Oh, Go To Sleep!

Anyone who knows the Z-family, knows that sleep is VERY important to us - in fact, we're a bit fanatical at times (we're considering therapy, although in our old age we're starting to let the kids skip a nap here or there, and Zachary is not napping most days now).  So this week's post is devoted to sleep.

Last week, Addison had her first vaccination.  Since then, we've been completely messed up - she is still sleeping through the night (hallelujah!) but during the day she is taking silly little 20-45 minute naps.  We've been then treated to a very crabby Addison for the day - which is unlike her!  We've been struggling trying to get back on track, and believe that maybe, just maybe, we're edging towards normalcy again as yesterday and today she has been napping like a champ again.

A happier moment as she enjoys her swing (thank you Craig's list!)

The funny sleep episode though happened last night.  Amy was dead to the world, and at midnight she was jolted awake to see Karis looming over her, gripping both shoulders as he mumbled.  She gasped, and must have asked him what was going on, because he then muttered "oh, go to sleep!" and laid down continuing to mutter under his breath.  THANK YOU, I WAS SLEEPING ALREADY!  He has no memory of this episode, so it was entirely in his sleep!

Zachary then came in at 4A to inform Mommy that he has NOT had a good night of sleep - awaking at 10A, 2A, and now 4A.  Telling him to head back to his room to sleep, she crossed her fingers that he'd actually sleep as he is not known for his ability to return to sleep.  Sure enough, at 5A, he came back into the room at which point Karis got up and went to lay in bed with him - all to no avail as Zachary did not go back to sleep.  We ended up figuring out that he wasn't feeling well and had a low-grade fever.  So, the night's sleep wasn't that fruitful for Amy, who has to get up to pump (oh the joys!), so she was up at midnight, 2A, 4A, 5A and 6A!

We went out to celebrate Aunt Louise's birthday on Tuesday at Kobe's (the restaurant with the fire, per Kaleb!).  It is one of the boys' favorites, as they love the tofu (or To-FOOD, in Kaleb's vocabulary!).  She is a very special lady, and doesn't seem like she is a day over 60! :)

On the house front, it continues to be a soap opera.  We received the 2nd appraisal, which was a whopping $20K OVER the offer price (so a total of $113K over the 1st appraisal).  The bank said that the 2nd appraisal did not meet underwriting guidelines, so it was rejected.  Thus, we were again in no-man's land.  Our mortgage broker and realtor both recommended that we come up with a cash price and use the appraisal (so what would we pay over the 1st appraisal amount, as it appeared that this property was impossible to actually value properly).  We did that, and the offer was presented on Thursday.  With it being a "cash in" offer, it was significantly lower than the 1st offer, and she countered with only dropping the offer price by $10K.   We then countered with our final offer (again still a big distance from her counter-offer) and at the same time, discovered that our buyers for our house had decided to go elsewhere (can't blame them after 2 weeks of waiting!).  So, we wait to hear about this final counter-offer but if she accepts it, that means that we have to put our house on the market again.  It may be that these are all signs that this is not God's will for us, and we are at peace with that, so either way it'll be a relief when this is done.

We also had fun last Friday going to Hilliard's to celebrate Cole's birthday.  The kids had fun with the gaggle (what a good old word!) of kids there to play with. Happy Birthday Cole!

Apparently the Happy Birthday singing got too loud for Cole and he had to plug his ears! :)

Conversation of the week:  At supper one night, Karis prompted the boys by asking them what they wanted to be when they grow up:

Zachary:  I want to be a garbage man, I would like to throw things in that truck!
Kaleb:  I want to be a doctor!

This is only funny, because Zachary is SUPER smart and has an amazing memory and yet wants to be a garbage man!  Ha ha ha!  And sometimes we worry about Kaleb's memory (aka, head in the clouds a lot!) and yet he wants to be the doctor!  We had a good chuckle over that, but then affirmed that the boys could be whatever they wanted to when they were adults! 

Sun is too bright!  Ah, the joys of Fall and its cool weather!

And It's Out!

