Curious George

Sorry for the lack of a post last weekend - we were actually in New Mexico from last week through Sunday of this week at meetings that Amy attends, so there just wasn't time for a blog post!  We'll post all about our trip this coming weekend, but we felt like the events of the previous weekend at least needed a mention of their own!  Last weekend, Zachary and Mommy had the good fortune of attending a Curious George play with our dear friends the Deininger family.  This was the second play that Zachary has ever attended - the Berenstain Bear musical play being the first one.  It was a full 90 minutes, so it was definitely longer than the Bear play, but it was quite entertaining.  It was right during nap-time, so Zachary was a little droopy eyed but we still had fun.  As this was the day before we left on our trip to New Mexico on the FOUR HOUR flight, we decided that Kaleb needed to stay at home with Daddy and get a solid nap in.  Zachary probably needed the nap as much, or truthfully more, than Kaleb did, but we couldn't resist taking him to the play as he has Curious George books that he enjoys.  Anyway, we'll post this weekend about the grand adventure that we had last week as well, so stay tuned! :)

Gotta Love Holiday Weekends

There is nothing better than having a holiday weekend - especially one that you stay at home and enjoy doing fun things around your town, as well as getting one thousand errands done - so satisfying!  The weather was very rainy last weekend, so it actually wrecked our plans to go to the beach on Sunday morning.  But, the cloudy rainy weather turned out to be a blessing because on Monday, we headed off to SeaWorld with the kids and enjoyed the fact that the park was EMPTY (probably because everyone thought it was going to rain) and the fact that it wasn't 95 degrees out!  Zachary continues to love petting the stingrays, and he definitely is a roller coaster man!

Watching "Nemo"

No fear with the stingrays

He laughs out loud on this roller coaster ride!

Kaleb was playing in the sand while Mommy & Zachary went on rides

Love how Zachary was holding Kaleb's hand!

Kaleb getting his first taste of splash parks!  He dove right in after a while!

Zachary discovered the water guns on this particular trip

It appears to be official - our boys LOVE fireworks, and have absolutely NO fear of them.  We thought for sure that Kaleb would flinch at the noise of the fireworks, but never once did he jump.  Zachary loved watching them so much that he begged Daddy to buy more!  Due to our home's early bedtimes, we didn't partake in any "official" fireworks - just the ones at home.

Our front row seats for the fireworks!

Reading another friend's blog reminded us of a hilarious story that happened recently with Kaleb.  Amy was in the kitchen with Zachary, who didn't get his way on some unremembered issue, and he began to sob and whine - laying himself down on the tile to do it.  Amy informed him that if he wanted to cry and have a fit, that he was welcome to do so but he'd have to go to his room to do it, so Zachary got up and walked to the bedroom to sit on his red chair.  In the meantime, Kaleb was wandering around, happy as a fiddle....but watching everything that was going on.  After a minute or so while Amy was talking on the phone, she watched Kaleb walk into the kitchen with her, begin to cry, then he laid himself down on the floor where Zachary had been laying, got up and walked to Zachary's bedroom to join in the "time-out! - all of this without a single word from Amy.   It was the funniest thing that we've seen - must have been brother solidarity!

Phrase of the week:  We tried a new pizza joint here in town - Papa Murphy's (Gram-Z, you'll be so happy that it is here now!), and when Amy got home, he informed her that pizza had sweeni in it.  Huh?  Daddy informed her that it was zucchini! :)  Kaleb's word lately is "Some, Some, Some!" - this means that he wants whatever you've just put on your plate or into a glass - regardless of whether he already has the exact same thing already on his plate!

Ode to Sod

This last winter was particularly hard on everyone's grass here after very "cold" (yes, for all of our northern loved ones, it really wasn't truly cold, but to Floridians it was cold!) temperatures for extended periods of time. Karis had his fingers crossed that the lawns would come back if we just gave them a bit of time, but with each passing day that hope became more dim! With that in mind, Karis took the plunge this week to at least get Amy's mom's yard taken care of. He mis-calculated though and ordered too much sod, so when he realized this, he put the rest of the sod into the back of the van (who says you need a truck when you have an Odyssey!!?) and drove it home in a mad dash. It was late by this time already in the day and it was threatening to storm, and he still had to prepare the spot on our yard to actually put it down! He ended up putting the mower on the lowest setting to mow as much of it as he could, and then took the edger and "tilled" up the ground as best he could.

The real issue truly was the storm - as Karis was out there working, it was thundering and the sky was black. Amy had the kids inside to keep them out of danger and was praying that he wouldn't be hit by lightning (and clearly he wasn't - otherwise our post would be very different!). It began to POUR on him, so we whipped out the old SeaWorld poncho and he completed the job. Other than the fact that he was in danger and soaking wet by the time he was done, it was perfect timing as it rained that day, and has been cloudy/rainy ever since so we're hoping that the weather reprieve will help the sod take root.  We still have more on our lawn to get done, but at least it was started!

