Tooth #13

Lucky tooth #13 has made its appearance! Canine tooth on the bottom left is now poking through the gums.....no wonder our little garbage disposal has been on hiatus the past few days....some how a half a gogurt, fruit snacks and two bites of a cheese stick just doesn't seem "normal" for Zach at dinner time.

It HURTS!

Jen has her blood drawn every 6 weeks to 6 months for her thyroid - been doing this for over 12 years now. She knows her own veins so well, she can normally tell the Phlebotomist which arm to stick her in - location of the vein and the size of the needle to use. She has found that if she provides them with this information it normally results in a less painful blood draw and a better recovery. Recovery you may ask? Recovery from this:


Yes that is a big nasty bruise. Only this time the Phlebotomist did everything right. The needle prick is actually in the area of the bruise that is the lightest (right side). So what happened this time? Well - blood was drawn at 4pm. Work family BBQ was from 7pm until 10pm....who ended up holding Zach from 8pm to 10pm? Jen, because Dustin was busy cooking hamburgers and hotdogs for almost 100 people! Her arm was hurting the whole time, but it didn't click "oh yeah I had blood drawn from this arm today...I shouldn't be using it to support Zach solely for TWO HOURS". When I went to bed I could physically see the bruise and the darker part on the left was a big knot. Yes it hurts......will it go away... in about a week.

Future Lawn Boy

He already is interested in helping Dad mow the lawn....notice he is even wearing safety glasses?

Park City (again)

We decided to hit up Park City again, this time SPECIFICALLY to watch them train at Olympic park at the ski jumps that go into the pools. We realized it was October 2008 the last time we went to Olympic park where it was in between the training seasons. We had Glen join us for this day adventure!

Of course if we drove all the way to Park City.....Jen has to do some shopping at the outlet mall....which turned into a fall clothes shopping trip for ZACH! He did seem to find something he loved:
Zach may be more Texan than we thought....

White trash baby

We take turns on the weekends getting up when Zach wakes up...so at least one of us can sleep in a bit. Jen wakes on Saturday mornings and Dustin wakes up on Sunday mornings. Today - Sunday morning - Jen sleeps in (like every weekend). When she gets up she sees this....



How can you not laugh when this is the first thing you see in the morning...your kid kicking it white trash style. No shirt (those are PJ shorts he is wearing), one sandal, and the shorts rolled in the back. Zach was having fun....but lets just say things didn't look as "trashy" once mom took over ;)

Putt putt

Tonight was DATE NIGHT! Dustin's dad graciously watches Zach for us occasionally so we can hit the town for some adult time. We decided to go miniture golfing at this place right in Lehi called "Liberty Land". We each got a hole in one at some point....something that NEVER happens on an actual golf course!

The pediatrician appointment you hope to never have....

Today was Zach's 18 month check up with the pediatrician. His 18 month check up when he is really 19 months old....why?? Apparently there was a SIX WEEK WAIT for a wellness check up with our pediatrician. SIX WEEKS? I can call any day of the week and get a same day appointment if my kid is sick...but heaven forbid I set up an appointment for a "healthy" child. So yeah....I pitched a fit about this six weeks ago when the appointment was made. Little did I know six weeks later the actual day of the appointment would be just as horrible. I warn you now this post is a bunch of complaining.

Appointment is at 3:50pm. The plan was to pick up Zach early from the sitter and head to the appointment like we always do for wellness visits. Slight hiccup today - Dustin is sick at home in bed with the flu so Jen is the lone ranger for this appointment. Zach is fussy in the car on the ride to the pediatrician's. For some reason lately Zach HAS to eat something when he is in the car - or he whines and whines and whines. He has also been a bottomless pit lately...no matter what you do you can't keep this kid full - he is ALWAYS eating. So he is eating goldfish and happy. Then we get to the office and Jen has to "move" the goldfish bag to get Zach out of the car seat. Zach isn't happy about that and starts to CRY. My kid is CRYING because the goldfish bag got moved. Nice.

We walk in the office and he calms down...checks out the fish tank. Then the nurse calls his name and he sits on the floor refusing to move. This isn't like Zach - he normally flirts with the nurses. Not today. I pick him up and carry him to the exam room. He sees the basket of suckers along the way and starts to whine and cry because he didn't get a sucker as we walked past. We get into the exam room and the nurse asks what is wrong...I explain he saw the suckers...so he runs out and gets him one. He takes off the wrapper and just holds the top of the sucker with his hand. He didn't want to eat it, just hold it....hold it long enough to make his hands sticky. He starts whining again - all while the nurse is trying to "quickly" take his growth measurements and weight.

Then we had a five minute wait for the pediatrician to come in. During those five minutes Zach continues to cry, whine, throw his cup on the ground, throw his sucker, throw his goldfish....but ate the teddy grahams. The pediatrician comes in - Zach moves into STRANGER DANGER mode. He wanted nothing to do with the pediatrician. He kept pulling the stethoscope off his chest. He screamed when the pediatrician looked in his ears. He laughed when the ear scope made a sucking noise on his stomach. Everything looks normal. We get Zach dressed and ready for his two shots.

