Welcoming the Visitors, and Then Being the Visitors!

We were thrilled last week to have Amy's cousin - Jeff and his wife Niesha come to spend the night with us before flying back home. It was really fun to catch up with them and find out how they've been doing. Jeff entertained Zachary by running around the living room - "chasing" - which is one of Zachary's all-time favorite things to do. It was awesome to have someone here with lots of energy who could stand-in for us tired parents! :) Where do kids get all of that energy anyway, and where does it go when you become an adult??? The visit was all too short, but we enjoyed it immensely. (They need to come back as we didn't get good pictures of Niesha, so now we have a good reason for them to come back again to visit soon - we need to document it better next time!)

Jeff & Kaleb

Zachary chasing Jeff around the room

Memorial Day weekend we left the kids behind with Grandma and jetted our way to California. It was a jam-packed weekend, but it was just so much fun to catch up with everyone for a visit. We were able to see Canadian friends - Adrian, Maggie and their three cute boys along with Chad and Melanie and their precious daughter. Karis, Adrian and Chad were all close friends in high school and college, so it was fun to reminisce and catch up on memories. Amy had a lot of fun getting to know Melanie - we sense that there could be a kindred spirit there, but too bad that we live so far away!

Adrian with his twins - Bruce and Alex. Again, we did a poor job of documenting our visit as we missed getting a picture of Maggie and Luke with the rest of the family! We'll have to go back! :)

Chad, Melanie and Paige

Rachel's graduation was the original purpose of the trip - it was great to see all of the Deiningers and Zbaraschuks. The graduation was at 5PM on Sunday at Loma Linda - the wind was a bit chillier than Amy had anticipated when packing for the weekend, so she spent the time huddled against Karis insisting that he keep his arm around her at all times - not to be moved at all! :)

Karis and Korey - we missed having Kent and his family with us - that would have made the Z family complete! :)

Congratulations Rachel!

We were able to join Amy's Aunt Marge and Uncle Melvin for breakfast on Sunday morning. As always, our visits with them are very entertaining. Karis always comes away with new ideas and "quips" after discussing different topics with Uncle Melvin.

Uncle Melvin's photo talents and his I-Mac are to thank for the picture below

Grandma and the boys had a great time together - so all was well with our first excursion without the boys. The weekend was a "test-run" for all involved to determine if we thought it would be possible for us to take a long-anticipated trip to London & Paris in the summer to celebrate our 10th year anniversary. It looks like the trip is a "go!" Zachary did manage to get himself into one spot of trouble (perhaps many in all truth) while we were away - he has been fascinated with taking the baby comb and twisting his hair around it - well, he managed to get his hair caught and instead of patiently waiting for Grandma to untwist it, he yanked - yanked HARD. He now sports a lovely bald spot on his head - luckily his hair covers the empty spot. The roots and all came out with his endeavor to free the comb - to which he pronounced "that hurt a lot!!"

Zachary (not wanting his picture taken) - with his "hair hole" in the middle!

Apparently all children love to get into the dishwasher!

Kaleb is really pulling up to stand now, and will walk around with you holding his hands

Our never-ending Florida flood appears to have ended - we went from drought conditions to floating away in the space of just over a week. We've never experienced anything like it - it seemed like a lot more rain that we've even gotten in the past with tropical storms - and that's saying something!! Everything has greened up nicely now and of course the humidity (yuck) has increased. Summer storms are starting to come now, and we're getting some rain almost every day. Of course the rain always comes during our swimming lesson times, so they were on hold for many, many days - but Kaleb seems to now be "diving" right back in and is doing very well. Zachary on the other hand insists that he is not going to get into the water to practice floating - "maybe Monday" is his new retort when Karis tells him to get ready for swimming - will Monday ever come is the question!

Phrase of the week: "Welcome to the world of boys, Amy" - this was actually Karis' phrase after telling Amy the following story - brace yourselves, if you don't have boys, you'll be just as shocked as Amy was when Karis told it to her (Karis, of course, was laughing all the while!) While playing with Blake at Jennifer's house one day, Jennifer left the room for a moment and when she returned Blake and Zachary were "sword-fighting" - only not with normal swords - they had both pulled their pants down, and were peeing at each other!! Who knows who came up with that idea - crazy boys! Amy grew up with mostly girls around, and certainly does not remember anything crazy like that going on - but Karis assures her that this is probably just the first of a lifetime of crazy things that the boys will do.

Buried in Bubbles!

