The Job Man

Mr. Fantastic Daddy has discovered two secrets to success recently when it comes to the eldest Z child.  Zachary is a very strong-willed child and does not always want to do as told - but Karis has discovered that if you phrase your request as "I have a job for you to do...I'd like for you to put away your clothes....or toys....", Zachary will jump to the task and get it done in no-time.  He is so task-oriented and loves to have a "job to do!"

The second discovery is that the way to get Zachary to take his medicine (Motrin for fevers, cough medicine etc) is to old-school, and put it in applesauce.  It is a good thing that he loves applesauce so much (this trick would NOT work for Mommy!!), because he just chomps the medicine all down!

The last two weeks really have been miserable in our household.  As reported last week, Kaleb had the croup and last weekend, the rest of us came down with some form of the same virus.  It took the form of croup with Zachary, but he is old enough that he can still breathe -  he just sounded like a seal coughing and barking.  He could make the barking sound 'at will' by pushing a lot of air through his throat all at once, and seemed to think that was a new "toy" and would come show off to Mommy every once in a while.  Great!  The boys had fevers off and on for about 5 days before finally turning the corner.

Amy had a "pride goeth before a fall" kind of week - she started to get sick on Friday with a mild fever, turning into a bit of a scratchy throat.  By Monday, the mild throat ache had turned into something more serious.  However, off to work she went touting that she "hardly ever got sick enough to have to stay at home" (luckily, she can quarantine herself in an office so as to not make others sick, but yet still be productive).  Well, that night the sore throat turned into "shards of glass" that were so painful that she did not get ANY sleep and her voice became a whisper.  Thinking that this was something serious, she took herself to the Centra Care the next morning to see if it was strep throat, which thankfully was negative.  The doctor gave her some "Magic Mouthwash" which is basically lidacaine that the dentist uses - you're supposed to gargle it, but it is hard to gargle thick liquid so by the time that you gargle and then tip your head up for a moment, your WHOLE mouth is now numb. Very strange.  Anyway, long story short, the whole day was shot with Amy laying on her back in bed thinking that she was going to die with a 102.5 degree fever all day.  NOT FUN.   That's what happens when you say that you never are sick enough to stay at home!!

However, we do seem to be on the mend so we're thankful for that.  We're holding our very first garage sale on Sunday.  It'll be with several other families, so hopefully there will be enough stuff to draw people out, but then they just have to buy....Who knows how to price garage sale items???  We need our friend Corey Grodack to be here to help us! :)

Phrase of the week:  Karis and Zachary were having a conversation this week during which Karis told Zachary - "You'll be going to school someday so that you can learn to be really smart."  Zachary replies "Why? I'm already really smart!?"  Ha ha, yes you are sweet-pea, yes you are.  Kaleb's constant phrase lately is "gank-gu!" which is of course thank-you.  It is very precious to hear him say it as he will say it without being prompted!

 Ah, to be so flexible as to kiss my own foot

Not to be outdone, each boy was kissing his foot vigorously!

<><><><>

&lt;> 

The best toy ever invented...the box.

Enjoying some time with Grandma

Mr. Cool Dude with his glasses

New Mexico Vacation

Last week, we headed to New Mexico to attend meetings that Amy had.  We'd never spent much time in New Mexico, so this was a first for our family.  Last year, there were several embarrassing behavior (or shall we shall misbehavior) moments, so Amy was VERY nervous about this happening again.  When your kids misbehave in front of all of your coworkers (most of whose children are all adults now, so their memories have faded), it is just not a fun experience!  However, we're thrilled to report that everything went swimmingly!

There were a few funny moments though - the first happened while we were all walking through the lobby with one of Amy's bosses and his family.  The two boys were excited about pushing the elevator button, so had run ahead (these types of events seem to always happen around an elevator!!) - we rounded the corner to see way up ahead that Kaleb had managed to get an elevator to OPEN, and had run onto the elevator.  We were nowhere close enough to likely avert the disaster of him pushing one of the floor buttons and the elevator leaving without us - but no worries, Zachary was there!  He ran onto the elevator shouting "No!" and grabbed Kaleb by the back of the shirt and started to "haul" him off - Kaleb fell down of course on his bum, so Zachary yank-by-yank drug off him off the elevator by the back of his shirt! :)  Way to go Zachary!!

