Flashback Friday: Zack is a Super Hero!

Aaron was really excited when Zack was finally old enough to truly appreciate super heroes. He has always been eager to teach him all he wants to know. Zack loves to soak it up. You may remember the post (clicky if you don't) I did last year about Zack pretending to be a super hero. Yesterday Aaron was cleaning a few things off the computer and started playing in the photo albums and found this little nugget of gold.

I think we sometimes forget how small and cy-oot he used to be!

He still loves super heroes, and loves to pretend to be anything from Superman, Batman and Spider-Man. He likes to get t-shirts of them, and was pretty excited to get a toy of The Thing from Fantastic Four the other day. Aaron is now excited because Zack is old enough to appreciate sitting down to watch these movies with him. It's great to have this little super hero in my life to help me!

All About Zack

Zack starts his second year of preschool this week and we get to meet his new teacher tomorrow. One of the things we are supposed to bring with us, is a paper All About Me. I had Zack sit down with me and fill this out. I let him write his name on the top, all by himself. Then I asked him the questions and he told me what to write for everything else. (I would have loved to let him write it all, but the boxes were too small.)

After we were done filling it out, he was not done with the paper. On the front, it asks us to tape a picture. Zack wanted to draw his picture, so I told him to do it on the back. He drew himself, then wrote his name again. Then he drew Dad and Mom and wrote their names. Finally he realized he missed his sister, so he drew Lexi and wrote her name. I only had to help him a little with the spelling. I love to see how smart he is getting!

Flashback Friday - Zack Loves Me

When I was about 6 months pregnant with Lexi, Aaron recorded this little video for me. It was on his phone, so the quality isn't that great, but he did this so he could send it to me at work. It was a really good pick-me-up for the day.

I still keep this little darling on my phone so I can refer to it anytime I'm having a rough day. Who can resist that cute little voice, "I love you very much, Mommy!"? Sometimes just knowing that we are loved by those around us can help us more than we realize.

Sunday Races

Zack loves to watch anyone play Mario Kart. His love of Mario has started manifesting on Sunday mornings. Every week we load Lexi into the stroller and walk the block to church. Zack likes to push the stroller and race to church. He is always Mario, and he designates who everyone else is. Lexi is usually Princess Peach. I'm sure she is happy with that. Aaron and I usually bounce between Luigi and Yoshi. Once he gets to church he expresses his joy of winning the race. This morning he took it a step further, and on the way over he kept turning around to "throw things" at the racers behind us. Then when we got across the street he ran ahead of us, and when we reached the doors, he turned around and told us, "I was really fast with all the colors!" He apparently won the race with a Star. It was pretty funny. He makes me laugh every day.

Teaching Opportunities

One of the wonders of watching children grow, is watching them learn. And they love it! They soak up information like little ShamWows.

Last night as Zack and I were reading a bedtime story, (Which is one of our favorites. EVERYONE should own this book for their kiddos!) he asked what Pisa is. So I told him after the story I could show him on a map where it was. The internet is a wonderful tool to have for just such an occasion! I pulled up a map of the globe and first showed him where we were. Then I showed him where Pisa is, and Giza (which was also in his story), and Hawaii, where Mom and Dad went on their trip. He pointed at various countries asking, "What's that one?" We looked at that map for about 10 minutes talking about different countries and who we've known that's been there.
Then he asked me where the Tickle Monster is from. I told him the Tickle Monster is from another planet. "I want to see some planets!" I was so excited to pull up pictures of our solar system and take the time to tell him the names of all of them. (He especially liked Pluto, and I didn't have the heart to tell him it isn't a planet anymore.) I love these little one-on-one teaching moments with my little genius!

Spring Storms

Zack frequently fights quiet time. But usually once he's in his room with the door shut he will play for hours even after we tell him he can come out. Last week I put Lexi down for a nap and Zack in his room for quiet time and headed out to finally do some Easter Bunny shopping, since Aaron was home. After I got home I was telling Zack that we needed to clean up so we could dye eggs. He was excited about the eggs, but not so much about cleaning up.

I can see why he didn't want to clean up. This was going to take forever! It seems a tornado came through during quiet time. I thought the nasty spring storms were only outside.

