FotoFriday4.8.11

We had some good fun last weekend. Friday we spontaneously drove into town, since it was a beautiful Spring like day (despite the snowstorm headed our way as I type) and Sunday we went the other way, down the hill, to our favorite zoo.

So, here's some Fotos from last week....

Mackenzie at the square.

Racing with her pretend friends.

Zachy pointing at a firetruck.

Some walker by-ers were heard commenting on his extraordinary cuteness.

On Saturday, Mackenzie did some Yoga.

Zachy helped out by watering bricks and dirt.

Gotta help those weeds out, don't we?

Sunday at the Zoo...

Mackenzie and Zachy on the Boat Ride.

(With a partial Dad in the background.)

Mackenzie on the train.

Zachy was quite upset that he didn't make it on the first time.

Of course he was. He LOVES trains.

He saw it from the playground area and tried to run after it.

So, we waited for the next one.

He had a great time.

Here we are waiting...patiently.

Mackenzie enjoying a picnic lunch.

The boys going down the slide.

Zachy's the Winner!

Pointing at...what else...the train.

Zachy Foto of the Week:

In the Petting Zoo, with quite a spring in his step.

And a really adorable expression on his face.

 Mackenzie Foto of the Week:

She LOVED the Petting Zoo and was hilariously cute it in.

She tried to use her mediation skills with the animals and reprimanded them for fighting over food.

Seen here expressing her frustration over their lack of cooperation.

As usual, the day ended on the Merry Go Round.

Pure Joy she has on the Merry Go Round.

Makes me want to cry every time.

Even Zachy enjoyed it.

Despite still being a little unsure.

It's not a Train, after all!

And so concludes this edition of Friday Fotos.

WordyWednesday

I feel bad that I don't seem to have much time to make more thoughtful posts. But here's yet another running ramble, which will hopefully cover a bit of this and that and some musings. Here we go..

• Last night after we got home, Zachy walked right to the laundry room, right to where the hand vac is, right to where the detachable hose is, and got it out. To play with.
• Next he got the sweeper. He's a tot of cleaning appliances.
• Tonight when I was vacuuming, he got his toy one and vacuumed right alongside. He's my Helper Boy.
• I called him my Helper and Mackenzie promptly showed up from the other room. She proceeded to hold the vacuum cord for me. Until I told her it was okay if she wanted to go back and play cars. She did.
• On the way home last night in the car, Mackenzie said Mommy I missing Daddy. So I said, Great! He can lay down with you tonight. At bedtime she said, Mommy, I not missing Daddy anymore. You can lay down with me. I lucked out, yet again.
• I not the crabbiest! Zachy is. We are taking turns. You the luckiest. I guess that's one way of looking at it.
• About a friend at school: Oh Audrey. She's the cutest!
• Zachy points to his bum and tells me when he goes poo poo now. Consistently! And even 'before' sometimes.
• After accomplishing a new feat, Mackenzie said, Look Momma. I learning!
• Zachy rode his 'car' up to me, crashed into me, then said, Beep Beep!
• I gave Zachy a bath the other night. While wiping some water up from the floor, next thing you know, water all over me. Zachy was using a cup to throw water over his head and it landed on me instead. While the first time was an accident, I'm pretty sure the other four were not.
• Zachy's a boy. All boy. The other day he tooted while sitting on my lap. This made him laugh. Hard.
• I think he's making you fun in reference to Zachy running away with playdoh, laughing at me while I chased him. Her way of saying I think he's making fun of you? Or maybe she really meant he was making me fun. As in otherwise I'm not.
• I don't have an issue today, but Zachy does.
• Another Zachy boy moment: He likes to pretend to gag up food. When I say *likes* I mean *likes* as in he does it and finds it amusing.
• He also likes to pretend to toot on people now.
• Mommy just did her first If it's on the floor, it's mine speech. Unfortunately for me, I was talking about Mackenzie's cut up pieces of paper.
• And he likes to blow toot noises out of his mouth. If there's a silly noise to be made, he likes it. If he can figure out how to do it, he does it.
• Mackenzie used the phrase 'best friend' today. She was talking about Saige. And Jordan S. Do kids have best friends at three?
• I almost caught Mackenzie trying to push Zachy yesterday. When she saw me, she, with the attitude of a teenager, said What? I was just trying to move him out of my way like this (demonstrating gentle push). Nice try.
• On Monday, Mackenzie called me into the playroom. She whispered I just wanted to tell you I love you, but I'm not gonna talk to you.
• Today before Zachy was going down for nap, Mackenzie said But who will play Kindergarten with me? Zachy's my best friend.
• Sometimes Dad calls Zachy 'Fred.' It's like their own little thing.
• And sometimes he calls Mackenzie 'Chowder Head.' She doesn't like it. She says, I NOT CHOWDER HEAD. I MACKENZIE.
• Before I put Mackenzie to sleep tonight, she sang our Good Night song to Zachy. Sweetness.
• Sleep tight my little ones. I'll miss you guys tomorrow. Like crazy.

