Zane! Yippie-yi-yo-ki-yay!

You're three today!

Happy Birthday, our little man!

More of Nature's Best Moments

When these two beg to help me garden, I can't express how delighted I get! If I try and do it when they're not around, I get scolded.

And I'm always willing to suffer a stuffy nose and slightly labored breathing when my kids bring me special pickings -- indeed one of nature's best moments. It's amazing to me that they find beauty in most anything.

Busy Hands

Zane is such a good helper. Most of the time he wants to and happily helps, often defying the average tendencies of a two- or three-year-old. I'm certain these moments provide a true glimpse into his very kind heart and soul. 

When he's having a hard time being patient, which isn't too often, and he's asking me to do something, I often reply something like "My hands are busy but I can help you in a moment."

While walking out of a store the other day, I said something like "Zane, I need your hand as we go into the parking lot." Zane stuck his hands in his pockets and replied, "Nope. My hands are busy."

He's truly had some of the busiest hands I've known, even when I carried  him in my tummy.

Simple Requests

After achieving the daredevil attempt by springing successfully into full swing the first time, and being asked how he got up there (I'm not sure why I attempt to turn my back at any given time. And as you can tell from the second pic, he wasn't really directly pointed at the tree when he jumped.):
Zane: "Lilly, help me get up here?"

While pulling up to the library:
Zane: "Mommy, park in the grass!"
Mommy: "I should park in the parking spot, not in the grass."
Zane: "Why? Grandpa parks in grass."

While running errands on a weekday:
Zane: "I need van key, open doors. I don't open Da-Dess door. She at school."

Zane: "Skar need crickets? Let's see Nemo?"

While trying to go to sleep:
Zane: "Mommy, it dark outside. Moon out. Go bike riding?"

Just a few of Zane's birthday requests: 
"Go Chuck E Cheese for my birthday?"
"Go Grandma's house for my birthday?
"I go bowling for my birthday."
"There horse on my street. I want horse for my birthday."
"I want Brutus pet for my birthday."
"I want fly up in a rocket ship for my birthday."

Relating the Birthday Fairy:
Zane: "Ho Ho come to my birthday?"

Vanessa's friends laugh at Zane when he's wearing princess dresses and has painted toenails. He takes it all in stride and answers to Mr. Princess. His comment to one friend:  "What? What's so funny? I'm Lynda's Mom."

While playing kitchen and holding a dime:
Zane: "Ma'am. Um. Ma'am. I need apple juice." [He receives pretend juice and walks it over to me.] "Mom. Here you go."
Mom: "Thank you for sharing your apple juice."
Zane: "Welcome."

One Part of the Web

Last week, for Vanessa's special week at school, and with a slight hesitation, she shared Skar with her class. When we talked about it the weekend before her special week, she described how she would worry for him at night when no one was at the school. She had a ton of questions. Who will watch him? How will we feed him? How will we get him there? What if someone tries to take him? We discussed a plan and all the factors involved. She concluded it would be a special treat for her classmates as long as I would help get him there on Monday.

The first time they fed Skar in the classroom, her teacher videotaped and projected the activity on the screen. Her classmates were overly excited. When Skar went after his first cricket, most of the class squealed and laughed. This upset Vanessa tremendously, because she thought they were laughing at him. She internalized her frustration and hurt until after school when she came out noticeably upset.

This ended up being another moment where I felt I was at fault for possibly traumatizing my daughter. Sure, when I paused long enough to rationalize it all, I understood that I could not have known when I encouraged her to take him to school. And truly, this experience ended up being a wonderful example for how people express themselves differently and how we need to be careful not to misinterpret and take others' reactions personally.

Since returning home, Vanessa has a hard time putting the little guy down. She told him that she missed him and gave him kisses. She asked him in a motherly tone if he missed her too. It's obvious by his responses that he loves her and he loves to be home.

*Special Request: If you happen across a turtle or frog, we'd love to take him or her to Vanessa's class for the rest of the year. They have an empty and well-stocked aquarium. And there's an abundant supply of mealworms.

Constructing Balance

We consider the dependent and independent variables when constructing balance. Often, if Vanessa does it, Zane wants to do it. Other times, Zane shows what he can do all by himself.  For example, he's confident with naming opposites all by himself, like up and down and front and back.

When we consider and adapt to both sets of variables, we manage to find a pretty good balance.

Through the Looking Glasses

Strange, weird, off . . . ? His interest are just different from yours. When Zane looked through the lenses, he saw "Big poop!" and "Blue poop!"

Dynomite Dominoes

My maternal grandfather would humbly and honestly admit to having struggled with alcohol and gambling before meeting my grandmother. My grandmother's adamant refusal to go on a date on Sunday intrigued my grandfather even more when he first met her. She told him that if he wanted to see her on Sunday, he was welcome to go to church with her. This introduction and invite was a pivotal moment in my grandfather Gerald's life. During the same time, he was being scouted as a jockey and was offered training, compensation, and room and board if he were to move to Louisville. He grew up impoverished, so you can imagine how enticing the offer had to have been. You might also imagine that there's a lot of gambling and alcohol at horse races.

