Christmas 2009

Well the holidays have come and gone once again. Where did the time go? It's amazing how fast they fly by as we get older! We spent Christmas Eve with Ty's parents and his family on his mom's side. It was a very nice night and we had a great time with everyone. However, we were all really excited for Christmas Day. This was Zachary's second Christmas and this time around we were expecting him to get some enjoyment out of opening his gifts and playing with his toys.

Unfortunately though, at 3am Christmas morning we awoke to Zachary's loud cry. My initial thought was it is a bit early to get up and open his gifts. When I went in to check on him I was sad to see he was in pretty rough shape. I picked him up from his crib and he was on fire with what was about a 103.5 degree fever. He was sweating severely and nothing I did would make him happy. Beth and I stayed up with him for a while and got him to cool off a bit and he went back to bed for about an hour. But then he got up crying again around 5am and we brought him into our bed for another hour or so. Around 6am he was awake and would not go back to sleep so we just got up.

For the next 48 hours all he wanted to do was be held. If we put him down at all he would start crying. Ty's parents came over Christmas Day and along with Ty's sister, Beth, we all took turns holding him and letting him sleep on us. He would sleep as long as he was being held, but if we tried to put him in his crib he would just cry. It made for a very long and disappointing Christmas weekend. It was a good lesson though that things don't always go the way you think they will. In the end it just made us very thankful that Zach is part of our lives and we know there will be many more Christmas Days in our future that we can look forward to. We hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas and appreciate all the blessings that they have in their lives! Happy Holidays!

Well, it has been a while since I have written anything but a lot has been going on over the last many months. Zachary is now approaching 21 months old and HOPEFULLY 21 pounds. He is such a little peanut. But he is doing really well and healthy and that obviously is all that matters! We just got back from vacation recently from Florida and had a really nice time. Zachary got to see his grandparents and go to the beach and see the Gulf of Mexico for the first time. He absolutely loved the beach (his own giant sandbox) and also the water. Though the water was a bit cold, he did not seem to mind it too bad. He dug in the sand with his shovel and had fun with mom, dad and grandpa and nana covering his feet and legs in the sand. He could have stayed there all day if we let him but we did not want him to get too much sun. But we all had a great time seeing his reaction to the waves and the pelicans diving in the water and he gulls walking all around him. He especially liked stomping on all the sand castles we tried to make. We would make them and he just stomped on them and laughed the entire time.
Next year when we go back to St. Pete Beach, I think he will have an even better time because he will be able to swim a bit and hopefully the weather will be a little warmer as well. But it was a fun family vacation none the less!

Wow, has it really been a year already that we have had Zachary in our lives? How time flies by when you're having fun. On Saturday we celebrated his one year birthday with our family. It was a great time for all! Zachary had his very own birthday cake which you can see he was wearing by the time he was done with it. I think more frosting went was on his face and in his eyes, nose, ears and hair than he ever actually ate. But he had a great time regardless!

He also had many wonderful gifts that he is enjoying everyday. One of his favorite gifts is his new red bike with a bell on it. He loves to ding the bell all the time. He just starts laughing as it dings!

Thanks to all our family and friends for their love and support during this last year and on Zachary's birthday. You all helped to make his birthday a very special one!

Zachary's First Christmas

Christmas with a baby is definitely different than Christmas without a baby! It's funny how the little things mean so much more now with Zachary around. Just being able to enjoy the holiday season with him was so special. Watching him play with his toys around the Christmas tree and try ripping off any of the ornaments he could get his little fingers on was pretty cute as well. We have another couple of years until we have to start the whole Santa scheme so I have been asking a lot of people at work how they handle explaining Santa and how they do the gifts from Santa and the gifts from mom and dad. It is amazing how different people do this with their kids!

As for Zachary's first Christmas, he enjoyed playing with the wrapping paper and tissue paper from everyone's gifts. However, it appeared that neither tasted that well based on his repeated unpleasant facial expressions. Since he is only nine months old, Christmas was just like any other day for him, except there were a lot more people around all itching to hold and play with him. He did a great job and was on his best behavior for everyone. We were really impressed as he got passed around the family both on Christmas Eve (11 people) and Christmas Day (17 people). He was laughing and talking away, entertaining everyone as usual!

We cannot wait until next year when he is about 21 months and he will be able to rip off some of the wrapping paper and get more into Christmas. The holiday season is all about family, and this holiday season was definitely the best one we have had yet!

