ABCZ

...banged your head against a brick wall repeatedly...I mean, tried to solve a Rubix Cube? Anna has, for some reason, been enthralled by the Rubix Cube and she kept begging me to buy one for her. I tried putting her off, telling her it would just be frustrating, changing the subject, avoiding them...all to no avail. Finally, we conceded, knowing full well how this would end.

It took approximately .67 seconds to irreparably mix up the damned thing. (I say approximately, because my finger couldn't start and stop the stopwatch as fast as she could screw up the pretty matching color sides.) Curtis and I exchanged a look, and knew that this was one of those parenting moments that we needed to 'rise to the occasion' for. So we did.

We taught her to cheat. I mean, seriously, I spent a long time in my childhood (at least 10 minutes or so) trying to solve one of those things before someone taught me how to cheat my way back to color coded bliss. Mine was so loose from being repeatedly popped apart and back together that it had a hard time staying in rows to turn normally. Apparently, Curtis had a similar experience, because he whipped it apart and reassembled it in record time.

So, Anna is still thrilled with the Rubix cube. But now she brings it to me every few minutes and says in her sweet little voice, "Mommy, will you help me cheat?" Ahhh...out of the mouths of babes.

We celebrated Fathers' Day at the Giants game today, and it was Zach's first game! (And we managed to bring home the win...YEAH!) He actually did great! I fed him when we got there, in the car. He fell asleep in the Baby Bjorn on the way to our seats, and then slept in my lap through the first 6 innings, despite the heat (under a blanket to keep him out of the sun). We woke him up to trek to Build-a-Bear for Anna, and then fell asleep on our way back to the car. Smooth day!

We had a great time celebrating the day...and the WONDERFUL Daddy that these two kiddos have. Curtis is so amazing...as a husband, friend and a father. We're all so luck to have him. :)

Cuteness!

At swim lessons this year, Zach is quite a popular guy. Anna is doing her lessons, as usual, with her two friends Ashley & Brittney (twins). They all battle for space around his stroller, vying for his attention. Babysitters in the making!

Grandma & Alisa hosted a family BBQ last weekend and we had a great time hanging out, relaxing, watching the kiddos playing in the pools and catching up with each other. It's so fun to watch the girls all play together, now that they're old enough to actually interact. I hope they have as much fun growing up together as my cousins and I did. Zach is the lone boy right now! He's going to have his hands full pretty soon!

Yes, at the ripe old age of 11 weeks, Zach has said his first word! He's a child prodigy! Well, maybe...maybe not. But Anna still SWEARS that he has said his first word, and she's been swearing that he speaks to her since the day we brought him home from the hospital. When I asked her what that word was, she replied, "You know that word I say when I didn't hear you, and go "HUH?" - he said that!" It probably won't be the last time she puts words in his mouth, huh?

Anna graduated from Kindergarten earlier this month. She did such a great job this year, and we are so proud. She finished all of her timed math tests before any other students, learned to read like a pro (we're amazed at how she's taken off!), made lots of new friends, and went the entire year without "having her star flipped over" (getting in trouble).

The graduation ceremony was adorable. All of the kids announced their own name, and they told what their favorite Kindergarten memory was. Anna said that hers was the Spring Egg Hunt.

Anna's teachers this year were just phenomenal. We adore them both! They made a little certificate for each graduate, and on it was an excerpt from the Dr. Seuss book "Oh, The Places You'll Go". Now, this was not the first time I had read this poem. In fact, I own two copies of it. I think it's great. But it's nothing new. Yet, on this day of our baby girl's Kindergarten graduation, reading the line, "KID, YOU'LL MOVE MOUNTAINS!" completely choked me up.

Even funnier is that while confessing my sappy moment at a celebratory breakfast with our family afterwards, I got choked up trying to say that line to them. And while I'm typing this blog...again. Damn you, Dr. Seuss! You know why it chokes me up? Because she will move mountains. She's amazing. She's smart, and funny, and compassionate, and thoughtful, and such a blessing to us. CONGRATULATIONS, ANNA BOO! Go move those mountains (after you clean your room)!

For the second half of this school year, Anna had a new boyfriend, James. I asked her once what exactly it meant that he was her "boyfriend". She gave me this longsuffering look, that said, "OK, I can tell you're slow so I'll explain this to you in simple terms," and replied, "It means that at recess when we play Star Wars together, *I* get to be Princess Leia." Hmmm...OK, I can live with that. Yesterday, she told me that she wished they were "teeangers, so they could see eachother and go for walks and stuff." OK, not so sure about that one. But I love James...he's a total riot.

At their kindergarten graduation, Curtis & I brought Anna a boquet of flowers. She asked me to pull out one specific orange daisy from her boquet, and then she went and gave it to James (in one of those, down low, secret kind of passes so no one would see her and make her feel embarassed). It was so sweet.

Well, now that it is summer, they are apparently missing eachother. Anna has asked every day at swim lessons if James will be there, but we keep missing eachother. So we signed them up for a day camp thing together next week. His response when he found out that Anna would be there was this: "My friend is going to see my girlfriend and have hearts floating around his eyes!". What a prefect cartoon representation of true love. It still makes me chuckle... I hope love is always that simple for her.