Zach Today

Zachary - Practically 3 Years Old

Zach is such a loving guy. He often comes out of the blue and says, "Mom, I luvvv you" and he says it with a little "embarrassed" side look at me. He melts my heart! Then there is the almost 3 side of him that is driving me crazy. He completely throws a fit when he is told "No". He talks constantly and asks questions until you have an answer he is satisfied with (which I often have to lie because he won't take, "I don't know"). I also have to repeat what he says so that he knows that I know exactly what he has said. When he is talking with other people and they don't understand this, then I have to repeat for them.

He is completely potty trained (except for bed time), but doesn't quite know how to get his clothes back on. He has to completely strip to go potty. So all day long I'm continually asking him, "Zach, where are your underwear?" It is hard to keep clothes on him. He strips to the bear minimum at other people's houses too. It makes it a little hard when we go to the Y. I'm often called out of workouts to come and put all his clothes back on him. We are working on it. He also is slowing down on singing in the bathroom. It use to be that when he walked through the door he started singing, but now it is maybe once a day or so. Though you can catch him singing "Jingle Bells" every now and then while he is playing. I need to get this on video!

He loves his Mommy. Sometimes in the morning Daddy will put a cartoon on for him so I can sleep a little longer, but it is not long that he is on his way upstairs and comes by my head and says, "Mommy will you come sit with me." Again, melts my heart. Elissa is his favorite person. He follows her around all day long and does and says everything that she does. He doesn't understand why she would ever not want to play with him. He'll go up to her and say, "Lissy, why won't you play with me?" Breaks my heart. Though he also is becoming a "bug" too. I've started having to make them go to their own rooms for awhile to have some alone time.

He gets so excited when Daddy gets home. The first thing he wants to do is for Daddy to play monster with him. Then maybe fly helicopters or watch him play on the computer. If it is a nice day, then he wants to follow Daddy around outside or go for a bike ride. He thinks Daddy is the coolest!

He is growing up, which means he is leaving some of his baby/toddler ways behind. It is sad that he doesn't do his under his breath mumbling "sister" anymore. He has definitely left the mumble speaking behind. He calls her Lissy like everyone else in the family. It is amazing the questions he asks and responses from him. His vocabulary grows every day. He wants to do things himself and he reminds us often, "I'm a big boy"; though he does still say that he is Mommy's baby boy. :-)

He is SO excited for his THIRD Birthday! He has decided to have a Lightning birthday (Lightning McQueen). He lists off all our friends and family that he wants to be there, especially "my best friend Tyler". I wish you could hear how he says this; it is so cute! I'll have to get it on video some time. :-)

I could write so much more, but here is a snapshot for today.

We Dreamed it was Spring

Monday, 1-18-10

WOW! What a wonderful Winter day in Seattle....SUNNY and 59!!

Just after 9am we finally noticed, hey it's not raining and it is actually really nice outside. :-) I thought I had seen rain in the forecast all week, so I didn't think it would last long.

The kids hit the sand (mud) box first.

Then some time in the fort.

It is nice that it seems "new" each Spring.

And POPSICLEs!
They were so excited for this Summer treat.

Zach loves to swing!

And of course Elissa has to have a picnic.

The weather just kept getting better, so we decided to go on a treasure hunt.
You never know what you will find at the beach.

Holding up the bridge!
Elissa had the idea to turn over her treasure basket so Zach could reach the beam.

We find mainly.....MUD!

Zach is stuck.....

Mommy's coming to get him.

Cleaning off.....well, really just splashing in the water. Cleaning off is a good side benefit. :-)

Always pushing their boundaries at how far out they can go.

We are pooped! Time to head home and have naps!!

These days always remind me why we live in the Northwest and out in the boonies (relatively).

So beautiful and serene!!

The kids play, while.....

Saturday & Sunday, 1-16/17-10

Mom is at home sick in bed day after day. :-(

I have such a wonderful Hubby that acted as a single parent this weekend and catered to his sick wife. Thank you so much Honey!!

They went on an adventure finding golf balls in the mud.

Playdate Mondays

Monday, 1-11-10

Today was my first Monday of the New Year to have the boys.

