days apart, with Zachary being the oldest and James (on the far left) being the youngest.

We went to the local annual Greek festival with friends a few weeks ago. It was so much fun! I loved the music and dancing; Zev not so much but we both enjoyed the food and the fellowship. I love summertime! So many fun, outdoor things to do!

Zachary wore a onesie that his Aunt Shirley had sent us. He IS a hug magnet, isn't he?

The local Greek Orthodox church community put on the festival. They had awesome food and the kids dancing traditional Greek dances were adorable!

Zachary and I also went to Fort Monroe to see the beautiful old tall ships sail by in the international "OpSail 2012" festival. Some of the tall ships had been featured in Hollywood movies such as Interview with a Vampire!

One of Zev's colleagues gave us this unique gift for Zachary. I love it so much, I am ordering one for a girlfriend who recently had a baby!

Our dear friend, Gena, who lives in Germany, stopped by our house this week for a visit. We had such a lovely time together. She was in the States to visit her Pop and of course had to come and meet Zachary. Zachary was a sweetheart and obligingly flirted with Gena! We miss you already, GG!!

Gena found us this cool "mummy" hand bag in Germany, where the child can hold onto mummy using the little strap at the bottom! I love German engineering...

Zachary has been growing well and getting cuter and smarter each day. He had his 2 month shots recently and he did fine. He is a healthy boy; he measured in the 93rd percentile for length; in the 94th percentile for head circumference (we know where he gets that from! My side of the family...) and in the 83rd percentile for weight. The doctor was impressed that he reached such high percentages and told me to "keep doing" what I was doing in the nursing department. So I am. He is one hungry little boy, I tell you. But we are so happy that he is healthy and growing. His latest achievements this week include: realizing that he has hands and feet; almost rolling over on his side; and sucking his thumb. He uses a pacifer but sucking his thumb is not a bad thing at 2am when he can't find his pacifier and wants mummy to put it back in his mouth! He is now sleeping in his nursery (I keep the monitor in our room) and is sleeping for 4 to 5 hours at nighttime.

We thank God every day for such a good, happy and mellow little baby boy. He really is a gift from above. Thank you, Lord!!! Can you see why we love our little man so much?

Have a great week.

"Give thanks to the LORD, for he is good; his love endures forever."

Psalm 107:1

Stand still....

When I was pregnant with Zachary, I kept a journal, and I tried to include a scripture verse for each entry. I was flicking through it today, thinking that I need to finish the journal in order to make it "complete" (I need to work on Zachary's baby book too but that's another story!) and I came across this scripture verse:

"Stand still and see the great thing that God is about to do before your eyes." 1 Samuel 12:16

This was the scripture verse for February 29, 2012, when I was struggling with fear about our baby. I think every new mum undergoes fearful thoughts at some point in her pregnancy. We had six weeks to go until Zachary's due date and I was praying for God to take my fears away. Well, He answered my prayers. It is so nice to go back and see where and how God has answered our prayers and taken away our fears. Today, I looked at Zachary and just thanked God for this amazing gift. A most precious possession. Zev and I love him so much.

Zachary, you have rocked our world. We love you and pray for God's protection over you both now and foreevermore.

"But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love." 1 John 4:18

Thank you Mario & Gabby!!

My older brother and his awesome wife sent us a wonderful package for Zachary, all the way from Australia!  Gabby had handcrafted this beautiful quilt that is personalized with Zachary's name and date of birth as well as native Australian animals.  I love it!!  They also sent some Australian children's books which I found very cool because I had grown up with these books!  Gabby had also sewn Zachary a quilted " Learn to Count...Australia" book, also with Aussie animals on it, so we should have some fun learning the names of Australian wildlife!  Thank you so much Mario and Gab.  We miss you and the kids terribly and can't wait to see you soon!

Zachary and I with the Baby Bjorn that they sent us and the lovely quilt. 

Close-up.

Uncle Zev with the Learn to Count book and a beautiful masterpiece by our godson!

