The DandJ Edition

Though we've been feeding Zach solid foods for almost 3 months, we had yet to get him anything like a high chair. Usually I'd have him sit on my lap and feed him from behind. Sometimes, when both of us were home, one of us would play the role of high chair and hold Zach in place while the other would do the feeding.

Since we have a pretty tiny apartment and a college student budget we weren't sure what we'd do for a high chair and as a result we just kept putting off getting one.

While at Walmart last night we found this booster seat for Zach and are loving it. Some reasons include: (1)It fits our extra chair with arms so the seat is on securly, (2)Zach really enjoys sitting in and is fascinated by it, (3)it doesn't take up much extra space in our apartment, and (4)I can use both hands while feeding Zach! He has a secure place to play and watch while I make dinner. Oh the possibilities...

I had a great Valentine's Day weekend with my Valentine. It's definitely different trying to plan a romantic day when you've got a 7 1/2 month old tearing up the apartment.

Thursday

- Derrick surprised me by working it out with Melissa and Nate to come over and babysit Zach. He had to be sneaky to get me to feed Zach a bit earlier than usual and still not suspect anything (I was expecting something on Friday). We went to the dollar theater to see Tale of Despereaux and then to Cold Stone for ice cream. It was so nice to be out on a real date (as in without our favorite little guy) especially since we probably haven't been on one since Zach was born.

Friday

- Derrick brought me these beautiful roses when he came home from work.


Saturday

-I gave Derrick a homemade card complete with the usual crazy stick figure drawings (by his request).

-Zach got a Winnie-the-Pooh valentine in the mail from Grandma and Grandpa Bowen. He got really excited when he saw it and tried to eat it. We saved Winnie-the-Pooh though.

-Lots of food. We made strawberry/banana crepes with a delicious creamy vanilla sauce on them. For those who are interested we found the recipe for the sauce as part of this recipe. For lunch we then went to Sunflower Farmer's Market where we got sushi and stuff for the green smoothie that appears our the last post. And then with dinner we made baked potatoes, shrimp scampi, almond-crusted salmon, ceasar salad, and artichokes. We were so stuffed that we had to wait awhile for dessert which was fondue (it's become a tradition). The leftover creamy vanilla sauce from breakfast made a great dipping sauce along with some chocolate fudge. Like I said, lots of food. Derrick and I love cooking together and enjoyed spending the whole day together.

At the grocery store yesterday the person checking us out thought that Zach was a cute little girl (weird that people still get his gender wrong) and had the bagger get him a balloon. Zach had a lot of fun with his Tinkerbell balloon.


Recently I found this recipe for a health smoothie on a friend's blog. We've made it a few times and really like (though we do add a bit of yogurt and sugar to the original recipe). Zach really wanted to try the smoothie and was really entertaining. He looked so disgusted every time but kept climbing into my lap begging for more. Here's a video from the second time we made the smoothies since our camera battery died the first time.

At the beginning of this month Zach started army crawling and has been getting more coordinated and faster all the time. Now he can entertain himself on the floor a lot longer. This does lead to greater messes and random toys being shoved under the couch.


Along with learning to crawl Zach has started exploring more throughout our apartment. It's funny to be in another room and hear Zach coming - It's kinda this excited grunting sound. He's learned to crawl under the kitchen chairs to get into the kitchen.

My little brother Garrett got accepted to BYU Idaho the other day!


I'm so excited he got in since he's been working so hard the last while to get his grades up and to do well enough on the ACT. It's crazy to think that the youngest kid in my family will be off to college so soon.

Last week my cousin Jessica (Prestwich) came over to our apartment to teach me how to appliqué and watch Elizabethtown with Zach and me. Since I had a baby shower to go to this week, I decided to try appliquéing some onesies. The baby's gender is unknown so I went with a bug theme. Here's how they turned out:


Thanks again for teaching me Jess. We'll have to hang out again soon!

This semester my friend Ruth (in my ward) invited me to do a water aerobics class with her. It's so much fun and Derrick's great to watch Zach so I can go. I love having something active that I can look forward to three times a week.

BYU has a bunch of workout classes for $44 dollars a semester which are open to pretty much anybody.

I never thought I'd be taking a water aerobics class since I've only ever seen old ladies at the rec center doing them. It's funny how here at BYU half the class is pregnant :).

Here are some pictures from swimming with Grandpa Jones and Uncle Garrett in CO. We went to the Lafayette Rec Center.

Modeling the Finding Nemo swim diaper:


Walking down the ramp:


Trying to grab the water:


To show how much Zach has grown in half a year, here is a picture of Zach wearing the same swimming suit back in August:



Fun times in the water:


We only took pictures at the beginning and then put the camera away so it wouldn't get wet.

Other adventures include:

- Zach went down the baby slide with me. The splash at the end scared him so much he started crying. He did calm down pretty quickly. We only went down once.
- We rode the lazy river. Zach would only stand up on my lap in the tube.
- A geyser thing surprised us by going off when I happened to be right over it. Zach escaped with minor spray to his face.

Thanks again for taking us Dad/Grandpa!

Zach and I spent Monday through Friday of last week with my parents and Garrett in Colorado. My mom had knee surgery two Fridays ago (1/23) and at about 5:00 p.m. that evening Derrick and I were booking my flight to Denver. For fun we decided to make it a surprise for my mom (also because she'd probably try to get things ready for us and defeat the purpose of us coming).

After a hectic run through the SLC airport at about 6:30 a.m. while holding two bags and a car seat with a 20 pound baby, Zach and I made our flight. Luckily for me the flight was pretty empty so Zach got his own seat. He slept most of the time :).


My dad picked us up from the airport and the look on my mom's face when we just walked into her room was priceless. She hadn't heard the garage door open so she didn't even know anyone was home. Her mouth dropped and she just stared at us for a little while. Apparently her first thought was that her pain meds were making her hallucinate :).

Zach and I had fun playing with and taking care of my mom during the day and being joined by my dad and Garrett at night.


One thing that was really cute was that every time I brought Zach into my parents' room I'd have him peek around the door and watch as he'd get this huge grin on his face from seeing my mom. We had a lot of fun in Louisville but definitely missed Derrick. It did help that we "skyped" with him every night and got to talk with him on the phone.

While in Louisville:
- Zach cut his 2nd tooth (on the bottom)
- He had his first experience swimming in a swimming pool (I'll do a post of pictures from that since this one is getting long).
- We found out that he loves chewing on apples.


- Zach got to play with some toys I played with when I was little.


- I found that I really like the Narnia movie Prince Caspian - Thanks Garrett.
- Derrick (back in Utah) had a successful interview for a job internship and made it to the second round. In the next couple of weeks we'll see how that turns out.

Zach was pretty antsy on the plane ride home. I had to get creative and finally resort to holding him high so he could just stare at all the people behind us.


We had a great trip but were very excited to be with Derrick again.