First Words

Zander has always been a very noisy baby with a lot to say and recently he has begun to say some words. He is now saying "mama" and "dada" pretty consistently and generally appropriately to greet us or to get our attention. He also loves to throw things to the floor and say "uh oh." All of these are pretty typical for babies to say so we didn't really consider them true words. We are giving that credit to "choo choo" as he began imitating that in the bathtub while playing with his favorite bath tub toy, his choo choo train. Then one day last week, Zander crawled up the stairs, went into his bathroom, found his train and turned around and looked at Zeb and said "choo choo" while proudly holding up his train!! We're looking forward to hearing what else this crazy kid has been trying to tell us over the last year!

Gilliam Family Vacation

Last week we took a Spring Break vacation to Portland and Seattle. Zeb and I love to explore different cities around the country and love the outdoors and wanted to share this with Zander. We left on Saturday morning and flew to Portland and Zander did well on his first flight. It was a 4 hour trip and he slept through take off and for about 45 minutes and we spent the rest of the time finding things to entertain him and he was pretty good for being confined to a small space. We took it easy and just explored Portland's downtown Saturday night. Sunday morning we got to view the city by running a 5K road race across 3 of the city's bridges then spent the rest of the day on a hike in one of the many nearby parks. Monday we took Zander to the zoo and he enjoyed looking at the animals. We drove to Seattle on Tuesday and made a stop at the Mima Mounds state park on the way then finished the day by exploring Pike Place Market and downtown Seattle. Wednesday was spent touring more of Seattle including a trip to the Space Needle. Thursday was a rainy day spent driving back to Portland so we delayed our next hike to Mount Tabor to Friday morning before our flight back to Chicago. Luckily he took an almost 2 hour nap on the flight home then entertained himself playing with the kids in front of us for most of the flight! It was a busy and very fun vacation and Zander was a great traveler and loves the outdoors as much as we do!!

 

Zander was the fastest baby running the 5K!

Zander enjoyed exploring the outdoors and we look forward to many more family hikes!

 

Fun at the Oregon Zoo

 

The weather was beautiful in Portland and we spent time hanging out in a local park 

We love checking out new breweries and had the chance to visit several on our trip

We made a quick trip to the Mima Mounds on our way to Seattle

 

Zeb and Zander enjoying the (cloudy/rainy) view from the Space Needle in Seattle and the Seattle waterfront

 

The view from Mount Tabor in Portland

Zander was practicing his climbing skills at the Park before out trip home

Although he was a very good traveler, little man still had his moments!!!

Happy Easter

We celebrated Easter this year in Shullsburg with Jazzie's family. It was a quick trip as we just got back from vacation on Friday night (vacation pictures to follow), but wanted to make the trip to see family. We also wanted to return Parker dog to the Gilliam family after he had a vacation in Milwaukee with Abbie, Garrett and their dog Kiki. Zander has been a very good traveler and been very flexible on the trips.

We are so happy to have Parker back home with us!

 

Zander loved his Easter egg hunt

He had a lot of fun playing with Grandma, Grandpa, and of course, his aunts

Homecoming

This weekend we celebrated our first Gilliam Family Homecoming - One year ago we brought Zander home. We wanted to have a special family weekend to mark the occasion. Due to a fever, Zander had some extra mom time on Friday and spent the day with Zeb on Saturday. On Sunday, we took advantage of the nice weather and took Zander to the park and spent some time out in our backyard. Zeb was able to put up the swing he received for his birthday on our deck. We didn't make it to the pool as planned due to Zander's cold, but had a fun weekend anyway.

We spent some time reflecting on how much our lives have changed in the last year. We had waited and waited for our adoption then with little warning we got the call that Zander was ready to go home with us.  One night we were just another couple out for dinner (OK, at the bar watching March Madness games), and the next day we were parents. When we went to the Cradle to meet him and his birthparents we were filled with anticipation and some anxiety......did we really know what we were doing??  I think most people ask them the same question, but we were chosen to be his parents and they put faith in us that we were the right family for him.  We were ready to take on the challenge and every day put all of our effort into raising this little guy. There have been a few adventures and bumps along the way, but we wouldn't trade any of it for the world. We sometimes laugh at how much things have changed, especially on a Friday night when I'm asleep on the couch at 8:30 or big weekend plans include going to the pool or even a trip to Target!  It has been an amazing year watching Zander grow into the little man he is!! Of course, we couldn't have done it without the help and support of all of our family and friends.

 

 

Michigan Getaway

 It has been a long winter with no end in sight, but we thought we would make the best of it and have a weekend escape. Although it's not quite beach weather yet, we made the trip to one of Michigan's beach towns, St. Joseph. It was only a few hours from the city and we found some fun things to do including a stop at a brewery for lunch, an indoor carrousel and children's museum, and a waterpark hotel. Zander's too young to fully enjoy the water park, but we did spend some time swimming in the heated kids pool. We had a lot of fun and we are now looking forward to our upcoming spring break vacation.

 

 

First Birthday Party

We celebrated Zander's first birthday on the day of his Birthday - Saturday, March 1. We had a sports themed birthday party (guess who picked the theme!) and we had a lot of family and friends here to celebrate with us. There were some other kids who gave suggestions for his birthday presents (luckily, one smart parent passed on the skateboard), helped him open presents and entertained him during the party. We had friends visit from St. Louis, Wisconsin and of course, Chicago. Jazzie's sisters and parents also added to the fun. We thank everyone for joining us or sending us birthday wishes as we celebrated Zander's big day!

 Zander hanging out with his friends 

 Grandma and Grandpa Ranum and his aunts and uncle spoiled  him

 Zander with his god-family and our local favorites, the LeFever family

 Henry and Zander continue to be good buds

 

Sports Theme for his Rookie Year

 

 

Checking out his presents.....lucky guy