After much wiggling, weeping, wailing, and finally wrenching, Zachary has lost his first tooth!  Success!  He inherited his mother's teeth, so his adult bottom front tooth actually came in BEHIND his baby tooth, so it wasn't pushing the tooth out unofortunately.  He really wanted this tooth out, and Karis kept offering to just yank it out but it just wasn't loose enough until this week.  Daddy Zbaraschuk practically was rubbing his hands together with anticipation to yank this tooth out, while Mommy Zbaraschuk sat in the other room cringing.  It got even worse for her when she hears Zachary praying 'Dear Jesus, please help this not to hurt!' before he lets his dad go in for the proverbial "kill."  With one good upward yank, the tooth was out, blood was everywhere and Zachary was proud as a peacock! :)

The small hole can be seen on the bottom right as you look at the picture

We had the pleasure last weekend of enjoying Sabbath evening and dinner with the Grodack family.  This is the family who have two little girls and a little boy.  Our boys and their girls stairstep basically each year with it starting with Zachary, then Calleigh, Kaleb, Aubrey, then their Brady and our Addison.  Calleigh was the fair maiden who bestowed a first kiss on both Zachary and Kaleb during a rousing game of "Marriage" and was one of the ladies who Kaleb mentioned as being one of his future "mommy" options.  The kids have a very fun time playing together, while adults enjoyed seeing the Grodack's new home (beautiful!) and visiting.  One particularly amusing moment for the Z-parents was when the kids were all playing outside in the sprinklers, and Zachary and Kaleb ran into each other, tumbled over with Kaleb getting a pretty good body slam onto the grass and then both boys jump up and continued to play as if nothing had happened....Duncan was watching with amazement as to the rough and tumble nature of the boys! 

Blurry picture (sorry!) but this was a fast action shot of them racing around the dining room in hot pursuit of a bouncy ball - such fun with such a simple toy!

Addison had her first vaccination this last week (she is actually 10 1/2 weeks right now), so the last 2 days have been a little "off."  Prior to that, Amy had been in total amazement at how easy she has become.  After about 75 minutes of awake time, you can put her in her sleep woombie (love that thing!), take her into her room laying on her side in your arms with her face buried in your elbow, stand and jiggle her for a minute or two and she'd be out like a light and ready to go into her crib.  No fuss, no muss!  Amazing!  But, after the shot, she was unusually fussy and had a hard time staying asleep for any length of time.

Her 2 month picture - love her expression "Whaddya doing mom!!??"

Zachary has apparently inherited, unfortunately, his parents inclination towards headaches.  We both started at a young age with headaches, and he is taking after us.  It is sad to see your child hurting, and we don't want to have to give him medication all of the time, so we're trying a nasal spray with pepper that is all-natural and supposed to help (thanks to Dr. Oz!) - it is on order, so we'll report in whether it works.  We probably need to get him allergy tested as well, as that may be causing the headaches.

Still no word on the other house, we are waiting for the second appraisal to come in, and then we'll know more as to how, or IF, we'll be proceeding.

The weather is turning cool now, it was 59 degrees last night!  This is always a lovely time to be in Orlando - time to really be outside and enjoy the outdoors!

Phrase of the week:  Last Sabbath, Kaleb was having a hard time being respectful and was shouting NO at his Dad (which was kind of unusual for Kaleb).  His Dad finally had enough and told him that he was going to get a spanking.  As they walked to the bedroom, Kaleb say "don't give me a 'panking, it is going to hurt!"  Dad: "Yes, that's the point."  Kaleb's answer:  "Well, then just give me a little tiny one!" as he holds his finger and thumb barely apart! :)

The Soap Opera Continues

Well, as anyone knows who has tried to buy or sell a home recently, it is just a roller coaster.  Our story is no different.  The journey towards, MAYBE, buying a new house has been a soap opera from the very beginning, fraught with distraught from seller's relatives, a deceased spouse, yes, no, maybe so.  Around the around we've gone for the last six months.  Anyway, last week we mentioned that we had put an offer (accepted) on the house and then put ours on the market.  We had 8 showings, with 2 offers submitted and 2 more offers about to be submitted - 50% success rate in 8 days....not too bad.  Unless you count how painful it was to keep the house perfect and have to be out of the house on a moment's notice with your three kids!  We ended up accepting one offer, contingent on the other house sale going through.

