Zachary drew Allie

I. Love. It.
This will be in a frame on the wall in her room in the next few days.

T is for T Party

Zachary's class had a "T" party at school last week. They had decorated tables and fancy snacks. The teachers also had the boys pull the girls' chairs out and let them sit first. It was so cute. All week after this party, Zachary would pull Allie's chair out for her and he said, "Mommy, I will always have good manners for Allie."

When we left to head for school, Zachary was wearing this Batman t-shirt (below). As we pulled up to school, I noticed a lot of the children were dressed up. So I confirmed with a teacher that they were supposed to dress up, apologized to Zach, and ran home to get him a dress shirt (above). He wore it for the brunch portion of the party, but took it off after that. (I think I felt better knowing that he really didn't want to wear the dressier shirt anyway.)

Here's his class: Lotsa boys! So fun!

Boxing

Some of you remember that I got Todd boxing gloves as a wedding gift. Zachary found them the other day and hasn't been the same since.
He & Todd were dukin' it out pretty good. I put the gloves on and showed Zachary how to beat up his dad (just kidding...[maybe]).
I think they were both worn out after a 30-minute round. Zachary loved it!

Siblings

Todd & I are so very blessed with two great kids who LOVE each other! Zachary & Allie are so sweet to each other and (right now) they are very good buds. I know this may not always be the case, but I am certainly enjoying it now!
They play the most wonderfully imaginative games together. One of my favorites is when they try to save each other from Daddy when he's pretending to be a monster. Allie will claw at Todd and yell "That's my brother! Let him go!"

In this picture, they were doing each other's hair. They even had little conversations as if they were stylist & client. So very cute.
I love my sweet kids.

At the Park

On Saturday last weekend, we went to the park with Mimi after the kids' nap.
They wore their goofy sunglasses. I love it!

See Allie's hair? It finally came in. She's only three now.

Zachary does these monkey bars by himself. I think he's pretty strong...to be able to do that, right?

Zachary can also pump his legs to keep the swing swinging. Such a big kid now!

We also enjoyed a yummy picnic for our dinner that evening. It was delightful!

Twitter

I'm on Twitter!
If you're not on Twitter, you can still be entertained by my scintillating & random thoughts now...because I've added a little "widget" to the bottom left of this page. I know this will be life-changing to everyone.

Baseball

Mimi & Grandad were here for the weekend and we had a fun time. Saturday we had a family baseball practice/game on the field where Zachary usually plays. Grandad gave Zachary some batting tips and introduced him to the worth "lethal." As in, "If you do what I'm showing you, your batting will be lethal."

His stance sure looks good!

We let him hit it off the tee a few times too.

We played a little girls-against-boys game. Here's Allie running to first after hitting her little "bunt" that forced Zachary to come from the pitchers mound to snatch it. I love watching my girl run. She runs her little heart out!

And Daddy tagged her out...

More of Grandad's "Lethal Batting" coaching

Allie wasn't feeling good all weekend and said she wanted to take a nap in the car while we finished our game. I'm pretty sure she didn't really sleep. But she looks pretty cute pretending to sleep!

A fun family picture with my camera timer. It was a beautiful day!

What are the odds?

Todd & I play a random game whenever we think of something that is extremely likely or unlikely to happen. We just say, "what are the odds..." and finish the sentence with the unlikely/likely event.
So...I'll ask you.
What are the odds that these ridiculously tiny pieces of Allie's toys remain a part of her collection? I included a penny so you have a point of reference. They are clothes & accessories of Polly Pocket. (And the word "Pocket" is definitely appropriate)

First Submission

Zachary enjoys a subscription to a magazine called "Big Backyard." It is mainly about animals & nature and he loves it. There's a section in the magazine every month where kids from all over the country send in their drawings of animals. The magazine publishes about 10 submissions a month. Zachary drew a great picture of a panda and chose that drawing to submit to the magazine. He was so excited. I'll let you know if his drawing gets published. I sure hope so!!

Sweet Girl

Allie Marie is such a sweetie. I love my girl. She's funny, entertaining, darling, imaginative, lively, likeable, affectionate, talkative, confident, helpful, determined, quick, independent and loves her blankie & her brother.