In the pouring rain...

Intently watching Daddy

We had the pleasure this week of hosting a get-together for the Michigan Cochrans (soon to be Florida Cochrans!) as they were down here looking at houses. Between the Deiningers, Z's, Florida Cochran family, and soon to be Florida Cochran family, we had NINE boys (no girls!) here in the house! They played super well together, we were all impressed.

Not all of the boys were in this picture, but it did get a sense of happy play!

Kaleb graduated from the ISR swimming lessons this week. As we've mentioned in past years, Zachary was NOT a fan of the official swimming lessons although he LOVES to swim - he could cry and scream the whole time he was in lessons. Kaleb started off in his big brother's footsteps but about a week into it, he flipped a switch and stopped crying, and in fact would run into Miss Carmen's house, asked her to take off his shoes and then would tell her during the lesson which way he wanted to go when she released him into the water to work on his floating and swimming! He really aced the whole thing - he can now float in a very relaxed fashion, and will alternate between floating and swimming until he reaches his desired destination. He is as proud as a peacock that he can turn over at will now in the water!

For his last day, he had to swim fully clothed to be sure that he could still do it even if he fell in accidentally.  He would keep his eyes closed when floating, but was completely relaxed and happy.

Proud as a peacock for reaching his destination!

Last week we attended Blake's birthday bowling party - the kids had a blast although as one of our friends said "Why doesn't someone open a candle pin bowling alley down here!?" It is just so much easier for the kids to handle one of those small, light-weight balls! Luckily, there was a ramp that the kids could lift their balls onto and then push them down the ramp to actually get enough speed to make it all the way to the pins. Everyone had a grand time once that ramp appeared!

The balls were 6-7 pounds - kind of hard to carry when you only weigh 29 pounds yourself!

Poised and ready to push the ball down the ramp

Phrase of the week:  Kaleb's phrase is similar to last week's - "Walk!!" - he's just becoming so independent that he rarely will let you carry him anymore - he MUST walk himself!    Zachary has become a very good helper around the house, and loves to do laundry (at least certain parts of the laundry) and will ask "Did you clean the 'cement'? which translated means the lint screen! Even though we use the correct word for it, he has latched onto "cement" - it brings a smile to our face, so we don't make a big deal of correcting him!

Early Morning Conversations

As we mentioned last week, there is a strict 7A (aka 6:45A) wake-up time in the Z-household. This was instituted primarily because of the eldest Z child's propensity to wake up at 5A, and then be crabby and weepy for the rest of the day. However, while there is a strict get-up time, Zachary has been on a trend of getting up at 6:15-6:30 to go poop - well, what can you say when that's the request? So, the modified rule is that after he's done, he goes back to his room to wait until the clock says 7 to start the day for real. Kaleb continues to wake up around the same time, and this week a new practice was born - the early morning conversation. Amy heard shouting, and went to investigate - only to realize that the boys were both in their respective bedrooms "talking" back and forth to each other - as much as they can talk based on Kaleb's limited (although ever expanding) vocabulary - the conversation went something like this:

-Zachary: Hi Kaleb!
-Kaleb: ACKY!!! (The Z apparently is a hard one for Mr. Kaleb)
-Zachary: I love you Kaleb!
-Kaleb: What? (We haven't mastered I love you yet)
-Zachary and Kaleb then begin to go back and forth, mimicking odd sounds that the other person can make, with an occasional scream of each other's name thrown in for good measure.

Phrase of the week: Zachary: "How many kisses tonight?" Every night there is of course the bedtime routine, of which kisses are a part! We've been working on our counting skills by counting kisses - we've gone all the way up to 40, as well as now counting by 10s up to 100! Kaleb's phrase is "Do it, Do IT!" No question about it, Kaleb is very independent already and is insistent that he do most things for himself.

This video is what we'll call "Crash-em Derby!" - the boys were having a blast out in the rain - Kaleb had been laughing hysterically out there as they crashed in their cars.

Exploration

This week has had fun new moments of exploration.  It has been raining like crazy here (SUPER muggy as well!) all week in our typical summer fashion, and one afternoon the boys found a snail on the front sidewalk.  This was the first time to have examined a snail up closely, which they found fascinating.

