The Craziness Begins

We've made a concerted effort to try and not overschedule our kids, believing that the time to be kids and just play is important.  However, with Zachary getting a bit older, we've decided that perhaps it's time to start enrolling him in a few extra things to bring new learning opportunities to his world - and so it begins.  He has recently started in soccer through our local Jewish Community Center - it is great for us as they obviously don't have any games on Sabbath.  He has had one practice so far, and then his games start in October.  He seems to enjoy it, and in the practice "scrimmage" he did end up getting to kick the ball several times!

Zachary, Blake & Luke are all in soccer together - so cute to see them all!

He has also started Adventurers this week.  Unfortunately no picture of that so far, but hopefully we'll get one the next go-around.  The first night was a demonstration of a law enforcement canine dog, and he was so enthralled that he asked to go back the very next night!  That's always a good sign.

So these two things along with gymnastics and of course the swimming lessons are keeping us busy.  He does seem to enjoy them, and this is a learning opportunity for him to be in a group environment where he needs to listen to an instructor/teacher.

Phrase of the week:  Kaleb's favorite song is now "Hallelujah" in which we alternate between standing and squatting based on whether we're singing the "Hallelujah" or the "Praise Ye the Lord" portion of the song.  He adores the sitting and standing part of this song, so when we sing songs each night his favorite is to ask for "Ha-LU!"  Reading our friend's blog this week has given us the courage to admit to one of Zachary's words lately that we have NOT been pleased with.  Zachary loves to rhyme words, and one of the Berenstain Bear books is about a loose tooth in which Sister Bear is having a hard time talking about her tooth that is "thuck" (hard to say "s"es apparently when your tooth is loose!).  Well, Zachary has picked up on that word and started to rhyme it.  You can imagine what rhymes with it.....so before we know it, the "f" word has been thrown around our house.  It just about makes a parent's mouth drop to the floor when you hear it and then what...do you bring attention to the word (that he has no idea what it is or what it means) by telling him to stop, or do you just ignore it?  Well, we started off with the "ignore it, he doesn't know what it is, and he'll stop" so Karis quickly throws out the next word that rhymes to get him to move on.  However, he is REALLY into rhyming lately and you'd be surprised how many words Zachary comes up with that magically rhyme with the f-word, so it keeps appearing.  We're pretty horrified that this might now come out in a public setting (oh please don't let it be at church!!!), so now we've taken the tactic of telling him that's not a nice word, and we don't say it. Turnabout is fair play we suppose, because we've had a chuckle at other parents who have had this issue but it isn't so funny when it is YOUR kid doing it!!

Our friend "Uncle Will" came over to fix his SUV last weekend (he's under the vehicle) and the boys were quite enthralled to watch what was going on!

It's hard to see, but both boys have sponges in their hands, and they're "cleaning" the kitchen floor.  Oh, if only we could get them to do the whole house! :)



Beach Bums

We headed out to Bethune Beach last weekend with the Deininger and Cochran families for some fun in the sun.  The water was still pretty warm, so it was quite fun to dig around in the sand and enjoy the sun.  It was good for the Z-family to get some time in the sun in light of our sick saga from the last six weeks! Zachary discovered boogie-boarding, and even though he took some dunkings under the water, he loved it! Kaleb's rash guard shirt was a dark blue, and to our surprise, when we took it off of him to shower off the sand at the end of our stay, the color had bled all over his chest and he was BLUE!  It took the better part of that day to come off, even after a bath! :)

   

 Look at his blue chest and arms!

We've moved Zachary up to the next level of Sabbath School and we're enjoying it very much.  He seems to be much more well-behaved as well, and has been very attentive.  As always, he is a little unsure in new situations so the first week he didn't participate as much as his mother would have liked, but this week he was more into the swing of things.

Kaleb has been quite the mischief-maker this week, and has been starting food fights at Miss Jennifer's by flinging his spinach across the table at Zachary.  Is this a window into the future with this child!?  Yikes, we better be on our toes!

