Water Works

Thankfully this week's post is NOT about a Hurricane Irene hitting Florida.  We are thankful for this near miss, and our thoughts are with the folks who are dealing with the effects of receiving the hurricane.  We had some rain off and on this week as Irene went up the coast, but thankfully we did not have true ill effects. 

Last weekend we enjoyed some play time with our friends the Isidros and Bergherms.  The Isidros had a veritable water park in their back yard with fun apparatus for everyone!  The kids had a great time splashing around and playing in general.  The adults always enjoy an excuse to get together and visit.  Karis played PT on Allen for a while, working on his plantar fascitis, much to Allen's pain and horror! :)

Riding little air mattresses down the water slide.

What a fantastic slip and slide!

Blake, Evan, Kaleb, Braelyn, Zachary

Allen in misery while the paparazzi take pictures! :)

We had some scary news this week when Amy's Dad was hospitalized for 'passing out' and was confused/unable to complete sentences.  We are thankful to report that he has gone home now from the hospital but they are still trying to get to the bottom of what happened.  We are looking forward to seeing him again soon (more on that in the coming weeks!)

Phrase of the week:  Not fair!  This seems to be a regular occurrence this last week in our house - not sure where Zachary has picked up that phrase, but we'll be thankful if we can figure out a way for it to gracefully LEAVE this house! :)   Kaleb's phrase happened a while ago but we felt that it was better late than never - Amy was talking to Kaleb and said "Kaleb, ask your brother nicely for a coin and say please" Kaleb says "No, Mommy, you try it!"   No need to use manners if your mommy will just take care of it for you!  Mommy won out in the end and he had to use his manners! :)

First Days!

Tuesday was Zachary's first day of preschool!  It was an exciting day for all - Mommy had been warned that she would get teary-eyed, but in truth, she was just excited for him!  He was so excited about the whole process, and really loved the school.  The program is through Circle Christian School, which is a school dedicated for homeschoolers - and they started a pre-school program on Tuesday mornings.  It was perfect, because we didn't really want to put him in a program for every day. 

There are 5 BOYS in his class - no girls at all.  It is a small class as you can see, and amazing that there are only boys.  With such a small class, there should be lots of individual attention, for sure.  He is taking 5 classes in all - starting with a sports class, art class, Florida A-Z, and a bug/weather class.  He ends the day with a Kids at Play program that finishes up at 3:00.

This is the first time of course that we've ever had to send him anywhere with a lunch box (typically to Jennifer's we just pack bowls of food and throw in yogurt).  This was momentous -  not knowing how much to send was the real trick.  So, we sent a thermos of mac 'n' cheese with big frank slices, a large container of carrot sticks with dip, a cheese stick, a yogurt stick, and a container of apple sauce.    The child ended up eating it ALL!  He's never eaten that many carrots in his whole life, but apparently he was hungry!

Kaleb also had a first this week when we enrolled him in the gymnastic class that Zachary was in last year.  He seemed to be quite thrilled with it as well, and told us all about the things that he did.  Zachary would ask him if he had done certain things, so Zachary still remembered the names, such as the "sloth hang" from the bars!  It'll be fun when parent-watch week comes so that we can go see Kaleb show off his new "moves!"

Not a gymnastics picture YET, but a cute moment while he was reading stories in Zachary's room, swinging his legs

Phrase of the week:  "Mommy, when do I get to go to school EVERY day?"  Hopefully the fun of going to school lasts!  "Mommy, I'm going to nim-nascxix!"  Gymnastics is a real tongue-twister!

Happy Birthday Kieran!

Last weekend, we had fun celebrating Kieran's third birthday.  We headed off to the park, where we had fun playing and then going on a treasure hunt!  The weather remains hot and humid here in Orlando, but thankfully we did receive fair amount of rain this week - just not on his birthday which was a good thing!

Kieran and Kaleb examining their loot

Zachary finding some goodies in the palm tree

Hard to see in a small picture, but heads are bowed during prayer and Kaleb is looking at what is going on through his "squinty" eyes (almost closed Mom!)

Other than that, we've had a blessedly quiet week, which is nice to have once in a while!  With room to spare in our blog post, we thought that it would be a good time to capture what our kids' personalities/habits are right now, because heaven knows it is impossible to remember a few years later!

Zachary
     -Zachary remains as always an early riser - getting up usually somewhere between 6:30 and 7:00. 
     -He is still taking a nap, but we feel sure that a blog post very soon will be devoted to the ultimate demise of the nap as he is starting to refuse a nap on some days.
     -He loves numbers (counting by 1, 2, 5, 9, 10, and 11s), and his current passion is animals (reading, flash cards, DVDs - anything animals!)
     -He seems to be a bit of a "mini-mommy" (although obviously of the opposite gender) as it appears that he is somewhat Type A - likes to control what is going on around him and if things don't go his way, he tends to have a bit of a quick temper (especially when tired).
     -He is proving that he is very athletic - and has been very muscular for his age now for a long time.  He remains at the top of the growth charts in terms of height.
     -He definitely does not like to sweat, and insists that he is going to live in a colder place when he grows up!
     -He has a fantastic memory, and can remember places and people from a long time ago.  He can memorize his memory verse each week with no problems.
     -He appears to have a great ability to focus - which he proves in Sabbath School when he sits quietly and listens to the teacher even when all mayhem is going on around him!
     -He is very task-oriented and loves to "help" Mommy or Daddy with work.
      -Zachary is not much of a "self-entertainer" and usually needs to have someone playing with him - the one caveat to this is when it comes to books, he is happy to go into his room and read his books for a long time!
      -He is definitely a "ladies' man" and develops crushes on girls of all ages within a very short amount of time.  He then talks about them non-stop! :)
 
