His vs Hers

Last weekend was truly the example of "his version" vs "her version" in which of course Karis flew off to Salt Lake City with 8 other guys for a fantastic 5 days of skiing himself silly every day.  Amy on the other hand stayed at home being the single mom for the same 5 days (amazing coincidence! :).  Grandma came over to stay for a couple days, so there was extra helping hands around which was appreciated!

Both the "his and hers" experience was fun, although his was 100% fun while Amy's had more of fun thrown in amongst working, juggling house chores, getting boys from one daily event to the other etc.  Karis came back to us safe and sound, which we considered a thankful answer to prayer.  He skied at Park City, Alta and Brighton while he was there, and believes that Brighton may be his new favorite mountain in Utah.

Our church is building a new parking lot, and somehow one of the water pipes backed up and resulted in 2 inches of standing water in the children's Sabbath School rooms.  So, off to the zoo we went on Sabbath.  The zoo is just a small local zoo, but we enjoyed ourselves very much seeing all of the animals.  It was as bit chilly and windy, but we bundled up as if it was very cold and stayed warm.

Zachary, Kaleb & Kieran on the riding toys at the zoo entrance

 Holding hands as Zachary and Kieran walked - that was a Kodak moment!

 Looking at the macaw birds

 Posing with Auntie Kelli

 Kaleb ousted Kieran from his spot in Kieran's stroller, but thankfully Kieran was able to hitch a ride!

Phrase of the week:  My tummy hurts.  This isn't a fun phrase, but it is one that we're slowly learning as parents to take seriously.  We've mentioned in our blog posts over the last six months or so that Zachary will randomly say that his stomach hurts and 100% of the time, it ends up with him throwing up once or twice.  After he throws up, he is completely fine.  We can't figure it out - he doesn't seem to be sick because he's always fit as a fiddle after he throws up, and the rest of us never get sick either.  It is obvious that his food is not digesting when he throws up, because you can clearly tell what he's eaten that day.  Odd.  If it was an allergy, it would seem like it would happen more often because our diet doesn't vary all that much.  Who knows.  But, one thing is for sure, we don't "hope for the best" anymore - so last night we had towels all over the couch, on the floor, extra protection on the bed etc, so when the puking began at least the damage was mostly on things that could be thrown into the wash vs having to have a carpet cleaner out!  Kaleb's phrase that we wanted to write down for our memoirs is "poon" which of course is spoon.  It is so cute when they don't say the word quite right!  Soon they'll be able to say everything just perfectly and these precious little words will disappear.

Snow Cone Heaven

Last weekend, we went to the Circus for the first time with the boys with our friends the Hilliards....and unbeknownst to us there were many of our other friends as well there!  It seems like everyone had the same idea of the circus over the four day weekend last week! :)

The boys were mesmerized the whole time - of course their personalities are completely different when it comes to being "into" something though.  Zachary sits intently staring at what's going on - without hardly moving a muscle or turning his head.  You could almost think that the child is bored until you realize that he's just afraid that if he looks anywhere else that he'll miss something - no time for even blinking your eyes!  Kaleb on the other hand of course is clapping his hands for the entertainers, waving his arms in the air and bouncing his head to the tune of the music.  Zachary's favorite part was the elephants, and Kaleb kept telling us that there were zebras there!!

The best part though was probably the snow cones - the boys have never had a snow cone before, so they thought they had died and gone to heaven.  Karis thought that he'd died as well when he got the bill for the two snow cone clown mugs and a small popcorn - $25!!!  He then informed Amy that those snow cone mugs would be a permanent fixture in our house, because they weren't going to go in the trash for that kind of money!

Kaleb has continued with his fever this week - wishing that he would finally get through sprouting this molar.  Although Jennifer told us that a friend of hers in Tallahassee had a son who had a fever recently for 21 days - and the doctors kept saying that there wasn't anything that could be done, it was just a virus that you had to wait out.  So who knows, maybe it is just a virus.

