Wednesday, July 31, 2013

Elephant in the Pool

Unlike last year's bloody battle between Beco's mom and aunt, we were treated to him putting on an incredible show of playing in the pool. This was a special highlight to our already special trip to the zoo.
As we walked up, Beco was playing ball in the yard. Before walking off, we noticed he was taking the ball to the pool. It was as if he knew we wanted to see his tricks. He even splashed us! We watched for a while -- Vanessa finally settled and was intrigued. Zane watched as much as one can expect a toddler to watch.

Zane said, while creating this post, "Mommy, I want go back to zoo see what Beco is doing."

Tuesday, July 30, 2013

Tenacity

At the end of June, Vanessa found her way to the top.

Friday, July 26, 2013

Summer School

Composition
Math
Natural Sciences
Lunchtime
Numismatics (This is one of my favorites this session -- Vanessa initiated this activity by opening a restaurant -- she created a sign and an impressive menu, showing the items for sale and their price in cents and dollars.)

Physics
Library
Performing Arts
 Home Economics

Thursday, July 25, 2013

Awakened

The break from our sultry summer days leaves me feeling awakened. Autumnal days like these urge me to seek seclusion with my beloved and little ones. Since I can't always have it all, I snatch up what I can.
Tonight I snuggled up with this little guy to coerce him to sleep. Before drifting off, he kissed me multiple times and repeated softly, "Sweet dreams, Mama. I love you."  And they are, at least most of the time.

Tuesday, July 23, 2013

Ride and Tie

So I had this plan. When schedules allowed, I was going to provide Vanessa with an incentive to tie her shoes independently all of the time. We could practice on her new shoes, and when she got it down, she could begin wearing her new shoes anytime. Well, I woke one morning and mentioned to Vanessa our plan to practice. While I was cleaning the kitchen after breakfast and art, Vanessa ran downstairs to show me she could already tie her shoes -- her old shoes! So much for practicing. She did well, although she will get frustrated if you ask her to tie them too many times in a row. :-) I was so impressed that she insisted I email Daddy at work to tell him.
Then, we had a plan for taking her training wheels off of her bike. We put off the task until she would be able to work with her master teacher, Daddy. So when school let out for summer break, we told her once Daddy came back from Canada, we would practice. Finally, this week, we took her to the school playground, where there is a huge area of asphalt. I questioned whether I should take the camera . . . but I anticipated our already exhausted little girl to melt under her own pressure and frustration, so the camera should not be needed until at least the next attempt.  Who was I kidding?! Daddy took off the training wheels, gave her some guidance, and helped her stay upright to ride off. Within in a few minutes, the girl was riding long distances and turning circles left and right.
Of course we were proud of Zane too -- riding through the grass, trying really hard to go uphill, and for delivering water on the back of his trike.

Monday, July 22, 2013

Jibba Jabba

In the last year or so (since figuring out his sister runs nonstop, and accepting he might as well join her rather than wait for a turn), Zane has demonstrated his potential gift of jibba jabba more and more. Below is a list of recent common phrases I've noted that he expresses with his own style.
"Oh . . . alright."
"Nothing."
"Nope. I don't want to."
"Thank you."
"Please."
"Back up."
"You're welcome."
"I need to pee!"
"What are you doing?"
"Sorry."
"Mommy, watch me!"
"I roller skate."
"Next!"
"Let me in!"
"Um . . . um . . . [repeats recent comments others made]"
"I go asleep."
"Where's Daddy? Is Daddy at work? Daddy come home soon."
"Mommy check on me?"
"Nevermind."
 "I say prayer?"
"Argh!"
"Me turn!"
"Wait."
"Na-na na-na boo boo"
"Are you okay?"
"Oh . . . cool."

He likes to tell jokes too, and recently he's ventured to new punchlines, rather than making everything revolve around the word blue. He's even playing I Spy with more options than just blue. It's fun to watch his interest and gregarious nature develop.

Zane: "Knock. Knock."
Mommy: "Who's there?"
Zane: "Black
Mommy: "Black who?"
Zane: "Black and purple apple juice."

You can catch Zane singing:
Rock-a-bye Baby
Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star
ABCs (Super Why style)
We Won't Be Quiet
If All the Raindrops

Friday, July 19, 2013

FAIR

Fantastic
Approach
Implement
Reap

This was Zane's first year riding on rides and playing games. Last year he didn't mind watching his sister and friends. This year he was brave and overly excited to try everything. There was still lots of "No, you're not big enough yet." Good thing Zane is patient.
Daddy shot out of the slide right after Zane.
Zane enjoys the animals a bunch, especially the horses. He made many requests:
"Go to horse barn? See horsies?"
"Go to pig barn?"
"Go to moo barn? See cows?"
Zane didn't want to leave, but when we got home he said, in what we call his Grandpa Stance, "Fair was fun!"

Thursday, July 18, 2013

Happy Birthday, Zach!!


*Picture taken from Pathway Community Church. 

Wednesday, July 17, 2013

We Scream

Yes, we scream for ice cream. But Zane didn't really scream when he dropped his scoop. He did, however, exclaim "Oh man . . . "

Apparently July is National Ice Cream Month.Grandma is great about pulling us together when our men are gone. Aunt Sally and Aunt Angie taught us to make ice cream from scratch. It was fast, cool and yummy!

It's also
  • National Blueberry Month
  • National Anti-Boredom Month
  • National Cell Phone Courtesy Month
  • National Hot Dog Month
And week 2 in July is Nude Recreation Week. We had that covered too. ;-)

If you're curious, check out other bizarre and unique holidays for July. I would certainly scream if we tried to acknowledge all the "holidays" -- but we'll cover many of them, easily.

Monday, July 15, 2013

Defying Gravity

You can't pull him down.

Saturday, July 13, 2013

When the Cat's Away

The mice will play . . . but we want our tomcat (also known as a papa bear) to come back.

Thursday, July 11, 2013

"De-Des" & Bubbles

Vanessa had an amazingly successful bubble session a few weeks ago.  Zane chose to use a wand with smaller circles, and he enjoyed waving it hard, resulting in a few smaller bubbles that were hard to capture in pictures. Vanessa (or as Zane refers to her, "De-Des") begged for me to follow her to take pictures. She confirmed the superior shots. One bubble got away, but . . .

". . . all bubbles have a way of bursting or being deflated in the end." 
~ Barry Gibb