Sayings

Over the last several weeks, we've had the opportunity of hearing some very thoughtful quotes from other people. It is amazing how people come up with these sayings - some folks just have a gift of being about to capture something important in very few words that are memorable. So, we thought that we'd share some of those memorable phrases that we've heard:

In a recent conversation with an executive at work, he shared two thoughtful phrases that could certainly change how we live our daily lives if we were to fully embrace them.
-Martin Luther - (paraphrase) - to me, only two days are important - I live my life today in light of THAT day.
-What is not a passion for you will be optional for your kids - this is particular pointed for parents, as we think about the behavior that we model for our kids and think
about what we will be important for them in the future.

During a recent devotion at work, the executive shared with us something that his father would say to him every day as he left for school - to help his son remember his values, to remember what was important, and to remember to think before he acted: "Remember who you are" This struck Amy as a worth-while phrase for her to remember herself every day - as well as telling it to the boys as they get older. Aren't we all a child of God, and should act accordingly!?

Now, on the lighthearted side, Zachary has had some really funny phrases over the last two weeks that we thought that we'd share:

"No deal!" This was the response as Karis was driving Zachary and Kaleb home from the babysitter, and was preparing him for the fact that he had to go home and take a nap - and this was Zachary's response! We have no idea where he picked up that phrase!!

Last week, while we had a houseful of kids, you can imagine how big of a mess that the toys would end up and Zachary came to Amy and informed "The front room is a big mess!" and he turned around and muttered to himself as he walked back to the front room "I just can't take it!" Ha ha - it is hard business for a 3 year old to "take" having such a messy toy room! The weather has turned a wonderfully fall "cool" here - a low of 65 at nights, which means that it is probably 70ish in the morning when Zachary gets up - perhaps a bit lower. Well, it is apparent that we are raising a Floridian through and through when he informed Amy this week "Mommy, come outside, it is berry cold!!! I need a coat!!" Ha ha - a little coolness in the air versus hot and muggy has the child running for a fleece coat!!!

On our "life" front, we finally had our new plantation shutters installed in the front of the house - so now we're no longer living in a "fish bowl." It is nice to have some privacy again. The shutters are very white compared to the slightly goldish white of our walls, so we either need to put up some curtains or break down after this many years and paint our walls a color other than white!!

Grandma enjoying some quiet time with the boys

"Cool" dude Kaleb - sunglasses and riding his "bike"

Tub full of boys - (Zachary is just outside the picture on the other side of the tub) - Blake and Evan were here with us for an evening, so we threw them all in the tub!

Zachary and Daddy having some fun pool time!

The Vohwinkels Visit Florida!

We've had lots of fun this last week as our friends the Vohwinkels came to visit from Texas. They arrived last Thursday night in their mini-van, which is a dead-ringer match for our mini-van (the kids are always confused!!) after a looooonnng drive with three kids (brave, brave folks!!). In order to fit everyone, Zachary vacated his room and spent the week in our closet. At first, we put up the pack and play (his usual spot) but realized that he's outgrown it! So, we made up a pallet on the floor with pillows on each side to keep him from rolling over into the shoes etc - he had a grand time after that!

Kaleb and Lucas playing in the shower, and Lucas enjoying the tricycle

Sophia playing with the train table

Zachary and Sophia "reading" a book together

Zachary's sleeping haven

We had a get-together with all of Vohwinkels' friends from Orlando on Saturday night - first time that we've had a group over to our house since before Kaleb, and it was great fun. Now that Amy is starting to have some more energy again (sleep exhaustion is just not fun!), we'll definitely be doing it again soon. There were lots of kids - and they played together fabulously. At the very end, several of them started to play "Ring around the Rosey" while the parents in the room sang the song - too precious.

Kaleb getting some good-bye love from Braelyn, and "Ring Around the Rosey" fun

We took ourselves to Animal Kingdom on Sunday, and the weather was muggy and beastly hot. The kids had a great time though, so that was worth it. Kaleb was a trooper with no naps at all that day without nary a fuss or fit - what a sweetie! Zachary has fallen in love with Sophia - perhaps his first crush? :) - so he was a happy camper as long as she was around to play with.

Picture with a monkey, and enjoying a parakeet

Kaleb enjoying a slide

Zachary brushing a sheep - Kaleb didn't want to have anything to do with him! Enjoying an amusement park ride

Zachary and Lucas playing on the drums

We include this picture (even though small) because it is the first picture in three years of trying to get a Z-family picture in front of this silly tree and it NEVER turns out because a child is always crying or has their head turned completely around looking at the tree - well, finally SUCCESS! Both children looking at the camera with pleasant expressions on their face - amazing!

We're not quite ready to shout victory, but we THINK that Kaleb is starting to finally broach the whole "speech" frontier. We believe that he's said "done" when asked if he's finished eating, and several times now he has said "mama" when looking at Amy (now, let's be clear, he also called Karis "mama" in Sabbath School, but hey, Amy will take any hint of a word from this child!). Kaleb is also progressing, albeit slowly, on the walking front as he's figured out how to stand up from the middle of the room without holding onto anything and start walking - of course there is much clapping and encouragement when this happens.

