Zach's 8 month!

Here's the little man (who's really not that little anymore) on his 8-month birthday. He's popped two teeth in the bottom front, and is SOOOOO very close to crawling! He has reverse down pat, and can even go from laying down to sitting, and reaching out with his arms and walking his arms back to a sit. He'll be raring to go here soon!

The rest of us are well - Grandma Le and Grandpa Dave are on their way out, so there will be fun! Hope to update soon! :)

Saturday!

Hello All! :)

It's been a couple of days, but no worries, we are trying to keep our "streak" of more-frequent posts going. It took some time to get some pictures of the boys - the camera battery died, and I couldn't find the charger. :) No worries, it is found (it wasn't where I had left it....which of the two (who can walk) put it in the wrong place?!?!).

Here is a shot of Alex helping me put together our grocery list. He wanted jelly and Cheetos.

And this, for future reference, is one of the many reasons I may be committed one day. Andy "decorated" two hot dogs, a tater tot, string cheese, and a package of cinnamon rolls. I give up.

Alex and Mommy had a fun day out on Friday. Alex needed some "me" time, so he and I went out and went grocery shopping. We stopped at the Wal-Mart "Fun Room" and he rode on Tigger.

Alex "watching" the baseball game that daddy was umpiring.

Then he decided to watch - but only for a second - as daddy cleaned off the plate. I think that the diaper really sells the shot. :)

And this morning.....Alex giving Zach his first baseball "lesson" - - among other silliness. :)

Silly Boys!

Tonight's pictures are right after both boys woke up from naps....Zach was in the crib in the boys' room, and Alex slept out in the living room. Zach woke up first, so I was back playing with him in their room, when Alex walked in. Silliness ensued.

Zach beginning to pull himself up on the crib (this was before Alex woke up) - -

This shot was just too funny NOT to put on here! (What do you think Zach's thinking??)

Zach pulling himself up with the help of the crib rail (yes, I know we need to lower the mattress.....just enjoy the picture for what it is.) :)

Zach's famous raspberries.....

Alex walks in...looks at me....then at Zach in the crib.......and screeches, "ZAAAAAAAAAAKKKKKKKKKKKYYYYYYYYYYYY!!!!!!!!!" If it was someone else's kid making that noise, I would say that it's the most obnoxious sound I'd ever heard. But, it was my kid, so I can't say that.

They played peek-a-boo for a while.

Then Alex told me, "Stop, Mommy. No camera anymore." And this was the face he made.

So we're done. :)

Baseball!

Here are the videos we took last night.....Alex is getting quite good at hitting, which just thrills his father to no end (I am sure there are quite a few reading this who are just as thrilled that Alex is loving baseball). :) There are two videos, enjoy! :)

Also notice the awesome fence in the background! :)

This next video is when we were watching some of the College World Series....Alex was watching the batter, and when he would hit, Alex would "shimmy" across his rug, somewhat mimicking the runner. He did this a number of times! Andy was rewinding the tv and replaying the same at-bat a number of times, so that's why there are so many hits in a row. The actions are just too funny! :)

This next video is not of Alex, although he makes some cameo appearances in it. This one is of the Father's Day gift that Zach gave Daddy.....he can now say, "Dada". (I think it's especially adorable how he raises one side of his lips to say it...he does that every time and it's just adorable!) You also get some of Zach's world-famous-raspberries.....his lips grow 30 times their normal size when he gives a berry.....it's hilarious! :)

Yes, I know that we are terribly spoiling you by having so many posts in such a short amount of time. Just remember how good we're being right now the next time you are frustrated that it's been two weeks. :)

Goodnight all! :)

Hide and Seek!

Because the weather decided to go from mid-April to August overnight (the past few days it has been 60's and rainy - today was close to 100, with a heat index of 105), we came up with some games to play inside. One of them was Hide-and-Seek....which really was more like "Andy-hide-Zach-and-Alex-try-to-find-the-crazy-places-that-Daddy-hides-him" It was quite fun!

Here are a couple of videos from the night:

And another round - this time Zach wasn't quite as cooperative....he made noises!! :)

We have another video, of Alex and Daddy playing "baseball" - it's more Alex hitting and running to and from second base.....and calling "strike 1" every time.....but it's pretty cute. Maybe I'll upload it tomorrow! :)

Happy Father's Day!!

Happy Father's Day to all of you dads out there - and a special one to the grandpa's reading this....we love you!!!