 Kaleb
     -Kaleb is very laid-back, and we use words like "little charmer" and "charismatic" to describe him.
     -He seems to get along very easily with others, and loves to be in groups of kids.
     -He is very feisty, and is not afraid to stand his ground with the older kids.
     -He is quite independent, and can play on his own for long periods of time.
     -He seems to be very family oriented, always asking about a family member, or talking about "Mommys, Babies, or Daddies" when we read stories about animals.
     -He is very cuddly and loves to snuggle
     -At 3.5, he truly has not yet had a "terrible" time in his life yet that have lots of temper tantrums.  Now while we say this now, we may need an update because this week seems to be showing a bit more of a strong-willed temper coming out in a battle now and then.
     -He loves to sleep - always has since a baby, and will sleep in until somwhere between 7 and 7:30.
     -He is "unfocused" in that he is much more content to move slowly, and could almost be described sometimes as "tiptoeing through the tulips..."
      -At 3.5, he still does not know which shoe goes on which foot. He does not yet know the days of the week either (that we know of at least!)
      -He does not like brocolli!!  He also takes forever to eat, and still asks to be fed on a regular basis.  He loves milk to drink still as well.  Surprisingly, he seems to like some spicier food, such as Chinese food that was making his parents' mouths burn, but he just kept on chowing down!
   
Phrase of the week:  Zachary is becoming my perfect student!  This is what Miss Deanna told Amy the last Sabbath as she was leaving.  Zachary's behavior in Sabbath School class just truly has been fantastic, he sits so well and follows instruction, listening very intently to her no matter what chaos is going on around him.  It makes a Mommy proud!!  The other phrase this week is "Mommy, I want to go to a rest-EW-ahhhnt (spelled phonetically as he says it) - the one where they burn the onion!"  Zachary loves Kobe's because of the "show" that the cook puts on!

Erik Anton Johnson

We are thrilled to our toes to welcome Kent & Kelli Johnson's new little boy - Erik Anton Johnson.  Erik is a nod to their combined Scandinavian backgrounds and Anton is a mutual family name.  Kelli went into labor last Sabbath and was a wonder woman - laboring at home until her contractions were 5 minutes apart (and then 2 minutes apart on the drive to the hospital - yikes!).  When she arrived at the hospital, she was 6 centimeters dilated - you go girl!  She had the baby by 10P that night and they instantly discovered the magic of being a parent.  Erik is adorable - even if we're just slightly biased! :)

How cute is he!!?

Parents and baby were discharged on Monday and they have been discovering a family rhythm in the ensuing days.  Sleep deprivation has arrived, but they seem to be hanging in there.  The other amazing coincidence of this birth is that Erik arrived on Adam Deininger's birthday!  Zachary and Kelli have the same birthday, and now baby Erik and Adam have the same birthday!

The happy parents

The Johnsons had grand plans (before going into labor) of moving to their new home last weekend.  That clearly couldn't happen with a baby on the way into the world - so a group of friends all came together to make it happen for them.  It was actually a pretty quick day of moving as some boxes had already been moved over, and there were lots of helping hands.  So the Johnsons came home to a new home, new baby and no idea where all of their stuff was!  Happy hunting! :)

Byron (Kelli's Dad), Rob D, Dave H, Will C, Karis, Allen I, Lisa D, Tangie I and Amy.  Barb (Kelli's mom) was taking the picture, and Heather C had taken Kieran home for a nap.

I almost forgot in the excitement of the baby and the move.  Our boys started swim lessons last week, and have been LOVING it.  They're both little fishes, so we decided to also enroll them in swim lessons at Lake Brantley in the evenings, as their lessons continue for another 3 weeks (vs the morning ones which end this week).  So, they actually were swimming in lessons twice a day this week!  They both have been doing fantastic, and Kaleb is such a good swimmer that he is in with a group of kids much larger than he is!  Zachary has an incredibly strong kick already, so it's just a matter of getting his arms into the game and he'll be set.

Swimming on his side, he already seems to be catching on to how to breathe!

Kaleb was practicing swimming on his back

 Phrase of the week:  We want the panda CD!!  This is actually boomed out by both boys each morning as we get into the car.  The 2011 VBS theme was Pandamania this year, and Corey Grodack (Thanks Corey!) bought us a copy of the CD.  We play it in the car each morning on the way to Jennifer's, and the boys just love it.  Zachary knows most of the words and some of the sign language movements to the songs (thanks to VBS and to his Sabbath School teacher) so sings out loud (AMAZING!) all the way.  Kaleb has caught on amazingly quickly as well, so Mommy is treated to a duet on the way to Jennifer's each day - what a treat!  It is awesome.