And so concludes my last day of being a Mommy in her 'early' forties. Said it before and I'll say it again, I'm one Lucky Momma!

2GoodTuesday

Generally speaking, things are good. Busy. Busy. Busy. Good. Good. Good.

Here's 2GoodThings from this week, both from today:

1. I got to pick up the kids from totcollege. Mackenzie, Saige and Jordan S. were playing. I watched them run around together, all laughing, all engaged. Mackenzie saw me, screamed, and then hid with Saige under the table. Jordan S. quickly joined them, which meant I got to pretend I couldn't see any of them. I remember Mackenzie and Saige as babies sitting at the table in the baby room. Now they are little girls. Playing together. Using their imaginations together. Learning to be friends together. And with new friends, like Jordan S. Absolutely Awesome.
2. Zachy, Zachy, Zachy. He was sitting on the slide, 'talking to a teacher,' pointing at the other teacher, who was blowing bubbles. Look of total contentment on his face. When he saw Mackenzie and I, he ran over, with his arms out, smiling like only Zachy can. After greeting us, he walked to the door confidently, like he owns the place, and said, Let's go! Again, Absolutely Awesome.

CrazyCute

Mackenzie and Zachy have been CrazyCute together lately.

Increasingly, they play together, semi-cooperatively, albeit with somewhat different understandings as to what exactly they're doing. Over the weekend they were playing wheelbarrow together. She would pull, he would push. They would put stuff in. She was playing 'road construction.' Who knows really what he was playing. I guess he was playing the 'push the wheelbarrow and put stuff in' game. Oh yah, that one.

While they've always had their 'moments,' the last few days they've been in a groove and let me tell you, when they get going, they're insane! Earlier she took his hand and said, Come with me Zachy. I wanted to add, To the dark side.
'Puppet show'  has been a recent favorite for both of them. A tent is popped up, puppets are distributed. From there what happens is up in the air. 'Puppet show' usually ends with them hysterically rolling around in the tent until it is sort of twisted all around. The puppets? Who knows what happens to them.

On our way home from the zoo yesterday, every time I spoke, Mackenzie would tell me to Stop talking. Who imitated her? Zachy, of course. She found this funny, which meant she hammed it up, which meant so did he, which meant every time I opened my mouth I had her yelling Stop talking in unison with him uttering three syllables sounding sort of like that.

Last night after we got home Mackenzie ran and pretended to fall down. She then fake cried. Zachy thought this was absolutely hilarious. He proceeded to mimic her. Next thing you know the two of them are on a roll, literally. Running, falling, fake crying and rolling around laughing. How cute is it? Indescribably.

Tonight they decided to gang up on me with playdoh eating. Zachy started this one. He put some in his mouth, made sure I knew, then took off running, laughing. Mackenzie was amused by watching me struggle to catch him, so once I finally confiscated his playdoh, she lured him over to her playdoh. From there they successfully pulled off a divide and conquer type maneuver. Funny. To them. Not me. Okay, it was.

Earlier they hung out in the pack and play together. Mackenzie yelled out, Look Zachy is snuggling with me! And he was. I melted. That's the first time they have really snuggled up together. Then he sat on her, starting off another silly sibling goof fest.

