Dear Zack

I had to do one last post about this cute little boy I have before our lives get flipped upside down by baby sister.

Zacky Boy, when I think of you these words come to mind: CRAZY ENERGY, laughter, curious, strong willed, silly, sweet, joy, imagination, smart and the list goes on. You have been such a blessing in my life. When things are hard all I need is your silly little smile or laugh and I know that everything has to be okay. You have been a trooper this past year as our lives are constantly changing, you just keep going without missing a beat. You are such a good boy, SERIOUSLY, mischievous maybe, but generally you don't get into too much trouble.

Zack you been very interested in drawing recently, you want to color more than play trains it seems like. Hard to believe I know! This last week as we were drawing you traced your hand and did a pretty dang good job at that! I had no idea you could do that. You amaze me every single day. You are even very interested in writing letters and can spell your name.

You have also become quite the little singer, always have been, but you have mastered quite a few songs and we can find you singing several times a day. Your favorite you learned from nursery, it's the speckled frogs song. You also enjoy the leap frog alphabet song, the cars theme song (which is hilarious to listen to as you really don't know the words) the "weensy weensy" spider, and many others that I can't think of right now. I have an awesome video of you singing the speckled frog song but I can't get it to download. Maybe coming soon.....

You still refer to yourself and others as trains. The other day after eating lunch you said to me "mommy, i'm a dirty train" held out your hands and said "my buffers are dirty!".

The other night Bernie was lying on one of your blankets that was on the floor. Being very protective of your blankets this was disturbing to you and you tried to pull her off. You kept saying "Bernie get your legs off, you have hair!". The funny thing is you don't mind at all rolling around on the floor with Bernie or lying on top of her.

You are quite the little character, living at Grandma and Grandpa's house is a blast for you! Although sometimes I wonder if you are a little confused by this living arrangement. You have been calling Grandma, MOM and Grandpa, DAD (sometimes Grandson) and recently you have insisted on calling YOUR Dad, Kevin. I am usually Mommy but sometimes Rachie. We sure get a kick out of you and never know what you are going to come up with next.

I love your imagination, you are always turning something into a train or a car. Whether it be the rocking chair, a family member or dog, often times your red shoes are called your tires and you race around the house, always winning the "Piston Cup".

You love going to nursery and love your nursery leaders. The other day we were driving home from church and you were telling us all about your brothers and sisters and naming the other kids in your class. I couldn't figure out why you were calling these kids your brothers and sisters. My mom happened to be in nursery that day and we figured out that they had sung "i love mommy she loves me"...... and that they had gone around the room and said "I love so and so" about each child. We are thinking that's where you picked up that they were your brothers and sisters.

The other day you and I were flipping through the new Friend magazine (thank you Grandma Rita!). I was telling you about each picture and we came across one of Ammon. I told you it was Ammon and you told me "he's dead". I told you he wasn't and that you didn't even know what "dead" means. You insisted that he was "dead". Then being the bright intelligent person that I am, I realized that YES, Ammon is dead. DUH.

I could go on and on. I can't believe that you are almost 3 years old. Where does the time go? It's funny to look at your baby pictures and think you used to be this tiny little thing that didn't say much. You are sure making up for that now! I love you so much baby boy! I can't begin to imagine what life is going to be like when we bring baby home. Sometimes it scares me, but I know she will be just as special to me as you are.

Spring is peeking at our house!

We had some really nice days last week! We found ourselves playing outside alot and taking a few long walks. We cannot wait for Spring to stop teasing us and be here for good!

The video is proof that we are getting a little stir crazy and bored. Spring or baby sister get here fast!

No animals were harmed in the filming of this movie. I'm pretty sure she thought it was her birthday. :)

Trip to the News

Today my mom took Zack and I to the Zoo. Zack kept forgetting that it was the Zoo and calling it the News for some reason. It was a little chilly in the morning but really not bad at all. Towards the afternoon is was really nice and we didn't even wear our jackets.

The highlights were the monkeys of course, the elephants were a little intimidating for Zack but he thought they were cool. He loved the snakes and turtles and the wildcats. He would get right up to the glass and talk to them like he does to our kitty.

I thought he would like the giraffe's more because he has always been interested in giraffe's but he didn't really care about them. The tigers were really cool. We got to see one of them bathing in the pool of water that they have for them. They were really neat to watch and fairly active.

We were disappointed that the Zebra's and bears and lions were gone. They are renovating that side of the zoo, but the exciting thing about that is we got to see 5 backhoe's and dump trucks and all sorts of other things. He was disappointed that we couldn't go ride one.

I bribed Zack all day yesterday with the promise that we could ride the train at the zoo and what do you know? The train was closed. He was disappointed but not like I thought he would be. You know this kid and trains.... He was excited to see the tracks and wanted to go play on them.

Zack is a funny kid, he doesn't get too excited about playgrounds. My mom took him up to the slide and after finally going down he decided it was a little fast for his taste. He wasn't interested in playing on any of the other things. He is funny though because he will usually go try things and then decide he isn't comfortable with them. The one thing he liked was a great big log that you can climb in. He didn't climb in it however, instead he sat in the entrance and pretended it was a train.

Go figure. We could hear him yelling but couldn't figure out what he was saying. I walked over and took some pictures as he sat there and yelled to the other kids "don't forget your tickets!" and "i'm the conductor!". Seriously my kid is the biggest train dork there is and I LOVE it!

This picture holds special meaning to me. This is in the monkey house near front of the zoo, you know where the lion drinking fountain is? When I was little my dad worked at the zoo and we used to have family parties in that building and could go into this part of the monkey house from the auditorium. All of us kids would swing and do flips on these very bars! I should find a picture. It was fun to see Zack enjoy something, and in the very spot, as I did when I was a kid.

The reason we went to the zoo was my mom wanted extra credit for one of her classes. This is the picture we took for "proof" that she went. Thanks for bringing us along mom!

My baby boy isn't going to be my baby for long!