Kaleb has started to walk in his brother's early riser footsteps - this is NOT a good thing.  He's always been our fabulous sleeper with a usual wake-up time of  7:15 or so.   But, he's been starting to wake up earlier and this week, it is has been around 6:30'ish.  The Z children's official wake-up time is 6:45, and this is held firmly otherwise it will soon by 5A by the eldest child if he was allowed.  Kaleb is usually not too impressed that he has to stay in his crib until 6:45, so apparently he decided to entertain himself.  Amy walked in the first morning (yes, we didn't learn our lesson and it happened multiple times this week) to find Kaleb buck naked, with his diaper partially off.   Apparently he was checking himself out.  Luckily there was no poop - we can be thankful for small blessings!

Kaleb has entered into the shoe fetish stage of his life - Zachary loved to walk around in our shoes as well, so we were fully expecting this at some point.  Kaleb is a lucky man however, because not only does he have his parents shoes to wear around, but also his brother's!

The last moment of exploring new horizons this week occurred as Amy was rushing to get everyone out of the house, late as usual, when she came out into the garage where Kaleb and Zachary had gone (just moments before, how can so much happen in just a few moments?) to find Kaleb sitting on the floor of the garage SMEARED in black grease.  Fabulous - just fabulous.  Thankfully it came off with some vigorous scrubbing rather than having to take him in for a bath - but Daddy received strict instructions to get that grease off the garage floor pronto!!!

Happy Father's Day to all of you tireless fathers - what a blessing you are to the little people in your lives!

Phrase of the week:  Mommy, you're the best kisser!  Ha ha - we'll see how long that lasts - although Amy says that he's not allowed to date until he's 25!! :)  We have determined that Kaleb wants to know certain words of things around the house, and will point to them shouting "Dat!, Dat!" - that is our cue to tell him the word of the item - although sadly it took us a while to figure that out! :)

Exhaustion

Some weeks are easy weeks, but others are the kind of weeks where you get to Friday and thank God that it is the beginning of Sabbath.  This has been one of those weeks - from things like work, worry, and lack of sleep.  Zachary has not wanted to nap ("No, my eyes don't want to close," or "No, I don't think so, not today") - and invariably when he starts to miss his naps, he starts to wake up in the middle of the night.  It seems counter-intuitive, but that's the way it goes.  So, there has been very little quality sleep this week.  At one point, Amy very seriously told him that she needed her sleep and that he was NOT to come out to her room until 7A - well, what happened?  He woke up at 5A, came to his door, and then started to 'cry' (the kind of convenient crying that ends as soon as they see your face) which she hears from her bedroom with the super-sonic mother ears and jumps up to go discover the issue.  When she arrives and asks what is wrong, he informs her that he was crying because he couldn't walk across the house in the dark (even though he has been doing this for at least a year so it is more likely that he remembered being told that he wasn't allowed to come out of his room until 7A!).  One interesting outcome of this week is that apparently fathers do not have super-sonic daddy hearing because Karis has slept peacefully through each night's interruptions! :)

We started off the week in a lovely way however when we went over to the Isidros to see their beautiful twin babies - Kohlden and Madelyn.  Zachary and their oldest daughter Braelyn had a fabulous time playing, while Kaleb was enamored with another little girl, Calleigh Grodack.  The ladies had a very special treat when we went out to celebrate Tangie's birthday and enjoyed a supper out alone where we talked up a storm.

Our friend and babysitter, Miss Jennifer, had her gallbladder out the Thursday before we left for Memorial Day.  During the ensuing time that she wasn't able to watch the boys, we were blessed to have cousin Kelsey come over and watch the boys at our house.  The boys had a fantastic time, and were so sad to have their time over (although they do love to play at Miss Jennifer's!).  One of the fun things that they did was to make a "fort" out of Zachary's bed, and play hide-and-seek throughout the house.

Kaleb started swimming lessons this week.  The best description is probably "Mad as a Hatter!"  What is a Hatter anyway - does anyone know?  It makes a person wonder sometimes where these phrase comes from.  But, while furious about the whole thing, he's doing amazing and kicks super hard and can float fantastically.   We will try and get some pictures of his new accomplishment when he gets near the end of his lessons.

We are going to President's Council out in New Mexico in July and for the Friday night vespers, each family was assigned to a "fruit of the spirit" based on the first letter of your last name.  We drew "self-control" and had to come up with an art project or photo that depicted self-control.   We chose a picture of the kids doing something that required self-control.  For Adventists who grew up in a conservative home, this picture should make all the sense in the world - for any reader who didn't grow up Adventist, sorry - you won't get it! :)  For anyone who doesn't get it, email us and we'll give you the story! :)

The boys are huge fans right now of "strawberry drinks" - they're basically smoothies that Karis makes out of almond milk, ice, Juice Plus powder, and fruit.  They beg to have them when they get up from their naps, and devour them - leaving their faces covered usually in the drink!