The nurse comes in to give Zach his shots. Normally they would have him lay on the table, hold him down and put one shot in each leg. This time she just had him sit on my lap, while she gave him two shots in the same leg. He screamed like he always does for the shots. But then when she put the band-aid over the injection spot I noticed this huge scratch on his leg. The nurse scratched his leg from the injection point about three inches long down the top of his thigh WITH THE NEEDLE. Obviously I pointed out - uh you scratched him with the needle...she says "oops - sorry" and shrugs her shoulders, hands me 18 month old behavior expectation paperwork and Zach's growth card. BAM - we are done.

I start packing up all the "gear" us moms lug around with kids (diaper bag, snacks, toys, etc), tuck the paperwork way (without looking at it), bee line it back to the sucker stash and grabbed Zach a handful. The kid deserved it after that shot experience. Of course this made him smile and STOP whining....and he continued to stay happy the whole drive home with a sucker in each hand.

Later on this evening I started looking at that "paperwork" they gave me. I am squinting over Zach's growth numbers...they didn't make sense....my 75th percentile baby all of a sudden was this:

Head = 48.5cm = 70th percentile
Weight = 25.4lbs = 30th percentile
Length = 31.5in = 25th percentile

What? My kid is now a string bean with a big head? We know he has a big head (one of the reasons I needed a C-Section!)...the weight...yeah I could believe that, he has only gained 2.5lbs in the last 9 months...our home scale a few weeks ago said he was 26 pounds but he has been playing pretty hard at the babysitters and is wiped every night. The length....no way my kid is 31.5 inches. He measured 31.5 inches at his 12 month appointment - SEVEN MONTHS AGO. Dustin and I get the tape measure out - he is 33 to 33.5 inches tall. Not sure how the nurse managed to miss an extra two inches in all her haste at that appointment.

I sure hope future wellness check ups are better than this one!

Venting done.....and I already scheduled his two year check up (5 months in advance).

IM Flash Family Day 2009

Today was IM Flash Family day. Our work opens the building up to the public so families and friends of employees can see what goes on every day! This year we were able to bring Dustin's Dad, Aunt Mary, and a couple of 2nd cousins...and of course...Zach! We started the day off with lunch (catered by Goodwood BBQ) - then ventured outside in the heat to enjoy the kid activities (cotton candy and sno cones included), and lastly came back inside to check out the booths and Dustin's desk.

You know you are a parent when.....

...you open your refrigerator and see this:

Can you see it?

Bottom shelf - baby dolphin stuffed animal.

Yes, Zach put him in the fridge and we didn't realize it until later in the day.

It made us smile...

Utah County Fair + Demolition Derby

It is that time of year...time for the UTAH COUNTY FAIR!!! Once again the smallest county fair we have ever been to - but we still had a great time. Zach was a bit older this year - he was brave enough to pet rabbits and "baby" animals by himself. No way this kid would even go near a larger animal.

Thank you blogger for rotating these two images funny
The we decided Zach was old enough to get his first tattoo (airbrushed - non permanent). He cried during the process - but seemed to be proud of the final outcome.

Then came the REAL reason we headed to the fair this year - the DEMOLITION DERBY! This was the first time any of us had been to a demolition derby. It was AWESOME! Even Zach loved watching the cars go around smashing each other. He even was able to smooch some cotton candy from Kate, the little girl sitting next to him. She loved feeding it to Zach and of course Zach didn't mind the sugar!

SNAKE?!?

There are TWO things both of us HATE with a passion. These two things will make us both scream like little girls and run away. Those two things are spiders (part of the reason we pay for regular pest control) and SNAKES! To our surprise we had a snake visit our backyard today. Did we scream like little girls - YES. But then we (mainly Dustin) had to man up and realize we didn't want this thing in our backyard for Zach to come stumbling upon.


Not the typical gardner snake we are use to seeing - but no rattle on this bad boy
Dustin trying to get it to come out of our bushes - spraying it with water didn't work
Dustin caught his FIRST SNAKE! Yes it did bite him - but he said it didn't hurt
Now what do we do with him?

Here is a video of the proud man with his catch:

Here is a video of Dustin releasing it back into the wild (the golf course):

Chuck E. Cheese

It was time to finally introduce Zach to Chuck E. Cheese. Both of us had great memories of going to this place when we were kids. We think the place is much more scaled down today than it was over 20 years ago...but then again everything seems the best when you were a kid!

Zach was very interested in the animated characters
Chuck looks a bit scary - check out his eyes
We think this was Zach's favorite - throwing the basketball
He wanted NOTHING to do with the cool riding cars
Skeeball - another favorite
Grandpa Gray showing Zach how to roll the ball
Video games - what boy doesn't like these
Oh - stuff comes OUT of the machines?!?
Dustin and Glen shooting out the horse teeth - can you tell which one was in the Army longer?
Oh - this sucks up the tickets?!?
I am sure we will visit this place again in the future!

Family quick stop

Dustin's mom and Aunt/Uncle Larsen made a quick evening stop at our house on their way to and from Idaho for a family reunion. Aunt/Uncle Lee live in the area and joined us for a BBQ dinner and some swimming fun!





Zach was happy to see his Grandma Gray again!