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.

Clam chowder on a Friday night

Just have to wait for it to cool off.

Selfie

I love how it looks as if Georgia is rolling her eyes.

He lost another one.

First Day of School

I've just realized that the pictures I thought I posted of Zack's first day of school are still floating around in the ether somewhere. Sorry about that. Let's try this again. 

Here are pics of Zack's first day of 2nd grade, along with his teacher, Ms. Cipollina. He was very excited because he's in a portable classroom (apparently a very desirable commodity among the 2nd grade set). He loves his teacher (and having chatted with her for a while today, I can see why) and so far loves 2nd grade. 

He's really been doing great and I can already see a big change in him. He has increased confidence. For example, Rob and I always drop him off on the first day so that we can figure out who his teacher is. He wanted us to walk up to the 2nd grade line (they line up outside before going to their rooms) with him, then all of a sudden he was gone. He was off saying hello to some of his other friends. The times I've dropped him off at KAH in the morning, I've barely signed him in before he's off finding friends to play with, and forget getting a hug from him in the morning! That said, when I pick him up, I get a really big hug and smile.  

He's been doing all his homework while at KAH; they have some homework time before the fun starts and he's been taking advantage of it. He's been much more responsible about the tasks he has to do before and after school, remembering to get his lunch, take care of his backpack, feed the dog, etc., without being prompted. 

His philosophy seems to be that there's no good reason why he can't be friends with everyone. He talks about a lot of different kids that he plays with at school. He's got a lot of friends in the neighborhood, too, including Coby who is on the same block. On the weekends they've been moving back and forth between their two houses, playing this, that, and the other thing for hours. They get a long so very well---it makes all of us parents very happy! 

He's also developing more confidence in new social situations. Last night he tried out taekwando at the Y. It was the first class and he'd never met the instructor. A year ago he would have made a big fuss about me staying with him in the room, but last night, while he was a bit shy at first, he was perfectly fine when I said I'd be back to get him when it was over. You could also tell he was positively beaming when the instructor told him that he was impressed with how quick Zack was. 

Which leads to my final story. When he got home last night, it was late, so I told him that he had to be quick in the shower (not typically his forte). He took a shockingly quick shower, but one that seemingly involved soap and shampoo. I expressed my shock, to which he immediately replied "See? I'm quick at a lot of things." 

Summer​

Summer has flown by. How is it the end of August? How is Zack starting second grade (!) tomorrow? 

In spite of illness and stress and (non-fun) travel, we had a pretty good summer, I think. We just got back from our annual trip to CT where we managed to pack in a lot of stuff--seeing all kinds of family, going to the beach, eating ice cream, camping (just Rob and Zack), eating seafood, kayaking, swimming in the pool, playing miniature golf. 

Zack loves seeing all of his cousins and aunts and uncles, and I think the feeling is mutual. We've explained a little about how Rob is adopted, etc., etc., and some day it will probably hit him that Rob and Kelly are siblings but they call two differnet women "Mom," but in the meantime he just knows that a whole lot of people love him. And that's all that matters. What makes me happy to no end is that even though most of his cousins are nearly two decades older than him, they have no problem spending time with him and including him. The older cousins were playing frisbee on the beach and had no problem letting him join in. 

He's matured a lot in some ways this summer. He's glad to help out (well, most of the time)--setting the table, feeding the dogs, bringing groceries inside. It's really nice. 

I'm just going to post a bunch of pictures from vacation here, and in the next post. And then I'll try to be better at posting from here on out. 

Hanging at the pool...

... With Auntie Kelly.

End-of-week snuggles.

Friday

Having fun at camp!

He apparently called this work "Haunted Mansion."

Guess I'll keep 'em

So tonight Zack decided he "must have" most of my avocado sushi. And then Georgia decided that she "must have" my shrimp sushi (she licked it while it was on my plate! While I was sitting there! And showed no remorse!).

But then they did this. G laid on my lap and Z started snuggling. Guess they're not so bad.

Hydrangeas

A year off did these gals some good. I can't get a pic that really captures the variations in color, but they are gorgeous this year!

Stick of Awesomeness

The second graders won the Stick of Awesomeness today. I'm not quite sure what that means, but I'm pretty sure it's good. 

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