Amy's mom went home this weekend to recoup in the quiet of her home.  She's coming back this weekend though for one day as Karis is flying off to Salt Lake City for an all-men's skiing trip.  There are 10 guys going - mostly all from Amy's work.  Her old boss that moved to Texas remembered that Karis loves to ski, so when there was an opening in the group, he called to see if he was interested.  Interested??!!  Can we see how fast a plane ticket can be purchased?! :)  He'll be gone for five days, so single motherhood here we come (and of course during the busiest time of Amy's year - now THAT'S a loving wife for you! :) Hee Hee - easy to say as the wife is writing this blog! :))

Phrase of the week:  One of the only things that Kaleb wanted to eat this week was "ahdubs" - in case anyone needs a translator, that would be Kaleb-speak for olives! :)  Zachary's phrase this week was "Mommy, I can reach your shoulders, I'm almost as big as you!"  He is just growing as fast as a weed, and he can now touch his hands to Amy's shoulders, so he thinks that he's reached the big-time.  Now there are constant comparisons to how big he is, especially when she told him that he would soon be taller than she was.  He thinks that it'll be any day now! :)

Playing with bubbles on the back deck (before of course spilling both bottles entirely!)

Zachary and Luke playing "dead" on the playground.  Imaginative play has definitely begun

New Body Parts

This week, Amy's mom had her second hip replaced.  She had her first hip replaced just before Zachary turned a year old.  That day is burned in our memories because both of us had the flu, so Karis was throwing up in the parking lot as he walked to her to the hospital.  When Amy got down to the hospital (thankfully Amy's Aunt Elaine and Grandma were here to watch Zachary), they both laid on the floor in an alcove wishing that the nausea and stomach cramps would go away!  Thankfully this time, there was no sickness.  The surgery went very well, and she's staying with us on her way to being youthful again with two new hips!  She's a tough lady and is walking around well with the walker.

Mom was "car"jacked here by Kaleb, who loves to drive the walker around!

The Z-boys went to the Science Center last Sunday with Aunt Heather & Kieran, which was very fun.  Unfortunately Amy had to work as it is year-end - the craziest time of the year!  They explored all of the fun things to do there, and are eagerly awaiting their next visit! Poor Kieran had an accident and ended up with wet pants, so Aunt Heather tried out the hurricane booth to try and dry his pants out as there were no hand blowers in the restrooms!  Clever!

Kaleb is running a low-grade fever this week, which we THINK may be related to the fact that he's getting a new molar.  He is telling us that his mouth hurts, so that's what it making us think this is the issue.  Of course doctors will tell you that teething doesn't cause fevers, so we really don't know but Amy's Mom swears that she had a fever every time that she produced a new tooth, so it may be possible.  One night however he was crying every 20 minutes between midnight and 2A.  So finally Amy decided that at least one parent should be getting some sleep, so she took her blanket and pillow into Kaleb's room to lay on the floor with him until he fell asleep.  Well, the child was happy as a clam that she was in there, but still wouldn't go to sleep.  He kept popping his head over the crib bumper pad and saying "Mama??"  After about an hour, Amy realized that he was playing with his hotwheel cars, so she made him fork 'em over and imagine this, he went to sleep shortly thereafter!  It was about 3:30A before Amy was able to stumble back to her bed and fall asleep for the very short remainder of the evening.  The lesson learned in all this - Amy is too old to "sleep" on carpeted concrete! :)  Ouch!

Last week, our friend Heather turned another year older, and her husband William threw her a murder-mystery dinner theater. It was a "superhero" murder mystery, so we all had to dress up as superhero characters.   It was quite fun, and folks were very creative!  Karis was "The Red Wonder" and his character loved to rap, so he was a rhyming wonder all night!  Amy had to be "Gothicon" which was a female rocker in "Goth" (aka scary!) get-up.  None of us guessed correctly the "whodunit" but it was fun anyway!

Mr. Fabulous (Kent), Blue Blaze (Kelli), The Red Wonder (Karis), The Wisher Genie (Lisa), The Jester (Rob)

Amy in the scary "goth" make-up & fake leather pants along with Kelli

One last story for the week - yesterday as we were eating lunch, we noticed a heron walking around in our back yard, which is kind of unusual.  We didn't realize that our screen door to our pool patio was open, and before we knew it, the heron walked into our deck.  The boys were enthralled and thrilled, but it then became obvious that the bird had no idea how to get OUT of the pool deck.  The poor bird kept flying into the screen, which didn't make him or us very happy.  Amy and Karis finally had to go out and try to gently guide the bird towards the now two open doors to freedom without scaring the poor thing and giving it a heart attack!  Thankfully we were successful and the bird is now free to fly in the open again!

