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