Gardeners Extraordinaire!

We've had a very fun time with our small little garden this summer, and we are starting to get some vegetables out of it!  The boys have LOVED eating the cucumbers - and we are amazed at how fast everything is growing and how big it is getting!  We're looking forward to carrots, squash, brocolli, and lots of cucumbers!

The boys are also getting to be very big helpers - and they love doing yard work with Daddy so now they're both following Daddy around - too cute.

Our Canadian loved ones gave us shirts for the boys - which they now fit.  They were so proud to be wearing their Canada shirts!

The boys were playing with moving water from one container to another - it is supposed to be "pre-math" skills, so only time will tell!

Phrase of the week: One of our favorite phrases of Zachary's is when the weather is foggy outside and he'll exclaim "It's very froggy!"  Kaleb's manners are coming along and he has added ""Gank-goo" for thank-you!

The Beachcombers

Ahh - the title of this post is a nod to our fellow Canadians as this was an old show up in Canada that just popped into mind.  It is appropriate though as last weekend, we decided to see if the "Z"s were cut out for the beach after avoiding the beach for many years.  When you have a pool, why drag yourself off to the beach where you are sandy and wet on the drive back and can't go into the house for cool refreshments when playing in your own pool?! :)  Just teasing, there are many fun things about the beach.

The boys actually had a really fabulous time - they enjoyed playing at the water's edge and digging in the sand.  We stayed for a few hours and then headed on home where Amy sat in the back with the boys to keep them awake - and it was a successful effort because the boys stayed awake until they got home and could conk out in their own beds.  It was actually fun enough that we'll sure that we'll venture forth again to let the boys play in the sand and surf.  Kaleb got salt water in his face from the waves several times, but he enjoyed sitting on Mommy's lap safe and sound and letting the waves wash over him as long as she lifted him at the last second to be sure that his face stayed out of the water! :)  The only downside of the beach....eating your sandwich and every bite has gritty sand in it that your teeth crunch on...yech.

This was a busy week as it was both Mommy and Daddy Z's birthdays this week - we're now officially old - both of us are closer to 40 than 30! :) 

Phrase of the week:  As we were leaving our friends the Deiningers' after they hosted a birthday celebration - Zachary shouted out the window of the van "Thanks for enjoying us!"  Ah, so precious - if we could just capture these moments in time!  Kaleb's word this week is "keem" - it is supposed  to be "cream" but he has a hard time with his R's! :)

Kaleb and Daddy walking to the great expanse of water!  Kaleb would beg either Mommy or Daddy, "Come, Come!!"

Luke & Zachary playing with diggers in the sand

My fair-skinned child - we put sunscreen spray even in his hair to keep him from burning his scalp!

Zachary, Luke & Adam.  Zachary was standing, "buried" in sand up to his waist!

Now buried laying down - he didn't seem claustrophobic at all about it

Kaleb insisted on being buried as well - although he wasn't deep in the sand, and it wasn't "packed" on him

Milestones

Every year, we try and capture Zachary and Kaleb as they turn a year older - so that when we're old and grey we can look back and remember what they looked like, and perhaps a bit of their personality as they so quickly grew up. We mentioned a few weeks ago that we had taken our annual photo shoot, and weren't sure how well the pictures would turn out as the boys were highly uncooperative. Tim Putt, our photographer, was fantastic as always and took 961 pictures! Fortunately, some of them did turn out, and while there were many that had cheese-oh smiles, frowns, closed eyes, tongues sticking out (you're getting the picture now! :) pun intended!), we still had some really precious pictures that bring smiles to our faces. The pictures below were a sampling of some of the 961 pictures that we wanted to share with everyone.  Thanks Tim!

Phrase of the week:  Zachary and Amy were discussing the animals in heaven, trying to name every conceivable (and some made-up!) animals that we could think of, when Zachary's next animal was a "porky-pine!"  Zachary is just amazing in how grown-up he seems, this week as he was helping Amy carry in the groceries, he came out to the garage very excited and told her "Thank you mommy for buying bananas, I really pappeciate it!"  Kaleb's word this week "Come here!" - this is perhaps the first that we've heard him connect more two words together, so it is a momentous week!