A special post just for today, because we (Alex and Christine) made a special treat for Daddy for today, and we JUST had to share!! :)

First (because Blogger won't let me re-arrange the pics......this is really frustrating me lately!), here's Zach's latest adventure.....going backwards under the highchair! :)

And now our special treat for Daddy.....Alex and I made these cupcakes, and Alex told Daddy, "Daddy, I love you MOWER!" Isn't it just adorable?!?!? :)

Here's Alex with a couple of his treats. (Actually he was a fairly good helper...he sorted the Skittles, helped add the coconut to the top, and handed me the cupcakes to frost)......he ate quite a bit in the process, too!!

One of Zach's "I'm just too tired, let me fall asleep right here" positions (don't worry, Daddy was close by, he just moved for the picture)

Alex being too shy for the camera (plus, if you look up by his hairline on this side, you'll see his new "goose egg" - he thought it would be funny to put the kitchen towel over his face, run FULL FORCE from the laundry room to the kitchen table (where Zach was seated)....only he veered off course and ran into the side of the fridge. Ouch.)

Another one of Zach's sleeping positions.........

And Alex with Great-Grandma Frank's shoes on....he LOVES them!! (And don't you LOVE Alex's outfit?!?!? It's just fantastic having a 2-year-old who HAS to choose his own clothing!! How early on can you teach "matching"????) :)

Again, Happy Father's Day to all! :) I'm off to try to take a nap - the rest of the house is sleeping, so I am going to try to catch a wink, too! :)

June 4-20

Yeah, a 16-day post. Don't expect everything that has happened the last two weeks, but here are the major events of the Nebraska Bowin household.

We have begun some major improvements on our outdoor spaces. Quite a while ago, we showed you our concrete work out front. We now have a deck on the front of our house....with enough room to have a couple of chairs out front! It's wonderful to be outside and watch Alex ride his bike up and down the sidewalk...and play with his chalk.....and his bubbles....and dig in the rocks.....and push the stroller or wagon......and the list goes on and on. We'll get a shot of the new deck here soon. :)

We have also made some improvements to our backyard! Because the labor on our deck was quite a bit less than anticipated, we had some extra money - so we are building a swingset/playyard! It's not quite done yet, so we will post pictures once we have it finished. :) Here's just one shot of the boys the night we got it up (note there's no fence yet)....

Another wonderful addition to our backyard is a fence! Last weekend Grandpa and Grandma Bowin came out with some used chain-link fence that was given to them by some friends out in Colorado. Andy and Grandpa Daryl worked and worked and worked for three long days.....and they got most of it done! Andy had some 'finish work' to complete, but it's all done now and it's WONDERFUL!! (Again, we will post pictures of the backyard once it's all complete.....just be patient!) We're hoping the weather will cooperate this weekend to get it all finished up - so it should be soon!

Andy has been umpiring a few baseball games here and there - and has been enjoying it. It keeps him in touch with the game, plus Alex loves going to see Daddy and "helping" him call the balls and strikes. One night Alex tried to argue with Andy (Andy didn't hear any of it), and he had quite a few of the crowd in chuckles because he didn't think that Daddy was listening to him! It was funny - - there are a few people who still comment on it when we go back to watch. Work has been going well - he's been covering quite a bit up in Burwell and Broken Bow...which is nice with the company car. BUT, the company car broke down on Wednesday afternoon (the tailpipe/muffler fell off of the catalytic converter...it was NOISY!) So, it's in the repair shop....the little blue car is getting quite the mileage now! (The only reason I know what a 'catalytic converter' is.....I helped my dad change one on my car! Thanks, Dad....I never thought that it would come in handy.....but it did - - 15 years later!) :)

Alex has been talking up a storm! It's funny the phrases and comments that he puts together! The other day he kept talking about "Monica" and pointing out towards the back door. Andy and I don't know any Monica's...so we asked Julie (daycare lady) about it, and she said that she didn't know any, either. Finally I asked quite a few questions about "Monica" and figued out that it was his HAR-MONICA. It was on top of the fridge on "time out" because Alex had thrown it at Zach a few days ago.....good grief! Then, tonight.....the boys and I were at Andy's clinic so that we could run over to the Farmer's Market after Andy got off of work. Alex has been quite interested in "potty" lately, so he's a shadow whenever one of us has to go. Off Andy went to the bathroom, while Zach and I stayed and talked to Julie (Andy's aide). A few minutes later, Alex comes running into the room and very clearly stated, "Daddy pooped." Julie and I cracked up! (Julie has 5 grandkids, so she understands the candor of the little ones.) It was just too funny - - I still chuckle thinking about it. :)

Zach is still eating like there's no tomorrow. He's into the meats now, and has had beef, chicken, ham, and turkey. He's a fan of food......he turned his nose up a little at Mac 'n Cheese...but otherwise, he'll chow down anything put in front of him. He's getting better at self-feeding, has had a few successes, but is easily frustrated. Sippy cups are come and go....he loves them one day, doesn't like them the next. He doesn't get much out of them, so it's still the bottle for most of his feedings. Tuesday night he was knawing on Andy's finger - and he discovered a tooth!! Yep - he snuck his first one in on us! Hopefully he'll be a easy teether like Alex.....here's hoping! It's on the bottom, yay!