Last week was a traumatic week for Zachary - on Monday, he was outside playing on the swingset when he ran into the house crying hysterically - with friend Blake running behind him screaming that Zachary had been stung by a bee. Friday, he was outside playing with Sophia and Lukas, and came crying hysterically into the pool deck area - stung AGAIN!!! Amy gave Karis his marching orders to get out there and find the beehive because there is no way that a child would be stung twice in one week by chance!!! Poor Karis, he went out there to give the swingset a thorough once-over (which to his credit, he had done on Monday as well), but the one place that he hadn't looked was the swings themselves, so he grabbed one of the swings and turned it over to look at it, and sure enough....a beehive was being built and the bees were NOT pleased that he had disturbed them, so they came out with a vengeance toward him. He began scrambling backwards as fast as he could, and swatted at the one coming for his face - saved the face but sacrificed the hand. So, two Zbaraschuk men down for the count! Luckily, (read with disbelief if you will, three of us have now tried this "trick" with good success) - Karis had read that if you put antiperspirant on stings/ant bites that it helps, so both Karis and Zachary were lathered up with the antiperspirant and were none the worse for wear. Thankfully, the beehive is now destroyed, hopefully never to return.

Phrase of the week: I have a tung. At first, Amy thought that he meant that he had a TONGUE, and blithely went on in the conversation until Karis informed her of the true meaning of this phrase - poor child, he received full sympathy after that!!

And Then There Were Three

Kaleb has joined the ranks of the other Florida Z-men in becoming a Canadian citizen this week - congratulations to little man Kaleb! We've been waiting for a long time - about a year to be exact - it came through really quickly for Zachary when we applied but this one really dragged out. So, the mommy in this family is the only one who is not officially a Canadian - we need to do something about that!!

Kaleb has been getting braver this week with walking - he has started to independently walk from one piece of furniture to another. He is very intent as he walks, but as soon as he reaches his destination, he starts to laugh! He has even started figuring out how to change direction as he's walking - although it looks like a bit of "listing" as he walks with his arms outstretched and they start to LEAN another direction until his body finally starts to follow his arms! So precious.
Two more molars have found a home in his mouth as well - and we've experienced a week of not very good sleeps (which means Mommy is not sleeping well!), but we're hoping that they're just about through at this point. Twelve teeth in total now!

It does seem to be a week of Kaleb, as he has also now developed the tantrum in full swing. This is about the same time that Zachary started to throw temper tantrums, but we've kind of forgotten all of the tricks to get them to stop now! Oh how quickly memories fade. We're trying the tactic of taking him to his room to cry alone until he can be happy again, but he's a persistent one so it takes a while!

Zachary is precocious as always and continues to come up with funny stuff that makes us laugh. He woke up early from his nap and joined Karis on the couch and he ended up falling asleep on Karis' chest as Karis took a bit of a nap too - very sweet Daddy and son moment.

A work colleague of Amy's has bequested his boys' old Thomas the Train table to our home - it has been a fabulous addition, and Zachary is loving it. It allows us to get the train tracks off of the floor, and he can walk around the table playing with them. It is just the right height for Kaleb to stand holding on to the edge as well, but he's typically more interested in just grabbing for the trains as they drive by.

Phrase of the week: "Let's read Lion" - this phrase really doesn't make sense to the casual reader, but it does capture the latest obsession. Amy bought a book for the boys in London "Katie Goes to London" where a little girl and her brother have a sight-seeing adventure on top of a lion statue that comes to "life" and he takes them from one tourist stop to another in London. Zachary has become very attached to this book, and requests it every night at this point. We've also started to read the stories from "My Bible Friends" which he is enjoying very much and sits so nicely through the whole story!

Zachary helping Daddy with yardwork

Amy thought that it would be fun to take pictures of the boys' eyes for comparison purposes - they definitely both have very brown eyes! She did not capture them both completely straight on to the camera, so the comparison is a bit off, but oh well!

Are these eyelashes insanely long or what????

At last - He Walks!

Yes, it has finally happened - Kaleb has figured out how to walk. He still prefers to crawl most days, but if you have two adults that he can walk between, he has started to do really well walking pretty far! Karis had been working with him, and it finally just clicked! When you age-adjust Kaleb, he started to walk only about 2 weeks after Zachary did - so I guess those genes are strong in our boys! :)

Teeter, Tooter - This balancing thing is hard!

We're enjoying Labor Day vacation - Amy has both Friday and Monday off, so enjoyed spending some time with the boys. We tried Kobe Steakhouse again last night with the Deiningers - but poor Luke found the "fire" and the steam from the cooking vegetables to be a little scary - poor little kid! We're off to a birthday party tomorrow, so it should be great fun to catch up with friends.

Zachary helping Mommy make pizza

Enjoying Kobe's with Deiningers

Phrase of the week: Zachary yawned and then stated "I just found a yawn!" How exciting - Mom and Dad finds yawns more than we'd like personally! :)

Kaleb is still trying to figure out how the whole "fork" thing works - but those pancakes are yummy!

Zachary enjoying two of his favorite things at one time - Thomas the Tank Engine and books!