And The Beat Goes On...

Thought I'd post a few more videos on YouTube today and include another here. For the time being, this is just great entertainment for us!

More Walking Videos

I just wanted to get a quick post up today alerting you that I've added four more videos from last night of Zac walking around the house. I didn't have enough lights on, so they aren't the easiest to see, but hopefully they are OK. As always, you can click on one video, then the rest will show as an option after you've watched it, or you can click on the Family Videos link on the lower right to access all of these as well. Enjoy!

We Have Liftoff!

I know. I know. You're thinking, "What the heck?" Well, I try to be clever on this here blog and grab your attention with the titles so you'll be intrigued. Intrigued yet? Well, maybe you should watch the video below and see how you feel. :) This is our first actual captured video, taken yesterday, July 19, 2009, of Zac walking. He's been taking some steps and then Thursday night he walked about 8 or 10 feet on his own initiative. We finally caught it on video yesterday. Now, here's the funny part for us. We've been waiting all this time for him to walk. And often times Zac will do something we think is funny or we want to share with others, so when we go to Gary & Nell's, we'll try to get him to do it but he never will.

Yesterday, however, he decided to change all that. He wouldn't walk to Nell when we first got over there, and we thought perhaps he just wouldn't or that maybe we'd have to get him on the carpet in the living room first. But nope, he had other plans. As I went to sit down, behind me Zac decided to just start walking. He walked from their dining room area clear into the kitchen, and then he was off. We were there for about 2 hours and he just walked and walked and walked. I know this will get old at some point, but for now, it's great to watch! Nell caught a really good one yesterday with her camera and as soon as I get that, I'll post it as well.

The Zoo!

Thought we'd get out of the house this weekend and take Zac down to Lincoln to visit the Children's Zoo.

Why that zoo instead of the amazing one we have here in Omaha? Well, it's about half the price, for starters, and I always like going down to Lincoln for a change anyway since I grew up there.

We also spent some time at the Sunken Gardens, where there was a wedding or two today, at least, and across the street at another garden and a fountain as well.

We had a great time and Zac got to pet a goat, a guinea pig and a dove plus feed a llama, a goat and a camel. :)


We made sure to drop by DaVinci's for my favorite pizza in the entire world and Katy had a chance to enjoy one of her favorite pasta dishes, which is a creamy tomato sauce made by combining marinara and alfredo sauces. So good!

First Time Swimming

Frequent readers of this blog will recognize the title of today's post is at least partially correct. If you recall, Zac took a header into a kiddie pool several weeks ago but I don't think that could be considered officially going swimming. Yesterday, however, at the house of our friends Craig & Dee, Zac had his first experience in an actual pool. He enjoyed it quite a bit, though the infant float thingie (there on the left) we bought to let him enjoy the water turned out to be a bust. It appears he has more interest in bending forward to drink the water, much like he does in the tub, than just sitting and enjoying it.


He also had a fun time on an electric train that runs around on a track, as you can see by the second picture. Craig has these pedal trains he created that are run by hand (behind Zac), but Zac isn't quite big enough to do those yet, so he had this little plastic track set up for him to enjoy. He went around and around and around on this thing and really enjoyed it! The lever just below the steering wheel there is what makes it go and stop. Once I showed him how that worked, he did it on his own. I was quite impressed!

The Accidental Pottyist

That's right. You heard me. I couldn't think of a super catchy way of saying this, so that's my title for tonight's post. The reference? Zac's successful, though clearly accidental, use of his potty tonight right before his bath. For pictures, I bring you the potty itself and Zac in the tub, after the fact. Clearly he's super excited.

Those who read this blog hopefully recognize the boundaries of propriety and will understand why the one picture is with the lid closed rather than open. I just didn't feel it was necessary to show the end results and I'm known to be a truthful guy, so I figure you'd believe me anyway.

Even though this was accidental, we've begun trying to get Zac used to the idea of using his potty as we fully intend to have him trained by the time he is 2, if at all possible. Yes, mostly it's a ploy to save money, but also, we don't want to deal with it any longer than we have to, so we have a fairly aggressive goal. :) So, he won't walk yet, but he's willing to use the potty which, by the way, stays in the bathroom in our house. We only have the one level we actually live on, so we figure he can get used to going to the bathroom in the actual room from the start and it's not a huge problem for us because we only have the one floor. That's it, folks!

Suckers & Softball

Well, time for a new entry. I'm overdue by quite a bit. Today I bring you Zac determining exactly how many licks it takes to get to the center of a Tootsie Pop (one, by the way), and two of Claire's at-bats from her softball game last night. Her team won 16-4 and won their league with a 9-0-1 record. Yes, a tie was in there due to time constraints of a game.

Claire is with us this week in Omaha and we're very much looking forward to spending the 4th of July with Chad & Mickie, watching the fireworks off their back deck. Great spot to watch!