With our continuing resolution (started before Christmas) to work out 5-6 days a week, we met down at the "Y". Then after our workout, I was off with the boys. :-)

They had a great day playing with all of Zach's new toys and just enjoying being boys. I really love that Zach gets this time. It is working out so well!

Watching Monsters vs Aliens on our way home.

This was Darin and his brother's train/car set when they were young. They boys had a lot of fun with them and just as suddenly moved on to something else.

Geotrax trains and the new Lightening McQueen trax. Oh yes, and the foam swords I got - specifically with them in mind - was a big hit (literally!). :-)

Sweet guys!

A belated Christmas with Friends

Saturday, 1-9-10

We were suppose to spend New Year's Eve with Kirstin and her family, but that was abruptly shut down when the doctor said that Zach had strep. It was a bummer that our fun plans had to be canceled.

It is amazing that we were able to reschedule so quickly. As with most of my friends, it is near impossible to make last minute plans. :-)

The kids had such a great time together. Though poor Zach was a little left out. He is a bit young for most of the games the other kids want to play, but they did their best to include him. He zonked out around 9:30pm while the others kept playing until almost midnight when we left. Elissa fell asleep immediately when her head hit the car seat.

The guys watched football all day and Kirstin and I (with our friend Angie), had a little girl time and went and got pedicures. Nice!

The kids favorite time was our gift exchange!

Love you guys so much!
I'm so looking forward to all the adventures we will have in 2010!!

A little time in Neverland

Tuesday, 1-5-10

This is our second play at the Seattle Children's Theatre and I love it! Peter Pan was awesome! The actors, costumes, set......all so great!

Hailey and Elissa had a great time hangin' together. :-)

A little treat after the play.....Starbucks, of course. :-)

Some time at the zoo...

Sunday, 1-3-10

Elissa looked like she was getting sick now with a bad cough (which ended up being an ear infection), so we didn't want to bring that to church but we needed to get out of the house. So we went to the Point Defiance Zoo. :-) It looked like the rain was going to hold for the morning, so we packed up and went.

We made it just in time to hear the divers talk about the sharks.

Our two favorite animals....the polar bear and.....

ET the walrus.

Our last bit of fun!

It was a fun morning and a much needed adventure out of the house!

New Years Day

Friday, 1-1-2010

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Our plan were to spend New Years Eve and Day with Kirstin and her family, but sickness landed again. I took Zach to the doctor New Years Eve morning and he had strep. There goes all our plans. :-(

So plan B ended up being movie night at home. We had a nice quiet evening. The kids went to be at 8pm as usual and then Darin and I watched Transformers 2 and then we watched The Needle fireworks to ring in the New Year.

New Years Day we spent at home too. We didn't want to spread strep around, of course. So Darin finally put together the TRIO Castle that Zach got for Christmas and they had a great time playing with it for quite a long time. Another quiet family day.

A little bit of Envy....

Well a lot of envy to start this New Year - 2010. A lot of my friends are posting about their "Final Thoughts" and "Going through Withdrawls" and "That's a Wrap" and some that haven't blogged yet that they are FINISHED with their Project 365 for the year 2009.

If you are not "in the know", this is a picture a day for 365 days.

I started this daunting project the same day they all did and my album is completed through April. Now I'm very sure I have a picture a day for the whole year, but I now need to take the time to take them out of my computer and put them in my album with all the journaling.

This is my project for 2010 - to get Project 365 for 2009 completed. :-) I'm not planning anything else at this time.

I love to blog about my family and I keep up on it and I'm happy with this being a fun documentary of our life.

I love to scrap and I'll never stop doing it, but it will most likely be for special events. I just can't keep up with my over achieving friends (you know who you are!).

I am very interested in seeing what Becky Higgins' Digital Project Life is going to be. I'm thinking this might be more my speed. I really should look more into digital scrapbooking. But I do have a physical Project Life in route to me too. Not sure what I'm going to do with it yet. :-)

So I'm done with my moment of envy. And I really do applaud my very organized friends for finishing their projects. It is quite an accomplishment.

I'm SO looking forward to our creative moments of 2010!!
(Is it our scrapbook weekend yet??)