Zane's First Easter

In the rush of Easter morning, I didn't get any pictures on the actual day of Easter, but I really thought Zane was cuter on the day before at the Easter egg hunt anyway. We had the hardest time finding a dressy Easter outfit in Zane's size. Maybe I waited too late to look or didn't look in the right places, but all we could find were toddler outfits or more casual outfits. On Easter Sunday, after trying on several combinations, he ended up in a "polo" type romper with khaki color pants over it because all of his jeans that are long enough fall off his waist! I was slightly disappointed. Nonetheless, we had a great time at the Easter Egg hunt (for Zane it was more of an Easter egg reach) at our church on the day before Easter and I wanted to share the pictures.

My Easter bunny!

He figured out what to do with the borrowed Easter basket

"You said this was an egg, right? Aren't eggs food?"

It was very bright outside so this is the best picture we were able to get of the 3 of us.

Zane with Pops & Gigi


Zane's first experience with a chainlink fence

After the egg hunt, we met Tommy's family for lunch to celebrate his Aunt Nancy's birthday. Zane had a good time with his Great-Memaw and Great-Pops and his Great-Aunt Nancy.

Great-Memaw & Great-Pops loving on Zane


Our happy guy!

Easter sure is exhausting!

With love,

Crystal

7 Months Old

Zane! You are growing too quickly! You turned 7 months old yesterday. I am amazed every day at how much you learn and how grown up you have become. You weigh 18 lbs now! You have been staying home with Daddy all month and you guys have had so much fun together.

You sit up really well now! You can sit up all day long it seems. You love this new way of looking at the world and you sit up and play all the time. You have also been rolling over more, usually from your tummy to your back because you hate tummy time. You get a little more mobile every day. Before long, you will be all over the house!
Your new favorite thing is waving. You wave all day long, one hand or both. We need to get video of this! It started out a very slow deliberate hand wave while you watched your own hand in fascination. It has become an exaggerated, "blinker" motion that you do constantly- if you see someone across the room, yourself in the mirror, when you're happy, sometimes even when you're crying.
You are getting better and better at communicating with us. It pulls at my heart whenever you are playing on your own and then you look up at me and cry and reach for me to tell me you want to be picked up! You reach for everything now! We have to constantly move things out of your reach or they will be right in your mouth.

You especially want our food and cups! You LOVE to eat still! I am not sure if you would ever get enough. You get very upset when we stop feeding you, no matter how much we give you. You seem like such a big boy sitting in your booster chair at restaurants and eating with the family!

You have one tooth! (Almost 2). Teething has not been our favorite thing but we are managing. Unfortunately, we have also had to continue breathing treatments. All month you had to take at least 2 a day for the preventive medicine even though your wheezing got much better early in the month. Just as we were about to be done, you got a cold and sure enough, you started coughing and wheezing again. This has led to another ear infection too! This is feeling like an everlasting cycle! We hope that you will feel better quickly and that we won't have to keep doing breathing treatments forever. We have at least another month ahead of us....

Zane (6 mos) & cousin Lylah (2 mos)

Most of the time, you are just about the happiest baby in the world. We are having so much fun with you! We are so glad you are our little boy!

Zane making the bedtime story difficult!

With love,

Mommy

Happy Half-Birthday, Zane!

So, Mommy is a little behind this month! We celebrated your half-birthday, 6 months old, 10 days ago. We have been super busy, but this was too big of a milestone to skip over! You are such a joy to everyone around you. Even though things have been difficult this month, you are definitely the bright spot of each day! Your big personality shows more and more each day and you grew up so much this month.

This is one of our favorite moments with you from early in February. We were reading a book to you about a baby monkey who wants a hug and you starting trying to say the word "hug"! We know you didn't know what it meant, but it sure was fun!

HUG!

We had a record amount of snow this month. On Feb 11 & 12, we got a combined total of about 1 foot. That is crazy for this area of Texas! You weren't nearly as impressed by the snow as your Mommy & Daddy but you humored us and let us take you out bundled up for some pictures.