Keeping Us on the Straight and Narrow

Ah, the innocence of kids! Zack amazes me sometimes with the things he retains. And sometimes it can be a great reminder for us.
When I started getting to work by 7 a.m. a few months ago, Aaron and I decided to do our own prayer together in the mornings rather than wake up the kids that early (Ok, we tried it once, and realized it doesn't work...). A couple of weeks ago Zack woke up and came out of his room while we were praying. He stood in the hall just looking at us until we finished our prayer. The second "Amen" was said, he flipped. "I wanna have family prayer!" He was sooooo distraught that we prayed without him. It was a wonderful chance to tell him that we can pray as many times as we need to. It was an easy fix, just say another prayer. Unfortunately, his screaming and crying woke up Lexi too, and she woke up crying. So we had to divide and conquer.
This morning we had to have a second prayer as well. No screaming fit, but he was pretty upset that I almost left without having a prayer with him.
There are a few times on the weekends when Zack will come in and wake Aaron and I up to tell us that it's time for family prayer. I love this! It's good to have reminders every now and then that at least I'm doing something right. And it's good to have a reminder to take care of business before going about my day.

Scary Goblins

Ever since Zack was three months old, he has been an excellent sleeper. We rarely have a problem with him in the middle of the night, and he always prefers to sleep in his own bed.
Last night was the first time he has climbed into bed with Aaron and I, for any reason. He came tearing into our room a little before 2 a.m. He shook me awake and asked if he could sleep in our bed, there were goblins! I sleepily pulled him up into bed, told him he was more than welcome to join us, and he curled right into Aaron's arms. About a half-hour later I decided to see if he was ready to go back to his bed. I picked him up and he asked if they were gone. I told him, of course they were gone. I got him back in bed, reassured him that the goblins were gone, and I didn't hear another peep from him all night.
Before leaving for work this morning I asked Aaron if he woke up at all for this little adventure, and I'm not surprised, he slept right through it. Aaron did hear about the goblins from Zack on the way to the babysitter. Zack casually mentioned that there were goblins last night, and he was scared. Aaron was quick to let him know that goblins don't stay at our house because, as scary as goblins may be, they're more scared of Dad. Zack accepted this as an obvious truth, saying, "Oh yeah!" Hopefully this will help his little active imagination handle the scary dreams that are bound to happen.

Good Boy Jar

Zack keeps outgrowing our discipline techniques. He's just too smart! My sister, Britta, gave me the idea of earning tokens for good behavior. He also loses these tokens for misbehavior. So, we went to the craft store and bought wooden tokens and wrote amounts on the tokens. We have 1's, 5's and 10's so we can teach him how to get change as well. He gets to use his tokens to "buy" things he wants, like movies, toys and treats.

Then we let Zack decorate a jar for him to use as his Good Boy Jar. He had a blast! Letting him do this helped him take this to heart. He loves earning his tokens, and gets very upset when he loses some. It's working great so far!

Happy Birthday Zack!

Last weekend we had a party for Zack's 4th birthday. This was our first party that wasn't just family invited. We had a pretty good turnout of friends from preschool. CRAZY! I know my little guy is full of energy and is all over the place, but to add some of his little friends into the mix and they all just feed off of eachother. Bless their teacher!

Anywho! So, I asked Zack what kind of party he wanted and he told me he wanted a Wall-E cake. This kinda scared me. This was my first year making the cakes instead of buying them, so to throw a pretty complicated one at me on my learning year, I was pretty intimidated. I found a Wilton cake pan, that has a helpful paint-by-numbers instruction on the insert that I figured I could do. I learned last week after doing Lexi's cake, that I would need to make all the frosting along with the cake the night before if I wanted to frost it by the time the party started.

His birthday weekend started Friday afternoon. Grandma and Grandpa Bates decided to take him out for his birthday. They picked him up from school on Friday and took him to lunch and to the bookstore to pick his present (All he asked for this year for his birthday was books!). Then he got to go to their house and spend the night. What fun! This made it a little easier for me to get started on the cake too. We put Lexi to bed at her normal time and I got goin'! Aaron greased the pan for me so well, that it just slid right out. Whew! What a relief, because I needed to used this as a guide for frosting, I am not an artist, so this was important. I made the frosting and seperated it into the colors I would need and got to bed around 11. Not bad!

I got up and got started on the cake by 6 Saturday morning and it took me 3 hours to finish. But look how cool!

The party was a success. I found a few fun robot-themed games to play and we opened presents. I say "we" because I don't think Zack got to open a single one by himself. Overall, the kids had fun, and that was the most important part. And I realized how small my house feels with that many people crowding in for a seat!

Thank you to everyone who came and helped Zack feel special for his day!

We love you, Zack!

Jungle Junction

Here at the Bates' home we love to watch Playhouse Disney. The kids like it for the bright colors and the music. I love it for the things that they sneakily teach my kids. Their newest show, Jungle Junction, just started last week. When watching the following video please note how long this show has been on.

So, as you can tell, Zack is a fan. We've watched it at least twice every day since it started. I love to watch him get excited about things. This is how he reacts to almost any theme song though. He loves to dance and sing along.