My grandmother was extremely conservative and viewed many things as gateways to one's demise. She believed that it was important to avoid temptations and she went to great lengths ensuring those she cared deeply about were also protected. Not knowing if my grandfather formally accepted the invite presented a few days earlier, he surprised my grandmother at church. And here begins the story or our dominoes . . .

Because my grandfather struggled with gambling card games, there were no playing cards in their house. We knew at a young age it was a house rule, although I didn't understand why until I was a teen. He didn't, however, have any trouble with gambling domino games. :-) And there were always lots and lots of dominoes. I remember at a very young age my expectations for playing dominoes when visiting my great grandfather while he was in my grandmother's care. We even kept a running scoring sheet.

Although I finally accepted that the box should be thrown away (since no more layers on top of layers of scotch tape could hold it together any longer), Vanessa and Zane are blessed to play with the same dominoes my great grandfather, great aunt, grandmother, grandfather, father and brothers played with many years ago. (And yes, I took a picture of the box because of the special hands that touched and mended it. I even took a picture of the rubber band used to hold the box closed.)

Jumping for Apples

Zane was jumping for more apples. (Feet are off the ground.) We picked gala and leftover honeyscrisp. I'm loving this orchard. The owner and his wife are convinced their mutsus are better than honeycrisp. Although not quite ready, they tasted amazing already. If we haven't met our quota in apples, I'm tempted to go back again for mutsus . . .

 

The gala are looking so pretty!

And the honeycrisp did too! Here is one tree when they first opened picking a couple of weeks ago.

Zane demonstrated his impressive picking skills for daddy this trip.

 As we filled our bags with one peck each, the kids filled their bellies with three apples each.

This is the life!

Zane has it good. And he knows it.

Piggyback

Older siblings and friends can become amazing role models. We're grateful for the time these two are able to spend together. Zane has piggybacked on so many developmental things. Vanessa may not realize that she's taught Zane so much. He's determined to do everything she does. If you ask him to tell you how old he will be on his next birthday, he will tell you six, like Vanessa. But if you ask him to show you how old he will be, he works his fingers to show that he's two and soon will be three.

He counts to great numbers and almost has one-to-one correspondence down for each of those numbers. He goes across three bars on the monkey bars at home. He begs to ride a bike without training wheels.

We beg for him to slow down -- to not hurry through life. We're back to enjoying activities with just his peers. And I'm determined to piggyback and capture this precious and extremely valuable time with him. There's so much he needs to teach me!

 

I waited to schedule this post until I could share some video of Zane doing his awesome tricks. Still though, we don't have great videos of just him, but now we have the chance to work on it!

The Negotiators

Zane begged for polish. So we settled on silver for his toes. 

 Zane: Oh . . . quick! Blow.

Mommy: Don't move until they're dry.
Zane: Quick! Help me put on socks. *********************************************

Vanessa: Oh . . . I'm full. May I be excused?
Mommy: Yep.
Vanessa: Can I have an icee?
Mommy: No. You need to finish your dinner before we can consider a treat.
Vanessa: Well see. My belly has two lines.
Mommy: You mean sections?
Vanessa: Yes, sections. This section is for regular food. The regular food section is full. This other section is for candy. And it's empty. So I can have an icee since my candy section is empty.

Daddy set her straight. And yes -- she finished her dinner. Later, before bed, she sectioned off her abdomen again. She assigned sections for tomorrow's eating. :-) We'll see how it goes.

Happy Grandparents Day!

 

"Grandchildren are the crown of the aged . . ."  ~Proverbs 17:6

Black Owl

Vanessa thinks he looks like a bandit. When Zane can't ride away, he becomes Black Owl so he can watch and observe without being seen.

Nuptials

Fourteen years ago we signed a paper, agreeing we would love and support each other through thick and thin. We didn't take this lightly -- leading up to the event we went through six counseling sessions with one pastor and one or two more sessions with another. When we focus on the core of our relationship, it all seems pretty simple for why we chose to be together and why we remain.

We often heard it's all about give and take. So by the worldly definition it seems the deal should always be 50/50. I have to disagree, unless it is meant 50/50 in the end, but even then, Adam may be 60 and I may be 40. But really, who's counting? Often times, and I'm sure Adam would agree, the giving seems to be much more than the taking. This must be why our hearts are content. And I believe giving is easier than taking.

My love for Adam is 100% through the highs and lows.  I'm extremely grateful he offers 100% through my lows. But hey, no need for over analyzing this -- if it ain't broke, don't fix it. Happy Anniversary to us!

Pirate Princess Heart

She fights for love. Her super power is "to spread hearts everywhere."

No Work, All Play

A prefect kind of day.