Zane with the Snowman

You rolled over a few more times this month. :-) We have decided that you are just too laid back to care enough to roll over all the time. You are just content to lay where you are playing with your feet or whatever toy you might have. We have seen you do it, but you just don't do it very often.
You got better and better at sitting up. This is what you really want to be doing. When you are laying down, you are often raising your head and trying to pull yourself to a sitting position. You like to see and interact with the world. By last week, you are now able to remain sitting on your own for up to 30 seconds or so before you topple over! This was very exciting for all of us.
You play peek-a-boo, even when no one is playing it with you. That seems pretty advanced for a 6 month old, but you know what you are doing. You pull the blanket over your face and then laugh and kick when we notice. If your hands are under the blanket, you can even throw it off yourself and squeal when we say "Peek-a-Boo!" You love it when someone else plays too. You think it is hilarious for Daddy to pop out from behind something.
You LOVE to eat. You have mastered baby food so well! You are now eating a variety of veggie and fruit purees. We haven't found anything yet that you don't like. You get very impatient when you don't think Mommy or Daddy are feeding you fast enough and you often get upset when all the food is gone.


You slept through the night for the very first time on the night of February 7, the Superbowl. I guess you were worn out from all that football! We were very excited! This still hasn't quite become a pattern, but at least we know it is possible. You still nap pretty well most days, taking 2-3 naps 1-2 hours each and you go down for bed like an angel. You have a stuffed giraffe ("G-Raf") that you have grown some attachment to and you smile so big when we wind it up at night and hand it to you playing a lullaby. You hold it and chew on its ears until you get sleepy and then you drift off without a peep usually.
You dealt with some sickness this month but it didn't get you down too much. You had lingering bronchiolitis and an ear infection at the beginning of February that required breathing treatments. This got better and we had just weaned the breathing treatments completely when you got sick again at the very end of February. It was back to the doctor and back on the breathing treatments, with an added medicine, for you. It didn't really slow you down much until another ear infection hit and made you pretty miserable. We are over all of that now but have to continue breathing treatments for another couple of weeks.

You are teething now. :-( This has made everyone unhappy. It is hard for your Mommy and Daddy to see our happy, usually independent little guy so grumpy and clingy. We know that it is only because your gums hurt so bad! We are doing our best to help you feel better and we hope those teeth will get through soon and give you a break!

Your 2nd Haircut!!

You had your last day at your school on February 26. We were very sad to take you out and your teachers were sad to see you go. All your little friends made a big card with all of their footprints and names on it! On the bright side, you are having the opportunity for some great bonding time with Daddy while he is looking for a job! You will be back in daycare before we know it and I am sure he will miss his time with you. Daddy has been a great stay-at-home dad these last couple of weeks!

Sitting Up

Zane, we love you dearly!! Every day you make us laugh and smile as you grow and learn!

With love,

Mommy (Crystal)

Time for a Change

Well, I will come right out and say it. We had a bad week in the Williamson household. For the last couple of weeks, Tommy was getting indication at work that the business was struggling. They were looking at ways to cut costs. They were discussing cuts to benefits and some other things. We had begun having our own discussions that maybe it was time for Tommy to move on. We had begun looking at job openings and talking about what he might want to do, but we felt like we were in a good place to take some time and be a little picky. Well, we are no longer in that place. After some rough days at the beginning of the week, we began to get in more of a hurry, and scrambled to find a digital copy of Tommy's resume so he could start applying for jobs. On Thursday, Tommy was laid off. The company's financial situation apparently snowballed very quickly and they had to take some pretty desperate measures very quickly to hopefully avoid going under. Tommy and 3 other people were laid off this week, including the president's son-in-law. It is difficult as we are friends with the family that owns the company and they felt horrible about letting him go. Our prayers are with the Veras and Bulins as they also deal with a difficult time for their families.
So, we have been scrambling but trying not to panic. Tommy got about a week and a half severance to buy us a little bit of time. He has already filed for unemployment so we are hopeful that will be processed quickly. The biggest decision we have had to make was to pull Zane out of daycare immediately. This was really difficult for me on Friday. It just made everything a bit more real to have to tell his school and gather all of his stuff and know that he won't be back, at least for a while. His primary teachers weren't even there on Friday to say good-bye. I know they will be sad. We feel like we will be okay financially with unemployment with no daycare expense. I am still a little nervous about our finances over the next few weeks as we were in no position of "cushion" after I was off work unpaid for a couple of months not that long ago. We should get our tax return in a couple of weeks, so that will at least recover us from the time that I was unpaid. Things will be tight for a while but I know we will get through it.
We know that God will continue to provide for us as He always has. We are keeping a positive attitude and we feel like this will be a blessing in the end for Tommy and our family. There is a great opportunity out there for him that will hopefully be an exciting new adventure. We have had an amazing outpouring of support and prayers from our family and friends. Tommy has quite a few people that are helping him with job leads and sending his resume to various contacts. I feel like he will find something pretty quickly, hopefully.
He is looking for general administrative-type positions. Human Resources would be ideal, but he has applied for several executive assistant-type positions and other things. He has experience with HR, marketing, administration, and restaurant management. His degree is in Communication and Management. If you know of anything in the general DFW-area, please let us know! We appreciate your prayers and job leads!

