A boy and his dog.

Not a fabulous picture, but it was a flash picture in a dark room. For all the hassle he gives her, they really are best buddies at the end of the day.

Yum

Kelly and Zack made starfish pretzels, a recipe out of his My Big Backyard magazine. Wow, were they yummy!

Checking out tadpoles

A few more pics from the past couple weeks. 

Chopsticks (front view)

The face of determination.

Chopsticks.

He was bound and determined to use chopsticks when we had sushi yesterday.

B'more

We spent the day in Baltimore today (thanks the for the idea, Kelly!). We went to the Aquarium, had sushi, went for a paddle boat ride on a dragon boat, and had ice cream. Zack was awesome and had a great time. What a fabulous day!

Zachary Dali

Genetics

Zack seems to have inherited someone's good (and expensive) taste.

Quote of the day

I was driving Zack to school this morning and we were talking about how it might storm tonight, which would mean we'd have to have the school's end of the year party inside.

Why?

Well, because we can't be outside when it's storming, right?

Yeah, cuz storms have superpowers that will give you a boo-boo.

Quote of the day

"I am a daddy and I have a bug bite "

Sent from my iPhone

Payoff

Perseverence

He's been waiting at the corner of the yard for about an hour, waiting for the ice cream truck to come back. We missed it the first time. Note the stool that he brought out to sit on. I sure hope that ice cream man comes back around......

Tired

He had a really busy day yesterday. As evidenced by the fact that this was him at 8 this morning.

Daddy's helper

Wall

This is what Rob did this weekend. He does nice work, huh?

Hatched!

Our praying mantis egg sac opened this morning. Thanks, Papa!

Happy Mother's Day!

Thanks to this little guy for making me a mother.

Magic.

Over the past few weeks, Zack has been saying that when Rob and I were little, he (zack) didn't have a Mommy and a Daddy and that he was all alone. I tell him that he wasn't even around then, so he doesn't have to worry about it. This actually renders him speechless for a few minutes (a rarity, believe me!). Last night he started this conversation again, then he added that when Mommy and Daddy were little, they were with their Mommy and Daddy. I said "So do you know who our Mommes and Daddies are?"

Yes.

Who?

I don't know [This is a rather comon course of conversation].

Well, my Mommy and Daddy are Grandma and Papa, and Daddy's Mommy and Daddy are Nonni and Nonno.

But they're MY Grandma and Papa and Nonni and Nonno!

Yes, but they're also my Mommy and Daddy and Daddy's Mommy and Daddy.

By this point, he was sitting on my lap, and we had done another round or two of this. He was nearly in tears at this point, insisting that they are HIS Grandma and Papa, and Nonni and Nonno, not my Mommy and Daddy. There was just no room in his brain for these people to hold two roles, so I dropped it. It made me think that all these concepts that we adults take for granted are so difficult to acquire. That there is an awful lot in this world that is really, really difficult for these little guys and gals to understand. And that it's so very amazing how our brains and bodies grow to accommodate and ingest all the that we encounter in the world. One day a few neurons will grow some dendrites and make a connection with another neuron, and all of a sudden he'll understand that his grandparents are also Rob's and my parents. Magic.

Happy Birthday!

To the bestest husband and Daddy ever! We wish you many, many more!

Edited to add: Click on the pictures to see them in their entirety. I have no idea what happened to them.