Phrase of the week:  Zachary and Amy went for a potty-break during Sabbath School and when we came out, we saw through the door of the classroom across the hall Auntie Lisa teaching.  Later at lunch, Zachary asked why she was there, and when Amy explained that she was teaching the class, he replied, "No, she's not a teacher - she's Auntie Lisa!!"  Not sure why being Auntie Lisa is not allowed to also be a teacher, but he was quite certain on this point!  Kaleb's word this week is "Kabob" and he points to himself with a proud smile on his face!  Precious.

Hide and Seek

Our friend, "Auntie Kelli," is like a rock star at our house with the kids - she generates much excitement whenever she comes over.  A few weeks ago when she was here, we started to play hide-and-seek with the kids which they thought was just a blast.  We were hiding in pairs, Zachary with Auntie Kelli and Mommy with Kaleb and then later we switched.  The hiding spots were not very "hidden" in most cases as the kids were choosing the hiding places. The funniest thing with Kaleb though was that when he would hear the other pair coming to find him, he would start SHRIEKING, he would get so excited that they were close by!  Of course that made for a very easy "find" and much laughter on the part of the adults! :)

In honor of our trip to Canada last weekend, Karis decided to make perogies this week with the boys.  It was quite successful, and we all enjoyed eating them up!

Yummy perogies!

Kaleb has mastered the art of getting out of the pack-and-play.  It was bound to happen sooner or later, but we're hoping that the crib takes a little longer to figure out.  He climbed out of the pack-and-play at Jennifer's during the Wednesday naptime, and she found him happily playing in the middle of her bed.  Thankfully her mommy skills did the trick and he did eventually stay put to take a nap!

Phrase of the week:  This week Karis was telling Zachary something, to which Zachary replied "I can't hear you, my ears aren't working!"  Sometimes our adult ears don't work too well either - by chance or choice, who knows! :)  Kaleb's word "Hand!"  This is the word that is said every night now when we leave his room - he lays down in the crib  with his body snuggled up against the top corner of the crib and hangs his arm out of the crib.  He wants you to hold his hand for a moment (thankfully not long) before you leave the room and he goes to sleep.  What a blessing this blog has been to capture these sweet memories!

Another one of Zachary's pictures (he took the picture) - not too bad this time!

Memories to Treasure

This weekend, we had the wonderful opportunity to fly up to Winnipeg, Manitoba for a too-short visit with Amy's Dad.  We left the kids at home with grandma (who is the BEST!) so that we could really enjoy our time with Gene.  His health is not the best and he has been diagnosed with cancer - with all this in mind, we wanted to spend some quality time with him.  It is kind of strange, when you're in your 20s, life seems like it will never end, but now that we're in our 30s, the whole "mid-life crisis" is making more sense as you realize that you and your loved ones are in fact aging and that life doesn't last forever.  Perhaps mid-life crisis is not the right moniker as it seems less a crisis and more of an assessment about one's life and its meaning, and what we want to accomplish in our short time here.

A family blog really isn't the place to wax eloquent on these thoughts, so the bright side of our trip is that we had such a wonderful time visiting with Dad.  We travelled down memory lane multiple times with many a chuckle and made new memories to treasure.  We were fortunate to be able to visit with Amy's step-brothers Cam and Brad along with Cam's significant other Tracy.  Extra icing on the proverbial cake was visiting with our dear friend Norma James.

We were happy to be safely back with our boys, but very thankful for the fact that we had a relatively stress free trip up and back to Canada sans children as well! :)  The boys had a fantastic time with Grandma, and kept calling Amy "Grandma" after she left!

Phrase of the week:  In honor of the pink-eye that the Z-household has had over the past three weeks and the accompanying eye drops, Zachary informed us as we drove along in the pelting rain that "Raindrops are like eye drops!"  Very clever, they are indeed! Kaleb's favorite phrase this weekend was "Mine!" as the typical sibling struggles occurred over whose toy it really was!  The last phrase is not a Zachary or Kaleb phrase but rather a Canadian phrase that we heard many times this weekend "For sure!" - of course, it sounds more like "Fur sure"!  It is funny how you forget common phrases until you got back and listen to people speaking around you!

Dad, Cam, Tracy, Brad and Amy

Dad and Amy

Norma and Amy (Karis was in fact in Canada as well, but he just ended up taking all of these pictures!)