Day 1: The flight to Florida

Our flight to Florida actually went really, really well. Sydney enjoyed having her own seat on the plane, and Zack fell asleep for most of the flight. Then, when we woke up, they both enjoyed watching Bob the Builder on Alan's notebook. After a long car ride from the airport, we finally arrived at Grandma and Grandpa Willford's house. Eventually we made it up to our rented house (which is really nice) and called it a night. The weather was in the mid 80's today and looks like it will be nice all week.

Love is in the air!

Springtime is hit Toledo - the birds chirping, nice weather now and then, and love is in the air! Zack has his first "girlfriend" at school - a little toddler named Ellie (I think). When Zack gets to school Ellie jumps up and runs over to see him. She hugs him, kisses him and strokes his hair! awww Sydney also informed is that Aston wants to marry her :) I hope they finish preschool first.

What really counts is...

Zack is starting to learn about numbers. When Sydney started learning, her favorite number was "two". She had to have "two" of everything - two books, two sippies, two blankies. To this day she still has her mix of apple juice and orange juice in the morning and she sleeps with two blankies (most days, when she hasn't dragged every blankie in the house into her bed...). Well Zack's favorite number is "nine". When asked how many shoes he has, it's "nine!". How many fingers? "Nine!" How many cookies do you want?? "Nine!" Not to be outdone, Sydney now says that her favorite number is one hundred. :)

More Milk!!

Today Zack said his first "sentence"... well, it was actually two words, but it was a command! He said "More Milk!". I'm sure "Dad, can I have some money?" will be following soon.

Tickle my diaper!!

No comment!

Zack is back on track

We went to the Dr's today for a weight check on Zack. He was 22 lbs, 4 oz, which is actually up on the growth curve again!! yeah! All of that nagging to eat has paid off. Actually it was probably more related to the instant breakfast we have been giving him twice a day in his milk. He seems to like it, and it's got a lot of calories and protein for him. His Dr said is weight was not bad, and everything seems to be OK.

It's such a relief to know that there's nothing wrong with him, and he's back on track with his weight gain. Now if we could get rid of those ear infections we'd be all set!

Test results are in...

and they are "normal". Zack's biopsy results for Celiac Disease all came back normal and looked good. Whew! That was good news to hear. The "plan" of action now is to increase his calorie intake and to get him weighed again. Not much of a plan really, but I guess that's the key to gaining weight - no rocket science needed. We're going to give him that Carnation Instant Breakfast powder in his milk. Hopefully someday his diet will be broadened to include something other than chicken nuggets and dehydrated corn! :)

Snow! Finally!!

We had the first snowfall of the year today. That's right, actually the first real snowfall of the season, and January is almost over! It's been a pretty sucky year for snow sports around here, but at least we got to go out and enjoy it a little bit, dispite the low temperatures. Unfortunately the low temps have kept the snow from packing, so we didn't get to make a snowman. It was perfect for pulling the sled and making snow angels.

Funny words of the week

It's so cute when Sydney says "try-dangle" instead of "triangle". Zack is getting better at saying "ball" and all of his animal sounds, but still not very good at any words in general. Hope he spits some of them out soon... "bbbbbbBBBBBBBAAAAAA!!!!!" is getting very tiresome :)

more COSI...

Dancing on the keys!

COSI trip

Today we explored the fun and mystery of science! We went to COSI Toledo and had a great time. Here is a picture of Sydney and Daddy making a ball float in the kids area. Both kids had alot of fun and Mommy & Daddy did too. Us big kids got to rid across a tight rope on a bike, and become a human "yo-yo". Zack's favorite activity was pushing around a Little Tikes lawn mower. Maybe we'll have to get him one for the summer... We'll definately go again!

TRRRR BUUUU !!!!

We got Zack a plate set last night, it's a Tonka one with trucks all over it. We thought he'd really love it... little did we know that he would act like it was a book and point at the trucks all during the meal and want us to acknowledge every truck, over and over! All during dinner he just pointed at the trucks saying "TRRRR" and "BUUUU". Who'd thunk it!

Trucks!

**~~~ Happy New Year!! ~~~**

Zack just can't get enough of his trucks, cars, and tractors! Here is his intensely reading his truck book while he gets his diaper changed!

The latest obsession...

is sock fuzz!! yep, that's right, that leftover sock fuzz that congregates under your toes - that's what Zack is really obsessed with right now. The boy will just pull off both of his socks all of a sudden and spend 5 or 10 minutes just deeply engrossed in pulling little bits of sock fuzz out from between his toes! He's also a very neat kid, so he'll give me the bits of fuzz instead of just putting them on the floor.

No buttons!

Just as the fads in fashion pass each year for adults, it seems that Sydney has her own fashion rules to live by. Recently it's "no buttons!". At first I thought the fashion faux pas was only buttons on the back of the shirt (for the neck) but now I've been told that it's buttons up the front too! Apparently Sydney has come to associate buttons on shirts with "baby shirts" like ones that Zack might wear... however she still has not been convinced that only babies suck their thumbs. Maybe someday she'll listen. Remember the "red boot" fad of toddler years, and the "party dresses"? I wonder what else this year will bring - other than "pink" clothes of course.

Blood test results

We finally received the results of the blood work and the test came back negative for Celiac Disease. In all reality, this doesn't really answer any questions because the "real" test for Celiac will be the endoscopy which is scheduled for January 12th. In the mean time is just life as normal, waiting until January 12th.

Sydney is getting very excited about Santa coming soon. This should be a very fun Christmas! We had a lot of fun making Christmas cookies this past weekend. Zack really got into cutting them out - he was so good at cutting them out that he didn't want to stop - he decapitated several gingerbread men!

The good and the bad

This has been a kind of rough week for Mom. We took Zack to a Pediatric Dietary and Gastroenterology Doctor this week because his weight curve has been declining, even though he has been getting taller and following his curve. We thought it was just going to be a blow-off visit and they would tell us that Zack is just going to be small. We were surprised to hear that the first thing they will be checking Zack out for is Celiac Disease. In case you've never heard of it (we sure hadn't), the body is intolerable to gluten and when gluten is digested, nutrients are not absorbed properly and growth is stunted. We were shocked. They drew blood and want to perform an endoscopic exam in mid January. Mid January is a long time to wait. Even a week is a long time to wait as we are waiting for the results of the blood test. In one respect it would be nice to pin down the problem with Zack and eating, but unfortunately the fix is to change to a gluten-free diet... for life! But when you consider all of the terribly serious other problems that could be wrong, one that requires you only to omit certain food is not bad at all. So for now we wait.. and watch Zack continue to be a very picky eater...

The Big Girl Booster Seat

Today was another one of those unwritten milestone days... Sydney rode in a booster seat in the car for the first time. We bought a high back booster seat so we could rotate the seats - it's getting hard to put Zack into his carset with his winter coat on, so we gave him Sydney's seat. That means Sydney got to graduate to a booster seat, with only the seat belt holding her in now (no more 5 point harness!). It is a bit easier to belt her in. She really looks like a big kid now. What will be next, no need for cups with straws?!

This week's new skill...

Zack has now mastered the art of shaking his head "No!". He doesn't actually say "No", but he sure has learned how to let me know he doesn't want to wash his hands, eat food, stop playing with toys.... or pretty much do anything that I want him to do!

What table manners!

Tonight Zack thought it was really funny to stick his spaghetti on his head! He just kept taking a piece or two of it and laying them right on top of his hair, and then laughing. He was really cracking himself up. I don't know what's worse, the food on Zack's head, or Sydney showing us the contents of her mouth just to prove that she really is eating her food! Such silly kids :)