Saturday, March 30, 2013

Friday, March 29, 2013

In other news...

...Georgia got an unscheduled bath last night because Zack decided it'd be a good idea to pour bubble-blowing solution on her. Because, you know, why not?

Thursday, March 28, 2013

Non sequitur

Me: What did you have for lunch?

Zack: Tarantulas have 8 legs.
—

Tuesday, March 19, 2013

Sunday, March 17, 2013

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.

Friday, March 15, 2013

Monday, March 11, 2013

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. 



Sunday, March 10, 2013

Thursday, March 07, 2013

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.). 
—
Sent from Mailbox for iPhone

Saturday, March 02, 2013

Monday, February 25, 2013

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. 

Thursday, February 21, 2013

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. 




Tuesday, February 19, 2013

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.

Thursday, February 14, 2013

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.

Tuesday, February 12, 2013

Saturday, February 09, 2013

Friday, February 08, 2013

Life according to Zack

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

Wednesday, January 30, 2013

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.

****************************
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.