What a week to switch to the big boy bed! Day 1 is done and I’m a very happy mama. :)

This week has been a busy one… that’s an understatement. We’ve just come back from our two-week vacation, Adrian & I have mounds of work & unpacking & cleaning to do, Zachary’s caught a cold AND is teething in his canines (and thus, is very clingy since  he’s not feeling well), and then – acting like the cute little monkey that he is – he started ramping up his climbing habit even further. While he hasn’t climbed out of his crib before, he decided to try to climb INTO his crib the other day. I was shocked watching him scamper up and seeing him hanging from the rail – yes, just like a little baby monkey.

Adrian and I have been mulling it over the past few days and decided today that it was time to make the switch. We just didn’t want to risk him climbing and jumping out of the crib out of curiosity. We reorganized his room to baby proof it even further, picked up a baby gate to block him from wandering the house at night, and Adrian took the crib rail down and put the toddler guard rail up!

I settled him in with our usual routine of reading before bed, but now it was more fun since I was able to sit in bed with him and cuddle – and the dog even joined us for a few stories. I tucked him in but he did not want to go to bed at first. He stood at the gate looking out and whined a bit and then asked for some milk. I told him that I would give him milk, but he had to lay down and go to sleep when he got it (I don’t really like to give him milk in bed- but it really does settle him down). He waited for me to bring the sippy over to him and immediately ran to his bed and jumped in. I tucked him in with his blanky and stuffled puppy and he snuggled up with his milk. We didn’t hear a peep after that. :)

Zachary is sleeping very soundly in his bed now. I can only hope that the next nights go just as smoothly!

I have to say, though, even though 20 months may be earlier than I’d originally anticipated moving him, it was really fun – kind of a little thrill, even – to be able to sit NEXT TO my little guy in HIS bed with his stack of favorite books that he picked out himself (love that part) and reading them with him while he snuggled up with me and his blanket and stuffed dog. That feeling was definitely one that I will always remember and will file away in my special little data bank of feelings. I miss the thought of my little baby, yes… but I’m very proud of my little boy, and I love love love this particular stage in his life! I’m so thankful that Adrian and I get to experience so much through his curious little eyes and bright light of a laugh!

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Happy 4th of July to all of our friends and family!

Enjoy this adorable photo of Zachary from a shoot that Adrian did with us last week at the edge of the Everglades. You can check out the rest of the images by clicking here. :)

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I decided to enter the Skinned Knees Photo Challenge again. The theme is friendship… do I need a better reason to pull one from the archives and show you some vintage Zachary and Maya? This photo is from Zachary’s 6 month photo shoot. He and Maya have been best buddies ever since Maya laid eyes on “her baby” and will be friends forever. There’s no doubt in my mind that this boy’s best friend will always be his dog.

If you want to learn more about my blogger friend Christy’s fun blog, Skinned Knees, and her photo challenges, just click the button! :)

It’s been a really good week. I have so much going on lately, I don’t even know where to start!

Zachary is doing so well. He turned 19 months last week – we are truly on the road to 2 now! He said a new word the week before: “duck” – in response to one of his favorite books, Five Little Ducks. He just LOVES his books these days! I’m going to make a list soon of all of his favorite books, because the list has really grown. Just a few short months ago, I thought my baby would never want to sit down for a story, but now he’s the one who asks me to read to him rather than me wishing he’d just stay still for more than two seconds so that I could read more than three words of a book!

He is LOVING summer camp! When I picked him up on Friday, he had a huge smile on his face and didn’t even want to go home, he kept right on playing. I was thrilled! :) He is such an independent, fun little person to be around and I have such a great time doing things with him. We’ve been going out a lot together after camp and days that he’s not in camp, and he enjoys having playdates, playing in the yard, going over to the pool, walking around the neighborhood (if it’s not raining), and going to Barnes & Noble to meet friends and look at books.

Adrian’s been getting back into his photography again lately (which I’m happy about – he is an absolutely amazing artist), and he did two shoots this past week. One with me and Zachary (mostly of Z though) and one of just me, since I’ve really been needing some new headshots lately (my last ones are a good four years old). I’m so thrilled with the images and will be sharing some of them on here this week!!

Summertime has been so much fun. I have always liked summer (as a kid, you couldn’t beat great vacations and being off of school plus my birthday is in July), but as I got older and no longer had to attend school, autumn became my favorite time of year (can you tell by the title of my blog?)… but especially now that I have a little boy, I’ve been just loving the summer. It’s a magical time for a child, even one as young as mine, and there are so many great new experiences for us to share together.

