Seriously Folks...

You don't get much cuter than this.

Painting Project #1

Last week Z and I embarked on a new journey. One that required some of these...


That's right. We did a little painting project. We picked up a wooden door knocker from Michaels ( a whopping $1.00), a bag of children's paint brushes at Wal Mart ($4.00), then borrowed some of Daddy's paint and we were set!

(I want to go ahead and apologize for not taking very many pictures during this process. I needed to focus my full attention on making sure Zachariah didn't paint my walls.)



We started out with a plain wooden door knocker. (pretend there is a picture above)



Then I painted a base coat of blue while Z was playing. (again, pretend there is a picture above. I told you I didn't do a good job with the picture taking!)



We ran some errands while the paint was drying. Then Z sat down with a paint brush and a bowl of green paint and went to town. Quite artistic... don't you think? :)



After the paint dried (again) and we applied the wooden stickers that came with it, we had a finished door knocker!


And in case there was any doubt, Zachariah loved making it. Every time he walks by the door knob that it hangs from, he makes sure to "count" and point to all three of the bugs. Its super cute.

I am hoping to do a painting project once a week. We started out small with our first one just to play it safe. But I think its fair to say that Z thoroughly enjoyed it, and I cant wait until the next one! I will keep you posted on what we choose for our next project! :)

My Crazy Kid

Last summer I posted a video and some pictures of Zachariah in his very first pool. That pool is adorable and all, but we needed something a little bigger this year. You know, something that could hold Mommy AND Zachariah. :)

After searching high and low, we found a winner! Zachariah LOVES being in this pool. He asks to go out and play in the "wa-wa" every morning and every afternoon. With the help of a few pool toys, bath toys, and random cups from the kitchen, a fun time is had by all.


When we are over at a friend's house, or visiting a new place, one might think my son is pretty calm. Some might even use the term reserved. When people tell me this I go ahead and laugh a little bit to myself.




Looking at these pictures he almost has ME fooled! I mean, seriously. He really does look so peaceful... so content to play with a sifter from his bucket-o-sand toys.




But then I see this look. Still sweet, but a little on the mischievous side. I try to anticipate his next move, but he has given me NOTHING. No clue whatsoever of what he might do. Is he going to throw the sifter at me? Try to heave himself over the edge of the pool (a new found talent of his)? Maybe he will just tell me a funny joke. That would be a nice change of pace.




Then all of a sudden, with virtually no warning at all, this happens...




The splash fest of '09 is what I like to call it.




Ah. That's more like it. Calm and reserved. This is how I roll. Now I can get in the pool and catch some rays.

Except I can't. Because now it is time for jump fest '09...




Oh dear goodness. Here comes some more.





It may look like he is in the middle of a meltdown here, but he just gets into the whole jumping thing.




Mom, do you want to play with my ducky?




Too bad. I will ninja kick you instead! Hi-yah!




Oh yeah. remember his new found talent for climbing over the side of the pool? Yeah. he wanted to make sure to show off for you guys.


Hope everyone has a fabulous weekend!
Love,
Amy Lynn, Daniel, and Muscle Man.

Our Day

The weather down here has been putrid. Today has been the coolest day we have had in a while, and the high was 97 degrees. Its been in the 100's the past few days though.

So, unless we are swimming, Zachariah and I try to stay indoors. You know, so we don't die of heat exhaustion. I don't even walk to the mailbox in fear of drenching my clothes with sweat. *shudder*

Yesterday, in a desperate attempt to not perspire, we went to IS KIDS. WWhich is a children's interactive museum here in town. We stayed there for about an hour and a half... and Zachariah kept me busy! He was everywhere, making sure he played with every single thing they had.

Don't fret. I took some pictures. (The pictures were taken with my phone. Please excuse the bad quality.)


We started out playing with some dinosaurs (and zoo animals. but the Dino's devoured them pretty quickly).
Then we played with some train tracks and random farm animals.

Next came some music. He loved banging the sticks onto the tin trashcans and other containers they had around this area. Gave me a headache though. It was LOUD!

