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! :)