Happy New Year!

We've spent a quiet day on the last day of the year and are contemplating going to sleep now before the new year rings in. I feel like we napped most of the day -- we all seem a little tired from our recent "vacation". Also, it's been a grey rainy day perfect for sleeping.

Anyway, Zeke joined in with us on our holiday tradition. We went to our local sushi place for the New Year's Eve Japanese food fix. I refer to it as the Sushi Disco as it plays incredibly loud dance music, is popular for its sake bombs and has crazy Americanized sushi (we made the misfortunate decision a few years ago of ordering a roll with fried banana and cream cheese -- wouldn't recommend it). It's not the best food, but it is fun. We went for an early dinner, so it wasn't that loud or crazy. Zeke still bounced up and down in the high chair the whole time, so I think he might have been digging the music. Came home and crossed the cul-de-sac for a neighborly soiree. We retired early, though and now have an hour left before 2007.

Anyone have new year's resolutions? I think I am going to set some....I came up with dozens, but scaled back to just two, though, so that they might have some chance of sticking.

I hereby resolve that in 2007, I will:

* Have better sleep habits. I have never had good sleep habits, so this is a bit of a challenge. I frankly don't remember sleeping for a good part of my young adulthood and I have never been one to go to sleep early. We have been working on Zeke's sleep habits recently though and while I see those improve, I don't really benefit, because I go to bed late. Really, the hours after Zeke goes to sleep at 8 are just magical adult hours when I can use the computer, clean, watch tv, eat without interruption...it is really heaven. I'm going to go to bed earlier, though.

* Use my Y membership more than once a year. I've been making generous monthly "donations" to the Y for sometime, though I actually only made use of my membership in the first months of 2006. I've forgiven myself for not going while working and for the month or so following, but I don't know why I don't seem to make it there now. I visited recently to get class schedules, check out the free childcare center, and just see if I could even remember how to get there. If I don't go in the next three weeks, then I will absolutely cancel my membership. Maybe I'll take Zeke to the Mommy and Me exercise class, but that might be setting the bar too high.

I asked Zeke if he has any new year's resolutions, but he only replied "ba ba ba ba bah" so I take that as a "no".

I think I will let him try some greens and beans tomorrow and then we have another neighbor's party to attend in the afternoon.

(These are photos of Zeke from Florida. It was unseasonably warm the first part of the week, so he got to wear some short sleeve rompers again. He also got to spend time trying out Zach's toys. Zach pushed him around on this scooter a bit with only a little crying resulting when he fell off as Zach rounded a corner! Most of the time was smiles like these, though.)

Baby's First Christmas (41 weeks, 6 days)

I hope you all had as wonderful a Christmas as we did. We just got back yesterday from a week long stay in Florida with my family. It was tiring for all, but a real joy. My grandmother and sister were gracious hostesses who took great care of us all, including Aaron's mom who flew down. My only complaint is that I ate too much (it will be a long time before I can feel okay eating cookies again). Despite this one downside, it was a joy to be together and to be on vacation. Zeke had a great time for sure and had as busy a week as those leading up to Christmas -- I just can't believe the growing he has been doing recently.



This is Zeke on Christmas morning. Zeke and I had our own private Christmas morning together. His sleeping patterns were a little all over the place while we were gone. On Christmas morning, he woke up at 6 and wouldn't go back to sleep for an hour or so. He crawled around the tree and tried climbing all of the gifts. Even though we were the first ones up, after going back to sleep we ended up being the last ones out to open up Christmas gifts! I'll post some other photos soon.

Again, we hope everyone had a great Christmas and will have a wonderful New Year's. We plan to continue our tradition of eating Japanese food on New Year's Eve and collards and beans on New Year's Day. I may not make good on my other tradition of getting lots of cleaning done prior to the clock striking midnight....some traditions may just not survive traveling and motherhood. Here's to a bright and beautiful year ahead!

All I want for Christmas....and the rest (40 weeks, 2 days)

What a busy few weeks it has been! Or, should I say, what a busy baby Zeke is! He has been a veritable explosion of baby development. He has (maybe!) said his first words, he creeps, he climbs, he tries pulling up on everything, he cruises some furniture, he mirrors some signs, he babbles incessantly, and he never NEVER likes to sleep. He also waves, pulls things over his face to play peekaboo, and takes turns when "talking" with us. We have also had some new baby experiences. Our lovely neighbors, friends and purveyors of baby couture across the cul-de-sac babysat Zeke -- special Sprout Shout-Out to the 4 Moes -- so that Sprout Mama and Daddy could go to our first movie out in seven months. (We saw Scorese's The Departed. I really enjoyed it.) We had a personal workshop on using sign language with babies and I have dragged Zeke through that special holiday tradition of rampant commercialism that is Christmas gift shopping. We have also been changing his/our sleep habits, so lots going on. Plus, Zeke is now nine months old.