And that is where the drama continues....the appraisal came in......DRAMATICALLY less than what it was listed for and we had offered (which was already significantly under what it was listed for).  The lady who owns the home (now a widow, who wants to downsize) freaked out of course.  After much "I won't sell the house for that" and a responding "We won't pay that much over market value, so we need to have an appraisal that works" we're now at the stage of getting a 2nd appraisal and we'll see where it goes.  It may mean that we don't move, or it may mean that we get the house for even less than we anticipated.  Whatever the outcome, it has been a stressful few weeks - some that Amy hopes not to repeat.  In fact, if this doesn't go through, then we will not be putting our house back on the market and attempting to move to a bigger place until next Spring/Summer.  It is just too hard with sleep deprivation and a newborn who sleeps all of the time.  It helps that we LIKE our house! :)

Speaking of Addison, she is now always sleeping from about 10P to somewhere between 6:30 and 8A the next morning.  She has actually had a 12 hour stretch, but normally it is in the 10 hour range.  In fact, we know wake her up by no later than 8A to be sure that we keep the day on track.  She is not a big eater, and we often struggle with getting her to eat all of her bottles (4.5 ozs is about the max that we can achieve thus far).  And with that, she is gaining weight but slowly.   That is a worry for Amy as she was used to the boys growing so quickly, but Addison is a dainty little thing.  Cute as a button though!  She is VERY smiley, giving them away and showing off those dimples with abandon.  She likes to coo and make faces - especially at her Daddy who will make the same silly faces back! :)

Last week we celebrated Canadian Thanksgiving with our friends - some Canadians and some honorary Canadians over at Deiningers.  It was a delicious meal - thanks to everyone and to the the gracious hosts!  Yum!

Amy's Aunt Louise had knee surgery two weeks ago, and her son Rick came down from Tennessee to take care of her, so we enjoyed a visit with him.  We're thankful to say that Aunt Louise is recovering nicely, although it is painful!

Zachary continues to be a voracious reader, and as mentioned a few weeks ago, he loves to listen to Bible stories.  Now he has taken it a step further and loves to actually just read the Bible itself.  He spends literally hours over the space of a week reading the Bible.  Because he has listened to the Bible stories, he knows how to pronounce many of the names that we adults stumble over! :)  He has spent so much time reading, that the other day he mentioned that his eyes were starting to hurt - so now we're trying to limit the time that he spends reading it (although kind of sad to have to tell him to stop reading the Bible!)

 

Reading while Daddy looks on

This time, Daddy reading while Zachary & Addison listen

This year, Kaleb has started in a soccer class in the mornings, it helps him keep occupied now that the other boys are in Kindergarten. It has been quite a fun experience, and the soccer coach is very creative in the games that they play to strengthen their muscles and coordination. All play, yet learning how to be a better soccer player!

Phrase of the week:  Kaleb has gotten into a phase where he'll say the funniest things, so this week his phrase is "You've got to be kidding me!"  The next funny thing is a confession that Karis made to Amy this week - he mentioned that one morning when he was particularly tired from a lack of sleep that when he stumbled into the bathroom to brush his teeth that morning, he reached for his toothbrush......the toothbrush in the MIRROR!  Ha ha ha, kind of hard to brush your teeth with the reflection! :)

Zachary's funny conversation came as a result of his school book report.  He had to get a favorite book, so we sent him to his room to get a Berenstain bear book, as he knows them so well.  He comes back out and stands in front of Amy.

Amy:  So you got your favorite book?  Is it "Always Obey Your Parents?" (Hee hee!)
Zach:  No
Amy:  Is it "Never Misbehave?" (Ha ha!)
Zach:  No
Amy:  Is it Don't Bug Your Brother? (Laughing now)
Zach:  No, and with a flourish, he pulls out the book and states it's the "Trouble with Grown-ups!"  Ha ha - the joke was on us!  We all started laughing seriously at this point - it was such a perfect end to all of the book titles that Amy was throwing out (which none of them actually exist, but she was having some "wishful thinking fun!").

Cracked Up!

The Zbaraschuks are cracked - in more ways than one.  Let's start off with the humor.....Kaleb has decided that a super fun game to play with grandma is "baby chick."  It involves her rolling him up "like a burrito" in a blanket on the floor and then she must lay on him, as if she's "hatching" him!  He then lays quietly and then begins to wiggle his way out of the blanket so that he (aka the baby chick) is born!  He thinks that this is just hilarious and then insists that they do it over and over again!  He has such an imagination!  Amy's picture taking skills were lacking this day, so we apologize for the blurry picture but it is the only one that we have.

