I tell him frequently, "Zekiel, you're a crazed man!" He is pretty much exactly how Azure was at this age- squirmy, squealy, and squaky. Except that he growls. Azure didn't do that. Must be a boy thing b/c Vince did, too. He is constantly on the go. Screams to be held and then once I pick him up literally tries to jump out of my arms. Repeat 50 million times a day. Taking care of him is physically exhausting. He stills balls up and holds onto me tightly like a spider monkey and bites down on my shoulder just like all my non-pacificer babes have done. I just love when he breathes in and out quickly through his nose while he does it. It's so reminiscent of Azure that it makes me nostalgic. He does the pterodactyl scream when we feed him. Gotta get that on video.
He finally got his bottom left tooth on the day he turned 9 months! I had felt it a few days before but, then it disappeared again under his gums. Now, it has fully emerged and his bottom right is poking out a bit too. His nose was running like crazy for almost the whole month of Sept. Azure and Vince both got this tooth at 7.5 months so I was curious when it would come. He's still sleeping 12 hrs straight. Bless my sweet children. He has just about outgrown his morning nap. He still wants to sleep about 3 hrs after he first wakes up but, only for 45 mins-1 hr. Still takes an afternoon nap for about 2 hrs. He is so adorable I can hardly stand it.
He pulled to a stand for the first time on Aug. 27, 2 days after turning 8 months. He does it every chance he gets now. He prefers army crawling to regular crawling, just like Azure and Vince did. He has no problem getting on his knees but, once he's in a hurry to get somewhere he'll drop down to his tummy. Screams, "Eeeeeeeee" all the time. He's so smart he can already say the beginning of his name. ;) He also babbles, "mamama and dadada." He clenches his fists and his face turns a bit red when he does it. They've all done that. We love our fierce, intense children :)
On the morning of Sun. Sept. 15 he was standing up in his crib when I came in to nurse him and he was just grinning ear to ear. Oh, it's my absolute favorite when they do that. I love him so much! Then that day in church he also spent quite a bit of time standing and holding onto the back of the pew.
His brain has exploded recently. He knows all the sounds that each letter makes and when prompted can spell words using the refrigerator letter magnets like cat and dog. He can write a V for his name. He communicates his feelings more and more every week. We're working on him being direct. Sometimes when he's hungry he'll say, "My tummy hurts." Instead of saying he's hungry and asking me politely for something specific that he'd like to eat. Whenever we are eating he always asks, "Mommy, how many grams are in this?" Cracks me up. He is definitely the son of a health coach :)
Still not interested in using the potty. Sidenote- before I had kids I promised I would never use the word potty b/c I thought it was so dumb. And here I am :) He is getting better at telling me when he goes poop though. And, he does poop sometimes 3x a day! Between him and Zeke I'm changing close to 10 diapers a day! Definitely not having baby #4 until Zeke is potty trained. I don't like changing that many diapers. But, this is the stage of life I am in, so I will try to enjoy it.
Earlier this summer Vince sang "The Crusher" by The Ramones and the TMNT theme song almost daily. I'm impressed he knows as many words as he does. Charlie got a new bass back in May and an amp for it, so he rocks out fairly often and the kids just love it- "The Crusher" being one of their faves. I love imagining Charlie as an angsty teen in the basement listening to these songs. The Lord was preparing us for each other since before our births, but we both agree if we met each other in high school we would not have gotten married ;) The Lord knew best!
Back to Vince. I love the way he talks, "days da woahds most beersome biting team. When the e-ver Shredder attacks...des turtle boys... cut no slack."
We love the way he says squirrel. "Swod". Though, just today he said it correctly :( World is "woed". He no longer says meem for milk but, will refer to my breastmilk as meem. "Mommy, Zekiel wants to drink your meem." He also calls Zeke, E-zekiel now just as much as Zekiel. I prefer Zekiel. Charlie has never called him that. "Is it really that hard to say the E?" he asks. Yes, yes it is :)
He is the classic middle child and doesn't get as much attention as Azure or Zeke :( Though, I do make an intentional effort to do one thing a day with him while Zeke naps. Lately, we've been doing puzzles and playing Uno. He really knows how to play Uno. Azure taught him. It's really impressive!
He also just got the hang of saying prayers this month! He used to just saying "Dear Heavenly Father, grafing for this day." And would stop. Then we would have to prompt him what to say next. Now, he says them all on his own without any prompting from us and whenever we ask, "Who's turn is it?" He always says, "Mine! I'll say it!" We welcome this stage :)
Azure at 6
Azure is loving school. She was sad when I told her she didn't have to go to sch on Labor Day! I was worried about her not being stimulated enough academically but, she is doing just fine. A few things are too easy for her but, for the most part she is being challenged. She is having a hard time de-stressing when she comes home from school. It's been a matter of prayer for me this month and I decided to do a meditation challenge. We have done it together and a couple times she's done it on her own. I've sent her up to her room as soon as we get home to have some alone time. I'm looking into getting her a speaker dock w/ my old ipod so she can listen to some calm, peaceful music. Usually when she gets into the car Vince is just so excited to see her that he starts telling her all sorts of things and then I ask her about her day and Zeke is usually screaming and she just gets overwhelmed. So do I actually. As we learn a bit more and are more intentional about our breathing during this time, I'm sure things will improve. Any other suggestions are welcome.
In short, we are happy and feel extremely blessed. Yet a few times a week I start feeling very overwhelmed. Especially when Zeke just screams non-stop. All in all, a good stage of life to be in :)