Phrase of the week:  Zachary informed me that he wanted his friend Luke Deininger to come over last weekend and that "He's my favorite" - it is sweet to see them making friendships - of course the "favorite" is fleeting at this age - whoever is around seems to be the favorite of the moment.  Kaleb's phrase this week is "Men!" - this is really supposed to be "Amen" but he doesn't quite get the first syllable.  He is so precious right now, he kneels down to pray and when it's his turn, he starts to mumble as if he's talking (although his vocabulary isn't really big enough right now to say much) and then when he gets to the "end" of his prayer, he yells "Men!" and looks up at us, proud as a peacock!

Kaleb "drinking" from the water sprayer bottle

Escape to Riviera Maya

To celebrate the adult birthdays in this family, Mommy and Daddy had a lovely vacation to the Riviera Maya last weekend for four days with our friends, Kent and Kelli. None of us have ever been there - it was an all-inclusive resort about halfway between Cancun and Playa del Carmen, and we LOVED it. We had been understandably a bit nervous about going to Mexico - who wants to be kidnapped!?? - but we never felt uneasy at all (nor did we leave the resort though at night!).

We stayed at the Iberostar Grand resort which is an adults-only resort, and it was very quiet with lots of activities to do throughout the day and four restaurants to eat from at night (large buffets were open for breakfast and lunch). We weren't sure how the men would handle a beach vacation, but there were enough activities that they enjoyed the mix of relaxing along with air gun shooting, archery, hoby-cat sailing (so fun!), a bike tour of the complex which held 5 Iberostar resorts, spa services (Amy & Kelli!), and Kent went wind-surfing! We could also have gone snorkeling, golfing, kayaking, floating along a lazy river, and many more activities but that would have reduced the relaixng time! :) We joked each morning that we had to get up early in order to get the relaxing started! :)

We found ourselves enjoying the tiki huts on the beach for the most part, but did venture into the resort pools several times. Kelli bought a small ball (think hacky-sack size) that would "skip" like a rock in the water if you threw it just right - the activities pool was huge, so all four of us were playing with it in the pool and throwing it to each other.

The one excursion that we did was to take a private tour of the Mayan Ruins at Chichen Itza (one of the seven wonderes of the world). Our tour guide, Agudelio Alanis, was very relaxed, funny, and had a huge knowledge base that kept us going the whole day. We also saw traditional Mayan villages (amazing how they live in round one-room huts made out of sticks with thatched roofs - and we complain at times that our homes aren't big enough?1?), a Colonial town, and swam in a cenote. The cenote is an underground pool in a cave, and it was very neat to swim around in it.

We counted it a success that none of us came back looking like lobsters, although let's be clear - the Z's went with the plan that they would NOT be burning, so actually didn't even get as much tan color as one would have thought but at least we enjoyed our vacation immensely!

The boys had a blast with Grandma over the four days (thank you amazing Grandma for allowing us this vacation!). In fact, the day that we left, Zachary asked Amy "Mommy, how many days are you going to be gone" to which she reassured him "only four days, we won't be gone very long." He then responded "I think that you should be gone for more days, I like to stay with Grandma!!" Ha ha - that's so awesome.

As always, Grandma kept us entertained with email snippets of amusing anecdotes that happened while we were away, so I thought that I would include a few excerpts here to memorialize them!

Kids were playing in my [Grandma's] car and Zach had opened to the roof window (on a slant) and then was trying to close it, but apparently couldn’t figure out how. I heard him yelling and pretty soon he climbed out and said “grandma, I’m trying to shut that door and it won’t listen to me!”

Since this is Sunday, Zach decided we 'had' to do sprinklers and he knows how to turn them on, I just had fun trying to figure out how to turn them off. Of course Sunday is laundry day, so 'had' to do laundry. He can't quit get the idea of Monday being a holiday so no garbage pick up. Just isn't getting it no matter how I try to explain it and how many times I explain it! He was sure we needed to mow the lawn also since we do that Sundays. Told him that was a definite NO! He kept showing me how much the grass had grown. (As an aside, Zachary knows what happens on each day of the week, and is a bit OCD (wonder where he got that from?), so each task MUST happen on the appropriate day!)

View from our balcony - very much enjoyed reading on the balcony in the early mornings - the balcony had a couch and a two-person swing on it.

The beach in front of the beautiful water!

The guys enjoying the tiki huts on the beach

Enjoying the bike ride of the resort complex

 Playing with the  "skipping ball" in the activities pool

Enjoying a cabana by the pool

This was part of the front lobby

Such a beautiful tree - such vivid colors - this was at the Mayan ruins

  

Another beautiful yellow tree at the Colonial town Valladolid

The temple at the Chichen Itza mayan ruins

This was a picture of the cenote where we swam