Sunday afternoon chillin'

Serious pizza eating

Zack behind the lens

Every now and then Zack starts taking pictures with my phone. It's so interesting to see the results. And so far, he's taken my favorite pictures of me. Here's one of them.

Spring at NIH

Taking matters into his own hands

Yesterday Zack picked some flowers for me from the backyard. When we went inside, he told me that he wanted to put them in a vase with water. I was doing something else at the time and couldn't get him a vase right away, but told him that I'd get to it in a minute. This was apparently too long for him because the next thing I know, he's indignently punching both fists down by his side, and stomping into the living room while saying "Fine. I'LL take care of it". 

I kid you not. It was all I could do not to burst out laughing. 

And he did take care of it. He got out the four vases you see in the pictures (I didn't know he knew where they were), filled them with water, arranged the flowers in the vases, and arranged the vases on the table. 

It looks lovely. 

Perfect spring day

Yes, he fell in.

What are they teaching them in school these days?

I was lying with Zack as he was falling asleep tonight. He was asking about the hard parts in Georgia's ear and I was telling him about cartilage. All if a sudden he points to the vicinity of his knee and says "This is my gastrocnemius. Miss Karen says it's my gastrocnemius."  

Ummm...ok. I wasn't sure what to say, seeing as I had to look up both how to spell it and where it is (it's your calf muscle, just for the record.). 

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Sent from Mailbox for iPhone

Best buds

Playing

As long as he's comfy...

Jasmine...

...you are beautiful and you smell absolutely heavenly. But you are also making my entire head itch and for that you must be banished to the back yard. 

5

It would seem that we have a 5 year old in the house.

How did that happen? 

How did half a decade go by? How did he grow so big? Where in the world did this creature come from? 

Oh wait, I know the answer to that last one. 

I have to say (and I think Rob would back me up here) that we really couldn't have hoped for a better little boy. He is healthy and active and listens fairly well. He can be sweet and considerate and thinks of others. At Christmas, he wanted to wrap up and give everyone gifts--even if those gifts were items that belonged to me. He's gotten a crazy sense of humor and comedic timing from somewhere. He can be a little slow to warm up to new situations and new people, but when he's in familiar territory he shows a great deal of confidence. His teachers have commented on how helpful his is in class, and how he likes to be leader there. He is so creative, whether it's when he draws wonderful pictures of aliens and buildings, or when he's playing with his toys and weaving great stories around his creations of Legos and vehicles and animals and paper. That creativity extends to his interest and observations about the world around him. He notices things that never even occur to me. He asks questions about why things happen and how things work. He is fascinated by animals and spends lots of times with his animal figures and animal books. And my goodness, does he have ideas about how things can be accomplished! He'll slide his stool over to the fridge to get his own yogurt. He'll get his scissors to open up a packet of crackers. I think he's often frustrated at how Rob and I try to slow him down a bit, how we're not quite as quick to do something as he might like.

What I'm finding most fascinating and exciting now is how he's so clearly learning to read. Whenever he sees letters he reads them out (often right to left, but we'll work on that), very quickly and accurately. Then he wants to know what it says. He wants to know how to spell words so that he can write them down. He's definitely starting to get the link between a letter and the sound it makes. 

I also love watching him with his friends. I wasn't prepared for him to have such closeknit friendships this early, but he really does. He and two other boys in his class are all within 3 months of age of each other, and they have been dubbed the Three Amigos by their teacher. They adore each other. They conspired to all wear the same Halloween costume. They now all have the same sneakers. The teachers have commented on how well they interact with each other. If one of them commits some sort of transgression against one of the others, he'll be politely told by the others, and then he'll apologize---all of their own volition. I've had all three of them playing at our house, and I barely knew they were there (which, it turns out, was because they were pulling out every single toy in Zack's room. But they were doing it QUIETLY!). There are also two girls in his class that are about his age and have been there as long as he. All of them have a certain understanding of each other and it's just wonderful to watch them make up and play games with each other. They've all taken to "attacking" me when I come to pick up Zack, pulling me around the room by the arms. My heart just melts to see him have such good friends. 

So Happy Birthday to our very sweet boy. We wish you lots of years of love, laughter, and fun. 

Who turned out the lights?

On Sunday night after dinner, I suddenly found myself sitting in the dark. Rob and Zack had turned off all the lights so that they could have a light saber battle.

 I think Zack won.

Bloom

The amaryllis that Dad got me for Christmas is blooming beautifully. Zack has been monitoring its progress since I planted it. And tonight he had words for what appears to be a second shoot coming out that is not moving very quickly (he asked it if it was waiting for christmas).

If you look closely, you might see a lurker in the background.

Shower artist

Sunspot

Life according to Zack

You don't have to say "Excuse me" if you burp outside.

Conversation before school

Zack: I'm going downstairs.

Me: Pick out your clothes and get dressed before you go down.

Zack: No, Mommy, I want you to pick them out. That would work for me.

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I kid you not. He wasn't being sassy about it, just very matter of fact. Where this child gets this stuff from is beyond me, but wow, does he come up with some doozies.

On a different morning we were having as conversation as we were walking out to the car. As I was buckling him in his seat, he said with absolute wide-blue-eyed sincerity, "Monsters don't cut their toenails or fingernails." Really? "No. They don't. Because they don't have scissors." I see.