Kaleb in his "egg" of blue!

Unfortunately, we are cracked in more ways than this funny story.  We fell into an alternate reality - a world in which it seemed like a good idea for the Zbaraschuk family to put an offer on a new house and put our house on the market.  In this parallel world where this makes sense, we are not bothered with the fact that we have a newborn and are sleep deprived.  We are not bothered by the fact that keeping a house "show ready" with two very energetic boys is impossible!  In the REAL world, Amy is at least thinking "WE ARE INSANE!? WHAT ARE WE THINKING?"


It's a lovely home that we have many good memories from - kind of melancholyto think of leaving

To be fair, we had been thinking casually for a few years about getting a bigger place that would have a bigger yard for the boys to play in (Daddy Zbaraschuk growing up on a farm would love to have more space!).  We wanted to stay centrally located so that our commutes were not long, have a bonus room for the future teenagers that we want to hang out at our house, enough space for in-laws to be able to visit in comfort etc.  The list was fairly lengthy!  We saw a house about a year ago that filled most of the "wish list" but we weren't ready at that time to really make a change, and frankly we do like our house and were happy.  A few months ago, the homeowner approached our realtor and asked if we were interested still....and our journey began.  Without going into specifics, it has been like a soap opera dealing with the homeowner, so we aren't counting any chickens yet (seeing as we're CRACKED UP anyway! :).

A week ago, we put the offer on the house, it was accepted and put our house on the market the next day.  We will see what God has in store for us - we have to sell our house first before we actually buy the other one, so there is still a chance that this won't end up happening.  We have had 5 showings this week (the PAIN of trying to keep your house perfect with two active boys and a newborn and feeding schedules....).  We have actually had one offer already, so fingers crossed if we can come to a deal the pain may be over quickly.  We are concerned whether either of the houses will appraise - because all of our friends have been plagued by bad appraisals.  But, let's not borrow trouble.

Amy really hasn't even wanted to talk much about the whole thing until recently as she didn't have much belief that this would ever happen, and is still doubtful....but it does seem like it is progressing a little bit so maybe, just maybe.  The new house is just on the other side of Bear Lake, about 5 minutes from our current location.  It is on 2.2 acres and is beside 10 acres of currently undeveloped land (although it is for sale as 2 five acre lots).  It has a 5 car garage and a workshop (Karis is in heaven!).  It has a large bonus room, and four bedrooms with a room that we're going to convert into a 5th bedroom for guests.  Anyway, we'll see what God has in plan for us and if we actually move!

Addison slept for TEN hours one night this week!  She is consistently now sleeping 8-9 hours each night.  We are so blessed.  During the day, sleeping is hit or miss, sometimes wonderful and other times she has a hard time - oh well, adults have a hard time sleeping sometimes too! :)  She is starting to smile much more regularly (so precious!) and is becoming more aware.  She appears to like to stand on your lap (may be taking after her brothers!).  Her face though unfortunately is covered with red, scaly skin - we're trying to figure out what might help.  Not sure if it just cradle cap, dry skin or eczema.

Such a cutie!

The boys went to Green Meadows yesterday as a part of Zachary's school field trip.  It is always a fun trip.  Zachary caught a chicken that they dubbed "Feather pants" because the chicken had feathers all the way down her legs!  Milking the cow is always a hit with Zachary, although Kaleb will have nothing to do with it! 

Zachary had his Adventurer induction last weekend.  He got to carry in the flag for his group the Busy Bees (This time Karis' picture taking skills were lacking, so that picture is also really blurry).  Afterwards there was a bake sale, which the boys enjoyed a special treat of a cupcake.

Zachary, Cole and Loghann receiving their pin from last year

Phrase of the week:  Kaleb has just been hilarious lately.  This is perhaps a bit embarrassing, but it happens to everyone, even if we all hope that no-one knows that it happens....  One night he says to Amy "Mommy, I love you...because you don't toot!"  Amy thinks (Hmm, can't say that toots don't happen.....) so she says "Kaleb, would you love me even if I did toot?"  His response "Yes, because they don't like stink like Daddy's!"  Ha ha - poor Daddy!