Deja Vu - The Terrible Twos Part Deux

As I have mentioned many times over the last two years, Kaleb has been a very easy-peasy kid - very happy/giggly and in general very easy to please.  Well, I think that we're entering into the reality warp of the Terrible Twos...  "Easy-Peasy" Kaleb is soon to get another name - perhaps "Scream My Head Off Kaleb" or "Give My Parents the Cold Shoulder" Kaleb or maybe even "The Energizer Screamer" Kaleb.  We've definitely begun the terrible twos - we had been so pleased to finally leave the Terrible Twos when Zachary came out the other side, but at least this time, we'll have experience and know that this too shall pass! :)

Kaleb has shown himself to be a very strong-willed little boy in our recent history - he can let out this shrill, break-glass kind of scream for a seriously long time, even when he's been put in his room to scream by himself.  Zachary would always get himself together fairly quickly when he had to be by himself, but Kaleb seems to have other ideas on his mind!  Oh well, we'll just have to suck it up and hunker down for the long haul! :)  At one point, he was very upset with Amy this week and was definitely giving her the cold shoulder.  Not sure if he felt guilty the next day or what, but he must have given her 30 kisses when she got home from work!  So precious those little kisses!

We've also reached the stage where Kaleb can now open all of the doors in the house, so delights in opening and shutting them on a regular basis.  Zachary was able to do it as well during this time, so Kaleb seems to be right on track.  Speaking of Zachary, he has grown 3/4 of an inch in one month - what in the world??!

We plan on having Zachary start skating lessons this summer, and last weekend Karis' hockey game was actually at a time BEFORE the boys went to bed for a change so we all headed over to watch Daddy play hockey. I think that the boys had a fun time watching although it was hard for Zachary to figure out which one was Daddy in all that gear!

Happy Mother's Day to all of the beautiful moms out there - may you be honored this weekend as you truly deserve!

Phrase of the week:  Kaleb is showing signs of getting closer to the potty-training stage.  He will now come up to you whenever he has peed or pooped and pat the front of his diaper repeatedly as he chants "Poot...Poot....Poot."  Zachary's phrase is something that he's been doing for a long time, but we wanted to capture it for posterity.  Every month when eating breakfast with Amy, he asks "Who gets the last bite of yogurt?"  This is very important - the last bite is a sacred bite.  This is so important, that Amy has finally figured out that at least in the mornings, that Zachary will actually be quiet and let Kaleb sleep in order to ensure that he gets the last bite of yogurt!  We've instituted the "every other day" routine with the boys to ensure that they each get their fair shares of last bites!

Dueling vacuums...now if we could just get them to do bathrooms! :)

Reading beloved books together in a quiet moment

Kaleb had an unfortunate event at the pool this week during which he fell and smashed his mouth - blood everywhere but luckily not as bad as his brother's a few weeks ago!

The Big Switcheroo

Now that Kaleb has reached 2, we've officially switched his car seat from rear-facing to front-facing.  We kept him rear-facing because just about a year ago, we had read that the American Pediatrics were now recommending (although it wasn't regulation) that you keep kids rear-facing until 2 because it is so much safer if you are in a car accident.  Kaleb has been very accommodating, and truly hasn't put up a fuss much of the time when he got into his car seat so we were thankful for that!  But, now that he's 2 it was time to switch him around!

It didn't come a moment too soon as Zachary has officially now gotten too heavy for the car seat that we had in Amy's car, so we've switched one of the van car seats into the car.  It is a little bigger and can go up to 65 pounds, so Zachary should be all set now.

We've also begun the process of switching Kaleb from the bottle to the sippy cup.  Yes, we realize that we should have done this a LONG time ago, but we were lazy (and Daddy loves to hold his "baby" while he drinks his bottle!).  Plus, when we stopped Zachary on the sippy he stopped drinking milk at all, so we kind of waited until we reached the 2 mark to make a big deal about it.  He seems to still be open to drinking his milk out of a sippy cup but just not quite as much.  Oh well, just as long as he gets some! :)

Phrase of the week:  Zachary's "big boy" phrases keep coming, it is hilarious when he says something that has clearly been said to him - reminds us to always be careful!  This week, he was sitting at the table (we're not 100% sure what was happening) when he says "That behavior needs to stop, it is unacceptable!" to Amy (who just for the record was not mis-behaving!).  Kaleb's favorite food this week is "oange!" - and has learned to peel the little mandarin oranges all by himself!  He is incredibly independent that one!

The big boy helpers!

It makes it interesting to try and floss Kaleb's teeth and help Zachary brush his teeth at the same time when they are both insisting on sitting on Amy's lap together!

Both boys are big fans of corn on the cob!

Yummy corn!