Camp

Zack is front and center, with the goggles on. I'm not sure why he has the goggles on, but...

It's Mad Science week at camp, so he's looking forward to a lot of fun.

Just...

...watching Scooby Doo.

Concentration

Bigger.

I came across some of Zack's baby things today. He was really interested in them and somehow managed to put on a newborn sleeper. Sort of.

And those are his first shoes next to his current ones.

Shaving Cream Wiffle Ball

I have no idea what that is, but our boy is at bat!

Camping

We went camping with Deb and Shawn last weekend. Here are a few pics. The kids had a blast. It's a lot of fun watching then do their own thing without us having to hover over them all the time.

Swimming.

Zack and I went over to Kelly's to swim after I picked Z up from camp. After dragging him out of the pool (He'd still be in there if I'd let him. There might be something to him being a Pisces), he had some Mac and cheese. Jo Jo was hoping for some, too.

While Mom's away...

...the boys go fishing.

Friday night​

Zack and Rob went over to Kelly's tonight to swim (I'm at a conference in Charlottesville). Too bad Zack doesn't love Jo Jo at all. Too bad neither of them are cute.

Guess what?

The tooth fairy is coming tonight!

Update

So let me fill you in on this guy. I'd say little guy, but that's becoming less and less true. He's quickly closing in on 50 inches tall, and weighs about 1 pound per inch. There are mornings when I swear I can see the overnight growth. 

Kindergarten is over. He's officially a first grader now. He's grown so much this year. He had great teachers this year, and learned so much (just ask him). He made a lot of friends. We're told he's a really good kid--is polite, gets along with everyone. The one challenge he runs into is that he just doesn't understand when others aren't nice to him. We have to work on helping him deal with that. 

We went to a potluck for his aftercare the other night and were watching a slide show of things they'd done throughout the year. Rob and I are pretty sure that they do more in aftercare than we did in kindergarten. 

He's in camp this summer. The camp is run by the same group that runs his aftercare, so he knows the ropes and the counselors and should have a lot of fun. They go swimming every Monday, and go on a field trip every Friday, with lots of fun stuff going on in between. 

We've been spending more time with our neighbors lately. We've really lucked out in that regard. All the kids are pretty much in the same age range. The adults are very similarly minded in terms of parenting and politics. Over the past month or so, we've had two potlucks at different houses, and it's been so much fun. The kids are old enough that they can run around in a pack and amuse themselves, which leaves the adults free to have a drink and an uninterrupted conversation. It's been great. Zack has also been getting to know another boy in the neighborhood, and it's been working out that they have been getting together to play pretty spontaneously. 

As for the boy himself, what can I say about him? He's got such a personality. He's got a great sense of humor and now that he's older, he gets more inside jokes, and makes some of his own. He's also taken to "getting" us---in other words, pulling our leg. 

He's still working on reading. It's interesting to watch; you forget how much mental energy it takes when you're first learning. We can almost see the cogs turning. Now that they sent all his school work home, we've seen that he was working on a journal in school where they were supposed to draw a picture and write captions about it. He was doing a really good job of sounding out words on his own, though it's hard for us to read. For example, he wrote the word "science" as "siins". Which, to be honest, makes as much sense as the correct spelling. 

He still loves to draw, and was very sad that the drawing class he'd been going to was over for the session. We'll definitely have to start those again when they start in the fall. He still loves Legos, too, and builds very complex things with interacting parts. 

Along with everything else, he's developing a bit of an attitude. There are days where I'm pretty sure that he's 6 going on 13. But we're working on it. And overall, he's a really good kid. 

End of an Era

First day of kindergarten. Heading off to his last day of kindergarten. After today we have a first-grader on our hands.

Slacking.

I know, I've been slacking on posts lately. To tide you over, here's a pic of him sacked out after his drawing class last Saturday. Boden had slept over the night before, so he was pretty tired.

Jo Jo Penelope

We went with Kelly to get her puppy today. What a sweetie! So far she and Georgia are getting along fine.

More from the sculpture club.

Too bad he doesn't have any fun after school.

Reading

Zack just read about half of Dr Seuss' Go Dog, Go to me. He did such a good job of sounding out new words and repeating sentences again to "smooth them out" after figuring out all the words. He was really motivated to do it, too, to figure out all the words. It's amazing how much energy it takes--he gets a bit out if breath when he's really concentrating. 

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Sculpture club

Zack and his latest creation made during sculpture club at KAH (aftercare).

Sporty

As we were driving home tonight, Zack was describing a car he'd seen. I asked him if it was a sporty car. He said it was there was a pause for a moment. Then he said, "And I'm a sporty Zack ."  

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Drawing

Yesterday, after he and I got home, he apparently noticed this card on the counter and took it. He went over to the table and all I knew was that he was very engrossed in his drawing. Before I knew it, he'd done this.

And just FYI, the one on the left is the old old lady, and the one on the right is the young old lady.

Weekend

While Rob and I went away for a night to Shepherdstown, Zack hung out with Kelly. He was so excited and had a whole list of things they were going to do. I don't know if they got to it all, but they did go to the playground, rent movies, go to the aquarium, get a balloon jet pack made, and have lunch. And I'm pretty sure he didn't notice we were gone.