Zack- One to Two

Shortly after Zack's first birthday, Chris and I took a cruise with friends.  My parents came that week to stay with the kids.

Zack, of course, picked that week to start walking so I missed out on that milestone with him!

I think he did it on purpose to punish me for leaving him!!!!  
Anyway, I guess he was good and never cried once that whole week.

That didn't surprise me.  He was always such a happy baby.

Very, very happy!

We settled into a comfortable routine that winter.  Taking the boys to school, breakfast, outside play, lunch, walk, nap, and then pick up the boys.

He loved being outside and being winter in Florida...we were able to be outside a lot.

He especially loved playing with the boys hockey sticks.  They were twice as big as he was but he would carry them around everywhere.

As long as the weather was nice...we would be outside almost the entire morning.

We got him a sandbox with a cover (to keep the critters from using it as a liter box). He loved that as well.

The only thing that would get him inside the house without protest was Telletubbies!

Oh yes...he LOVED that show and would mostly watch it from his high chair while eating lunch.  One of his first words was "Nu Nu".  I think that was the vacuum cleaner on the show or something like that.


His other loves were spaghetti!

which was always followed by a bath.


And the carousel at the Magic Kingdom:

After winter and spring turned to summer and the boys were home with us all day...we found a new love.  Swimming.
We discovered, through some friends, that a resort hotel close by allowed the locals to swim there free.  We would generally go around 11:00 and stay until 1:00 or 1:30.  Sometimes we would pack a lunch, sometimes we would order from the restaurant there.  
We all got some pretty nice sun tans.  Zack's tan was always better than the rest of us.  He just had darker skin.

We would go to the beach occasionally but even though we lived just a few minutes from the ocean, I was not a big fan of the beach. 

Love this picture of Zack at the beach.
The rest of our time was usually spent at Disney using our annual passes.

We spent July in Wisconsin again. 

The sandals on his feet were an experiment that didn't work out.  He had red welts on his feet from wearing them...so it was back to the EEE shoes!


Zack felt he should check out my parent's refrigerator too.

One of the cutest things Zack would do was call all animals "bop".  This came about because my sister's unruly dog lived with us and would chew up everything so we were always yelling at her to "drop".  So, in Zack's mind that was her name...and the name of all animals.

And I have to post this picture of us on the 4th of July because C.J. gave me a hard time about the matching shirts.  I don't see what the big deal was!

It was late and Zack did not have a good nap that day so he was not in the mood for a picture.


As soon as we got back from Wisconsin it was just about time for the boys to go back to school.  They always started very early in August.  I was glad their day didn't start until 9:00 so our bedtime and wake time could remain the same as summer. But, once school started, Zack and I slipped back into our routine without the older boys.

Around Thanksgiving we had the great company of my best friend and her family.  We did some fun things that week including the Titanic Exhibit and the Magic Kingdom.

Right after that Zack and I flew to Wisconsin to visit his father.  What was supposed to be a nine day trio turned into a three week nightmare as Zack developed two severe ear infections that would not go away.  We finally ended up getting home on Amtrak, Chicago to Palatka via New York City.  This trip also resulted in an unexpected overnight stay at the New York New York Hotel in downtown NYC!
Finally, shortly after Christmas, the ear infections went away.  That was a very bad Christmas as Jon, Zack, and I were all sick.  
Zack's two year picture:

Notice the shoes?  He was still stuck in the EEE white Stride Rite shoes.  It would be another six months before any other kind of shoe would fit on his fat foot!