A Love Letter

Dear Zelner,

I really should be cleaning the kitchen or doing laundry, but I thought I would just take a moment to write you a little letter.

I am not the best mom at getting the dates written down of when you first smiled or laughed. Some days, I just want to be away from you.

Today, right now, I can not get enough of you!

Your smile and laugh, I want to hear all day long.

That little mischievous laugh you get when you figure something out, melts me. 

This morning, you woke up grumpy. Maybe it is because you are getting another tooth, maybe you just didn't get enough sleep.

Today, we took a shower together and you loved it. You loved playing in the water and trying to catch the water falling from the shower head. Watching your face as you are trying to understand what is going on, made me stop to think, what were you thinking.

We also made a trip down to Costco, in Clarkston. You fell asleep on the way down, and I kind of hoped maybe you would sleep as I shopped. But, a rude lady, had to loudly exclaim, as I pulled your sleeping body out of the car.

Your were happy, and it was alright. I put you in the Tula and off we went. I changed your diaper and I put you on my back to make shopping easier. I think we startled a few elderly as I was talking to you. Then we loaded up and headed home.

You were so cute in your car seat playing with a toy. You decided you were done and thew it. Then you started to play Peek-a-Boo by yourself with your blanket. It was so precious! I wish I could recorded you.

You are such a happy baby. Right now, you are wrapped up in our Kokadi Firescales wrap on my back so I could put the groceries away and unload and load the dishwasher. You quickly settled in and fell asleep. No fussing, no screaming, just snuggled in and sleep.

Zelner, I love you. I have loved you since before you were born. I am so grateful for the love you show and teach me. I don't think I truly felt a love this strong for anyone in my life. The love for you and your father, grows everyday. That moment when you hear him walk through the door and you smile and bounce. That smile, emanates  peace and love, pure perfect love.

I can not imagine life without. You are healing a very broken heart, every day, and for that I want to be there for you.

Always.

Love,
Your Mother

9 Months

I can not believe it has been 9 months! Some days I feel like it was just the other day we finally met him, and no this little bugger is trying to WALK!!

 He is also 17 pounds, we will get his official 9 month stats on the 20th.

In his car seat (14.11.2013)

In his car seat, on the way home from the Hospital (15.02.2013)

Enjoying a bowl of chili...

 Here is a little photo progression of  Zelner the other day.  

Mr. Z can:

crawl

pull himself up

walk around holding onto the furniture

loves to read books

wants to eat everything!

loves to play with his food

he loves to eat:

HUMMUS

CARROTS

APPLES (Dried and fresh)

RED PEPPERS

DRIED MANGO

Croup

Zelner has Croup.

Actually, this is the fourth time he has had it.

This time is was really bad, and we had to take him in.

Brody and I actually got into a good argument about taking him in. Let's just say saying "I would rather pay $20 for an office visit than $250 for the ER", was not the right thing to say. Especially, after trying to calm down your infant for two and a half hours!

We did go into the ready care, and got a nebulizer and now are armed for the next attack.

I just hope it isn't anytime soon.

In good news, Zelner got his first tooth on Oct 21, and in the last 3 weeks has gotten 4 more for a total of 5 teeth. Here is the order: upper left incisor, bottom right center incisor, upper left center incisor, upper right incisor, and bottom left center incisor.

Look at all those teeth!

3 Months

So I am not a super parent and do not get Zelner weighed monthly nor do we take monthly pictures inteh same spot...

This month has been a busy month for this little guy!

We made out first trip to the Westside since Christmas. The reason for the trip was for a funeral, but it was great to see friends I had not see in a while.

Since we were over the mountains, we made a stop and visited my Grandma Betty (my dad's mom).

Grandma had a broken arm, she was hiding. Grandma needs to stop falling!

Driving through the mountains.

A little while after we got back, Zelner had a really bad cold, and we took him to the doctor on the 22nd 12.7 pounds!

The doctor originally thought Zelner had RSV. He had all the classic symptoms. We were very concerned, especially after being up all night with a baby having difficulty breathing.

The test came back negative, and he was fine in a few days.

But, very scarey.

I am so grateful for Brody and his preisthood. The first night, before we took him to the doctor, Brody gave him a blessing in the middle of the night. We were scared, but we didn't want to go to the ER. The blessing, I believe did more for my nerves, but we were able to get some sleep that night.

The next morning we debated about taking him into the walk in clinic. He was doing much better. I took him in, and we were super lucky to see our regular doctor! Knowing the doctor, and knowing that she knows me and my natural approach health was a great relief. It was also great to know that my doctor trust me and gave me a single dose of steroids to give Zelner if he got worse during the day, so he could sleep that night. After a few rough nights, Zelner was fine. Then we got word from the doctor, that is was not RSV and therefore shouldn't return. Let's keep our fingers crossed.

We got a jogging stroller! But we will have to wait a few more months before we can jog, we will just walk a lot for now.

Stoic, post bath.

Sleepy boy.

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Easter

My favorite part about Easter is the clothes! I love an excuse for a new outfit, and this year I had a reason to get all of use something matching. As it is, in good ole Southern tradition to have new outfits and to be matching. I tried and tried to convince Brody to let me go all out, but he resisted. I did convince him to do matching bow ties.

