Does anyone know the cost of a welder's mask? We need to invest in one for feeding Zachary. That, and I think an entire tarp-themed outfit would be good. I've recently introduced prunes to an already creative-and-hands-on eater, Zach. The prunes, of course, are the baby food, smooshy version. I can report that they are messy going in and as you can imagine (though I don't blame you for not wanting to) equally messy going out.

On to another messy topic -- snot. Truly a subject that only a mom could dedicate an entire paragraph to. Zach's got it. Lots of it. And he's seriously upset about it, or at least the cleaning up process. If I even walk towards him with a Kleenex he starts to howl. And Matthew, watching me approach Zach with the tissue, immediately covers his ears. At one point today, Zachary was wailing so much while I attempted to clean up the nostril situation, that Matthew got pretty upset about it. He stormed over to me, ripped the Kleenex from my hand, and said, "Mommy! That's enough!" It was very sweet how he wanted to protect his baby brother from the torture of the tissue. Although he and Zach proceeded to spend much of the afternoon wrestling -- it's TBWW...Toddler-Baby World Wrestling, and Matthew wasn't so concerned with protecting Zach at that point. But, in all honesty, I'm not too concerned about the littlest Martin man. He can hold his own -- literally. He's a hair and face-puller, so Matthew is usually the first to want out of a brotherly wrestling match. Zachary is also quite the little gymnast and was absolutely cracking himself up, doing headstands (with my spotting) over Matthew's small Elmo sofa. Too bad the minimum age at the gym is 12 -- I have a feeling that getting him to burn off all that energy might be a bit tough.