I love this. I love watching them have fun together, even it means they're creating havoc together. I love the sweetness of their developing relationship. When the three of us were out walking today, I said to Mackenzie, Tell me something you like about Zachy. She replied with, I love him. He plays with me.

M.ParkingCars

As we have discussed, Mackenzie likes to park cars. It's a long standing favorite at this point. It helped her through potty training. As much as she likes playing it, it also seems to be relaxing for her. Over the last year or so, the game has evolved. When she plays, she talks the whole time. Carrying on back and forth conversations between the cars.

This morning, it sounded something like this...

I wanna park by Teddy's car. Teddy is right over there. Oh no! Teddy is not going to park by me. That's someone else's car. I'm parking here instead. Really close. Yay! I see Teddy over there. The blue car. Oh no! That kid. Yes I am. I'm parking. What about right there? Oh, okay. Bye! Do you want to park next to me by Teddy. How about right there? I think it's going to be a better day tomorrow. But why are we not parking by Saige? Mackenzie wants to park by Saige. She went bye bye with her Mommy Daddy.

(Even at the hotel. It's definitely 'her'game.)

FotoFriday4.1.11

I still have to complete the WeekendWithGrammie series and post Day Three,  but today I am going to go back to the traditional FotoFriday and posting a few photos from the last couple of weeks.

Zachy's second ice cream cone.

His first was the day before, when Grammie watched them.

Notice how well he manages to hold it.

You'd never know he was a food thrower.

A cold day.

I spent 45 minutes blowing up the jumpolene.

Nobody jumped.

Mackenzie played Baby.

Which she does anyway.

And then doctor.

Fast forward a week or so and it's sunny and warm.

So, we did some digging.

And rock collecting.

In the dry creek, or limitless sandbox, behind our house.

Zachy picked up a rock and said, 'Rock!'

I love when I find out he knows new words.

Serious stuff.

Rock collecting became a bit of a competition.

For the older one anyway.

From our day at the circus.

Armed with her souvenir coloring book as well as popcorn and cotton candy leftovers.

Busy in the kitchen.

ZachySleep&Smile

I have probably talked about this way too much already, but it's ridiculous to me. How well Zachy goes to sleep now, that is. After a year of barely getting any sleep, I have the right to perserverate, don't I?

The thing is, he's so darn cute at bedtime I can't stand it.

With Zachy, bedtime goes something like this...

If it's a bath night, he and Mackenzie take their baths. And then Dad get his jammies on and I get Mackenzie's on. It's a race. Mackenzie and I always win. We have to.

Then Zachy wobble walks through the house, with his big Zachy smile saying Tee, Tee. He's ready to brush his teeth. His readiness, makes Mackenzie more agreeable to whole teeth brushing thing too. Thank you, Zachy.

Next, I tell him it's time to go to bed. He waves and says Bye Bye to Mackenzie and Dad. Sometimes he tries to hug and kiss her, just because he knows she will scream. And he'll laugh.

He walks to his room with his big Zachy smile. Last night he rode his car to his room. And then out of the room. And then back in.

Onto the bed. Usually with a bottle hanging out of his mouth. We sing songs. We used to read books, but then he started to grab them and shove them down the side of the bed, look at me with a clueless concerned expression on his face, and say Where go? Where go. But, it's been awhile, so maybe we should try books again.

Back to the song singing. We sing You Are My Sunshine and our special Good Night Zachy song. Several times each. Now I can't begin to explain how cute he looks in the dimly light room: His bald head swaying from side to side, bottle hanging out of his mouth, big Zachy smile on his face, singing along a word here and there. It's unreal. And just way too adorable for words.

I'm so happy right now just thinking about it all.

After some songs I say Okay Zachy. It's time for bed now.

He gets off the bed, with his big Zachy smile, and wobble walks over to this crib.

I then say Zachy you know you need to give me your bottle.

So he does, with his big Zachy smile.

We hug.

And kiss.

I put him in the crib.

He grabs his Gunky and says, with his big Zachy smile, GUNKY!

He picks up his blanket, hands it to me and, you guessed it - with his big Zachy smile, says On!

He lays down, butt in the air, snuggled up with Gunky, I put the blanket on.

I love you sweet Zachy. Good night.