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!

Sayings

Over the last several weeks, we've had the opportunity of hearing some very thoughtful quotes from other people. It is amazing how people come up with these sayings - some folks just have a gift of being about to capture something important in very few words that are memorable. So, we thought that we'd share some of those memorable phrases that we've heard:

In a recent conversation with an executive at work, he shared two thoughtful phrases that could certainly change how we live our daily lives if we were to fully embrace them.
-Martin Luther - (paraphrase) - to me, only two days are important - I live my life today in light of THAT day.
-What is not a passion for you will be optional for your kids - this is particular pointed for parents, as we think about the behavior that we model for our kids and think
about what we will be important for them in the future.

During a recent devotion at work, the executive shared with us something that his father would say to him every day as he left for school - to help his son remember his values, to remember what was important, and to remember to think before he acted: "Remember who you are" This struck Amy as a worth-while phrase for her to remember herself every day - as well as telling it to the boys as they get older. Aren't we all a child of God, and should act accordingly!?

Now, on the lighthearted side, Zachary has had some really funny phrases over the last two weeks that we thought that we'd share:

"No deal!" This was the response as Karis was driving Zachary and Kaleb home from the babysitter, and was preparing him for the fact that he had to go home and take a nap - and this was Zachary's response! We have no idea where he picked up that phrase!!

Last week, while we had a houseful of kids, you can imagine how big of a mess that the toys would end up and Zachary came to Amy and informed "The front room is a big mess!" and he turned around and muttered to himself as he walked back to the front room "I just can't take it!" Ha ha - it is hard business for a 3 year old to "take" having such a messy toy room! The weather has turned a wonderfully fall "cool" here - a low of 65 at nights, which means that it is probably 70ish in the morning when Zachary gets up - perhaps a bit lower. Well, it is apparent that we are raising a Floridian through and through when he informed Amy this week "Mommy, come outside, it is berry cold!!! I need a coat!!" Ha ha - a little coolness in the air versus hot and muggy has the child running for a fleece coat!!!

On our "life" front, we finally had our new plantation shutters installed in the front of the house - so now we're no longer living in a "fish bowl." It is nice to have some privacy again. The shutters are very white compared to the slightly goldish white of our walls, so we either need to put up some curtains or break down after this many years and paint our walls a color other than white!!

Grandma enjoying some quiet time with the boys

"Cool" dude Kaleb - sunglasses and riding his "bike"

Tub full of boys - (Zachary is just outside the picture on the other side of the tub) - Blake and Evan were here with us for an evening, so we threw them all in the tub!

Zachary and Daddy having some fun pool time!

The Vohwinkels Visit Florida!

We've had lots of fun this last week as our friends the Vohwinkels came to visit from Texas. They arrived last Thursday night in their mini-van, which is a dead-ringer match for our mini-van (the kids are always confused!!) after a looooonnng drive with three kids (brave, brave folks!!). In order to fit everyone, Zachary vacated his room and spent the week in our closet. At first, we put up the pack and play (his usual spot) but realized that he's outgrown it! So, we made up a pallet on the floor with pillows on each side to keep him from rolling over into the shoes etc - he had a grand time after that!

Kaleb and Lucas playing in the shower, and Lucas enjoying the tricycle

Sophia playing with the train table

Zachary and Sophia "reading" a book together

Zachary's sleeping haven

We had a get-together with all of Vohwinkels' friends from Orlando on Saturday night - first time that we've had a group over to our house since before Kaleb, and it was great fun. Now that Amy is starting to have some more energy again (sleep exhaustion is just not fun!), we'll definitely be doing it again soon. There were lots of kids - and they played together fabulously. At the very end, several of them started to play "Ring around the Rosey" while the parents in the room sang the song - too precious.

Kaleb getting some good-bye love from Braelyn, and "Ring Around the Rosey" fun

We took ourselves to Animal Kingdom on Sunday, and the weather was muggy and beastly hot. The kids had a great time though, so that was worth it. Kaleb was a trooper with no naps at all that day without nary a fuss or fit - what a sweetie! Zachary has fallen in love with Sophia - perhaps his first crush? :) - so he was a happy camper as long as she was around to play with.

Picture with a monkey, and enjoying a parakeet

Kaleb enjoying a slide

Zachary brushing a sheep - Kaleb didn't want to have anything to do with him! Enjoying an amusement park ride

Zachary and Lucas playing on the drums

We include this picture (even though small) because it is the first picture in three years of trying to get a Z-family picture in front of this silly tree and it NEVER turns out because a child is always crying or has their head turned completely around looking at the tree - well, finally SUCCESS! Both children looking at the camera with pleasant expressions on their face - amazing!