Gorgeous day...

...for a walk on the trail today.

A boy...

...and his dog.

I'm loving...

...that I can sit on the sidelines while Zack runs around the playground.

New slippers

Future paleontologist

Christmas #4

Today was our third Little Christmas (where we give and receive gifts to and from others), with the Real Christmas being the one where Santa came. This was a very Lego-intensive Christmas. I'm not sure, however, who is enjoying them most.

Trio

Finally, a decent picture of all three of us.

Perhaps...

...the cutest reindeer ever.

Merry Christmas, everyone!

Hanging the stockings by the chimney with care...

Dinner

Imagination

This is the man's house. And you know what, Mommy? The man had so many pet alligators that he'd watch them race. And when they were finished, he'd put the hammer down so they'd stop. And this is the window so he could watch his alligators race. And these are the stairs so he can turn into a scuba diver. And he's resting on his boat. And Mommy! He has a parachute now. Now he's going back to his home.

And then there was the whole part about the pirate ship and the monsters in the speeding boat.

'Tis the season...

It's really interesting to experience how Zack's behavior has changed across Christmases. He definitely understands that he'll get gifts, and every time he sees a toy store flyer he goes through it and says, "I want this for Christmas. I want this for Christmas. I want this for Christmas...." Let's just say it'd be easier for him to list what he doesn't want for Christmas.

But he is also starting to understand better that it's also a time for giving, and we've actually had to move a lot of our gift wrapping to times when he's not around because he started wanting to give away a lot of things from our house. He wrapped up a little toy pitcher for his cousin Ella, which is perfectly acceptable. But he also decided that the vase that he made for me for Mother's Day would be better off with Grampa Jim, in spite of my protests to the contrary. He also wanted to give one of my ornaments to someone else. It was at that point that we made gift wrapping a covert operation.

But not before he wanted to help wrap his gift to his Daddy. I had bought it online and showed it to him. He promptly wanted to wrap it. And as you can see, he wanted to do it himself. And in true Spotts male fashion, he made sure it was well-taped. Doesn't he look so grown up doing all this?

He is also very excited for Christmas to come. Here's the conversation we had this morning:

So do you know what we're going to do tomorrow after we pick you up from school?

Yes.

What?

I don't know.

We're going to get in the car and go to Nonnie and Nonno's.

Yeah! Today?

No, tomorrow.

Is tomorrow today?

No. We'll leave on the day you have karate.

Do I have karate today?

No, today is KidFit. Tomorrow is karate.

I like KidFit. Remember yesterday {keep in mind that "yesterday" is a catchall term for any day in the past 4 1/2 years} when we went to Nonnie and Nonno's and you picked me up before sleepy time {naptime at school}?

Yes, but we're not going to pick you up that early tomorrow. It'll be after naptime.

I'm going to tell Miss Carol that I need to sit in a chair at sleepy time because you're picking me up. I'll wait for you to come. And when Miss Carol goes out into the hall, she'll see my Mommy and Daddy.

OK, but we're not going to be there that early.

I'll wait for you to pick me up so we can go to Nonnie and Nonno's. 

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I have a feeling that it might be a long car ride to Connecticut tomorrow night.

Who let the dog out?

Last Sunday, we invited about 10 of Zack's friends from school and the neighborhood to decorate gingerbread houses. Of course, my camera filled up after about four pictures, so there isn't much documentation of the fun that was had. All the kids were great and I noticed that the mess was less than last year.

But that's not what I wanted to talk about.

For this event, I put Georgia up in our bedroom. She gets a bit nervous when there are so many people in Her House, so it's just easier all around for her to be out of the way. From past experience, I knew that I should lock the bedroom door so that little hands didn't help her escape. The door locks from the inside, but it can be opened from the outside (Just wait. You'll find out how).

All was going well. Georgia barked for awhile, but when she started to hear all the kids downstairs, I think she was grateful to be holed up with a bed all to herself. After two hours, all the kids had left except for one and we were starting to clean up. All of a sudden, there was Georgia, licking up sprinkles and pretzels from the floor. Interestingly, Zack was close behind her. I asked him what Georgia was doing downstairs.

"I let her out."

Now I had tested that door and I knew it was locked. So I bit. I asked him how he opened the door.

"I got a stick and put it in the hole, and wiggled it, and the door opened."

And that, my friends, is how you open our locked door from the outside.

Lost in translation

I think I need to talk to Zack's Spanish teacher. Zack has been singing Felice Navidad as "Police Mommy die." And he's rather convinced of his version.

Buddies

Zack seems to be maturing in his relationship with Georgia. There is less obvious "sibling" rivalry and more involved interaction. When Zack wakes up in the morning, he has to spend some time snuggling with and petting Georgia, saying such sweet things to her, including "I love you, Dorjia!". He plays with her more, rather than doing things to her (though this does still happen). And he's generally more concerned about her well being--feeding her, giving her treats, petting her so sweetly. To her credit, she's responded by letting him pet and snuggle with her, by listening to him more, and by generally being less wary of him. And, of course, by giving him hugs. Which TOTALLY make Zack's day.