I've been writing blog entries in my head about all these going-on's for a few days now, but I can't promise to get them written down yet as we are traveling for Christmas and spending tomorrow getting ready. I'm also a little under the weather. One witty entry was going to be on Zeke's teeth and his lack thereof, hence my allusion to the classic 1946 tune about the little girl who wishes she had teeth so that she could wish you a Merry Christmas. Zeke is now nine months old and started teething about five months ago as evidenced by crankiness, ear pulling, incessant drooling and the need to mouth everything he can put in that maw of his. As the months have gone by, we have anticipating the arrival of his first teeth, sure they would come anyday. All of Zeke's playmates got teeth in October at seven months and some of the younger babies we know already have teeth. But, week after week and no teeth showed up. We stopped looking for those shy teeth. We figured that we would eventually need to investigate getting some baby partials if Zeke was ever going to eat anything other Cheerios and soft vegetables.

However, my planned post may be rendered obsolete as those teeth are now on their way. And, in what I project will be in line with my son's character, their appearance is unique and not to be rushed. Today we had our nine month well baby visit and the good pediatrician noted that Zeke has two teeth that are just starting to erupt from his gums. What is unique? It looks like the first tooth will be an upper tooth and the second will be on the bottom! (The most common arrangement is for the bottom front teeth or central incisors to come in first.) I'm sure he will look silly if they really pop out as it looks like they might. However, it could be worse....I've heard of babies who have their top outside insisors come in first so that they look like vampires! I'm posting what I anticipate will be one of the last pictures of that delicious gummy smile!

Other news from the well baby visit: Zeke was for the first time quite personable with the good doctor, smiling and giggling when tickled. Zeke also tried to pee on the doctor, but as experienced as the doctor is, he was too quick for the little whizzer. Zeke only screamed when having his ears prodded, and only looked a little startled when he got his polio shot. The good doctor okayed some items to add to Zeke's diet: yogurt, chunks of fish, steamed vegetables, cooked beans, food off our plates. He just asked that we not add anything that might be a choking hazard like raisins or chunks of hot dogs -- I think we can swing that. Zeke is now 21 pounds and just short of 30 inches. Though I'm not quite sure, this means that Zeke is just a little heavier than the median (something like 60th percentile) and he is somewhere close to the 90th percentile for height. Still has a giant melon head. Still has a blue butt and the bump on the back of his head. (When I asked the doctor about this bump, in his usual anti-inflammatory style, he said, "You won't notice that when his hair grows over it.") As usual, the good doctor emphasized that Zeke looks happy and healthy and is growing as he is supposed to. Our next visit won't be until Zeke is a year old!

Zeke and Norman

Zeke loves his great grandfather Norman! It was a lot of fun over the holiday to see Zeke with his great grandparents. Here are some additional photos of Norman and Zeke.

Some Thanksgiving Highlights (37 weeks, 5 days)

In no particular order, here are some of the photos from our trip last week. For what it's worth, I know that the captions don't align with the photos perfectly, but if you wait for me to figure out how to do that...well, it will probably be next Thanksgiving before they get posted!

Zeke and his great grandparents Hazel and Norman. We stayed at their house for most of the trip. As you can see, Zeke clearly didn't get enough attention over our Thanksgiving trip.



Zeke was fascinated by the first cake he has seen -- he didn't know that when we have really special happy occasions, we set our cakes on fire! Sprout Daddy had a birthday while we were away -- he turned old (or at least the same age as me).

As a trip bonus, we also got to get together with a friend from our college days, Kimberlee, who now lives in Greenville getting her graduate degree. It was great to see her as it had been too many years since we had seen her and we had someone new to introduce to her!

We spent 12 hours in Raleigh at the best bed and breakfast in town -- Aunt Norma and Uncle Bob's. The food was good, the lodging very comfortable, and the hosts very hospitable. They have built a beautiful apartment building that we got to finally see. Here is one of the rare photos of all three of us together as we stand in the kitchen there. Zeke is doing the ear pulling thing that he did the whole trip and in about 70% of all the photos we took.

On the way home, we stopped in Charlotte to have lunch with my dad. I couldn't find a shot where we were all looking at the camera! What do you think? Can you see the family resemblance?

Trish took Zeke on a tour of his great grandparents' place. Zeke wanted to do his own walking.

Zeke and Trish at the pond. Trish told Zeke that the moon had fallen in pond and that the trees were growing down into the water. Zeke may not quite understand reflections yet, so she might have convinced him.

One of the little kittens that has adopted Aaron's grandmother. This little guy was so pathetic and cute. Anyone need a fluffy orange kitten? If we weren't at maximum occupancy already, I might have crumbled and asked Aaron for a kitten. What I don't have a photo of is Zeke grabbing the kitten's ear when we showed him the fluffball. We're going to have to work on being more gentle!

I love this photo! Zeke is manning his great grandfather's produce stand. He's ready to sell you some collards, tomatoes and sweet potatoes. Just don't ask him to make change because he hasn't learned how to count yet. Also, he will try and put your money in his mouth.