Zachary was enamored with two people last weekend - Cole Hilliard (about his age), and Christine Stewart (Amy's friend).  Zachary isn't usually friendly to adults (which in the grand scheme of things, we haven't pushed this in light of the "crazies" out in this world) - but in light of the fact that we would be seeing about 200 adults that would invariably stop and talk to him, we "bribed" him to 1)Say Hello and respond when someone talked to him and 2) take his nap every day - the bribe was so simple, a Mots-For-Tots 40% Less Sugar juice box once a day!!  Anyway, something about Christine struck Zachary's fancy because the day after he met her for the first time, he very seriously looks up at her (on his own, with no urging) and informs her "You can call me Zach-Zach!"   Hilarious - no-one calls him that nickname, so he totally made up a special nickname for her to call him!

We were thrilled to be able to spend time sightseeing with our friends the Hilliards, so Zachary's obsession with Cole was easily met!  Other than that, the other anecdote from the trip was the sleeping arrangements.  We had two adjoining rooms, with one room having two double beds and one having a king-sized bed.  We put the kids in the room with the two double beds -Kaleb was in a pack-n-play in the bathroom, but unfortunately the door couldn't close do to its small size.  Well, we soon discovered that while the boys couldn't see each other, they could hear each other which meant that they were NOT going to  go to sleep - they started to call out to each other, and to Mommy, having a conversation of sorts.  Amy finally had to go in there and "stand guard" in order for them to be quiet enough to go to sleep - and that wasn't until 9P which was 11P their time!  AHH!!!  We switched rooms the next day, because the one with the king-sized bed had a wheel-chair accessible bathroom which meant that we could close the door - the secret to our success.  We did discover that Zachary sleeps so soundly that a phone can ring right beside his head and he won't even stir - amazing.  We also discovered that in the morning you can walk into Kaleb's room, tell him that it is still night-time, and he'll go back to sleep (something Zachary would never have done!!!)

We did find however that the flying, lack of rest, and exposure to other germs left our immune systems weakened which resulted in Kaleb coming down with croup this week, and the rest of us getting fevers/sore throats etc.  Thankfully no seizures from the fevers yet!  Kaleb's croup was mild compared to the time when we had to go to the hospital in February - but the night that he got it, we had about 3 hours total sleep!  The nebulizer steroids made him hyper, so he wanted to play and go between Mommy & Daddy all night.  Amy took him to the doctor's the next day, and at the end, the Nurse Practitioner shared a story with the other NP in the room about a funny/scary story about a little boy a few months back who was so bad off that she was scared for him and called the ambulance right away....but when the ambulance got there he perked up and shouted "truck!!"  Of course, that was KALEB!!!  She didn't realize that it was Kaleb because Karis had been there with him, vs Amy - it was interesting to hear from the NP's perspective just how bad off Kaleb had been in February that SHE was scared!
 

We purchased a Thomas the Tank Engine backpack for Kaleb as well - so both boys had backpacks to roll along.  Kaleb was thrilled with it and would yell for his "ba-pa!!"

Kaleb is usually shy with unknown adults, but he deemed Derek Stewart (what's with our kids and the Stewarts!?) trustworthy and was hanging onto his leg at the Aquarium for dear life! 

The "shark" exhibit at the Aquarium.  We next went to the Botanical Gardens where they had a "dragon castle" with mazes, huge mushroom sculptures, make-believe ants etc.  It was really cool to explore, the boys all thought it was a blast.

Zachary's first attempt at taking photographs of Dalton Stewart - not too bad - although admittedly there were a lot of "nothing" shots!

 One of the days they planned a pool party complete with bouncy houses and carnival games that Zachary thought was a blast.  There was a slide at the pool as well that Zachary must have gone up and down about a hundred times that week!

 The Hilliard kids and Z-kids in front of the Indian cultural center after watching native Indian dances

 We went to a rodeo at the resort one night, during which the kids would practice their "barrel racing"

 Zachary petting a horse for the first time.

 Bandelier National Monument - where we climbed into cliff cave dwellings (even Zachary) - it was SO neat to see this bit of history.

Probably the boys' favorite memories from the trip -playing in the creek after hiking at the cliff dwellings!  They loved getting wet and playing with the dirt/rocks!

Sante Fe Children's Museum - AWESOME place - the kids were playing with a 'pin' toy where you could push the pins through a wall and make designs

Kaleb played FOREVER at the Museum at this water-works, love that he's concentrating so hard he has the tip of his tongue hanging out of his mouth!

Kaleb painting his face at the same Museum

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!