Sleep Anyone?

Every year our mantra is - "Time Change is NO FUN!" - and this year can be no different. Prior to children the fall "fall back" time change was always looked forward to with anticipation for the extra hour of sleep. No longer - no matter which way the clock is moving, it only spells bad news in the Z-household. Before making it out to be too horrific, we will share that after the week has passed it does seem like both boys have transitioned over to the new time, but it wasn't pretty for a few days - the worse being a 4:40AM wake up call - after which Zachary did NOT go back to sleep - those are bad days, very bad days! We may have to move somewhere where the time doesn't ever change!

Last weekend, the adult portion of this Z-family went to the Isidro Pumpkin Fest - it is truly amazing as they do this every year, and there are well over 50 people there. There is a cooking contest, games and just a lot of fun. Karis contributed a pumpkin lasagna this year (Amy hates pumpkin, so the cooking of a dish simply wouldn't be right coming from a pumpkin hater). Our friend Jennifer actually won the dessert portion of the contest with her chocolate pumpkin cheesecake cake (it is a chocolate cake with a layer in the middle of pumpkin cheesecake!) Yum! Congratulations Jennifer! Amy's mom stayed over night, so we were able to stay as long as we wanted - it was kind of amazing to actually stay out past 9PM! :)

This week, aside from the time change, has been a bit interesting. Wednesday night, Zachary didn't want to eat his supper (pizza - who doesn't like pizza!) and so Amy gave him the choice of eating his supper, or just going to bed without eating. He chose going to bed which was a little unusual, but that was fine with us. We put him to bed, and almost immediately he got up and said that his stomach hurt - but he did it with a Cheshire cat grin on his face, so Amy was in a quandary of whether this was really true or whether it was a ploy to get out of bed. She offered up a drink of water and he went happily back to bed. Karis went off to the gym, and no sooner had he left (sans cell phone - all part of his grand plan to be unreachable), Zachary got up and began to throw up. Amy figured out what was going on as he started to open his bedroom door, and in a stunned fashion ran over and stood there saying "Do you feel okay, is it over?" Note to self - in the future, grab the child and run like mad to the bathroom instead of standing there having a conversation!!! As you can imagine, it WASN'T over, so the hurling began again, narrowly missing Amy. Amy had quite the fun time cleaning up Zachary, changing clothes, cleaning carpets etc while Karis happily exercised at the gym! :)

The next morning, Amy was well on schedule to getting out the door on time, fully dressed etc, and the last thing that she does is wake Kaleb up and walk out the door. He woke up about 10 minutes prior to her being quite ready to get him, so she rushed around and then went in to get him. As she opens the door, it hits her - the stink of puke. Yep, poor baby Kaleb threw up in the middle of the night, unbeknownst to us, and was covered in it. For all of you who didn't know, puke makes curly hair REALLY CURLY. His hair has never been that curly!! It was quite fun trying to bathe him in a hurry, Amy had to undress in order to not get soaked. Now, as an aside, Jennifer's kids had been sick earlier (that's where the Z kids got it from), and both of them were acting fine, so Jennifer was actually very gracious and watched them so that Amy could actually go to her dentist appointment that has been rescheduled a thousand times already. Both boys seemed to just have the one true episode thankfully - although they've been a bit puny for a few days since.

Phrase of the week: "You're ticking me off, daddy" Now, this was treading on the line of being disrespectful, so let's be clear, Amy was doing everything that she could not to laugh when this very grown-up phrase came out of Zachary's mouth. It was in conjunction with a very minor offense, but Zachary seemed to want to try it on for size. Afterwards, Amy questioned Daddy where perhaps Zachary would have picked that up, and Daddy confessed that he in fact had been using that phrase around Zachary because Zachary was ticking Daddy off---hmm, important lesson to watch what we say because it is sure to be repeated back to us!!!

Zachary and Daddy playing catch on the back deck

Kaleb and Mommy at the park

Kaleb eating a tomato like an apple!

New Bike!

The exciting news in our household this week is that Zachary has his first bike. He has been very interested in riding bikes - we have lots of riding vehicles on our back deck (it is like a car lot!) but he's also been asking for a bike. So, we took him to Toys R Us last weekend and tried out a bunch of bikes. We ended up getting a 14 inch bike, which are VERY hard to find as they don't make very many but we lucked out as it was the right size for him and they had one left - and because it was their last 14 inch bike, they gave us a great deal!