We went grocery shopping... and he LOVED this. He filled up his basket with every single banana they had, then put a bell pepper and carrot in there. LOL

We stopped briefly to smell the flowers. That lasted all of 5 seconds, then it was off to another station.
Onto our favorite part. Zachariah got to be the captain of a ship! He stayed up here for a while. I thought at one point he was turning the wheel so much it was going to fall off. But we were good. No pirate ships were broken during our stay. (And just as a side note... they also have dress up clothes for just about every station... but Z was NOT interested in that. I tried to put a pirate hat on him. He gave me a dirty look.)
Then he almost threw himself overboard while looking at all the "ishes" on the wallpaper.
The pirate ship had a lower deck and Z enjoyed playing peek-a-boo under there. :)

Next we drew on a big magna-doodle,
played with some magnets,

took a few guitar lessons,
hugged a wild Zebra,
chilled with some penguins,
and defeated a deadly snake (good thing too, cause it was after me)!

Whew! Told you he stayed busy. And he even ignored the "reading in the castle" station, and the coloring station. I guess those were too low key for him.

If you live in this area, I do recommend giving IS KIDS a try. Its pretty fun and they have stuff there for ages 1-12. Its a nice air conditioned place to let your kid have some fun. :)

Swimming Lessons

Last week I took Zachariah to swimming lessons. I know you all may have some questions, so I am going to try my best and answer them. One at a time now. Don't get too hasty.

Okay, here I go...

Who taught swim lessons? My oh-so-patient-friend Emily. I would not have trusted anyone else to teach Z at this age. She has four daughters, and she has taught all of them how to swim by the age of 2. (the fourth is still learning… but I think she will have it down by her 2nd bday.) Pretty impressive if you ask me.

Did Zachariah cry? Yes. Yes. A thousand times yes. But its not like he hates the water. He actually LOVES playing in a pool. I cant think of anything else he enjoys more in the summer time. Besides ice cream. He may enjoy that a bit more. But besides ice cream, he enjoys nothing more than splashing in a pool.

How did you feel about him crying? I am not going to lie, it did find it a bit annoying. There were absolutely NO tears. He was just being a butt so I just sat there and did one of two things. 1) reassured him that I was staying in the pool and not going to leave him, or 2) laugh. Sometimes you just gotta laugh at how ridiculous your child is acting.

Will you tell me a quick story? It would be my pleasure!

Once upon a time, there was a little boy who would be scream his head off during swimming lessons. His teacher, Emily, would count to three and put his head underwater. He would miraculously stop screaming (in order to hold his breath) RIGHT before he went under. Not a second sooner. He would come up, be okay with it all, then realize I wasn’t holding him. Then more screaming ensued. It cracked me up. The end.

Can he swim like a little fishy? Not yet. But we are getting closer! He gets better every time we go swimming.

What all did he learn? I did not expect Zachariah to be jumping off the diving board by the end of the week. He is just too young to understand/learn some of the concepts of swimming. He has learned the most basic and important things… how to kick and hold his breath. He still needs to work on doing those at the same time though. When he holds his breath to go under, he crosses his ankles. I have no idea why, but he does, and it makes me laugh. I have such a coordinated child. Needless to say, we will be working on that this summer. :)

Do you have pictures to document this occasion? Of course! I have been told by a certain swim teacher that she should not appear on the Internet in her swimsuit. So I have appropriately cropped her out. :)


The first day wore. him. out! As soon as we got home he plopped on the couch and vegged out with Elmo for a while. Cute little booger.

Here he is... crying and kicking his flippered feet. Despite his tears, he usually did what Emily told him to do.


Okay, here is what I was talking about. Here she was counting to three. He is still doing his screaming/crying thing. And right when you think he is going to get a mouthful of water....


Bam! He closes his mouth.


Note the crossed ankles as his head is going under...


Just keep swimming, just keep swimming, just keep swimming swimming swimming
What do we do we swim, swim, swim
OH HO HO How I love to swim
When you WAAAAAANNTTT to swim you want to swim

Sorry. I got a little distracted. Darn you Dori.


And finished. Whew! That was exhausting.


I am so glad we ended up doing this. Because of the swimming lessons, Zachariah no longer has fear of water in his face, and he is on his way to becoming a cute little swimmer! And Emily, thank you for being so patient with my dramatic little man! You are fabulous. :)