Happy New Year!

Zachary and I celebrated Tet this past weekend. Tet is the Vietnamese New Year. We helped to welcome the year of the ox by attending a Tet festival in Boston. We met another family there with a new baby from Vietnam. They live close by and they brought their son home about 5 weeks ago. He is just 10 months old and SO cute! We had fun exploring the different booths set up by the Vietnamese American Community. Zach enjoyed being with all the people, dancing to the loud music and running around. He also had fun jumping in a bouncy house with many big kids. At one point it was Zach and about 10 ten year olds. He was happy as could be falling all over the place while they made the house bounce like crazy! When his time was up, he said: "NO, NO all done!" Needless to say, he stayed in for a few more minutes and had the house to himself :) We think it's really important for us as a family to celebrate this very special holiday. We hope to celebrate it each year with our friends who also have children from Vietnam. I am also hoping to start cooking some Vietnamese foods. I need to get myself a good cookbook. We'll see how it goes. Here are some shots from the day. Unfortunately, I didn't get many and they are all only of Zach. Chad couldn't come so I didn't have much time to take my eyes off Zach long enough to snap away.

Jumping in the bouncy house...

Doing an art project with a nice woman...Smelling the flowers...Trying on a Vietnamese hat...Eating a cookie he scored from some nice, young woman he was flirting with...

The Love

Zachary seemed to have a special place in his heart for Reba and Sophie since the first time he saw them. I remember our first minutes home, up in Zach's room. He just stared at Sophie and Reba, giggling every time they did something. As an infant, he watched them a lot and got excited when they came near him. As he got older, he would crawl towards them and try to touch them. When he began to walk, he would walk over to them with a purpose. Usually to pull their tails, ears or fur but still--there was purpose! Now he enjoys hugging, kissing, petting, talking and playing with them. He uses this funny high pitched voice when talking to them. I assume it is because that's how we sound when talking to them :) He also still tries to torture them at times. I don't think he does it to be 'mean.' I think he does it for attention. He usually looks right at us while doing it. Nice! I think he's getting better about it. Reba recently nipped him while he was torturing her. Zach cried for a second and said: "Reba, boo boo, eye." She got him right under his eye. I didn't have much sympathy for him because I've been telling him for months that it was going to happen if he wasn't gentle with Reba. Zach was over it in about three seconds and went back in for more. Clearly, he didn't care too much. BUT, I do think he is being a little nicer to Reba these days. We'll see.

Every once in a while, I will catch Zach being super sweet with the girls. It melts my heart. Our dogs were our first babies and we love them so much! It makes me so happy to see that Zach loves them, too! I was able to catch one of these special moments with Zach and Sophie on film...

Could it be any cuter?

How to entertain a 22 month old while spending the WHOLE day inside (during a snowstorm)

Play with playdough...Play with water and bubbles in the sink...Eat a snack of cheese and crackers...Play in the tunnel... Paint a picture... Bring the blizzard inside for some fun...Make some snowballs... Eat a yummy lunch of avocado, oranges & chicken sausages...Drink a smoothie...

Seriously?

Keeping Busy

I have not been doing a good job keeping up with this blog. I guess having a busy, 22 month old boy at home takes up a lot of my time. Who knew?

We've been busy during the past few weeks. I have been working three days a week. That alone keeps us busy and Zach loves his time with his friends! We also try to get out for some fun on days we are home. Zachary is an active boy and it's fun to be places where he can be free to run and play. He loves his gym class and asks for it regularly. We also have a few indoor play spaces around here that are always a good time. And we try to meet up with our playgroup once a week. We had our first big snow storm of the season, so Zach got to play outside in the snow! He enjoyed every minute of it.

Zachary is talking ALL the time these days. He is rarely quiet :) He has way too many words to count and is always coming out with new ones. Zach's latest accomplishments are that he can count to five and he knows some colors. All very cute!

Zachary can hang on a bar for about 30 seconds. He usually laughs the whole time, then drops.Who's that cute boy in the mirror? Look closely and you can see Zach with Chad.Look closely again and you can see that Zach went head first over something and his legs are flying high in the air. So funny! Painting a picture (and his face).Zach got a less than perfect haircut (to put it nicely) and I tried to fix it. I needed him to sit still. That leads us to Zach's first lollipop.He couldn't have been happier!Watching the snow fall.Playing in the snow.With Mama.With Dada.Weeee!

The many names of Zachary

Since day one, we have given Zachary many names. So we never forget them, here is a list...

*Baby Zachary

*Zachary Chien

*Zachary Chi

*Zacha

*Zacha Chi

*Zach

*Zachy

*Z-Dog

*Z-Chi

*Z

*Chi Chi

Zach's most used nickname is Chi Chi. I call him this a lot of the time. When asked his name, he says: "Chi Chi." When asked :"Where's Chi Chi or Where's Zachary," he points to himself. So, he knows that he is both Chi Chi and Zachary and he responds to both. Although, he always refers to himself as Chi Chi. He says things like..."Chi Chi shoes, Chi Chi binky, Chi Chi pillow, Chi Chi car." He also yells "Chi Chi" when he sees himself in a picture. Very cute! I think Chi Chi will be his nickname for a very long time. We'll see how he likes it when he's older.

Important Work

Using the mouse... Pushing buttons... Proud of his work...

Just don't tell him the computer is out of order!