Let's see...I guess I'm left. Work is never done....dishes, laundry, cleaning, picking up.....the cycle never stops (and doesn't show any signs of slowing down anytime in the next 20 years). I've been taking the boys to daycare twice a week just so they can keep their "school year" routine somewhat fresh, and that gives me a chance to do the grocery shopping, cleaning, and other errands with much more efficiency. :) Although - this week they went three days.....I had some "unexpected" events come up today, so they went to Julie's today as well.....which brings me to the "unexpected"......Last night as I was putting Zach down to bed (he's still in the pack-n-play in our room until he's sleeping through the night), I had him over my shoulder and began walking back into the bedroom. I was about 6 feet away from the bed, when I tripped over Andy's dress shoes. I began to fall, and caught myself with my right forearm and wrist on the dresser. I had immediate shooting pain into my hand, wrist, and upper arm. (Zach slept through all of this, by the way...I was able to keep him close, and he was so zonked that he didn't notice a thing.) I got Zach down into his bed, and then went back out to take a look at my wrist. It began swelling, and the pain was just terrible. When Andy got home from the baseball game, he looked at it and told me to get into the doctor first thing this morning. They took some x-rays and determined that it's a deep-bone bruise with some possible bone displacement (they couldn't see any fractures, but he said that the bones looked a little out of place and they'd work themselves back into place.) So, I am in a wrist support, which has made typing all of this quite difficult. It's also hard to pick up the boys....which is depressing. The brace helps, but it's still very painful. So please pray for quick recovery for me - -

We have a few shots of the boys - enjoy!

Zach "scootched" himself from over where the blanket is over to the crib - he's getting close!! :)

We looked at Zach sleeping one night and were amazed at how much he looked like a doll........

Alex sleeping a la Great-Grandpa Frank style.......

Zach standing!! :)

Zach's first experience with beef - - it was M-E-S-S-Y!!!!! (but he LOVED it!)

Alex trying to take his own picture...he was afraid of the flash, so he had his head pressed as far into my shoulder as it would go.....crazy kid! :)

Video of Alex making Zach laugh....note the funny laugh Alex does to get Zach to giggle.

And Zach "backing up".....

8 days to Zach's 8 month...so look for a post then! :)

These Boys!

Couple of funny stories....

First, Zach:

He JUST finished a 2-hour nap (yay!), and then ate a FULL container of carrots, then a FULL container of peas, a FULL container of peaches, and then washed it all down with 6 ounces of milk. Think he's making up for not 'eating' for 8 days?!?!? His new nickname is Slugger.

And Alex:

Last night we walked to Casey's to pick up a pizza. On the way over, Alex and I were talking about looking both ways before crossing the street. We got to the first one, so I asked Alex if there were any cars coming. He said, "Safe!" and then held his arms out like a baseball umpire...

If these boys weren't that funny I think that I'd go crazy. :)

Zach's 7 month; Other Updates.....

Wow, been way too long since we last posted, but I think that we are ready to begin communicating the outside world - I **hope** we are out of the woods.

Starting back since we last posted (May 21), we travelled out to Colorado for Memorial Day weekend. Things didn't go exactly as planned......

Friday night, as we were about 30 minutes from North Platte (about 2 hours into our trip), Zach began getting really fussy in the back seat. I turned around to try to calm him down, offer the cork, turn on his movie, etc......only to witness the single largest vomiting event I have ever seen. I know that they all say that it looks like more than it actually is, but this was huge. So I told Andy to pull the car over, and Zach vomited AGAIN!! It had been over 2 hours since his last feeding, so it had been sitting (simmering) in his stomach for two hours......not the most pleasant of smells, but anyway...

