Santa Fe 4

We spent Memorial Day at Bandelier National Monument. The two ladies in the one picture were quite taken with Zack's explanations of what things were (accurate or not). We had a lovely day.

Santa Fe 3

He needed something to keep the sun out if his eyes.

(No we didn't buy it)

Santa Fe 2

It's not entirely clear who had more fun at the Children's Museum.

Santa Fe 1

Apparently all Zack needs is a Nutella milkshake and a canine buddy to be happy.

Goin' to Dewey!

Auntie Kelly is taking Zack and his friend Ariana (and Jojo) to Doodles at Dewey this weekend. Its a fundraiser where folks bring their labradoodles and golden Doodles to the beach. Z and A were sooooo excited!!! They left after school today and will be back tomorrow night.

I love that Zack has this kind of relationships Kelly! I can't wait to hear about their adventure!

Voting

I asked Z if he wanted to go with me to vote to tomorrow.

"Wait, Mama. Don't vote for the guy who's going to bring back segregation"

"Who's that?"

"Ummm...I can't remember.......Donald Trump"

I told him not to worry, there was no chance of me voting for him.

Best buds

Kelsey and Zack.

(A pic from KAH)

Brave

This boy sees someone he knows wherever he goes. And if he doesn't know anyone, he'll make a new friend. I love this about him. He tells me he's shy, which might be a little bit true, but I also think he's very brave.

Air and Space

Zack had a field trip to the Air and Space Museum today. Since the first day it was announced, he has been asking me to go as a chaperone. I figured there won't be many more years that he wants to be seen with me, so I cleared my schedule and went along.

There wasn't enough room in the bus, so the parents met the kids there. He was so excited to see me! Another mom and I had charge of 3 boys for about 2.5 hours--which was pretty much the perfect amount of time.

We could barely get them through security, they were so immediately in awe of all the planes and satellites hanging in the main hall. We did a whirlwind tour through pretty much everything, spent a lot of time in the hands-on hall learning about all sorts of air and space principles, saw a demonstration about the space station, and saw the Wright's first plane. Zack and his buddies spent about 15 minutes figuring out the logistics of space toilets (picture below).

We had a great time, but I was really glad that I didn't have to ride back on the bus! I have nothing but the utmost respect for teachers who do this daily!

When I picked Zack up tonight, I asked him if he enjoyed the trip. He said "Yeah it was awesome! Especially because you came along!"

My heart may have melted just a little bit.

Parenting.

Parenting seems to boil down to either saying things you never imagined saying (e.g. "Get that eel out of your pants!")...

...or being rendered utterly without words.

Conversation between Zack and I this morning

Z: Where's my coat???
M: I'm pretty sure you hung it up last night. 
Z: (Indignantly) SEE?!? I'm not used to hanging up my coat! 

Sigh.

Star Wars Club

I don't think anyone is going to mess with KAH this month!

Sometimes...

...there just aren't any words.

All of us at Disney

Here's a shot of all of us at Disney. I'm surprised at how well it turned out, since at the time Zack and Ella were snipping at each other and were NOT interested in posing. 

Thanksgiving

Zack had no interest in getting autographs from the characters....until we had thanksgiving dinner with the princesses. Then he was all over getting autographs and pictures.

Legoland, Day 2

LL is the best place ever, according to Z. Today he got his driver's license, watched a 4d movie, fought bad guys in a mummy tomb, watched good guys fight off pirates on water skis, and went on a boat ride. At the moment he's building a velociraptor cage.

And yes, that's a life-sized Ford Explorer made out of Legos.

Tomorrow it's onto Disney.

Legoland, day 1

He may be in heaven.

Update

We had Zack's parent-teacher conference yesterday, so it seemed like a good time to post an update. 

First, I have to say that his teacher, Ms. Cipollina, is fabulous. Just so sweet and caring--she really wants all the kids to do well. Zack says at least once a week that she's the best teacher ever. 

Zack is doing well. According to the report that he wrote about himself, he likes reading and writing the best, math is ok, science is good, social studies--eh, not so much. He's reading a little above grade level, which reflects changes that I've noticed recently. He's doing well in math, and in everything else, too. He got good marks in all of the social stuff--following the rules, etc. Ms. C said that he gets a long with all of his classmates and everyone seems to like him. She also said that he's probably the most creative kid in the class. 

The "but" is that because he's got so much going on in his head, he sometimes doesn't read the instructions on his worksheets and so doesn't show that he masters all the concepts. He's not inclined to check his work (honestly, I always hated doing that, too). He also needs some help with writing. His teacher said that others that are reading at his level are writing long paragraphs independently, which he's only doing with guidance. To be honest, I think that he can do it (Ms. C thinks so, too), but that it's too much of a bother for him. 

Because of this, Ms Cipollina nominated him to be a part of a new program at school called Rock N Read. He's the only one in his class that gets to do it. It's for kids like Zack, who can read at grade level but need some more work on concepts and writing. Volunteers come in to work one-on-one with the students. He's had two sessions so far and he really seems to love it. He came home all excited and showed me everything thing they'd done. It seems like a win all around. 

As far as everything else goes, he continues to do really well. He has friends coming out of the woodwork. What I love about him (well there are many things, but...) is that his attitude seems to be that there's no reason he can't be friends with everyone. I hope he keeps that. He's always busy at KAH and the counselors there say he's a great kid. He has a couple close friends in the neighborhood that he likes to hang around with. Coby lives across the street and they will often go back and forth between houses on the weekend. His other good friend is Arianna, who lives about a block and a half away. We like to hang out with her parents, so we'll often have impromptu dinners. I love to see that he has no problem being friends with girls, and they get along so well. 

Happy Halloween!

In short, we had a great Halloween. Our neighborhood really gets into it, starting with a neighborhood parade that starts on our front yard. Kids come out of the woodwork, I swear. Then trick-or-treating. Then we had a party. The adults went to Paul and Holly's house, while the kids had their own party at our house (childcare was hired, don't worry).

I was Frida Kahlo, Zack was a Knight Terror, and Rob was some sort of Phantom of Doom.

Everyone had a blast.

Movies

We went to see Hotel Transylvania 2 yesterday, bringing Zack's friend Ariana and her brother Garen along.