Random Zach

I'm back. No, we've haven't been on a fabulous trip or suffering through illnesses. We did play in (and win!) a bonspiel, which took up a lot of our weekend, but other than that, we've been around. I've just been spending all of my free time getting ready for a fund-raiser for a group I volunteer with. Whew, I'll be glad when this is over.

Anyway, I realized I had a big list of things I've been writing down about Zach, as well as some pictures I took almost a month ago. As we were eating lunch one day, I thought - hmm, I haven't taken any pictures of just Zach in a while. So I got out the camera, and sure enough, Zach asked if I was going to take pictures of Charlie. It was fun to say nope - I'm taking pictures of you! As you can see, he got in the spirit; first trying to give a "real" smile, and then showing off his goofy side. :)

Some funny things he's said in the last few months:
- Mom, is snoopy's costume Charles Schulz or Charles Lindbergh? (while watching a Peanuts cartoon, after learning in school about some famous men who hail from MN)

- Do you think god helped Buzz (Lightyear) lift the train? I don't know, I'm just guessing. (while watching Toy Story 3. Huh, this is making it sound like all we do is watch tv!)

- "She wears short skirts I wear t-shirts" - singing along to the radio while zooming his cars on the kitchen floor. In addition to that Taylor Swift song, he also likes Katy Perry's "Firework" and Bruno Mars' "Just the Way You Are."

Zach has become fascinated with directions - the cardinal kind. It started when he began reading the highway signs; now he is constantly asking what direction we're going. As soon as we turn a corner... what direction are we going now???

You've read in the past about Zach making his cars play baseball, football, & basketball, in additional to old-fashioned racing. Well, over the last few months his cars have learned curling! He uses a ramp he got a while ago; zooms the first one down the ramp, and then decides whether the next car should take that one out, or just try to get closer to the house. It's hilarious - he uses a lot of the right lingo, and there's a lot of goofy curling lingo!

We're very proud of Zach - he recently took and passed a swimming test at the Y. Because he passed it, he gets a blue wristband that means he can swim in the leisure pool by himself! In order to pass, he had to float on his back, then his front, and then tread water (I can't remember the amount of time for each one). He did GREAT!

Scott wanted him to take the next level test, which would allow him to swim in the big lap pool by himself and go down the water slide. Not because he wants him to be able to swim by himself - Scott likes swimming with Zach - but because a lifeguard told him he thought Zach would be the youngest kid to ever pass the "pink wristband" test. It's alot of the same stuff, just for longer periods of time, but you also have to put your face in the water, which Zach doesn't want to do (even though he can!). It has truly been amazing to watch the change in his swimming ability this winter - he is so very comfortable in the water now. Scott really did a great job teaching him to swim.

Another physical feat Zach recently mastered is skipping. You can laugh, it's ok. The reason I even mention it is that last fall when we had our first preschool teacher's conference, it was one of the things they "tested" the kids on. And Zach couldn't do it. My parents were here that weekend, so you should have seen us all trying to teach Zach to skip. (Go ahead, try it... it's not easy to explain or demonstrate!) Fortunately he forgot about it after a while. Suddenly a couple weeks ago he came home and started skipping around the room. He was so excited, and for days afterward he'd have "skipping practice" where he'd skip several laps around the loop in our house. We learned afterward that right about that time was when the teacher "tested" him again to see if he could skip - and he couldn't. So without saying a word to us, he started practicing, and he figured it out all on his own!

I will be posting shortly about Zach and Charlie and their brotherly... love. But one funny Zach quirk I wanted to capture now is all the names he calls Charlie. He has adopted a very strange baby talk-type of a voice when he talks to Charlie, and as a result has turned Charlie's name into all sorts of things. The most common is "Chowdry," but we've also heard Towdry, Tahhdy, Dah-gee, and all sorts of other nonsensical things. I hope these names don't stick.

And lastly, I have to mention Zach's reading. I feel like he went from 0 to 100 on this one. He is reading all the time now - anything and everything. Everywhere we go he's trying to read the signs, he's asking us how to spell things, and he rarely wants us to read to him anymore. And while at the day care at the Y, they got him playing hangman - and he's pretty good at it! He'll say to me, out of nowhere, "mom, I've got a hangman." That's his way of telling me he came up with a good word to use for his next hangman game. He's used words like Jeep and key, which have been hard for us to guess!

^ Zach's room after "quiet time." He used to sit and play his leapster or other computer games, but now he pulls out book after book and reads them to himself! (And, of course, leaves them on the floor.)

^ Reading to his buddies Kasey & Sylvia (don't you love how Sylvia is sitting?!!?)

p.s. Zach is now picking out his own clothes. So if you start to notice him wearing the same outfit over and over again in the pictures... not my fault.