I looked and looked, but couldn't find bow ties in our budget, so I made some. I also got bit by a sewing bug and ended up sewing a pair of shoes for Zelner (I actually made two right shoes, but for my first pair of shoe I think I did all right.) and a skirt for me (which I made a completely from scratch! It turned out all right, but was too big come the day to wear it!)

2 months

Zelner had his 2 month appointment on the

He is growing strong and he got his first shot.

I know this is a very controversial subject, but we have decided to delay most vaccines. There are a few vaccines that we will be skipping, but those are ones which if we had to start by week 15. We are doing the DtAP on schedule, because Pertussis is very prevalent in our area. We are considering delaying 6 months, but might do longer. We will have him fully immunized before going to pre-school!

2 Month Stats

11 pounds (28th percentile) 

23 inches long (47th percentile)

38 1/3 cm in head circumference (15.1 inches, 12 percentile)

Milestones

Zelner is one smiley baby!

He loves being worn, we sure love our Moby right now!

He also loves being read to, and looking at bright colors. Yellow seems to be his favorite!

Favorite toy: Metal Mason Jar Ring

Brody loves snuggling him in the wrap.

Enjoying his first baseball game!

Smiles!

Morning smiles

Growing and fitting better in his totally awesome carseat.

Post bath laughs

Favorite toy, mason jar ring.

Back to work...

I went back to work on the eighth of April. It has been bittersweet. I enjoy having something to do, and to get me out of the house. BUT I miss my alone time with Zelner. We will have to see how long it lasts.

This girls are super excited for me to be back though and the even made this little bed for Zelner to sleep in.

Eliza with Zelner, about one month.

St. Patty's

We celebrate St. Patrick's Day in our home every year. I like to celebrate the smaller holidays, just as much as the big ones.  We usually have a part of some kind, but since we had a month old, we kept it quiet. We did manage to get a picture of us in our green.

What you done see, is how Brody was wearing orange pants too.

5 Weeks

Zelner had an appointment at 5 weeks instead of at 4 because the doctor was on vacation... Weird that doctors have lives too!

We did take pictures on Wednesday, the one month mark though. We also weighed and measured him, and surprisingly our measurements were not that far from the doctor's.

Zelner is now officially 9.2 pounds (22 percentile), is 22 inches long (53 percentile) and his head circumference is 36.5 cm (14.4 inches, 11 percentile).

When we measured he was 21.5 inches long and 9.6 pounds (fully dressed).

Milestones

He is getting better at falling asleep, but not so much at STAYING asleep.

 Starting to be too long for my newborn clothes, but 0-3 month clothes don't quite fit either.

The newborn diapers, still fit, but he is liking the small gDiapers much better.

Loves to hold my head up, and hate having it covered.

Loves being in the Moby, and sometimes will scream and scream until someone puts him in it. (Holding him tight and close doesn't cut it.)

I love to put shoes on him, the jury is out on whether he likes them too.

Two Weeks

Wow! We can not believe we have had Zelner for two weeks now. At times if feels way longer, and at others like we just got him yesterday.

This week Zelner said good bye to visiting family, and then met some more family.

After visiting for a week, my family headed back across the mountains. We were sad to have them leave, and grateful for all the help they provided.

On Saturday, we had his newborn pictures taken. We are looking forward to seeing the final edits of those. What we have seen looks great!

Also on Saturday, due to poor planning on our part, we had to go up to Spokane. He did great in the car on the way up and back, and during our errands. Brody also got to spends some quality time with Zelner. Brody really enjoys spending time with him, sometime homework gets delayed until really late.

Brody enjoying baby wearing.

Zelner loves to hear Brody's voice, and bedtime stories are everyone's favorite.

This week Zelner also got to meet his Aunt Karra and Uncle Levi.

Zelner's Stroller also arrived, just in time for a two week milestone walk around the block.

Milestones:

Still in newborn diapers, and have gone through two packages of disposables, and two packages for the flushable inserts for the cloth diapers. We are really liking being able to flush his "diapers".

Enjoys going for walks in his stroller.

Back up to birth weight!

One Week

Zelner's first week was full of meeting family, and us getting little to no sleep.

Zelner was born at night on Wednesday the 13th, and so we were able to enjoy that first night alone and figuring things out.

I forgot to include a picture of Nurse Nicole, she was the nurse that caught Zelner.

First Zelner got to meet Brody's mom.

Meeting Nonnie.

Then Brody's sister and family.

Meeting cousin Cora.

Meeting Aunt Lilli.

Meeting Uncle Greg.

And then my family arrived.

Meeting my Dad, Grandpa

Meeting Aunt Alice.

Meeting Uncle Benjamin.

Meeting Aunt Tiffany.

After the loss of my mom, very early in the pregnancy, I wanted to have something at the birth for the baby to have as a talking point/something to know his Grandmother by. I knitted this little elephant for that purpose.

Zenler's first week was eventful, with family visiting, and teaching us in his crash course on how to raise him. He did get to have a little bit of fun.

At his one week appointment, he was on track for gaining his birth weight back and we were told we no longer need to wake him for feedings!

Milestones:

Weight: 7 lbs 9 oz

Lost my umbilical cord

Sleeping for 3 hour stretches