Crystal

5 Months Old!

I can't believe you are 5 months old already! We have had such a busy month. We were full strength back to work this month so that means you got back into the swing of daycare. Your teachers sure do love you! Mommy's getting more used to the difficult balance of working full time and being a mommy but it is still the hardest thing I've ever done to be away from you every day and to try to find time to clean the house!!

You are truly the light of our lives, Little Man! You are so much fun! You smile and laugh all the time, especially with Mommy & Daddy. You are a big talker! No one is really surprised, considering that your Mommy likes to talk a lot, your Daddy was a communication major, and your Pops speaks to people for a living. You babble all day long and it is always something very important. You squeal and jabber and experiment with new sounds. You are a pretty good conversationalist.

You love to play now, too. You have your favorite toys that you like to play with. The best ones are the ones that crinkle in your hands or make some other noise. You think it is really fun to put any toy or any thing in your mouth too. If no toy is around, your hands or feet will do. You have really found your feet and like to grab them with your hands. You rolled over once, from your tummy to your back. You haven't done it again yet though. You seem much more interested in sitting up than in rolling over. You try to sit up a lot and you like sitting in your bumbo chair or being propped up somewhere so you can see everything.



You love to eat! You nurse and take the bottle really well, even when you don't feel good. You even held your bottle on your own a few days ago, Big Boy! Once you figured out what Mommy was trying to do with feeding you cereal, you decided that you really like that too. You often get impatient when you are not being given bites as quickly as you think you should and you have been known to throw an all out fit when the food is all gone. We have started adding some pureed veggies and fruits to your diet, too. You have been eating peas, and tonight, you tried some peaches.

This month, you had another cousin born! Lylah Belle Curry was born on January 6. In the middle of January, we went to visit Lylah with Uncle Craig & Aunt Fallon in Dripping Springs. Gigi & Pops, and Uncle Robin, Aunt Jill, Emma & Foster came too. We had a great time with all the babies and Emma in one house. You had fun with your Pops & Gigi and aunts and uncles, and you fit right in with the other kiddos. We also got to finally have Christmas with Mommy's family, but since we started pretty late, you had to go to bed in the middle of it. You still got some great presents! It was a fun road trip!

All the Curry Cousins- Lylah (11 days), Foster (2 mos), Zane (4 1/2 mos), Emma (3 yrs)


Foster & Zane hanging out at Gigi & Pops' house

You had a cough for most of the month and last week, we had to start you on some breathing treatments. We are optimistic that this will be a one time issue and we won't have to deal with this again, but there is a possibility that the respiratory issues are an indication of asthma. We are praying that this will not be the case for you!

You are such a good baby and such a joy to be around! We love you more than we could explain!


With love,

Mommy

4 months old!

Zane,
You turned 4 months old on New Years' Eve, December 31. You are becoming such a big boy all of a sudden! You are 14 lbs, 10 oz., and 26 inches long. The doctor says you are tall for your age. Mommy is wondering what happened to her sweet, cuddly newborn because all of a sudden we have an active, playful baby. It has been so much fun to watch you play this month!