So we get Zach changed into a new outfit, blot the carseat until it's mostly dry, dump out the bottom of the base from the liquid that was sitting there, bag up the sopping wet clothes, and head off again. About 10 minutes Zach starts fussing again, so Andy got a bottle ready to give to Zach. Zach ate about 3 ounces, and then it all happened again, except this time ALL OVER Andy! It's funny now, but at the time it was very scary! We called Andy's Aunt Kendra and Uncle Daryl, who live in North Platte with their family, and they said that we could stay there for the night. Unfortunately, Zach decided to redecorate much of their home, so he sat and played on towels because the body fluids just didn't stop!

Finally on Saturday morning at about 10, Zach kept down his first "meal". We thought that the worst was behind us, so we continued on out to Colorado. (Little did we know.....)

The rest of the trip out there was fairly uneventful, until we "landed" at Andy's parents house.

Zach then developed a severe case of diaper explosion! So, he again was on the towels, this time for a different reason! He was very happy and playful in between his "bouts", but got very cranky for about 30 minutes before the event. This only got worse as time went on. Saturday night/Sunday morning Zach had a spell where he was inconsolable for about 2 hours, and began pulling on his ears. I was concerned, so we decided to take a trip to the ER in Yuma (about 30 minutes from Andy's folks home) to have him checked out. I specifically asked the Dr. to check Zach's ears, plus the vomiting and diarrhea. The doc said that his ears were fine, and ruled it "gastroenteritis" - which basically means upset stomach. He told us to give Zach Kaopectate 3-4 times a day and that should clear it up.......yeah, right!

Anyway, this continued on and on....but we made it home on Monday fairly uneventfully. Zach's BM's became more frequent, but he was less fussy before them. So Tuesday morning we went in to the Dr. here in Ord (our family doc), and he looked in Zach's ears and gave a whistle. BRIGHT RED!!! I was furious! I told the Dr. what had gone on, and he said that an ear infection can begin in as little as 6 hours (I think he was just trying to cover for the other doc), so they gave Zach a shot to double-whammy the ears and whatever this bug was (we were going on 5 days at this point). So, I went home hoping that the worst was over.....yeah, right!

Wednesday morning the diarrhea hadn't stopped, and I was getting really concerned at this point. So I called the Dr. again and they said to come in, again. This time we decided to stop all milk for couple of days, do only Pedialyte, bananas, applesauce, and rice cereal. They also gave us an oral antibiotic. I felt better leaving the Dr. office, but knew that Zach still wasn't seeming to get any better. The poor boy had a flaming red hind-end...he would SCREAM any time we headed back to the bedroom to change his diaper. For most of Tuesday and Wednesday, he was going every 15-35 minutes.....except for nap times. I counted on Wednesday, I changed 38 poopy diapers from Zach in a 10 hour period. So.....we hoped that this was going to turn a corner.....yeah, right!

Wendesday night I was holding Zach on the couch, giving him his night-time bottle (of pedialyte). Alex came up and laid his head on my opposite leg, and was really kinda squirming around. He sat up.....and......blech. ALL OVER my left arm, stomach, leg, foot, couch, ottoman, floor......thankfully, he missed Zach, but eeeeeewwwww! Andy scooped Alex up and sat him on the floor, only to have Alex repeat the performance twice more!! Andy went and got Alex cleaned up, and about 30 minutes later, Alex wanted some crackers. Thankfully, that was the only vomiting performance that Alex put on. Are we all better??.....yeah, right!

Thursday was just terrible. Both boys had the "hold me" attitude, and didn't want the either to be near me. Alex's diarrhea got worse, Zach's was less frequent, but still painful. Andy took the afternoon off to come home and help me (I REALLY needed it) and he even called my grandparents from Lincoln to come and help out.

Friday afternoon Grandma and Grandpa got here, and things finally started looking up. Zach was beginning to return to normal (so we slowly started introducing milk back), but Alex was still VERY runny. Thank goodness for Resolve carpet cleaner!!!

Saturday Andy had a "Strike Out Stroke" tournament that he committed to for all day, so I was so very thankful to have my grandparents here to help out. They are truly lifesavers!!!

Saturday evening and Sunday afternoon we went downtown to the "ExtraORDinary Days" (we live in ORD.....get it??).....they had bed races that were quite funny, carnival rides (of which Alex rode the carousel 6 or 7 times...nothing else....just the carousel), ice cream, etc. It was fun to get out of the house and be outside.

So it's now Monday, and both boys have been 48 hours "normal". I have inhaled my sign of relief, but am very cautious to exhale. :)

Anyway, here are the few pictures. Now that I've told the story you may understand why there aren't many. These were taken on Zach's 7-month birthday, May 28.





Alex trying to "smile".......

Got it!! :)

That's it......please pray for an UNEVENTFUL week.....we all need it!! :)