Memories to Treasure

This weekend, we had the wonderful opportunity to fly up to Winnipeg, Manitoba for a too-short visit with Amy's Dad.  We left the kids at home with grandma (who is the BEST!) so that we could really enjoy our time with Gene.  His health is not the best and he has been diagnosed with cancer - with all this in mind, we wanted to spend some quality time with him.  It is kind of strange, when you're in your 20s, life seems like it will never end, but now that we're in our 30s, the whole "mid-life crisis" is making more sense as you realize that you and your loved ones are in fact aging and that life doesn't last forever.  Perhaps mid-life crisis is not the right moniker as it seems less a crisis and more of an assessment about one's life and its meaning, and what we want to accomplish in our short time here.

A family blog really isn't the place to wax eloquent on these thoughts, so the bright side of our trip is that we had such a wonderful time visiting with Dad.  We travelled down memory lane multiple times with many a chuckle and made new memories to treasure.  We were fortunate to be able to visit with Amy's step-brothers Cam and Brad along with Cam's significant other Tracy.  Extra icing on the proverbial cake was visiting with our dear friend Norma James.

We were happy to be safely back with our boys, but very thankful for the fact that we had a relatively stress free trip up and back to Canada sans children as well! :)  The boys had a fantastic time with Grandma, and kept calling Amy "Grandma" after she left!

Phrase of the week:  In honor of the pink-eye that the Z-household has had over the past three weeks and the accompanying eye drops, Zachary informed us as we drove along in the pelting rain that "Raindrops are like eye drops!"  Very clever, they are indeed! Kaleb's favorite phrase this weekend was "Mine!" as the typical sibling struggles occurred over whose toy it really was!  The last phrase is not a Zachary or Kaleb phrase but rather a Canadian phrase that we heard many times this weekend "For sure!" - of course, it sounds more like "Fur sure"!  It is funny how you forget common phrases until you got back and listen to people speaking around you!

Dad, Cam, Tracy, Brad and Amy

Dad and Amy

Norma and Amy (Karis was in fact in Canada as well, but he just ended up taking all of these pictures!)

Quarantined

The health issues of the Z-family continues.  At this point we've moved past the despair of the situation to just laughing about it - what else can you do?  We could tout all of the things that we do to keep our kids healthy, but those things don't really matter when the family is sick!  We're now entering into our second weekend of being quarantined.  Last Sabbath, Kaleb woke up with pink-eye.  This is the first experience where any of us have actually had pink-eye, so we'll count our blessings for that.

The same day, Amy came down with "something" again - twice in one month.  Sore throat, 102 fever, sneezing and coughing.  Later that day, Zachary came down with pink-eye...great, more good news! :)  We thought that surely we'd be in the clear when Kaleb decided to put the icing on the cake Sunday night by hurling everywhere.  At least he gave a warning by making the puking sound several times with nothing yet coming out, so we were able to get him over the toilet - he looked like a little adult with his head hanging into the toilet puking!  The boys managed to recover from the pink-eye and there seems to be no lasting effects of the puke thankfully.

Eating supper outside on the deck last weekend with Grandma during our quarantine phase (Grandma's don't care about us being sick! :))

Amy made it through the week (just barely on some days) but it appears that this may be turning into a bit of bronchitis.  Karis then began to get sick on Thursday, and we capped off our string of bad health by having both of the adult Z family members getting PINKEYE!  Just great.  So, this will be our second weekend of staying at home trying not to spread our germs.  Thankfully pinkeye is non-contagious after 24 hours of eye drops, so we'll be thankful for that!  Kaleb again decided to add the final touch to the weekend by developing an allergy to who knows what and getting hives all over his chest!  They're coming and going, so they don't seem all that serious but we haven't been able to figure out what is causing it quite yet.

The red patches on his chest are the hives - the dark green lumps on his legs are the "Juice Plus gummies" that are a bit sticky, and he's discovered that he can make them stick to his skin (even his cheek!)

On non-health related news, the boys started swimming lessons here at the house this week with Miss Amanda - a high school senior who was teaching our friends' kids how to swim.  Our boys are quite comfortable in the water, but we're hoping that they'll start to learn the actual strokes etc.  She's been teaching Zachary how to do the front crawl and the back crawl.

Zachary also started a gymnastics class last week that we forgot to mention.  It is a small, all boys class at a local recreation center called "Junglenastics."  The first day ended up being a private gymnastics lesson as the other boys who had signed up didn't attend, so Zachary had a FABULOUS time!