In many ways, this month has been quite difficult, at least for mommy. Mommy was sick for pretty much the whole month and that makes it really hard for her to keep up with you! We also continued to adjust to our new routine with Mommy back to work full time. That is still pretty challenging for Mommy because she just doesn't have the time to play with you and get everything else done that needs to be done when she is not at work. You were sick too this month. First, you just had a little congestion for a few days and you seemed to get over it pretty quickly. Then, about halfway through the month, you got an infection in your eye that turned into a full-fledged cold with a super-stuffy nose and a yucky cough. You were sick for the entire week leading up to Christmas and are really just now acting like yourself again the last few days. You have an ear infection now, too, after having all that congestion for so long, but it hasn't been slowing you down too much.

You went to your first wedding this month. Unfortunately, Mommy didn't get any pictures at the wedding, but you looked super cute in your sweater vest and slacks. Our friends, Amanda & Clif, from college, got married on December 12. You got to meet a lot of Mommy & Daddy's friends from college that day, and they were all so excited to get to see you. You got a little bored during the ceremony, but Daddy took you into the foyer so you could play with your friend Molly Kate, who is just a few months older than you. It was fun to get to show off our precious boy!

Mommy had a birthday this month. She turned 26 on Dec 16! I am sure you think that is really old! You and Gigi took Mommy out for her birthday because Daddy had responsibilities at church that day.

You with Mommy & Daddy on Mommy's birthday

You also had your first Christmas this month. You loved looking at Christmas trees and Christmas lights everywhere we went. Santa came to visit and left you some fun toys on Christmas morning. You liked playing with wrapping paper from all the gifts.

This month, we have really watched your curiosity spark! You are getting more and more control over your hands and you are reaching out and grabbing anything that you can. You have really started playing with toys this month and it has been a blast to watch you discover what your different toys can do. You love bouncing in your bouncy seat and listening to the lion play you songs. You even figured out how to make the lion work all by yourself so you can listen to the songs without Mommy & Daddy to pull the ring for you.

You love to smile and laugh when you are feeling good. It has been great to hear you laugh again as you have been feeling better this last week. You are becoming quite verbal and will babble and squeal at us all day long. You always have something very important to say!

We are trying lots of new things right now. After your 4 month doctor's appointment this week, she said that you could start trying some solid foods! You had your first bites of cereal on Tuesday and you really liked that new game! We are having to pull your high chair out of the box this weekend so we can start feeding you like a big boy. You also get to start playing in your bumbo seat because you are holding your head up so well. Pretty soon, I am sure you will change our whole world because you will be scooting all over the house by yourself. Mommy is trying to cherish these last few weeks of knowing that you will stay where she puts you down!

Video of Zane's first bites of cereal

You are such a joy to be around and we love you so much!

Love,

Mommy (Crystal)

Zane's First Christmas

Zane's First Christmas Morning

This Christmas has been a lot of fun with Zane, yet very stressful and odd at the same time. Let me start by saying that I have basically been sick since about December 3, sometimes getting a little better but never fully, and then it hits full strength again. I started with a bacterial upper respiratory infection with a sore throat and some sinus congestion, started feeling better with antibiotics, but then started getting some major head congestion 5 days into the antibiotics. I am pretty sure I caught a virus while still recovering from my infection. Somewhere in there Zane got sick too, I guess about the 17th. With a sick baby and a full time job with no spare time off, it is pretty difficult for a sick Mommy to get enough rest to get better. Zane seems to be feeling better than he did, but he still has a pretty nasty cough. He was out of daycare for an entire week. Since Friday afternoon, I am feeling about as bad as I have at any of the worst points of it this month, with about the worst stuffy nose I have ever had and a lingering cough. All of this made the preparations for Christmas very difficult and stressful for me. We barely managed to get all our Christmas presents bought between last Saturday and Tuesday, the 22nd. It worked to my favor that we are having a pretty scaled down Christmas this year anyway because of our financial constraints from having Zane this year. Despite all of that, we managed to have a great Christmas Eve and Christmas Day with Zane.