I love his name.  This is in Zachary's nursery, across from the triptych that Nancy brought last week.

Australian childrens books.  Mem Fox, who wrote the classic "Possum Magic" is well known down under.

I had to take a picture of Zev's "jerry-rig" temporary solution to Zachary's mobile...Zachary is currently sleeping in our bedroom in a bassinet, and we had to come up with a way to attach the mobile....enter Zev's wooden clothes tree.  He's smart, my husband is!

Zev could invent ANYTHING I reckon! Ha!



And, because I know that the real reason you check our blog is to see Zachary, here is the man of the moment!  I love his chubby thighs!!

Happy Memorial Day!

For I have chosen him, so that he will direct his children and his household after him to keep the way of the LORD by doing what is right and just, so that the LORD will bring about for Abraham what he has promised him." 

Genesis 18:19

Daddy's HOME!

Zev got home today after an almost 3 week TDY (temporary duty assignment at another base)!  He came home for a day in between, so this last stretch was only for about a week and a half, but it was a long time with him gone.  Zachary and I missed him so much and we are very happy that daddy is home safe and sound.  We have an awesome support network here including friends from church and neighbors and friends from on base, so Zachary and I had no shortage of dinner dates!  Zev was happy to see Zachary and Zachary was happy to see his daddy!

Zachary and I went to our infant massage class this morning and then Megan and her son, Brady came and had lunch with us at a little tea room.  We hadn't seen each other since we were pregnant so it was awesome for our boys to meet!  Megan gave birth in the same hospital Zachary was born in, only 7 days after I delivered Zachary!

Baby Brady and Zachary.  Megan said that they had considered the names Zachary and Brady for their boy (and obviously settled with Brady!)

The waitresses at the tea room were so cute, fussing over our babies and reminding us to cherish every precious moment with our little ones.  They had grown children and said that time flies by so quickly. 

Zachary thinks his daddy rocks.  So does mummy.

Children are a heritage from the LORD, offspring a reward from him. Like arrows in the hands of a warrior are children born in one’s youth. Blessed is the man whose quiver is full of them. They will not be put to shame when they contend with their opponents in court. Psalm 127:3-5



Visit from Fancy Nancy and a Triptych for Baby Zachary!

Our friend Fancy Nancy drove down today to see us and to drop off a beautiful triptych for Zachary's room! She had offered to have her sister in law, Melissa, paint a mural for Zachary's nursery, and I told her that a triptych would be better, so we could take it with us. I liked the idea of the Tree of Life with a scripture verse just for Zachary on it. I prayed about this and was led to Jeremiah 29:11:

I love the way it turned out! I picked out the background color and actually painted the letters in Zachary's room in the same pale blue. The tryptych is hanging over Zachary's crib.

We had a fun day going out to lunch and then catching up with a neighbor and then Nancy had to head home to her own family. Thanks Nancy and Melissa!

And because I know that you are just dying to know what Zachary is up to, this was taken a few minutes ago. I LOVE THIS BOY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. Jeremiah 29:11

New buddy!

Those of you who read my blog know that a dear friend of mine here, a fellow military wife, Natalie, recently had her baby boy, James (11 days after Zachary) at the same hospital.  Today I popped over for a visit and for our boys to "officially" meet. They have been in the same room before but had never "met" (I'm not sure that they acknowledged each other although at one point Zachary was screaming so I'm sure James noticed him!) I love Natalie and so I hope that our boys can become friends! Anyway, hope you enjoy the pictures!

My poor boy was tired...I had woken him from a nap to take his picture with baby James. He is just like his momma- not happy when hungry or tired!

Baby James is a sweetie; gorgeous blonde hair and a sweet face. I think he looks like Natalie.

Sweet Zachary just wanted to be carried by me today. It has been a rainy day all day, and I liken his need to be carried to "sleeping in" on a rainy day. So in my sling he is sitting/ sleeping (and snoring) right now.

"Correct your son, and he will give you comfort; He will also delight your soul."

Proverbs 29:17