Zachary turns TWO!

For those of you expecting monster truck party details, sorry...this is not the post about Zachary's party. Also, for anyone who reads my posts through email this one has a lot of videos so you may want to just go to the site: www.mtmzjones.blogspot.com

July 1st, 2009 Happy 2nd Birthday, Zachary Frederick!

Our birthday tradition is to hang streamers from the birthday child's doorway the night before so that when he wakes up he knows it is a special day! Plus, they are just fun to run through.
Here's the first of many videos:


This next video is only 2 seconds long, but I promise you it's worth watching. At first you may be shocked, but the more you watch the funnier it becomes.

So, I've appropriately titled that video "Streamer Smack Down" (Zachary recovered quickly. It really did sound worse than it actually was.)

Before Mikie woke up, Zachary and I enjoyed some one on one time. He was being so silly with this stick horse. When you ask him what a horse says, he replies "NEIGH, (and then makes a raspberry sound by spitting).

He grabbed the counting bears off the shelf and I was so surprised to watch him start sorting them all on his own as you'll see in this video:

In this video: He can count to 13 before the record hits a scratch:



Poor little Zachary woke up with watery eyes and a stuffy nose (which later turned into a sinus and ear infetion) Here he is with his birthday pancakes while I sang Happy Birthday in this video:


Mikie had 4 hours of camp every morning this week, so after dropping him off, Zachary and I went to Toys R Us. He picked out a set of 3 new monster trucks that he just had to have opened before we left the store. Here he is playing with them in the Toys R Us checkout line.


Video: Once Daddy came home, we let him open one of his gifts: A remote control Grave Digger


Video: Daddy also bought him more monster trucks.


Imagine this song when you see the next picture: "It's my birthday and you can cry if you want to"

Yeah, Mikie woke up from his nap a little grouchy, but the clouds were rolling in so we had to make the big reveal of the ride on Grave Digger happen quickly. The initial reaction wasn't what we expected: Zachary didn't want to sit in it and Mikie had to be bribed with a popsicle to drive. Once they were both in, it didn't take long for them to enjoy it.

What's under the cover?

GRAVE DIGGER

Video: OFF WE GO!

Video: more Grave Digger fun

Once we parked it in the garage, Zachary decided he would like a turn to drive it. So, we pulled it back out and put him in the driver's seat. He loved pushing the pedal but wouldn't touch the steering wheel, so Michael cranked it all the way to the right which allowed him to go around our cul-de-sac many times.

Before the rain hit, we made it to Chick-Fil-A...

for some birthday ice cream.

Health Status: Zachary is still very tiny only weighing 20 lbs exactly on his 2nd birthday. He is in the 10th percentile for height so he is growing, just not gaining weight. Our pediatrician thinks that he may have a casein sensitivity so he is on a non-dairy/casein free diet for at least one month (probably longer). She believes that the casein (milk protein) is causing him to have more ear and sinus infections and could be the reason he isn't gaining weight. Looking back over the past year, I can say that I am starting to agree with her. Before finding out that Zach was allergic to milk and eggs he had several ear infections and started to slip off of the charts for his weight. Once we discovered the allergy and restricted his diet for 6 months he started gaining weight again and the ear infections cleared up. After he was declared allergy free, I reintroduced milk and cheese in hopes to "beef him up" and we started our 3 months of traveling the world where Zachary once again fell prone to ear and sinus infections and showed no weight gain. Which leads us all to believe that even though he is no longer "allergic" to milk it is still affecting him in negative ways. He's been on the casein free diet for a little over a week now and I can say that he seems a lot happier and maybe even a little bit hungrier.

Abilities Update: What Zachary lacks in size, he definitely makes up for in personality. He is independent, strong willed, and easily frustrated (sound like anyone we know?). He is also very verbal, but not always understandable. He knows all his colors, some shapes, some letters, some numbers (amazingly one of them is the number 8....just like Mikie), and can tell you the names of every single monster truck we own...which is around 30 or more. He absolutely loves to sing and remembers how the melodies go even if we can't always understand his words. He is about 75% potty trained and is already refusing to wear the pull ups whenever we go out (which means I now carry a potty in my car).

Boomerang Express

God is so good! He knows how much I miss teaching and has opened up an opportunity each summer for me to squeeze in 5 days of themed Biblical teaching at our church's VBS (Vacation Bible School). Again this year, I chose to work with the kids who had just completed kindergarten. As with any theme, I plan for months and try to get everything to revolve around the theme which this year was Boomerang Express: It All Comes Back To Jesus! (A train ride across Australia).
Here we are in my room. I decided that each day we would visit a different Australian landmark and decorated my room in those 5 areas: Rain Forest, Sydney Opera House, Ayers Rock, Great Barrier Reef, and the Outback.

My cute boys in front of the art drying table that became Ayers Rock. Because I only had 11 kids in my classroom, I was able to have Mikie with me during center time.

The boys demonstrate one of our crafts: the aboriginal clap sticks.

Zachary really liked slapping the sticks together.

All Aboard! Welcome to my room.

Mikie and Michael even used some Thomas track around the carpeted area and allowed me to borrow a train to pull the bobble headed kangaroo and koala.

I was able to re-re-recycle the blue cardboard ocean for the Great Barrier Reef. (Multi-uses: Thomas Party: Brendam Docks, VBS 2008 Ocean backdrop, Mini-golf under the sea party)

Craft tables became the Sydney Opera House.

An original idea for the GBR craft allowed me to recycle some of the sparkly seaweed from Mikie's party.

Kangaroo Take Home Bags.

Mikie shows us how to play his didgeridoo.

Great Barrier Reef Snacks.

I just chose a few highlights to share with you. If anyone ever needs Australian themed ideas, feel free to ask. I have a ton more!