Speaking in code

This is an email I sent to the instructor of a beginner ballet class I found for Allie titled "Mommy & me."

Dear Ms. Jones,

I'm inquiring about your Mommy & me ballet class for 3 year olds. My daughter has never been in a ballet class and neither have I, so I'm not really sure what to expect.
Since this class is titled "Mommy & me," does this mean I will be involved? If so, in what capacity? Thank you in advance for your reply, I look forward to hearing from you.

Sincerely,
R. Eaker

******************************************
But this is what I was really saying:


Dear Ms. Jones,

I'm inquiring about your Mommy & me ballet class for 3 year olds. My daughter has been asking every day for four months to be in ballet. Since she has Type-A tendencies, I am pretty sure she'll continue to ask every day until she is lined up in front of a mirror with 12 other dainty pink-tutu-wearing little girls.
So, I am officially giving in and hesitantly enrolling her in an art I have a minimal amount of respect for and know nothing about.
Since this class is titled "Mommy & me," does this mean I have to participate? In other words, do I too, have to dance around a room wearing a leotard and tights with a bunch of flakey ballet moms?
Thank you in advance for your reply. However, I am honestly not looking forward to hearing from you because I know you're going to tell me that I have to participate in this class.

Sincerely,
R. Eaker

Chalk Art

Zachary's drawing skills have improved significantly. And in our family, that is a big deal! He has officially surpassed Todd in drawing skills. He LOVES to draw, spends hours every day making pictures and drawing lots of different things. These are some of his chalk sketches. Next week, I'll post some of his paper drawings.

"T-rex"

"Woody" from Toy Story

"A boy mermaid" (merman?)

Good Timing?

As with all children around this age, my kids have a very skewed sense of time. It makes me laugh because they are so confident in their [mis]understanding.

Zachary used to refer to anything prior to this moment as "Last night." So, if he was talking about something that happened yesterday, he'd say, "remember last night when we..." And if he was talking about last year's birthday party, he'd say, "remember last night when we...." etc. He doesn't use "last night" incorrectly any more, but Allie now has a funny little way of referencing time.

Allie will ask "Mommy, what week is it?" when she wants to know which day of the week it is (which happens every day). She will refer to anything in the future as "next Friday." Anything. If I say, "Allie, do you want to wear these shoes?" She says, "No, but I will wear them next Friday."

If she wants to do something in the future, she says, "Mommy, can we play outside next Friday?" even if she wants to play outside later this afternoon.

She'll also use "last Friday" to reference things that have happened prior to today. "Mommy, last Friday at school, we colored an owl." In her mind, the past is "last Friday" and the future is "next Friday."

Allie also thinks the numbers on the clock are indicators specifically for her. She'll say, "Look, the clock is on a 4! When it got to the 4 I was getting in my jammies."

Anytime she sees or hears something that has 3, she'll say, "Look, there's 3 and I'm 3!"

I love their little minds.

Happy Birthday Grandad!

Today is Grandad's birthday!! We hope you have a super happy birthday today! We appreciate you and all the fun we have with you. It is always entertaining and full of laughs! The kids especially love to do stretches with you. They seriously think that stretching is a Grandad-only thing!

A New Cousin!

Well, she's here! Zachary & Allie have a new sweet little cousin. Her name is Ella and we took a crazy roadtrip to Florida to go & see her over the weekend. We rode with Grandpa & Aunt Jen & cousin Ari, which made it super fun. Aunt Jen chronicled some of the details of this trip in a really funny way on her blog.

Unfortunately, the hospital didn't allow children to visit, so we took turns playing with the kids outside and running up for little visits with Ella, Aunt Shell & Uncle Ryan. This is Allie being a little momma.

This is me being a big momma, and catching up on some work at the same time.

This is baby Ella. She is super cute and looks just like her dad.

This is baby Ari. She is super cute and looks just like her dad, too! Although, I do see some Jenny in this picture:

Aunt Bex & baby Ella:

Grandpa & Ella. He's saying he has 4 grandkids now!

Proud Grandparents!!