Zack Goes to School

My baby is old enough for preschool! I really can't believe how fast this seems to have happened. He really has grown so fast. Well, he has been very excited about going to school ever since his cousin Abby started going last year. So, we found a preschool right down the street that we really liked, and enrolled him for this year. He gets to go two days a week, which seemed like a good start to us. We showed him where his school was when we enrolled him, and he spent the next few months begging us to go. He had a hard time waiting for it, maybe we should have waited to tell him.

Last Tuesday was his day to meet the teacher, and then he started class on Wednesday. So, for Family Home Evening we decided to go and let him pick out his backpack. He had been waiting for this day for months! I wasn't sure how long it would take him to pick something. They had all kinds of characters to pick from, and most of them he really liked, but he knew which one he wanted the minute he saw it. He picked Cars (bet you thought I was going to say Thomas!). Aaron tried to show him all the other options, but they were a no-go. He had found his backpack, and no one was going to change his mind. When did he get so opinionated?!So, on Wednesday I took the morning off of work to take him to his first day of school. They wanted the parents there for the first half hour, and I decided to be the one to pick him up from his first day too. The first day went perfectly smooth! We went in and he got to introduce himself to the other 7 kidlets and show them his favorite toy, this time he really did pick Thomas. I thought it was interesting to watch how all the kids had such a different personality when they got to stand up and talk about their toy. Most of the kids were fairly quiet and reserved, unsure of how to handle this new situation. Zack loved the spotlight! He had a difficult time letting other kids have their turn, and when it got to his he was far from quiet and reserved. He proudly showed off his favorite toy and told everyone about it.
I think one of his favorite things I got to see was the way the class goes from room to room. Each room is a different station with a different theme, like phonics etc. Well, when it was time for the kids to move to the next room and leave their moms, they all lined up at the door, put their hands on the kid's shoulders in front of them. The teacher blew her train whistle and the kids were the train! Zack was so excited to be a train! This is something he does everyday in his head, so it was fun to see him get to act it out with others.

When I came back to pick him up he was very happy. I could tell that he had a good time. As we were climbing into the car he asked me, "Mom, can I go to school again tomorrow?" It was hard for me to tell him that he had to wait a whole week, but he was ok with it. What a big boy!

Nap Time

Zack has unfortunately been starting to outgrow his naps. He still needs one the majority of the time, but he is more prone to fight the naps now that he's gone without them a few times. Last weekend we put him down for a nap. He was exhausted! But for whatever his own reasons were, he decided to play instead. Aaron and I tried multiple times to convince/threaten him to go to sleep. It wasn't working. After 2 hours we decided to let him come downstairs. He told us he couldn't take a nap because he wasn't tired. We were watching a movie, so he cuddled up next to Aaron on the couch. Not even 5 minutes later we found him like this.

Not tired? Riiiighhht!

Forts

One of the best childhood memories is making pillow and blanket forts. I remember making some that took up the whole family room! Ranna, Christina and I were experts. Unfortunately the bigger they were, the less time they lasted. It was always a bummer to tear them down and put all the blankets away. And all the fat encyclopedias we used as anchors.
Well, Zack has joined in on this honored tradition. We have a lot of pillows that came with our couches. Since these are sitting couches, not decorative couches, we rarely use them on the couches. For now they sit in the corner and are pulled out as we need/want them. These pillows have been great fun for Zack. He likes to make "Zacky Sandwiches" with them. His latest use for them is his "castle". It's a simple pillow fort made in the corner of the two couches with a blanket for the door. He insists on the blanket because he wants it "darker and darker". With the convenient location and small size, we've been able to keep it up for quite a while for him.

Special Agent Zacky

There is a new show on Playhouse Disney called Special Agent Oso. Zack has taken a real liking to it. It's a fun little James Bond-type show. Oso is a special agent who helps kids complete tasks like wrapping presents and making party hats. It's a cute way to show kids that they are capable of doing many things on their own. Each "special assignment" has a name that kinda resembles Bond movies, like Birthdays are Forever. Fun little add-ons for the parents. Oso is given 3 special steps to help him accomplish his tasks. Each assignment then helps Oso complete a training exercise that he was working on prior to receiving the assignment.
Anyhoo! Zack has fallen in love with this show. It's his new favorite. The other morning, while Lexi was napping, I decided to bite the bullet and try and weed our front flower bed. Zack came out with me to play outside and help me dig. He dug for quite a while, then started running back and forth down the sidewalk. After a little while of doing this I heard him talking to himself when he was on the other end of the sidewalk. Then he would come running up to me. "Mom, say Special Agent Oso, what are you doing here?" He would then tell me he was here to help me dig:

"Step One: Find a shovel."
"Step Two: Start digging."
"Step Thee: Dig the hole!"

I'm excited to see him applying his new found skills to his play time! This will come in handy when I need to teach him new activities. What a cute little smarty pants!