Phrase of the week:  Zachary's funny phrase this week happened this week after Amy told  Kaleb to inform her if his stomach was hurting again (this was the day after the throwing up incident).  Zachary looked at her and said "But Mommy, he doesn't have words!!?"  He was very concerned that Kaleb wouldn't know the right words to tell her that his stomach hurt!  Kaleb's word is "Jamas" which is the word that he's chosen for Miss Jennifer.  Zachary always called her "Je-fer" which was easier to identify that's who he meant.  Kaleb is QUITE adamant though that Jamas means Miss Jennifer! :)

Sucklez-Vous

The title of this week's post is very "snooty" as its French - in general it mean "this stinks" but in true translation means "You suck."  If you add "lez-vous" to anything, it sounds more snobbish than it really is.  Anyway, the title is very apropos this week for the experiences that Amy has had.

The first would be the annual trip to the Filutowski eye clinic.  For anyone who doesn't know, Amy fell to peer pressure about 5 years ago (peer pressure from her husband, Karis - does that make it spouse pressure? Husband pressure?  Who knows) and she got lasik.  At the time, Filutowski had a guarantee that if you came back every year for your annual check-up, if your eyes ever got worse, they would re-do them for free.  However, about 2-3 years ago, they changed this policy and said "so sorry, no more - if you have to get them re-done, you have to pay"  Huh?  Whoever heard of not grandfathering in the patients that you had under your old guarantee?  Very shady if you ask me.  Well, being too lazy to change doctors even though this was kind of shady, Amy keeps going there like a crazy fool.  This week, when she arrives she is informed that if the doctor has to perform the refraction test to prescribe eye glasses that there is an extra fee.  Eye test?  Isn't that why we go to the eye doctor in the first place???  So, she waits for 30 minutes, and then goes into the room where the eye tech spends about 4 minutes doing two tests (the glaucoma pressure test and the "what is the smallest line you can read" test).  Then the doctor walks in, looks at her eye flap from the lasik surgery and walks out.  The whole experience was over in 12 minutes!!  No mind that when Amy talked to another friend from work that goes to a different doctor that there are TONS of other eye tests that other places do.  This was the LAST time that Filutowski will be receiving any money from the  Z household!

The second "sucklez-vous" experience occurred as Amy headed home.  As it was much earlier than normal for heading home, she actually managed to do a couple of errands before heading the car home.  She took a shortcut down a back road (in between two roads with high speed limits) which apparently only had a 30 mph limit, and you guessed it....speed trap.  So even though she was super sweet and nice to the cop, she came away with a $166 ticket.   Yet, if you read our friend Corey's post, she's been stopped 9 times with no ticket!  Clearly there is a secret that Amy has yet to discover.

The third "sucklez-vous" experience made its appearance when Zachary came down with ANOTHER flipping fever this week.  So, Amy once again had the pleasure of staying at home - but she had 2.5 hours straight of conference calls that she had to attend, so she taught herself how to turn her phone on mute (and off) the night before.  The day of went pretty well until about the last 30 minutes of the second conference call when Zachary decided to throw his empty yogurt cups across the kitchen.  Amy firmly chastised him saying "Zachary, what's the situation!!??" - thankfully she wasn't yelling, but quickly realized that the phone was NOT ON MUTE as she thought when she heard the conference call moderator start to chuckle. How embarrassing!!!

Phrase of the week: Zachary's phrase this week was actually a conversation with Karis as he begged to mow the lawn.  Karis informed him that they couldn't because Mommy wasn't home to watch Kaleb while it was Zachary's turn on the lawnmower.  Zachary's response?  "Just lock Kaleb in the house, then he'll be safe and we can mow the lawn!!"  Kaleb's phrase this week was another conversation that occurred as Karis was driving home in the van with both boys. It should be noted that Amy was not with them at the time, so this was entirely a male conversation.  Apparently there was a "certain smell" in the van, and Karis inquired if Zachary 'tooted', to which Zachary replied "No, Kaleb tooted".  Karis: "Kaleb, did you toot?"  Kaleb: "No, Daddy tooted."  Karis: "Daddy didn't toot.  Did you toot?"  Kaleb: "No, MOMMY tooted!"   Thanks, that's just great - get blamed for tooting and you're not even in the car!!!

Playing dress-up in Mommy's new $15 dollar jeans! Gotta love a good deal!

The new style - off the shoulder for men - it is hard learning to dress oneself but we do love to be independent!