My 28th birthday is in two and a half weeks… and I have some really fun giveaways, reviews, guest bloggers, and general FUN things planned for all of you during the month of July. Make sure you follow my blog if you aren’t already so you can stay tuned. :) And don’t forget to check out the EcoMom giveaway that I posted the other day if you want to win some free organic food for your baby/toddler!

Here’s a little bit of fun to round out your Sunday. The raspberries were on sale at the grocery store the other day so I got two boxes. I was reminded of the movie Amelie (one of our favorites) and Adrian took this with his iPhone. :)

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So I’ve written before that Zachary is going through a picky eating phase… which is pretty common around his age since he is approaching age 2. I’m betting that picky eating is much more stressful to moms than it is for the actual children. Anyway. I’m  happy to say that I’ve found something he absolutely LOVES. and will eat a lot of.

It’s this:

Kraft Macaroni & Cheese Organic White Cheddar

Zachary has always sort of liked mac n’ cheese. What kid doesn’t…. right? Please, what HUMAN doesn’t? That marvelous blue box contains one of my favorite childhood food memories. I even get kind of a dazed smile on my face when I think about my mother making me macaroni & cheese when I was 3 years old!  Until I found the Organic White Cheddar version, Zachary had to be in the right mood for mac n’ cheese. Sometimes he’d eat it, and sometimes I’d either eat it myself or (do the responsible thing and) pack it up and put it in the fridge and try again the next day.

Well, I don’t know if it’s the word ORGANIC that makes everything so good or if there’s actually crack mixed into the cheese mix (actually, I think it’s the “white cheddar cheese, paprika and other spices” that does it, as the Amazon page for the item states) but Zachary and I just can’t get enough of this stuff — it’s SO good! So good that my son asks for it every day. EVERY DAY. He actually wants it for every meal of every day!

The other night I prepared a batch of it so that we he could have some for dinner and then save some for the the rest of the week, since he will eat it for lunch at camp, and I figured the days he’s not in camp I’ll give it to him for dinner. He tried to get me to feed it to him for breakfast (he did not win that one), ended up eating some for lunch, and then asked for it again with his chicken at dinnertime!

Sure, mac n’ cheese isn’t exactly a bowl of spinach, but I also survived my freshman year of college on jars of Nutella it could be worse, so I think he’ll make it through this phase just fine, too! I’m just so pleased that he now has a favorite food… especially since it’s one we both enjoy. :)

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Yesterday we went to visit my grandma, aka Zachary’s Great-Grandma, who we call “GG.” We had a wonderful time and Zachary’s smile did not leave his face the entire time that we were there. He loves his GG very much!

June 22, 2010
iPhone photo, processed using Lightroom 3 and Photoshop CS4

PS – the Mystery Giveaway is still going on! We are close, but no official winner yet! The Pear Tree giveaway ends today too at midnight! You have a great chance of winning so please enter!

No, this post is not about my dog. It’s about my son.

My wonderful son, who refuses to eat a waffle with powdered sugar. My adorable son, who refuses to eat delicious cinnamon applesauce. My sweet little boy, who feeds his pancakes to the dog. My cute little buddy, who spit out the bite of yummy grilled cheese sandwich that I offered him for lunch yesterday. My happy baby boy, who refuses to eat most anything else I try to feed him.

My son, who ate dogfood.

I’ve mentioned before that Zachary is a picky eater.

And I’ve mentioned that this is hard for me, since I’m a definite foodie. I love caviar, escargot, sushi, stinky cheese… you name it, I probably love it or have at least eaten it. I always thought I’d be able to enjoy lots of interesting, exotic foods with my kids right from a young age, and maybe one day Zachary will enjoy the same things I do… but right now, he’s not too interested. And that makes me kind of sad. :(

Anyway. when Zachary is busy not eating he enjoys feeding little bits of food to the dog. Many times, it’s little bits of HIS food that he’s throwing on the floor to Maya because he thinks it’s funny. Other times, he actually saunters over to the dog’s bowl and feeds her bits of kibble. Yesterday, while I had my back turned as I prepared his lunch, he put one of those little pieces of kibble in his mouth, chewed it, and swallowed it. I noticed he was chewing on something when I turned around to tell him to quit messing with the dog’s food, so I put my finger in his mouth, and out came dogfood. Zachary gave me a big, bright, happy smile!!

Oh. My. God. I was so grossed out!

Though, I wish I had a picture of his happy little face. :)

It totally beats me how he’ll reject all of the yummy foods I make and offer him, but he’ll eat dogfood.