A few weeks ago, Jennifer took the boys to Green Meadows Petting Farm - this is their first trip to the petting zoo, and they had a really great time. Zachary got to milk a cow (although he wasn't too sure that he should be touching the cow there....we're pretty sure that he thought that the cow's teats were the cow's "pee-pee"! :) Jennifer had to convince him that it was okay to touch the cow there! Zachary also caught a chicken all by himself - he was grinning from ear to ear! We're actually all going as a family in a few weeks with a group of our friends, so we'll all get to experience it. Kaleb is a bit nervous about getting up close and personal with the animals at this point, so he enjoys from afar.

Zachary has reached a fabulous age - he seems to have crossed the bridge finally of the terrible two's and even worse three's (not to say that he doesn't still have his moments) but he is definitely much improved in terms of mood and behavior. He is so sweet - he tells us that he loves us, that we're his best friends, that we're nice to him, gives us tons of hugs and for the most part he's very loving to Kaleb. In fact, this week Kaleb was laying on the floor crying about something and Zachary walked over to him and rubbed his belly and tried to console Kaleb by saying "It's okay Kaleb, I love you. Daddy will come pick you up."

Kaleb is also at a really sweet age - he really hasn't reached the "fits" stage of life (which we're thankful for!). This is always the age that makes a parent say "Perhaps we should have another kid, because they are just SO cute and precious right now!" - and then the terrible 2's hit and you run from that idea! :) He is very cuddly, and loves to laugh. He is always laughing at Zachary's antics. He has mastered the art of walking now and rarely do we see him crawling at all. He is very independent and insists on feeding himself, although as long as he starts feeding himself and keeps the fork, he will allow us to begin feeding him some bites in between his attempts. He definitely likes to sleep in longer than Zachary ever did - and usually sleeps until about 7:30'ish every morning - whereas we have to enforce the rule that Zachary can't get up before 6:45 in the morning - otherwise he'd be up before 6:00!!

Amy is in charge of crafts in November at Sabbath School. The story is 'Paul and the Shipwreck.' Now, for all of you who know Amy well - she is NOT CRAFTY. What was she thinking volunteering for crafts??? So needless to say it has been a bit of a struggle to come up with ideas, but there is now a plan for all four weeks of crafts, so hopefully it will go well. She volunteered to be the Sabbath School secretary in February, so we'll see if that is better.
True Bizarre Story - Yesterday at work, Amy was sitting in her office working when she heard a helicopter approaching, and getting closer and closer and closer until it was so close that you could feel the vibrations of the blades. She jumped up and ran to her window to look out and sees a military Blackhawk helicopter screaming towards our building. The doors of the helicopter are open, and a military guy in full gear is sitting in the back with HIS GUN. The helicopter flies parallel to our building between us and the restaurant to the lake behind us, when he reaches the lake, he turns around and flies back between us and the restaurant so low that he is level with the third floor of our building (the building is a four story building) where Finance is located. Once he gets to the front of the building, he just flies away as if no big deal. After the terrorist attacks of 9/11, people are naturally skittish so the buildings occupants were pretty freaked out. Two ladies in the corner office on the third floor had run out of the office when he flew by because they thought they were about to be shot - imagine, you're in a meeting and all of a sudden a Blackhawk helicopter flies by right beside your window with a guy with a machine gun hanging out the open door!! We're in the middle of town, and the closest airforce base is over an hour away, so this has definitely never happened before to us. Anyway, it all ended well but it did seem very irresponsible for the pilot to fly so close and so low to our building but we're all clear, we'll never know the true story of what was going on.

Phrase of the week: Zachary is very clever about coming up with plausible excuses for getting up after we've put him to bed - the typical excuses of needing to go pee, needing a drink etc. We've solved those excuses by putting a sippy cup in his bed, and having him go to the bathroom right before lights are turned off. So, Zachary then decided that he'd ask for another hug, and what parent can say "No" to another request for a hug! So, we started being very specific in giving him a hug before he went to bed (he'd always been getting a ton of kisses but we hadn't been doing a special hug prior to going to bed). Well, he figured out how to get around the fact that he'd already had a hug when he came out one night and said "I need a hug." Amy replied "We already gave you a hug - you need to go back to bed". He looked at her, thought a minute and said "Yes, but it wasn't your BEST" Ha ha ha - who could argue with that clever logic - so one more night he got to use that excuse - we fixed it the next night by telling him when we gave him our hugs that the hugs were our BEST hugs. So clever!

Zachary insisted on vacuuming - who are we to argue?

Haircut & Birthday Party!

