First Swing

While we were on holidays we were at a park with John's cousin Andrew and his two little girls. This was the first park that had a swing that Zech could actually sit in all by himself. The park that we have close to home does not have a little kiddie swing so he swings with mom. Well Zech loved his first swing all by himself as you can see!

Daddy push me higher, higher!

Zechariah at 9 months:

Yet another month has just flew by and here he is 9 months old already! There have been a lot of firsts that have happened this month. He is such a wonderful, curious and interative little boy. So now Zechariah at 9 months:

• Still wears size three diapers.
• Wears 12 month and 18 month clothing--depending on the fit.
• Not sure how much he weighs, but he is a really tall boy and is now longer than his change table--which makes changing him a little interesting at times.
• Continues to absolutely love the outdoors.
• Loves the water, even the cold Okanogan Lake.
• Visited the ocean (Pacific) for the first time and got wet! He loved it of course!
• Goes nuts when he sees a puppy dog--he sure does love them.
• Imitates sounds that you make and said his first word on Father's Day (dada). We were all sitting around the table trying to get him to say it and he did!! John was beaming and thought that was the best Father's Day gift in the world.
• Is an excellent traveller. We spent many long days driving these past three weeks and he was so amazing! We are so blessed!
• Visited B.C. for the first time.
• Left Canada and was in the United States (Seattle) for the first time.
• Crawls or pushes himself backwards all the time. Made his first couple of forward "crawls" this morning. He is still not completely crawling, but he is trying really hard.
• Can sit upright all by himself from his tummy. It's so cute to watch him!
• Started pulling himself up into the standing position. He sat up and then proceeded to stand up in his crib today. Scared both mommy and daddy, as the crib needs to be adjusted to a lower setting now. Yikes!
• Has started eating chunkier food now--but still pretends to gag.
• Met his Uncle Gary, Auntie Janice, cousin Andrew and Jaye Lynn and his two little cousins Alycia and Kylie for the first time.
• Laughs a lot.
• Continues to teeth--not sure which teeth are coming in this time, but he's teething.
• Sleeps on his tummy all the time now.
• Continues to nap two/three times a day.
• Sleeps through the night, when we are on schedule, which has been hard lately with travelling.
• Will offer you his soother or any other toy if you open your mouth and ask for it. It's hilarious...not that any body wants his soother or anything that he has been slobbering all over, but he is learning how to share! :o)

Grandparents....

We are here in Kelowna visiting with John's parents. I have always loved watching Zechariah interact with his Grandparents. Zech gets to see his Grandma Halwa a lot more than his Grandma and Grandpa Gooch, so it is nice that we get to visit with them now. Plus I don't have many pictures of Zech with his Grandparents and I will have to change that starting now.

I took a few pictures of Zech with Grandma H before we left on our holiday. Zech really loves and knows his Grandma.....and I think that Grandma loves him too! :o)

And now I got some great pictures of Zech with his Grandma and Grandpa Gooch. Zech really seems to know who his Grandparents are. He also thinks that his Grandpa is the funniest guy ever. Every time Grandpa G looks at him or talks to him he laughs his little head off. It's so cute!

The Moll Family

We left for Kelowna last Wednesday after a chaotic morning of waiting for passports, finding out they weren't going to make it and then frantically trying to get birth certificates, packing and dealing with some last minute house stuff. We finally got out of the city at 4:00 pm.

We made great time to Calgary and were able to meet up with Jonathan, Heather and Helayna Moll for supper. Heather and I went to school together and she has always been a really special friend in my life. Jonathan and Heather have always been a huge inspriation for me. I admire their incredible faith in God and how they live their lives for God!

It was so great to meet up with them and of course to meet their darling daughter Helayna. We thought that our little Zech was an active one, but Helayna wins that title hands down! :o) We had a great visit and wish that we could see the Moll's more often. They will have to come and visit us in Australia! :o)

Play Date

Zechariah had a playdate with Matthew who is exactly one month older than him. My friend Pauline had filled up the kiddie pool and thought it would be nice to have a little friend over for Matthew. Matthew is a really social kid and gets really excited and loves to express his excitement very vocally. Well our little Zechariah is a very sensitive boy and he screamed the entire time. I was a little emabarassed as it probably seemed like I never took Zechariah out in public, when in fact we meet with our moms group every Tuesday and there are lots of kids to play with. Zech was crying so hard he was having problems catching his breath and I really didn't know what to do. Pauline decided to get Matthew's soother and stick it in his mouth to stop him from talking and that seemed to help. SO finally Zech calmed down and got into the pool and seemed to have fun playing. I pulled out the camera and right away Zech turns to me and smiles. SO I was able to get a few pictures and then it was back to crying again. By the end though Zech did calm down and did a bit of playing.

Thanks Pauline and Matthew for putting up with us. It is really neat to see the difference in personalities and characteristics in our little ones and in people in general. God sure didn't want us to be bored! :o)

Zechariah at the Farm

He really liked the long grass and the pretty "flowers"!

Fending Zech from the attacking puppies!

We spent this last weekend at Grandma's place on the farm. However, a couple of weeks ago we were at the farm as well and Zech got to see the new puppies. He loves dogs and gets so excited anytime he sees them. I thought that he would absolutely love the puppies, but he was a little unsure of them. I set him down in the grass and all three of them came and well attacked him with licks. I think they were a little too friendly for him as he started to cry. The funniest part was that Zech had his soother hanging of his little hoody and the one little puppy came up and grabbed it and started sucking it. It was so funny, poor Zech didn't know what to do. Of course I didn't get pictures of that, but I did get a few. I wanted to get a few more pictures with Zech and the puppies, but I spent most of the time trying to save Zech from all of the licks.

8 Months!

Yet another month has flown by! We spent Zechariah's 8 month birthday at Pigeon Lake. He was such a trooper and didn't nap all day long. He simply had to much to see and do I guess. Well Zechariah at 8 months:

• Has 4 teeth. His top two incisors have come through and he has been and is still really miserable. I think these are supposed to be the most painful.


• Weighs 21 lbs and is 28 1/2 inches long.


• Is wearing 12 month and some 18 month clothing.


• May just start crawling. He gets up on his hands and knees and rocks and he can go backwards, but is still not really crawling.


• Rolls all over the place. Can roll from his tummy to his back, but still thinks he needs help sometimes. I think that he is just frustrated with the state that he is in. You can tell that he wants to go, go, go, but he just hasn't quite figured out how to yet.


• Absolutely loves books, loves chewing them, looking at them and loves being read to.


• Loves to babble and make noises all the time.


• Loves blowing raspberries and giving zerburks.


• Puts his arms out if he wants to be picked up or if he wants to go to someone.


• Eats all sorts of food now and we have started him on chunkier foods (which was hilarious as he pretended to gag) and finger foods.


• Loves Cherrios! I taught him one day in the car how to pick them up and eat them and now he is a pro and really loves them.


• Loves, loves, loves being outside.


• Gets super excited every time he sees a dog (we had to give his Rastus puppy away, so I think that he misses him).


• Is extremely impatient. If I do not have his food ready for him when he wants it, he screams, this is where the cherrios come in real handy!


• Goes through separation anxiety any time we leave the room or go where he can't see us.


• Cries now when we take away his toy or something that he shouldn't be playing with.


• Still really loves the water and his bath time. Although he wasn't too fond of the lake--too cold!


• Giggles and laughs a lot!


• Still sleeps through the night and takes at least two naps a day, sometimes three.