On Christmas Eve, I had to work until 2pm (like I said, no spare time off!), then it was a whirlwind of trying to get together last minute presents and wrapping and getting ourselves together to be at Tommy's parents' home before 5pm. Did I mention that it started snowing?! We spent a little time over there as his mother's family, the Wallace clan, began gathering for our traditional Christmas Eve together. Everyone was a bit slower in gathering than usual because of the bizzare snow storm that had hit! We slipped out for a bit in the middle to attend our church's annual Christmas Eve service. Tommy had never been to the Christmas Eve service since he has always been with his family, and I haven't been in 7 years! Pops (my dad) really wanted us to be there because he wanted us to help him light the final advent candle with him as each staff member had lit one candle with their families. It was a wonderful time of reflection and celebration as we considered the significance of Christ's birth in our lives. Zane did great for the lighting of the candle and then fell asleep on Daddy's lap by about the 3rd carol as he had missed his late afternoon nap in all of the running around. It was fun to attend as a family. We are still trying to figure out a way to work this in to our typical Christmas traditions every year (or at least some years). After the service, we returned to Mimi & Papa Bear's house to spend more time with the Wallaces. Zane crashed at about 8:15, so exhausted that he didn't even want to eat his last feeding of the day. We had a good time with the family, watching all the kids play and adoring the new babies that came this year (3 total on that side, Zane, Noah, and Tommy's cousin's baby girl- Aurie). Then, home late to finish wrapping gifts! Did I mention that I didn't get enough sleep this week?

Family Picture on Christmas Eve

Fun Fact- We got engaged in front of this very tree 6 years ago

With snow still covering the ground, this was the first white Christmas in the Metroplex that I ever had. Christmas morning arrived a bit earlier than it has in previous years. Zane woke us up at 6:30am to start the day. Even Zane looks pretty tired in the pictures. After Zane had his breakfast, we opened gifts as a family. It was fun to start a new tradition, gathering around the tree to see what Santa brought and then take turns opening presents. I am sure it will get even more fun in the years to come.

The 3 of us on Christmas morning

After our small family Christmas time, we made a brief stop to see Gigi & Pops (my parents) so that they could see Zane on his first Christmas before they headed to Dripping Springs to see my brother and sister-in-law. They were so happy to see Zane in his cute Santa hat and he took a great interest in their Christmas tree. Then, back to Mimi & Papa Bear's house to open presents with Tommy's immediate family and his dad's side of the family. This was a much smaller gathering than Christmas Eve as Tommy's dad has a smaller family and Tommy's Aunt Nancy was not even there because she was sick. Zane and his cousin Noah had a great time opening presents (rather watching presents being opened) on their first Christmas and then they both went down for a much-needed nap while we ate Christmas lunch. And, at that, the festivities for this weekend were over and we actually had nothing planned and nowhere that we needed to be. Odd, but we have been grateful for some down time.

Zane (3 mos) & cousin Noah (2 mos) with Papa Bear

I say odd because we would typically be spending the rest of Christmas day and then a day or two after with my family. That is kind of how we have worked things the last few years. This has been anything but a typical year in my family, however! With everyone having babies, our holidays have been a little off-track. We were not all able to get together at Thanksgiving because my brother, Robin, and his wife, Jill, had just welcomed their 2nd child, Foster, a week before Thanksgiving. They were obviously not ready to make a big trip from Tulsa and we could not all be together there because my other brother, Craig, and his wife, Fallon, could not travel because she was 8 months pregnant. For Christmas, we decided to wait to get together until Fallon has baby Lylah Belle, expected any day now (due Jan. 6). If we had all traveled to the Austin area this weekend, it would have been pretty difficult for Robin & Jill to pack up their preschooler and newborn and make the trip again, not to mention difficult for us with Zane, after she comes, so it may have been months before they were able to make the trip to meet her. So, the Curry family Christmas is on hold for now and we are playing it by ear. I think we are all hopeful (most of all Fallon) that she will come sometime this week so that we can all go out there over New Year's. I am really missing my family right now but I am very excited that next time we are together, we will be 2 larger than we were the last time we were all together (just after Zane was born).

The rest of this weekend has been one of recouperation and enjoying new things. I have designated this weekend as my "sick days" since I haven't been able to take one from work since I first got sick, so I am forcing myself to keep it low key. Zane has received so many presents already! He has been enjoying some of his new toys and taking long naps.

Check out Zane discovering how to work a new toy from MeMaw & Great-Pops (Tommy's grandparents):

View our complete Christmas photo album on Facebook with this link. You do not have to be a facebook member to view it.
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2027672&id=152601048&l=3b55efc542

Merry Christmas to you and yours!

Crystal