It is now official: Introducing Zachary Thibo Harrod!

Well, it is finally complete. On Wednesday, December 17th, we had our court hearing to finalize our adoption of Zachary. Zachary is officially our son now! YEAH!!!! It took nearly nine months to complete the process, but Zachary is officially Zachary Thibo Harrod!














We are so pleased to have this process over! In the back of our minds we always had that fear of "what if his birth mother changes her mind and wants him back" or "what if his Native American tribe decides they want custody of him and get involved in the process". As we were waiting outside the court room for the hearing to begin, our lawyer shared with us a few stories of exactly these two incidents happening and pretty much scared us to death! Next time, I hope he waits until after the court hearing! Thankfully though, the court hearing went very quickly and was painless, taking only about ten minutes.

We are extremely excited to have this process wrapped up before Christmas so we can enjoy our first Christmas together as a family! The joy Zachary has brought us is truly beyond words! His little smile, happy giggle or ear piercing playful scream truly remind us that the past seven years have been worth the wait! We finally have the son we always dreamed of and the family we have prayed for every night! Now we are just going to sit back and enjoy the holidays! Because this Spring, we start the process all over again!! :)

Zachary's First Thanksgiving

Zachary's first Thanksgiving has come and gone and it was truly a time for us to be thankful for being so blessed to have Zachary with us. It is amazing how a child can change your perspective on life and what matters and what you are really thankful for. I realize now that the Vikings winning on Sunday is not something I should really be thankful for! Though I would be lying if I said it did not give me a little pleasure. :)

It is incredible to see the way Zachary has impacted our families as well. As Ty's family lives here in the Twin Cities, we usually see them on the weekends. They simply cannot get enough time with Zachary and playfully fight over who gets to hold Zachary and who gets to feed him. It really is entertaining to watch!

With Christmas just around the corner, we are gearing up and getting the house decorated for the family party we are hosting on Christmas Day. It seems like it was just summer and now Christmas is just around the corner. Where did the time go? Beth's mom just sent us a Christmas stocking with Zachary's name on it so now the whole family has stocking hanging over the fireplace. We cannot wait for Christmas to get here now so we can start some new traditions with Zachary!

8 Months Old Already!

Wow, how the time is flying by! Zachary will be 8 months old this Saturday, November 22nd. It is amazing to think back to the first week Zachary came into the world and was a whopping 3 pounds 12 oz. He was so small! Some of the pictures above give you an idea of the struggles he had when he first came into this world. He had around 8 different wires attached to his body at one time to measure his vitals and was laying in the little incubator bed to keep warm with the heat lamps on in order to keep his body heat up. His monitor was constantly going off and scaring us to death as his heart rate would drop or spike suddenly and his Oxygen levels would also drop without warning (usually because he pulled off his wire). He was also fed through a feeding tube going through his nose into his stomach.

Those were such scary times! It's truly incredible how far the Z-man has come in the last eight months. He seemed like a little doll in the NICU for those first six weeks and now he is such a little man! :) You were the size of a football at 3 pounds 12 oz, and now you are 14 pounds 10 oz and getting ready to play football! Keep growing buddy!

The Cutest Little Boy Ever!

There is no post necessary for this one. Just look at the pictures and it's obvious!

A Visit To The Pumpkin Patch

Beth and I have been waiting for about four years to finally be able to bring our child with us to get our Halloween pumpkins. Finally, this Halloween was the year! For the last several years it has been pretty hard to see all of the young families enjoying themselves as they pick out their pumpkin and enjoy the fall season.

Beth and I have been dreaming for this moment for such a long time and to be able to finally visit the pumpkin patch with Zachary and enjoy the season as a family was truly a special moment for both of us. We even got Zachary his very own little pumpkin. What a difference a child can mean to your lives especially around the holiday seasons. To be able to experience this with Zachary makes it so much more meaningful and special! Happy Halloween!!

Zachary's First Halloween!

Well, Zachary's first Halloween was not exactly what we had hoped it would be. We were all excited for him to enjoy his first Halloween and instead he was teething with his first tooth and completely miserable. Nothing made him happy. So we just stayed in and passed out candy and tried to make him as happy as possible. We received a lot of little comments from the adults that were accompanying their kids to our door about how cute the Z-man looked. Which I have to admit, Beth did a great job of getting Zach his first costume! Though, Scuttle (cocker spaniel) is clearly not very happy about being dressed up as a bee for her second straight Halloween!