Well, we're clearly 'milking' the whole last baby thing for all its worth, because Amy has steadfastly been avoiding cutting Kaleb's hair because she doesn't want him to lose his baby look, and those cute curls! But, she did have to in the end relent - just a little bit - and so his bangs have at least now been cut so that they're no longer in his eyes. The back was trimmed enough just to make it all even, but that's it, so he still has retained his curls. Karis is appalled when we give him a bath because you can see how long his hair really is - it is past his shoulders in the back when it is hanging straight! :) Good thing Grandma is an expert at cutting hair!

We had a birthday party last weekend for Cole Hilliard - and it was also our first foray into truly Fall weather - it was FREEZING out at the park (and windy). The kids had a fun time though with the construction themed party games and pinata (Zachary's first!).

The day before, we went to the park to enjoy our "crisp" weather, and had a great time with Blake, Evan, Zachary and Kaleb. There was a baseball game going on at the park, and at one point all three of the boys (Kaleb, Blake and Zachary) had set themselves down to watch - very cute! There was a hill beside the ball diamond, and Blake and Zachary discovered the fun of rolling down hills! We remember those days as kids as well - great fun!

Karis is at a local continuing education class this weekend, so it is just Amy and the boys hanging out. Amy's Uncle Gene and Aunt Bert are here, so we had a family get-together at Aunt Louise's Friday night. It was great fun to see everyone - especially Kelsey as she is back on a break from her first year of college! One mortifying moment though is when Kaleb managed to break away from adult supervision and broke one of Aunt Louise's glass decorative tea cups - first time a Z-child has broken something there - but we've been waiting for it as there are lots of fun glass things to explore there at eye level!! Aunt Louise was very gracious, but one would wish we had avoided that unfortunate event!

Phrase of the week: "Uncle Kelsey" - Zachary was quite pleased to call her Uncle Kelsey until several adults tried to give him gender lessons - we all had a bit of a chuckle about his choice of words for Kelsey! :) He does love her dearly, so we're sure that she forgave Zachary! :)

Readers - Beware!

Well, we did give you the warning - to read on, you must read at your own risk! We have the ultimate gross story about cockroaches - it still is making Amy shudder!

Amy had to attend a conference on Tuesday, after which the entertainment was a night out at La Nouba (hard life, isn't it?) - so she didn't get home until quite late. She went into the pool bathroom (beside Zachary's room) before going to bed so that she wouldn't wake up Karis. We've had a bit of a "cockroach" issue over the last 2-3 months in which we've seen more than the normal amount (which honestly is usually NONE), so she wondered to herself "Hmm, it's late and dark in the house, I wonder if I'll see a cockroach in here?" Sure enough, she turns her head and looks at the bathroom countertop, and then she sees it.........................................A COCKROACH SUCKING ON THE BRISTLES OF ZACHARY'S TOOTHBRUSH.

AHHHHHHHHHHHH - even the memory of it starts the shudders again!!! Can you imagine, if she hadn't been in there that night, she would have put that toothbrush in Zachary's mouth the next night, having no idea!!!! Needless to say, that cockroach met an early demise and the toothbrush was hurled into the garbage!

A quick trip to the CVS store fixed the toothbrush issue, and a toothbrush cover was purchased. Zachary thinks that the cover is quite nifty, so it is working out well. Mr. Pest-Control (aka Karis) has developed the "plan of attack" to get rid of these things once and for all and we've got our fingers crossed - so far, so good.

This week's post WAS going to solely be about our children's "signature tricks" as babies, but the event of the week was quickly surpassed by THE COCKROACH (all women, begin screaming now!) . However, we do love the signature tricks, so will end up a much happier note! :)

When Zachary was a baby, his signature trick was to "flex" his muscles - we loved it and would ask him to do it over and over again. He'd hold up his hands, clench them into fists, and then flex them and his little arms would shake and his face would be all tight with the effort of flexing his muscles. It was just too cute, and we're sad that he's too old to really want to do it anymore.

We've been waiting to see what might develop as Kaleb's signature trick, and it appears that a "trick" on demand has finally appeared. Kaleb's trick it is to scrunch up his nose so much that his little eyes close - it is hilarious - he looks like a little chipmunk when he does it. He laughs and laughs when he does it, of course partly because we're all laughing.

