All About Zach

Zachy, the sweetest baby on the planet, turned 16 months this week! Life is busy as a 16 month old. Here are some of his latest:

1. Bye-bye baby curls! Zach got his first-ever haircut this week. When I went to brush his hair last weekend, I realized he had so much he could have a couple of ponytails, haha. Much to Hannah and Lizzie's chagrin (who thought his curls were adorable), I decided that enough was enough and that I needed to trim him down. For my other boys, I always took them to a professional for their first cut. Their hair never grows in evenly as a baby, so it isn't an easy cut job. For Zach, however, I knew that taking him to a professional would be a disaster. He is crazy shy of everyone and would probably have had a meltdown. I knew that I would have to do the job. Gulp! Ammon and Lizzie helped hold him (and hold his arms down) and I grabbed the clippers. Throughout the entire process, I kept freaking out (and freaking the kids out) that I was butchering the whole thing. In the end, though, it turned out pretty cute. Phew! What a big boy we have!

From the front

And the back

2. Shy guy! When Bekah was reading through one of my old posts where I mentioned some of the nicknames we use for Zach, she piped up "You forgot Shy Guy!" Zach is incredibly nervous and shy. I think the two are actually separate issues. He is very shy around other people. If they look at him (or heaven forbid - talk to him!) he will immediately cover his eyes. The funny thing is that he smiles under his hands so he just ends up looking super cute. This, in turn, encourages people to try to talk to him more. Unfortunately, this never ends well. Zach will start screaming and crying like someone is trying to murder him. Poor guy. He is also VERY nervous/embarassed about things. If he is feeling nervous, he will cover his ears (the funny thing is that my Emma Sue used to do the same thing). Many, many times he uses one hand to cover an ear and one to cover an eye. Cutest little guy.

Sometimes all I have to do is say "Zachy!" and he will immediately cover his ears

I think his ears are well protected much of the time ;)

I had to steal this picture from Katie - he doesn't typically cover his eyes for me, just his ears. :)

3. Our little executive - Zach has taken after the tradition of his two elder brothers and is obsessed with electronics. He knows how to swipe to get the lock screen off of all our devices (ipad, tablets, phones, ipods). He even (somehow!) was able to bypass Ammon's numerical password screen the other day. He loves computers and is always wanting to sit on Lizzie or I's laps as we work during the day (we share an office-I work at one desk and she homeschools at another). We sometimes sit him in Dad's computer chair in the hopes that he will leave us alone. :)

He loves playing with the mouse and keyboard

On this particular day, however he kept refusing to stay seated

I finally realized that he was wanting to touch the monitor. I think that he believes every electronic surface to be a touch-screen (since he loves to use tablets and phones so much). Cute guy was disappointed!

4. Self-feeding - our guy is in that cute stage where he is trying to hard to use a spoon when eating. I can't say that he is very successful most of the time but he sure is cute! Notice that he is eating in our office (haha). He likes to sleep in so Lizzie and I are usually busy at work by the time breakfast comes around. We just roll his highchair in and he eats in there with us.

5. These boots are made for walkin'! He is really an official walker these days (I consider a baby to be a walker when they walk more than they crawl - when they use it as their default means of travel). He walks everywhere although he still struggles a little to stand up in the middle of a room by himself. If he falls, he tends to crawl to the nearest surface (wall, table, toy, even a shirt or something makes him feel safer. He walked so much later than our other guys that I was feeling nervous. I think he's good, though. Just likes to take things at his own speed (which is...nervous, be cautious, and wait!). I just have to be patient that he wants to do things in his own time. :) Note: if you make it to the end of this video, you'll catch a "shy guy" moment.