I've got to get NAKED!!!

Those words are being uttered more and more frequently by my son as he arrives home each afternoon from daycare. This is quickly followed by a full strip show and the inability to get him back into pants until bedtime brings about the jammies. What spurred on this need for nudity I don't know, though my mom tells me she had the same problem with me as a child. The fact that I have grown out of this affliction saddens my husband greatly. Whether it's genetics or just the way kids are doesn't matter. The fact is that it happens. My son is a nudist. And quite a proud one at that. God forbid we have company stop by when Zan is going through his nakey time, because he will gladly prance around for anyone and everyone and shake what his momma gave him. And if we're really lucky, he'll shout "Look everyone! Look at my BOOTY!!" Aaah, yes, children keep you humble.

Pulling a Full Monty for family and friends aside, I tend not to care whether my child wanders around naked. Now don't get me wrong, I'm cautious about it. He's only allowed to be naked indoors. There are far too many pervs out there for running down the sidewalk sans pants like I apparently did as a child. Perhaps being a former child nudist myself has helped me be comfortable with the notion that kids just don't like clothes. My husband, on the other hand, is totally wigged out by the idea. He'll spend his entire evening trying to coax Zan back into a pair of pants. Secretly this makes me laugh harder than the prancing naked child. I'm not exactly sure why, but it does.

I think really the only thing that bothers me about this new stage of his is that sometimes I worry people will think my child is always naked. This is not a huge worry in the grand scheme of things to stress about, but it does occur in my mommy mind. Mostly because every single time my brother and his wife pay us a visit, my child is naked. It's like he can sense Uncle Kent and Aunt Haley are traveling east and the closer they get, the more clothing he shucks. It never fails, but by the time they are there, planned visit or not, he's naked. Perhaps it wouldn't worry me so much if my brother and sister in law had kids of their own. Then they would know how the mind of a three year old works (or as much as any of us can truly know) and know it's just a kid thing. Instead I worry that they're secretly as freaked out by it as my husband is; which means, in the end, Zan and I are the odd ones for finding the whole thing totally normal.

Upon typing that sentence I realize life is never really normal once you have children. I guess my definition of normal has just evolved to include a child who walks around with a sticker stuck to his forehead and socks on his feet- but nothing else.

Pictures of the Week

Picture of the Week!

I borrowed this idea from another blog belonging to my friend Kylee. Since I'm not that great about posting, but I always have pictures, I thought I'd try and have at least one picture post a week.

The first is a rare shot of me and Zoey. I'm always the one behind the camera, so it doesn't happen often that I have pics of me with the kids. I lament that one day my children will think I never spent any time with them, as all the shots are of them with Daddy.

The second shot is of my sweet Zo. I can't get enough of those big blue eyes. She loves to eat her hands nowadays and it's hard to get a shot of her not doing so. I'm assuming she's hard at work producing cute little teeth.

The last shot is of my big boy Zan. He's growing up so fast. He loves to talk on the phone now and was having a chat with his Grandpa Tichenor in this shot while Grandma Tichenor snapped a few pics.

Roley Poley Zoey

It's official, our little girl is growing up too fast! She can roll over!! Last Sunday she rolled for both of us from stomach to back. She hasn't done it much since, but I plan on trying to catch it on video this weekend. I'll make sure and post if I get one.

She's just growing up so fast!!! Sniffle sniffle. She's getting very chatty, making all sorts of cute little noises to converse with us. I miss seeing her all day now that I'm back to work , so I'm always trying to get her to talk with me in the evenings when she's sleepy. Sometimes I think she's trying to say "Mommy, for goodness sakes, just put me to bed!!" But I love the times when she and I go back and forth "talking" to each other, especially when she giggles. It melts my heart and I remember back to when Zan was that young. Little babies just grow too fast and soon they become independent children with minds of their own and less time for talking with mommy and daddy. I look at my son now and wonder where the years have gone and I know that before I know it he'll be one of those kids wearing his little backpack and getting on the bus to head off to school. He's three now, but in the blink of an eye, he'll be five. It all makes me a little sad. Being a parent means loving watching your children grow up, but at the same time wishing they could stay small forever.

Kid Stats

Zan Stats

Our little guy turned 3 on June 1 and he seems to us to be SO incredibly grown up. He seems to take in everything around him like a little bouncy sponge and will relay facts back to us later that we are surprised he noticed at all!

It seems that after his sister was born, he grew a foot taller over night. He's a full 3 foot tall now and is a skinny guy, weighing in at 29lbs. He wears 3T and 4T shirts, but still wears 2T pants and even those have to be belted!

Zander ADORES comic book characters, robots, strawberries, swimming, tractors, helping out with his little sister, dancing, reading, going to the "big park", drawing and bug hunting.

Zander DETESTS nap time, being told "no" and messes that Mommy or Daddy don't clean up fast enough.

Zoey Stats

Our little girl was born May 7 at 10:10 p.m. She weighed in at 6lb 12oz. and was 20.5 inches long.

She's now a whopping 11lb 14oz and 22.5 inches long and already wearing size 3-6 month clothing! She grew a whole 3lbs in less than a month, so those newborn clothes sure didn't last long.

She's getting so strong now and can push her head and shoulders up on her arms. She loves to babble and coo and giggle.

Zoey ADORES taking baths, looking in the mirror, babbling at people and eating.

Zoey DETESTS tummy time, hiccups and not eating.

Welcome to my kid blog!

Since all the cool mommies lately seem to have a blog and it looks to be a great way to keep our friends and family up to date on how the kiddos are growing and changing, I decided to jump on the bandwagon. I had a website through a free hosting service when Zan was first born where I kept a little blog, but I got so upset when it got erased for lack of updates (if you don't do something every 60 days or whatnot) that I never did anything again. Since it's been a year or two now and I found a way to avoid being deleted, I'm giving it a shot again. The end result is this little blog site which I've named in honor of my mathematician husband.


2ST = Z^2 which translates into Scott Tichenor plus Stacy Tichenor equals Zan and Zoey ~ Nerdy yes, but that's us. :)



Anyway, feel free to check back for updates and photos. I'll try my best to keep this thing up to date!!