Thankfully he ate everything at dinner, drank his milk, and with a happy, full belly, went to bed after cuddling with me for a bed-time story.

It will never cease to amaze me how children can eat all kinds of stuff (dogfood, glue, paper, who knows what else?) and refuse to eat the foods that their parents lovingly cook for them.

Yeah, no one ever told me that would happen. Where did I put that parenting handbook again? Oh yeah… they don’t come with one!!!!

PS: if you could help me out with a vote for my blog here and here, I’ll give you an internet cookie! And it won’t taste like dogfood, I promise. :)

I meant to post this earlier, but I’ve had a really busy day! Check out all of this fun stuff that I just had to share:

+ Modern Bird Studios. Do you know who they are? If you don’t, you should! They create INCREDIBLE custom art pieces based on your photographs! Being a photographer, I think the concept is pretty awesome, and I’m dying to have one of their pieces one day! If you want to buy a REALLY nice Father’s Day gift for someone (or hey, a really nice gift just for yourself), check out Modern Bird and use coupon code FATHERSDAY at checkout to receive 20% off of an amazingly gorgeous custom art piece! soooo awesome!

+ You may or may not know that my family is a little spacey… hehe. As in, we love anything relating to astronomy & outer space. Adrian and I have gone to see a number of space shuttle launches (including what we didn’t know would be the final launch of the shuttle Columbia). We are a bit sad to know that the space program is discontinuing shuttle launches this year, and with only two flights left, we vow to see at least one more shuttle take off… at least so our son can one day say that he was present for one of the final launches (we hope he’s just as space-crazed as we are!). The Space Store now has the End of Program patch available in their store for only $4.95. I’ll definitely be getting this for our collection. They also have a 10% off code, NEWLOOK, good for many items in their store this month. Great for a last minute Dad’s Day gift!

+ Do you like cornbread? I happen to love cornbread… with jalapeños on it.. doused in honey butter…. yum! There’s a reason why I don’t eat it very often, can you tell? :) Since I’ve been dieting, I’ve been trying to stay away from foods that I consider to be “bad” for me, but I do love cornbread, and I might just have to use my birthday next month as an excuse to make some. I found this delicious looking recipe for Beekeeper’s Honey Cornbread on the Etsy Storque page. It looks incredible.

+ Zachary has a new wagon, this awesome Step 2 Wagon for Two… and he LOVES it! We’ve been taking walks almost every day (well, when it’s not raining) and it’s been fun meeting some neighbors and being outside in the fresh air in general. The evenings aren’t too hot yet, so it’s been really nice. I look forward to taking the wagon to the park or beach one day, too… it’s so much fun!

- On a sad note, another Golden Girl has passed today. RIP, Rue McClanahan. :( Now Betty White is the only one left, she must be so sad now! When I was a little girl, I watched The Golden Girls with my grandma all the time! It was my very favorite TV show (and still is one of my favorites). The character of Blanche Devereaux always had some great storylines! Anyway, if you want to show your love for the Golden Girls, a t-shirt company I found out about today is offering up a discount on their “Stay Golden” shirt honoring the show. I linked to the women’s shirt, but they offer a men’s shirt too.

I can’t believe I have an 18 month old already! It seems like just yesterday I was frantically finishing up the “Happy Birthday Zachary” banner for his first birthday party, and the past week or two I’ve been agonizing over what to do for his 2nd birthday celebration! Zachary has grown so much in the past six months, it’s just unbelievable. He has transformed from a little baby to a growing toddler right before my eyes! He is curious, happy, loving, excited, creative, and everything else you’d expect an almost 2 year old little boy to be. He’s great! :)

Here’s a run down of some of the things that Zachary does at 1.5 years old.

