2 years 28 weeks

Over Labor Day weekend, we went to Gambril State Park for a picnic and to enjoy the gorgeous weather. I decided that we need to sign up Zack for the hiking club that maintains the trails, as he was rather concerned with moving sticks from the center of the trail and spent quite a bit of time moving rocks from the center of the trail and placing them at the side. He's also a little obsessed with "eee-corns" (acorns) and picked up large quantities, some of which made it into his pockets (mental note: remember to start checking the pockets of Z's pants). He finally tired of that and wanted to get up on Rob's "yolders". Of course, this request corresponded with the steepest part of the trail, so Rob got quite a leg workout.




Here he's checking out a spider web in a hole in the bench.

We'd made Zack a peanut butter and jelly sandwich for lunch. He took one look at it, pointed to what had oozed out from between the slices of bread, and said "Bird poop." He didn't eat a single bite.

We had a great time picnicking and hiking (despite the bird poop). Afterward we went into nearby Frederick to walk around the historic downtown and get some ice cream. The highlight of Zack's whole day was finding a bag of pasta shaped like crabs and starfish. He held onto that bag all the way home and then ate a big bowlful once we got home and cooked it. A close second was when a mastiff and great dane walked by. The owners (yes, both dogs lived together--and had a great dane puppy waiting for them at home. Hope they have a big house!) were only too happy to stop and let Zack pet them. Zack loved it and was not happy when the dogs had to go home to get their dinner. In fact, when we told them that, he pretended to scoop up some food to feed them!

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We were all sitting at lunch the other day, when Rob let out a rather large belch. Without missing a beat, Zack looked at him and said "Excuuuse me, Daddy."

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Zack is all about doing what Daddy does right now. If Rob zigs, Zack zigs. If Rob dances, Zack studies him closely and dances just like him. I wish I had a video of them dancing in the bathroom the other night--it was too funny for words.

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Zack is also a smidge obsessed with trucks. And cars. And motorcycles. He'll play with his for the longest time, just lining them up, wheeling them around, putting smaller ones in bigger ones. I also swear the vehicles are stealing off into dark corners and multiplying, but I digress. He loves it when we drive by construction sites and he points out white trucks and trash trucks and red cars as we drive. School buses have reappeared, so that's been an exciting event for him.

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Zack has a buddy at school now. They're apparently inseparable.

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Note the socks on his hands. Yes, those are the wet, dirty socks that we just took off after he splashed around in the creek. But he DID IT! and put them on all by himself.