Phrase of the week:  "Baby Llama!" This has become one of Kaleb's favorite books right now - it is a Dora search and find book where there are baby animals on a disk that you spin.  He loves to read this book and is very pleased with himself when he finds the right animal and says "Dere it is!"  Zachary cute word this week is "Efushions" - in case you aren't sure that word is, it is "Ephesians!"  Try keeping a straight face when he recites his memory verse from "Efushions!" :)

Grandparent Bliss

Zachary and Kaleb said good-bye to Gram-Z and Papa-Z this Thursday, much to their disappointment.  Zachary has already begun asking when they're coming back, and how many days that is!  The boys had a fantastic time with them, and Zachary found Papa-Z to be the perfect playmate!  They played Frisbee a hundred times, went biking, went searching for sticks to build  a "manger," wrestled, played hockey and read books.  Gram-Z was in charge of bedtime every day, which the boys found great delight in.  The house is very quiet and empty with them gone, so we're looking forward to their next visit.

Playing with Daddy's new Crokinole/Carrom board

 Making sticky mosaics from Auntie Lorie & Uncle Kent!

Riding a very "bucky" horsey! 

Searching for sticks to make a "manger"

Phrase of the week:  "I'm the fastest runner because I'm the oldest."  Zachary has been fascinated with birthdays, and how everyone's age fits in.  He has figured out that he is older than his friends (a whopping three days older than Luke, and only 2 months older than Blake) but this has now given him the "oldest" bragging rights.  He also loves to "race" Mommy to the bathroom each night to brush his teeth, but he's still at the age where he thinks that he has to win - so if Mommy is winning, he grabs her shirt and makes them go back to the starting line for a re-do!  Kaleb's phrase this week is his own special little prayer that he said all by himself this week "Dear Jesus.....I luv you, Bless Mommy, Daddy, Zachary.....Kaleb.  Heart (this we believe is for 'live in my heart')......Men!"

A Merry Christmas & A Happy New Year!

We had a fabulous time for Christmas last Sunday (the kids not having any real idea of when Christmas is, we avoided the Sabbath issue by just having presents on Sunday) opening presents.  We actually opened one present on Christmas Eve from Gram-Z and Papa-Z of which the boys each got a scooter.  Kaleb's first question the next morning is "More presents?  My 'cooter!!"   They both loved their presents, although Amy and Karis were questioning our sanity when both boys opened their whistles and then let out ear-bursting shrill whistles! But when a spatula and a whistle is all that you ask for, it kind of seems like you should get one...:)  Zachary received a new watch, and he was over the moon with excitement.  This then led to a tantrum later in the week when Kaleb cries "I need watch!" after which he was informed that perhaps he would get one for his birthday to which he replied "NO, NOW!"  Good thing for grandparents who are allowed to spoil their grandkids, because he ended up with a watch from his benevolent Gram-Z and Papa-Z!

 Blowing on the whistle....

 A little known fact is that the Zbaraschuk family is also Jewish - or at least we practice the Hanukkah practice of opening presents each day :)  We decided that there were just so many presents on Christmas that the boys would benefit from being able to play with the presents they'd already opened, so we saved the ones from us parents for the rest of the week.  So, it will be a disappointing day when the presents stop and they realize that Christmas doesn't keep going all year round!!

The funniest story of the week came from beloved Daddy and Kaleb last week at church.  On the way to Sabbath School, Karis decides that he needs to use the facilities - so into the bathroom they go.  Karis gives Kaleb strict instructions to stand behind him and DO NOT TOUCH ANYTHING.  Well, as Karis is preparing to relieve himself, Kaleb decides that the red trap in the men's urinal is very intriguing and runs over to grab it.  Horrified, thinking of all the dirty germs this involves and hoping against hope that Kaleb won't put his hand now into his mouth, Karis attempts to stop his current activities and run over to grab Kaleb away from the urinal.  Daddy's next thought is - wow, my pants are undone here and I'm very exposed - I need to try and remedy this AS WELL as trying to de-germ Kaleb's hands at the same time!  Needless to say, Karis was aghast by the whole event but it sure did provide some hearty laughs from the rest of the family!!!

Phrase of the week:  Both phrases came from this week's daily evening drive to look at Christmas lights - during which Zachary exclaimed "So much excitement!!" and Kaleb says in wonder "Oh goodness!!"