June 21st

It's so sad that I'm over an entire month behind in my posts.

June 21st was not only my birthday, but also Father's Day and the day I had to set up my room for VBS. Needless to say, it was a busy day!

After church, we headed to one of our favorite restaurants: Brock's Riverside Grill. We love sitting at a table on their small balcony overlooking the Rappahannock River watching the birds circle overhead. Secretly though, the main reason we go to this lovely establishment is that our boys are fairly well behaved because they are anxious with anticipation in hopes that a train will pass by on the railroad bridge nearby. And on this lucky day: WE SAW ONE and ANOTHER!

2 trains and 2 happy boys!

What do you think we are watching?


My "cheesy" boys

I look like I'm in pain because Mikie is leaning forward and I'm trying not to drop him.

Lemon Smile.

Both of my boys love to suck the lemons from Daddy's iced tea.

Happy Father's Day Daddy!

After lunch, I spent 4 hours decorating my VBS room while Michael took the boys back to the house for naps. When he came to pick me up, we decided to try to eat out again and realized that it might be a little tricky on Father's day when we drove past 3 restaurants and there were groups of people waiting outside with their pagers. Luckily, Cheeseburger In Paradise had no waiting and outside seating. Without the lure of train tracks nearby and the interrupted nap situation, our evening dinning experience wasn't nearly as enjoyable but still better than eating at home.

Golf & More

Since Mikie loves mini-golf so much, I signed him up for a beginner golf camp at a course only 15 minutes from our house. One Sunday a month for 2 hours he gets to putt, chip, and practice his full swing with tennis balls and birdie balls (pvc pipe rings). In his group of 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6 year olds.

Putting was his favorite part.
In this video you can hear him shout out the number of putts it took him to sink the ball:


Mikie sets up to hit his first birdie ball.

As part of the program, they took adult clubs, cut them down to a child's size, and gave everyone who didn't have their own clubs one iron. You can see in this video that the club is just a bit heavy for Mikie:

I was so proud of him for not throwing a fit when he didn't get the color of tennis ball that he wanted.

The kids took turns trying to hit a tennis ball at the instructor who was wearing a velcro suit as you'll see in this video:



Zachary enjoys one of the joys of summer:

Too bad we weren't at home on the farm to go out and pick our own.

One day, after the high pitch screeching got on my very last nerve, I found a new way to keep Zachary in time out:

This video is a couple months old, but still cute. Mikie has been asking to "be excused to use the restroom" during meal time and it appears that Zachary's "May I please be excused" has morphed into a similar version of Mikie's request. You have to listen very closely in this video:

A visit from the Smiths

My friend from Whidbey Island who now lives in TX came to VA for a wedding and we were fortunate enough to be able to spend a few days together. Michael and I actually baby-sat her 2 boys while they were at the wedding. It was a really hot day, but we managed to spend a short time at a very neat park in Mclean. It was a big challenge to keep track of all 4 of them. Luckily, Bradley doesn't move very fast yet and Zachary wanted to be carried by Daddy most of the time. I had packed a picnic, but by 11:00 we were too hot to sit outside and eat it, so we ended up in an air conditioned Wendy's instead. Then it was time to drive around and see who would nap in the car. Zach and Mikie were out for the count, Bradley fell asleep towards the end of the drive, and Jack enjoyed the scenery for a few hours before having to stop for a potty break. We had so much fun with them and were sad to have to drop them off at the hotel when their parents returned.

Zachary was not feeling well and the heat only made him more cranky.

Jack and Bradley enjoy the airplane.

Bradley and Zachary take a ride.

Zachary finds a monster truck.

Jack was all over the place exploring every piece of equipment. Michael and I took turns keeping track of him while carrying one of the littler ones. This is just a cute short video:

The boys pose in front of a "Quiet Zone" sign. You don't think we can get kicked out for disobeying that sign do you? Seriously, who came up with that one?

Mikie was so excited when he found numbers from 1-100 that he could run on.

In this amazing park, there is also a carousel. All the boys enjoyed spinning in circles.

Bradley really enjoyed it!

Lynn and the boys came to stay with us for a few days after they sent Eric back to TX. We drove down to Richmond and met up with the Lyons at the Children's Museum.

Here are the boys listening for their echoes.

Mikie and his favorite dinosaur.

Dino pictures are always fun!

This was an apple tree that the boys could "pick" apple balls out of. They had a blast at this exhibit and probably would have stayed there all day if we hadn't enticed them into doing other things.

Zachary could only reach about 2-4 holes while standing on his tiptoes.

Jack and Mikie

Gunner and Mikie

Zachary liked the water but couldn't reach anything on his own.

Zachary, Jack, and Mikie excavate some dinosaur bones.

This was a fun stegosaurus slide.
Amber, we could have done this for Tate's party.

The boys show us their scary cave exploration faces.

Mikie and Jack enjoy playing together with funnels and shooting water.

Feeding the animals the carrots made them make sounds.

Our babies aren't so little anymore!!!!!

We miss you all so much!

After a few short hours at the museum, we ate lunch at Gus' Bar and Grill. The boys were all very well behaved (read as: extremely exhausted with hunger setting in quickly while waiting on the world's slowest waiter. Thank heavens for Carrie's bag of tricks and treats!)

Back at home, Mikie, Jack and Bradley play in the sprinkler in our front yard.

It was so fun to watch the boys play together again and to hear their conversations. I was really preoccupied with getting all my VBS stuff put together that I'm afraid I wasn't the best hostess or company for that matter. Lynn, we thoroughly enjoyed having you stay with us and please know that you are welcome anytime! Your boys are so sweet and polite. You've done an amazing job with them! I wish we lived closer so I could take lessons from you.

"Jack Jack", you will forever have a special place in my heart. I love you!