Super Hero!

Zack is entering the age of super heroes. What fun! Aaron bought him a t-shirt that says "My Dad is My Hero". Zack insists that it says "Zack is My Hero". The other day Aaron and I were watching Lord of the Rings. Zack came in the room and saw that there were people in trouble on the TV. He quickly informed us that we needed to rescue these people. He was Batman, daddy was Superman and I was Spider-man. He always gets to be Batman in these situations. Today I got a phone call from Zack while he and Aaron were getting ready to go. He had something he needed to tell me:

Zack: "Once upon a time there was scary monster eating all the people."
Me: "Oh no! What are we going to do about it?"
Zack: "We need to rescue the people! I am a super hero and I will rescue the people!"

What an awesome phone call! It absolutely made my day. I love getting little glimpses into his imagination.

Happy 3rd Birthday Zack

It's hard to believe that it has been three years since we have been blesed with having Zack added to our family. We have always had a great time celebrating his birthday, however we were a little concerned with this year due to Alexis coming so close to his birthday. We were afraid that Amanda wouldn't have the energy to entertain in our apartment. So this year we thought that we would forgo all the hassle and have his birthday at Jungle Jim's Playland. It just so happened that Alexis came 2 weeks early. So Amanda made a tough decision to stay home with our little girl and miss his party. That means that Aaron had the pleasure of being in charge of a wild and crazy birthday party. She was very much missed by Aaron and the family, but we also appreciate her sacrifice.
So on the day of Zack's birthday, Zack woke up and he was very excited because we had told him that he was going to go and play with his friends and cousins at a birthday party. He didn't care that it was his birthday he just loves the concept of a birthday party. We had already ordered the cake, which Zack picked out. Any guesses... Yup, Thomas the Tank Engine! So we first stopped off and picked that up from Sam's Club. Then we made our way over to the Playland. Everyone showed up and everyone was having a great time riding the rides until Zack found the play house. He had a great time. So much so I'm sure we could've had his birthday party at McDonalds. Either way he had a great time as did everyone else and so it was a success.


Even the older kids (Joel, Ruthann, Dan, Ranna & Seth) had a great time playing the token games. They were very good at getting the tickets. They won over 650 tickets. So after prying him away from the playhouse, literally, we went to open presents. He had a great time opening all of his presents but he probably just wanted to get back to the playing. He enjoyed his cake and ice cream, as did everyone else. The cake was really good this year.
As everyone started to leave Ruthann and Charlene took Zack to cash in all of the tickes that the older kids had won. That was the deal Aaron made with them when he gave them over 100 tokens. So when Zack was asked what he wanted to get he asked for the Cat in the Hat hat. To Zack, it was the best!

Panicked!!

With bringing Alexis home, we aren't even close to getting set on a schedule. This is difficult for Zack because he is very much regulated by a schedule. We are very grateful for that. So last night we had put Zack to bed and Amanda stayed up with Aaron to feed Alexis. After the feeding, Amanda and Alexis went off to bed. A few hours later Aaron started to come to bed too. He locked the front door and went to check on Zack. One of the cool things that you get to do as a parent is to peek in on your little angels while they sleep. Only when Aaron went to do so Zack wasn't in bed. So Aaron thought that with Alexis being home that perhaps Zack may have climbed into bed with Mom. So Aaron went to check on the baby and Amanda. Still, no Zack was to be found. Aaron started to freak out!
See, Aaron ran away from home when his parent brought his little sister home and has always been teased that Zack might do the same thing. But Aaron was sure he would've seen or heard Zack go out the front door. So he went back to Zack's room to see if he was under the blankets. Still nothing! Aaron stood there in Zack's room dumbfounded as to where the little guy could've gone. Then he heard a sound and found Zack here:

UNDER THE BED

Zack had never done this before due to the fact that the crib mattress was under the bed. Best we can figure is that he must've dropped some toy under his bed and had gone after it. Aaron then woke Zack up and asked him to get into his bed. Wow what a fright!

Trimming the Tree

Things have been a little crazy with Alexis coming 2 weeks early and all. So we have finally pulled out our Christmas stuff. Aaron insists that we can only do this AFTER Thanksgiving. Understandably so, Thanksgiving is a very important time of year and not one that should idly be looked over. Having your daughter born on that day kind of makes it important too!
So Aaron pulled out all of out Christmas stuff and he and Zack started to put it all out. Zack had a blast helping dad with the tree. We think he was most excited to do this because he saw the big train set that we have that goes around the bottom of the tree and we told him that we can't set it up until we set up the tree. There is a great motivator!!

Stud!

Granted, it's his aunt Ranna and Nadene, but look at our little Ladies-Man! He's got an older woman on each arm.