We had a lovely Mother's Day last weekend when we went out with Amy's mom and Amy's aunt Louise for breakfast. Of course with two small children we were the "early birds" at the restaurant (why not when you're up anyway at 6A!), so it was nice with the fact that we were seated right away and didn't wait long for our food to arrive.

We're looking forward this week to having some company - although for just an overnight stay - Amy's cousin Jeff and his wife Niesha will be here Monday night before flying out on Tuesday. It will be great fun to catch up with them from the last time that we saw them - which was already 2 years ago when they got married here in Orlando!

On Friday we are flying out to California for Rachel's (Korey's wife) graduation - we are going sans kids (thanks Grandma B), so this will be strange, but we're hoping that it will still be a fun strange! We'll be catching up with Amy's aunt Marge and uncle Melvin, and will be staying with Adrian and Maggie (Karis roomed with Adrian at Andrews) while of course spending time with the Zbaraschuk & Deininger clans. So, it will be a whirlwind of fun before we head back on Monday to our kids and work.

Amy's kicking off the implementation of a new expense report system at work at the beginning of June, so the training sessions begin this week. She and her Director of Accounting (and good friend!) Kelli will be doing all of the training - 450 employees need to be trained so this will be quite interesting to say the least. We're praying that it is well received and that folks learn quickly.

The boys took a bubble bath today - it was hilarious - with the jet tub that we have, there were so many bubbles that poor little Kaleb just about disappeared! He is really starting to pull up and stand holding on to things - this seems to be faster than we remember Zachary doing the same thing, so it might be interesting to see when he learns to walk.

Phrase of the week: "Good boy, good boy". Doesn't that sound like something that you'd say to a dog? Oh, if only - last night for supper Zachary was playing with his corndog at the supper table and dropped it on the floor - and when Amy bent down to pick it up for him, he patted her on the head and said those words. It was hard not to start laughing at the ridiculousness of it all, but we all managed to keep a straight face and keep down to the business of eating.

There won't be a blog post next week of course as we'll be over in California - so happy Memorial Day to everyone!

It's a Bug's Life

This has been kind of a crazy week. Twice when we have gotten up in the morning, we have discovered Zachary sleeping on the floor (just on plain old carpet) in the house - once in the family room and once at the entrance of his bedroom. The time when he was at the entrance to his bedroom, we figured that he'd wake up as soon as we got moving around (because of course his bedroom is not far from the kitchen, so he'd be able to hear Karis getting breakfast, Amy going in to Kaleb's room, both of us moving around in our bedroom etc. However nope - the kid slept through it ALL! Amy had to go to work early that day (of course!!!), so finally went and got Kaleb up first before trying to get Zachary up and out the door. When we ask why he was sleeping on the floor out of his bedroom, he never really says so we're not sure. He hasn't been crying in the middle of the night, nor does he cry when he goes to sleep so we're just not sure. He is starting to fight the whole nap idea in the afternoon - but that seems to be kind of normal for most kids although they still need to nap - they just don't WANT to nap! Today Karis told him that he had to stay in his room for at least some "quiet" time and later when he went in, Zachary had fallen asleep in his little red chair reading books - slept that way for an hour!

Both boys started swim lessons this week - Kaleb is catching on fairly quickly although he cries pitifully - it is so sad to hear but he really needs to know how to survive in the water. We're just thankful that he's learning at such a fast pace - perhaps the torture will end faster! He is floating on his back (although not dependably yet), turning over pretty well, and kicks like all get-out to get to the side. Zachary of course is a little fish so doesn't want to be bothered floating, but it does seem to be coming back to him now as well.

So two funny/disgusting bug/reptile stories. Karis, Amy and the boys were all taking a "double stroller" walk last Sabbath morning - Amy was walking on the inside of the sidewalk with Karis beside her closest to the street. There were bushes on the lawn of a home that they were passing when Amy spied it....what's "it"? A SNAKE! sitting on the top of the bush warming itself in the sun. Deathly afraid, terrified, panic attack - you name it, Amy HATES snakes. Before Karis even knew what was going on, she bolted around him and out onto the street and practically ran up the street until she was two houses down from where he was still standing - bewildered. He apparently was thinking to himself "There MUST be a snake around here somewhere because she doesn't react like that for much else" but it took her shouting back as to the location of the snake for him to figure it out! Up close encounters are not appreciated!