We're not quite ready to shout victory, but we THINK that Kaleb is starting to finally broach the whole "speech" frontier. We believe that he's said "done" when asked if he's finished eating, and several times now he has said "mama" when looking at Amy (now, let's be clear, he also called Karis "mama" in Sabbath School, but hey, Amy will take any hint of a word from this child!). Kaleb is also progressing, albeit slowly, on the walking front as he's figured out how to stand up from the middle of the room without holding onto anything and start walking - of course there is much clapping and encouragement when this happens.

Last week was a traumatic week for Zachary - on Monday, he was outside playing on the swingset when he ran into the house crying hysterically - with friend Blake running behind him screaming that Zachary had been stung by a bee. Friday, he was outside playing with Sophia and Lukas, and came crying hysterically into the pool deck area - stung AGAIN!!! Amy gave Karis his marching orders to get out there and find the beehive because there is no way that a child would be stung twice in one week by chance!!! Poor Karis, he went out there to give the swingset a thorough once-over (which to his credit, he had done on Monday as well), but the one place that he hadn't looked was the swings themselves, so he grabbed one of the swings and turned it over to look at it, and sure enough....a beehive was being built and the bees were NOT pleased that he had disturbed them, so they came out with a vengeance toward him. He began scrambling backwards as fast as he could, and swatted at the one coming for his face - saved the face but sacrificed the hand. So, two Zbaraschuk men down for the count! Luckily, (read with disbelief if you will, three of us have now tried this "trick" with good success) - Karis had read that if you put antiperspirant on stings/ant bites that it helps, so both Karis and Zachary were lathered up with the antiperspirant and were none the worse for wear. Thankfully, the beehive is now destroyed, hopefully never to return.

Phrase of the week: I have a tung. At first, Amy thought that he meant that he had a TONGUE, and blithely went on in the conversation until Karis informed her of the true meaning of this phrase - poor child, he received full sympathy after that!!

And Then There Were Three

Kaleb has joined the ranks of the other Florida Z-men in becoming a Canadian citizen this week - congratulations to little man Kaleb! We've been waiting for a long time - about a year to be exact - it came through really quickly for Zachary when we applied but this one really dragged out. So, the mommy in this family is the only one who is not officially a Canadian - we need to do something about that!!

Kaleb has been getting braver this week with walking - he has started to independently walk from one piece of furniture to another. He is very intent as he walks, but as soon as he reaches his destination, he starts to laugh! He has even started figuring out how to change direction as he's walking - although it looks like a bit of "listing" as he walks with his arms outstretched and they start to LEAN another direction until his body finally starts to follow his arms! So precious.
Two more molars have found a home in his mouth as well - and we've experienced a week of not very good sleeps (which means Mommy is not sleeping well!), but we're hoping that they're just about through at this point. Twelve teeth in total now!

It does seem to be a week of Kaleb, as he has also now developed the tantrum in full swing. This is about the same time that Zachary started to throw temper tantrums, but we've kind of forgotten all of the tricks to get them to stop now! Oh how quickly memories fade. We're trying the tactic of taking him to his room to cry alone until he can be happy again, but he's a persistent one so it takes a while!

Zachary is precocious as always and continues to come up with funny stuff that makes us laugh. He woke up early from his nap and joined Karis on the couch and he ended up falling asleep on Karis' chest as Karis took a bit of a nap too - very sweet Daddy and son moment.

A work colleague of Amy's has bequested his boys' old Thomas the Train table to our home - it has been a fabulous addition, and Zachary is loving it. It allows us to get the train tracks off of the floor, and he can walk around the table playing with them. It is just the right height for Kaleb to stand holding on to the edge as well, but he's typically more interested in just grabbing for the trains as they drive by.

Phrase of the week: "Let's read Lion" - this phrase really doesn't make sense to the casual reader, but it does capture the latest obsession. Amy bought a book for the boys in London "Katie Goes to London" where a little girl and her brother have a sight-seeing adventure on top of a lion statue that comes to "life" and he takes them from one tourist stop to another in London. Zachary has become very attached to this book, and requests it every night at this point. We've also started to read the stories from "My Bible Friends" which he is enjoying very much and sits so nicely through the whole story!

Zachary helping Daddy with yardwork

Amy thought that it would be fun to take pictures of the boys' eyes for comparison purposes - they definitely both have very brown eyes! She did not capture them both completely straight on to the camera, so the comparison is a bit off, but oh well!

Are these eyelashes insanely long or what????

At last - He Walks!

Yes, it has finally happened - Kaleb has figured out how to walk. He still prefers to crawl most days, but if you have two adults that he can walk between, he has started to do really well walking pretty far! Karis had been working with him, and it finally just clicked! When you age-adjust Kaleb, he started to walk only about 2 weeks after Zachary did - so I guess those genes are strong in our boys! :)

Teeter, Tooter - This balancing thing is hard!