• He is walking… no… RUNNING all over the place! He is also a great climber. He moves really fast.
• Zachary loves loves loves to draw. He sits at his picnic table in his play room and colors on his coloring book or on a blank sheet of paper. He loves looking at the different color crayons and scribbling lines. I can’t wait until he draws me his first real picture!
• As always, he and our dog Maya are BFFs. Their bond will never be broken. Maya is the best dog on the planet. She is SO tolerant of everything Zachary throws her way (especially tennis balls… her fav) and she loves him with all her heart. It makes me smile so much every time Zachary bends down just to give her a hug or whenever he runs to look under our bed because he wants to find her. He also purposely will feed her food that he doesn’t want because he knows she likes it, and he giggles all the while! :)
• He says about 10 words which is right on track for a little boy his age. He has no problem communicating with us, and he understands just about everything we say. He is very independent and if he wants something (a book, a toy, food, or to leave), he will make sure that you know about it!
• He loves his books! I am so happy about this! There was a time when he was younger when I thought that he would never understand books, would never “get” them and would never love them. I was so sad because he just wanted to chew on them but would never let me read him a story. Well well… all of that has changed 100%! Not only does Zachary LOVE his books but he has favorites which he asks me to read again and again and again and also jumps into our laps and asks us to cuddle him and read. Reading to Zachary is probably one of my very favorite things to do with him and I make a point to spend a good chunk of time each day looking at his books and reading him his favorites as well as picking out a new book for him to look at from his giant collection (thanks to his mom who loves baby books… hehe).
• He loves getting ready for bed – putting on PJ’s, brushing his teeth and hair, and his newest source of amusement, turning off all of the lights in the house. He loves to flip the light switch and pull the chain on the fan in his room to turn off his light. After he finishes brushing his teeth he always reaches up because he knows that pulling the chain on the fan is next!
• He is learning his body parts and he knows where many of them are already. We have a routine in the morning when he wakes up. I always ask him where is his nose, teeth, head, and bellybutton. By far the cutest is when he chomps his teeth at me and then when he pulls up his shirt to look for his bellybutton! Even when it’s way early in the morning and I’m tired from working too late, this little routine (which he’s come to look forward to) has made me pretty happy to be getting up with my little guy every morning!
• More than anything he enjoys being outside. He gets upset when I tell him that we can’t go out to play because it’s raining. He loves going outside to run around the yard with Maya while I water the plants. He likes to help water the plants, too. He enjoys getting dirty. He loves to explore. He enjoys going to the park and going on the swings and the slide and finding rocks and sticks to play with. He is such a little boy!
• He is very intrigued by music and enjoys listening to all types of music so far. if he hears something he likes, he’ll start to dance and even will sing! It is the cutest thing to hear him sing along to a song or make up a song.  He loves when I sing along with him. This is what our duets usually sound like: Zachary: “ba-ba-ba” Mommy: “baaaa-da-ba” Zachary: “ba-ba-ba” Mommy: “baaaa-da-bada” Zachary: “ba-ba-ba” – you get the idea! He has the cutest little voice!
• He has the most amazing smile and laugh. Everyone always says what a great smile he has, but you have to really hear him in the middle of a good laugh. There has to be no greater sound in the world than the sound of your baby laughing!
• He is loving, sweet, and cuddly. He freely gives hugs to the ones he loves the most. He is very cuddly with his mommy and daddy. If I’m upset, he gets a concerned look on his face and leans close to me to give me a hug. He never fails to make me feel better if I’m having a bad day.  He loves getting kisses and will put his forehead or cheek out to me so I can give him a kiss as often as I like! :)

He is wonderful, such a GOOD little boy. SO cute, and so much fun to be around! I have so much fun with him and treasure every second that I get to spend with my little guy. He’s my little friend, and we have a lot of fun together! I look at him now and see a little person. Even when he sleeps, he’s a little boy – he isn’t a little baby anymore, and that makes me a little sad. But he’s also right on the precipice of something awesome. He’s gaining so much independence and he’s going to be doing the most amazing things soon. Before I know it he’ll be playing with other kids at pre-school and telling me all about his day! Things change soooo quickly when kids are this young. I can’t wait to find out what fun and amazing things life has in store for my Zachary!

** Photos are from our recent trip this past month to Tennessee. More pictures coming soon! :)

We just got back from our (now annual, it seems!) spring trip to Tennessee to visit my mother and father in law! We had a great time and I am still reviewing the “real” photos that I took. I uploaded a couple of photos from my iPhone and thought I would share them in the mean time…. since I have been an absolutely awful blogger and haven’t posted anything since I was sick!

Here’s one from the drive up! We stopped at a rest top in GA and Zachary got to check out some cool pine cones for the first time. He thought they were awesome! This photo is my current iPhone background. :)

Hipstamatic shot from GramZ and Gramp’s house. They got Zachary this cute Adirondack chair to match their two chairs. He knew immediately that it was his and he loved climbing around and playing in it!

A cool shot of a big sign in Bristol (using ShakeItPhoto iPhone app). This town spans the state line of TN and VA. We had dinner here one night and then I went back another day to do some shopping and look around. What a fun and pretty place!

We took Zachary to the library one day. They had a great children’s section and he had a lot of fun! I’ll have to take him to our library here so he can play around.

That’s all for now! Once I have a chance to process my “real” photos I will be a posting maniac – I have sooo many! :)