Kaleb had his 18 month check-up this week - he is 25 pounds (40th percentile) and 31.5 inches (25th percentile). He is much smaller than Zachary was at this time, but he is moving up in the percentile charts, so you just never know - maybe he's a slow starter that will end up catching up with Zachary! Who knows, we'll love him no matter what shape or size! He doesn't seem to have any issue with bravado for his small size - he is one feisty kid. Zachary was preventing him from touching one of the fans in our bedroom (big brothers can be so bossy sometimes!), and Kaleb had enough so he lunged over and bit Zachary's elbow. Poor Zachary - he cried and cried, and said to Amy "Being bit is no fun!!!" Kaleb received a stern reprimand, which made him cry immediately, and a quasi "time-out" although at this age it is hard to really do a time-out.

Zachary's nap schedule is all hay-wire - he's been fighting the afternoon nap quite intensely lately, and we had struck "gold" by telling him that he could have "Bertie the Bus" (part of the Thomas the Train set) if he slept for 7 days in a row. Magically, he managed to sleep 7 days in a row (although sometimes crabbily) but as soon as he gets Bertie the bus, he now is back to fighting the nap! We've instituted the "quiet time" rule, but we'd like the nap back!!! Today, he was crying about the fact that he had to stay in his room, and was laying on the floor kicking his bedroom door (aiming for a second spanking) when all of a sudden Karis noticed that it was quiet and went to investigate - Zachary had fallen asleep on the floor of his bedroom!!! Crazy kid - so tired but just doesn't want to sleep!

Phrase of the week: This week's phrases all have to do with the moon - Zachary has been very fascinated on the moon lately, and had several cute phrases - "Moon, do you have a face"? and after he was informed that the moon did NOT have a face, he later that week went out onto the back deck to talk to the moon, and inquired "But Moon, why don't you have a face?"

Nothing better than riding tractors!

Playtime

The weather is Florida is SUPER hot - it appears that we're having a heat wave - temperatures are in the mid-high 90's. We had hoped to be enjoying Fall weather already, which we had a small glimpse of last week, but it doesn't seem to be in our near future (although we won't complain as it is snowing up at Karis' home in Canada!)

We booked our tickets to fly to Canada at Christmas, so we're all excited. We've been telling Zachary about snow, so he's excited and tells us that he wants to see snowflakes now!! We'll be heading out on Christmas Day to Prince Albert, and then we're hopping on a plane to Winnipeg to see Amy's Dad. Crazy thing - we were evaluating HOW to get to Winnipeg - plane, train or automobile? It is about an 8 hour drive - and with 2 kids, we weren't too sure how that'd go as we haven't started to let Zachary watch DVDs in the car (although desperate times call for desperate measures), but the train was 11.5 hours and of course the plane was only 1.5 hours. We were certain though that the car would be the best value, as the train was about $250-$500 depending on whether we got a cabin to let the kids sleep during the trip, and the flight was slightly more. However, to drive one way (we'd fly out of Winnipeg rather than Saskatoon to go home) was $1100!!!!!! Insane. Anyway, let's be clear, we're taking the plane as it is SO MUCH faster! Gotta love airmiles because we did get all three flight tickets for up and back at least for free, so the only cost was the flight from Saskatoon to Winnipeg.

We're heading off to a fancy-smancy wedding this afternoon - Amy is quite looking forward to seeing the dress, flowers, decorations etc. The reception is at the Ritz - it'll be fun to get all dressed up!

We've mentioned this before, but it continues to amaze and intrigue us how different the boys are (yet in many ways very similar) - we took the boys out to the park last weekend to wear off some energy. This is the first time that Kaleb has been "mobile" enough to really participate in the playsets other than the swings - and he had NO FEAR. He would crawl up onto the play structure - making a straight dash for the slides (the TALL ones) and once he'd get there, he'd get into position quick as a wink and throw himself down! Zachary was "Mr. Safety Man," so he'd always require one of us to go down the slide with him, or sit at the top for a long time deciding whether this was a good idea or not! Perhaps all second children are this way, but it's making us laugh.

However, this fearlessness doesn't always end well - yesterday Kaleb decided to drive the red plasma car through the ONE opening in the pool fence (Auntie Kelli and Zachary were in the pool) and into the pool. Amy tried to refrain from rushing into the water immediately to get him out - and he did manage to flip over onto his back and was coming to the surface - but she decided that he'd been under too long for her comfort and grabbed him out before he actually got a breath of air - so we perhaps will be practicing our swimming lessons again!

Phrase of the week: "Mommy, you're my best friend" - ahh, now isn't that just the sweetest thing ever - at those moments, you'd almost give them anything....almost. :)

Capturing Grandma and Kaleb at the top of a small slide

Kaleb and Daddy enjoying some "sleepy" time

The boys riding around - Kaleb is actually tall enough now to make the tricycle move with his feet on the ground, so there are more options open!