Do It Yourself Haircut

Being 4 has many adventures to explore, and this week the adventure included Zachary cutting a swath out of his hair in the front.  We couldn't be too upset about it as so many kids try this out, and we're thankful that he didn't yank his hair out by the roots like he did last year!!  That took forever to grow back!   When we asked him why he cut it, he said "Why not, grandma cuts my hair?"  Ha ha, of course Grandma used to be a hairdresser, so there is a little difference! :)

There have been some really funny 'adventures' that Kaleb has been on the last few weeks as well.  A few weeks ago, we bought some new Vitamin C jars (the white vitamins that are the size of quarters that taste like candy - yummy!  These were Amy's favorite as a little girl).  Karis had given Kaleb one or two to eat, when Kaleb disappeared into our room.  Karis after a few minutes went in to investigate and found Kaleb had crawled up onto our bathroom counter and had opened Amy's eye cream.  He was then using the eye cream as "chip dip" on his Vitamin Cs and happily eating both!  Luckily it was a tiny container, but he ate all of the eye cream before Karis managed to get in there!

The next adventure Kaleb went on was last weekend - the boys had gone to Grandma's house for the afternoon after our garage sale (which got rained out after only 2 hours, so was not very successful).  She brought them back in the evening as Amy was out in the garage sorting through the garage sale leftovers.  Kaleb ran inside while Grandma, Amy and Zachary remained out in the garage.  After a few minutes, Amy realized that it had been a while since Kaleb had showed his face, so she went inside to investigate.  She once again found him on top of her bathroom counter (clearly this is like mecca!) with a tube of open toothpaste in each hand, with the toothpaste smeared all over his face and into his hair!  Apparently the items on the bathroom counter equate to food sources for Kaleb! :)

After we'd ran to get all of the garage sale items into the garage - the boys were watching the rain, getting wet of course!

Enjoying some time with Grandma as we waited for the rain to stop

With the evidence all over his face, it wasn't hard to figure out what Kaleb had been doing!

A daily habit that has emerged when Karis goes to pick up the boys at Jennifer's is that Kaleb runs up to Karis, and then he grabs Karis by the leg and starts to run in circles around Karis' leg!  It won't be long before this game comes to an end as he'll soon be too tall to fit through the middle of  Karis' leg - or at least Karis may not be too keen on it continuing at that point! :)  What a welcome!

Phrase of the week:  One day this week, Zachary was in a bit of a 'mood' when Karis picked him up from Jennifer's. With this in mind, he grouchily exclaimed to everyone in the house "I'm NOT talking to anyone until my nap, and after my nap, I'm ONLY talking to Daddy!"  Karis did say that he relented once he got home and acquiesced to talking to Karis before his nap.  Kaleb's word is  "Ochay!" this week as he agrees to whatever you've asked him to do.

One day as we got ready to leave, Kaleb found a stray nylon knee-high and pulled it on and then put on his sandal

Garage Sale

The first ever garage sale has now been held at our home - it was a super muggy day, so there was sweat galore.  We had a fair amount of stuff between all of the families, but sadly we didn't as many people as we would have liked come through (probably because Sunday isn't a big garage sale day in Orlando).  We did end up selling about $200 dollars (or thereabouts), but there were several larger items that made up the most of the total.  We decided that we'll go ahead and have a garage sale again tomorrow seeing as all of the stuff was over here already - so here's hoping that we'll get rid of some more of that.

We had a third week of sickness (although not our kids) when our babysitter's son came down with pink-eye.  We were thankful that we were able to use the RDV Daycare for both days, but even though the kids had a great time, they forgot to check Kaleb's diaper on the second day (which was poopy) so he ended up with a horrific diaper rash - and they didn't ask Zachary if he needed to go to the bathroom and he was too absorbed in playing, so he ended up wetting his pants a little bit.  While we're thankful that we had the option of using the daycare so that we didn't have to miss work, but it did re-emphasize why we're so thankful to have the wonderful care of Miss Jennifer!

Phrase:  "Oh Crime-bidy" - apparently one of us uses the phrase criminy, so Zachary has picked it up and started to use it as part of his everyday language!  The one notable thing over the past weeks that we forgot to mention was that Kaleb has now officially graduated from the "bah" (aka bottle). The trip to New Mexico was where the parents came up with the scheme to not take along a bottle, therefore the change would be forced. Amazingly enough, on the trip he never asked for it once, but once we get back home that was the first thing that he asked for! But, he's managed to survive without it, so we are now a "bah"-free home.

Giving "kisses" to the camera while they insisted that the changing pad was big enough for both of them while Kaleb received a fresh diaper! (thankfully mommy is wise enough to know that it is NOT big enough, so Zachary had to vacate)

Enjoying (or fighting over, just depends on the moment) the giraffe together

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!

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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