Not to be outdone, Karis had his own bug experience this week. He took Amy's Volvo to work this morning (our babysitter had the morning off, so Amy stayed home with the kids). As he was driving to work, he felt something "tickle" his neck by his collar. He brushed it away thinking that it must be a spider or something but looked down the floor where he brushed off the bug and saw a HUGE COCKROACH!!! YUCK!!! He was grossed out so started to try and "catch" the cockroach to get rid of it as he was driving when he realized that he was just about to drive off the road - his one tire was skirting the grass already! So, note to all of our friends in Orlando - you may want to offer to drive us around as we still haven't found the cockroach again in the car to get rid of it.

Phrase of the week: "Let's go look for ant piles!" In keeping with our bug theme, one of Zachary's all-time favorite things to do right now is to go on a daily walk and look for fireant piles. Of course he is allergic to them, just like Amy is, so if he ever gets an ant bit he swells up and itches like crazy. But, he LOVES to go look for them and knows where every ant pile is from our house to the end of the subdivision. As the summer gets hotter and hotter, we're sure that the daily walks will dwindle, but it does get them both some fresh air, sunshine, and some exercise for us parents pushing the double stroller on our walks!

Happy Mother's Day! Be sure to call your moms and tell them how much you love them!

Kaleb practicing his float with Daddy last weekend (love how he puts his hands behind his head and crosses his legs!!)

The Tupperware cupboard just doesn't provide enough "noise" now -we've graduated onto the cookie sheet cupboard where you can get a LOT of noise if you bang them together!

Zachary pulling his wagon that Grandma bought for him - he loves this wagon - pulls it around our neighborhood!

Our little mechanic "fixin" Kaleb's play piano and then checking his tools!

Small But Mighty!

Last week our blog outlined Kaleb's first year and what a sweet, relaxed child he has been. This week, he has shown how quickly things can change - so we've given him a new nickname "Mr. Small But Mighty!" He has decided that even though he may be the smallest person around, he won't be left out! Karis relayed these stories this week after picking up Kaleb from Jennifer's:

-One day, the older boys Zachary and Blake were sitting with Kaleb in a circle on the floor eating "Puffs" (these are star-shaped 'treats' that are designed for kids learning how to eat because they basically dissolve in your mouth and reduce the risk of choking). Zachary and Blake were eating from the can, and Kaleb decided that it was his turn - he took a swipe at the jar and managed to get it away from the 3-year-olds and then when they tried to take it back, he hung on for dear life until he had decided that he'd gotten enough Puffs out of the jar!

-Another day, the older boys were playing with markers when Kaleb determined that he wanted to have one - he managed to get one off of the floor and they tried to take if from him- his grip became decidedly "iron-manish" and even though they are more than twice his size, they couldn't get it away! He then decided that wasn't enough and managed to make a successful grab at another marker that Blake had! Where did this feisty child come from?

It would definitely appear that Kaleb is not going to be timid or as reserved as Zachary is. Zachary has never been that aggressive (comparatively speaking), so it is interesting to see what the baby of the family is turning out - I guess they learn early that they need to stick up for themselves!

-Alas, the arrival of the feistiness is also evidencing itself in "fits" if one's way is not achieved. These fits are complete with wailing, laying one's face down on the floor in despair, and then kicking one's legs. Clearly this is the second time that we've been through this phase as parents, but amazingly we've forgotten what our exact techniques were the first time around to navigate our way through so we're trying to quickly refresh ourselves as we desperately try not to laugh at the tragedy of it all.

The swine flu is making its way through Central Florida - we've now had several confirmed cases. Blake had some kind of bug this week, so we had to keep the boys away from Jennifer's for two days - we are sure hoping that our boys don't get it, and especially now the swine (or should we say H1N1) flu!

We're having pictures taken of the boys tomorrow - we're hoping that they are both cooperative to get at least a few good shots to memorialize their 1 and 3 year old birthdays. We also start swimming lessons again this week - this will be Kaleb's first experience. Poor Karis is the one who ends up having to take them as they happen before Amy's home from work, so he bears the emotional brunt of the crying for the 4-5 weeks that it takes to learn the first go-round.

Phrase of the Week: As we were putting Zachary to bed one night (beside his precious Elmo stuffed animal), he looks at Elmo and says so seriously "Elmo, it's night-time, close your eyes! Close your EYES! Don't be frightened!!!" Ha ha - it was hard not to laugh imagining how this was going to turn out when the stuffed animal could obviously not close his eyes, but thankfully Zachary became distracted with something else and moved on from insisting that Elmo close his eyes!

Amy was never on any gym team, but was playing with Zachary in the living room where he pretended to be a gymnast!

Kaleb discovering a typically off-limits "treasure" - a real paper book belonging to Zachary!

Kaleb following in his older brother's footsteps and discovering the joys of the Tupperware cupboard!