We're enjoying Labor Day vacation - Amy has both Friday and Monday off, so enjoyed spending some time with the boys. We tried Kobe Steakhouse again last night with the Deiningers - but poor Luke found the "fire" and the steam from the cooking vegetables to be a little scary - poor little kid! We're off to a birthday party tomorrow, so it should be great fun to catch up with friends.

Zachary helping Mommy make pizza

Enjoying Kobe's with Deiningers

Phrase of the week: Zachary yawned and then stated "I just found a yawn!" How exciting - Mom and Dad finds yawns more than we'd like personally! :)

Kaleb is still trying to figure out how the whole "fork" thing works - but those pancakes are yummy!

Zachary enjoying two of his favorite things at one time - Thomas the Tank Engine and books!

Jet Lag Be Gone!

Ah, the joy of being home and seeing our two precious boys is tempered by the fact that we're not as young as we used to be, and international travel is not as easy to get over the jet lag as it was before! :) Amy's feet and legs hurt for two days after getting back from all of the walking that we did, and neither of us have been sleeping well! The first night we were both awake at 2A, and the second night was 3A. That night, Amy actually got up and started paying bills at 4AM just to be somewhat productive! It has slowly been working its way back to normal, but jet lag is just not a good friend! Oh well - small price to pay for all of the fun that we had!

As promised, we thought that we'd post some of the cute happenings that Grammy shared with us via email from the home-front while we were in Europe (most are these all relate to Zachary as Kaleb was feeling under the weather for part of the time that we were gone, plus he's not yet verbal!):

Who gave Zach his driver's license anyway? Bad enough he is bossy now he is telling me how to drive! "The light is green Grandma--GO!" (doesn't matter that there are 20 cars in front of me and the line isn't moving yet) Or "Grandma the light is red, you didn't stop" (even though I am at a dead stand still - and worse yet, when I turned right on a red-boy did he yell at me!)
We were singing and I keep singing "Jesus Wants me for a Sunbeam"--except I can't remember all the words, so I started to sing it -- again and Zach said,"Grandma, you can't remember the words!" I about died laughing. He said,"Well what else do you want to sing Grandma?" He always asks to sing 'Jesus Loves the Little Children' which was one of your (Amy's) favorite songs (done in the southern twang).
I asked him what he was doing up and why he wasn't taking his nap. He said "I did." "Well," I said, "no you didn't, you weren't in there long enough." He replied, "I tried and tried hard, Grammy - I just couldn't sleep!"
When I was putting Zach down and we were singing, I had read the story of David and Goliath so thought we should sing that song, so I started singing, but forgot how it went, so kind of hesitated, and Zach pipes up and said "Grammy, did you forget the words again" Smartie pants! It started to thunder so he had to check and see if it was raining. "Yep, it's going to rain pretty soon! I don't like funder, he makes me cry, right Grammy?" I assured him it just startles us. After we were singing, laying in bed, I forgot again to pray, so left the room. He got up and came out and said "Grammy, we forgot to pray!" So we did and he now prays for you to be safe and for Kaleb to be better from his fever! God must enjoy hearing those sweet innocent prayers.
I get so tickled when he gets so excited to tell me something, but his mouth goes faster than his brain, and I can't understand a word he is saying, but then he will say, "Right Grammy?? Hmm I could incriminate myself agreeing with him!! or he'll say, "Does that sound like a good plan?" (especially if he knows I will say no - to video,etc.)
Zach went into the kitchen to get his water and brought it back into the bedroom and put it beside my glass (he usually drinks mine). I was carrying on a conversation(between the 2 waters) and Zach was just laughing his head off. Thought it was quite funny! Never know what will entertain them!!
We have added verses to 'Night Night Zachary' and also 'Jesus loves the Little Children' and he wants to sing it over and over. I was starting to sing 'This Little Light of Mine' and he started singing 'Jesus Loves the Little Children', and we started laughing so hard neither one of us could sing. These are the precious times to remember.
We have altered a few of the songs he sings for bedtime, so don't be surprised if he continues on with new verses!! and a few action songs in high speed! Crazy kid. He laughs so hard I hate to sing them as it wires him up instead of calming him down. When we were praying, and I added the "Help Zach sleep good." He said, "Why do we always have to say Zach have a good sleep -- EVERY NIGHT??" I said, "Because I want you to sleep good so you won't be crabby tomorrow". He said, "Well, I might be crabby today!!!"

"Cool" Kaleb with Auntie Kelli's sunglasses

Amy's Cousin Erin, husband Shane and baby Morgan

Zachary on his maiden voyage of taking his trike actually out in front on the sidewalk (our deck has been the extent of his world thus far!)

The Z family (including Amy this time!) preparing for a bike ride