ABCZ

Pa had to drive the motorhome up for some work today, so he came and hung out with Zach and I for the day (and Anna, once she got out of school). He and Anna went for a long walk/bike ride to the Sonoma State duck pond and saw baby ducks and huge turtles. They spent the rest of the afternoon doing fuse beads and playing Legos. Zach even hung out with Pa for a bit and gave him some BIG smiles!

Remember that game telephone? One person tells another a story, and that person tells another and each generation distorts the story more. Based on my experience, I think the amount of distortion must be directly proportional to the age of the re-teller. Push play below and see Anna's version of a joke that Curtis told her today...

Zach had his 2mo well check today. Anna was disappointed that it was during her school hours, so she wouldn't be there to hold his hand for his shots. She said, "But he's never had shots without me holding his hand!!!" I promised to schedule the next one when she was out of school...but then she started a fever during the night so I had to keep her home anyway. She was feeling fine though, so we all went to see Dr. Tsao! He's awesome.

Zach got a clean bill of health. He's a growing boy, already measuring 23" (up from 21" at birth, although I think the 23" measurement today was shy of his true length) and weighing 12lbs 15.4 ounces (up 4 lbs from birth). And he was a trooper for all of his shots, and his oral vacc. Good boy, as usual! Shots seem much less traumatic this time around...for me anyway. :) I don't know if I am less stressed about it because I think he'll take it in stride better, or if it's "Second Child Syndrome" (which I hate the idea of). Hmmm...food for thought.

...sleepy snuggles. Anna wakes up early almost every morning and sneaks up to the edge of the bed, where Zach has usually fallen asleep after his last feeding and is snuggled up next to me, and says, "Can I come snuggle now?" She carefully crawls in behind him and snuggles right up next to him without moving him and dozes back off. So sweet...they just melt my heart. What did we do to deserve so many blessings? :)

Every night before bed, Anna and Curtis and I (and now Zach) pile into her bed for prayers. We read a kids devotional that we have used for about 3 years now. Then we all say prayers together.

Over the years, our bedtime prayers have gone through many iterations. We started with the traditional "Now I lay me down to sleep..." (Although, we did opt for the less morbid version than the one that both of US grew up with; "If I should die before I wake, I pray the Lord my soul to take" is swapped for "Angels watch me through the night, And wake me with the morning light.") Then we did The Lord's Prayer for awhile.

Right now, we all take a turn saying a prayer with at least one thing we are thankful for that day. Anna always wants to say Zach's prayer for him. She prays, in this tiny little voice (which is what she thinks Zach would sound like if he could talk?) "Dear God, Thank you for such a great big sister!"

I asked her once, "Hey, isn't he thankful for his great Mommy and Daddy too?" She replied, "He might be, but that's not what he's praying for tonight." Funny girl... :)

I often find myself uttering phrases or questions that, before having children, I never imagined would pass my lips. There are some that I just swore I would never use, on principle. (Yes, I admit to having spoken the dreaded "because I said so"...more than once.) And there are some that were never even on my radar. Today's question was never even on my radar...

"Anna, why is your dog pink?"



Incidentally, the answer was owing to the amazing properties of pink sidewalk chalk, and what a Pomeranian can do if he rolls in an abandoned hop scotch game. Although she swears it was not planned...Anna did seem awfully pleased to have a pink dog. Hmmm...suspicious.

I'm behind on blogging...but I have a doctor's note. :) Since I've been gone, we added a new member to the family!

Zachary Charles was born on April 2nd at 4:59pm. He weighed 8lbs, 14oz and was 21 inches long at birth. It was a muuuuch rougher birth than our first time around, but of course it was worth the effort. He is SO much fun. He's a mellow boy. He spends most of his days sleeping, nursing, nursing, nursing, peeing on us when we try to change his diaper, nursing and sleeping (in about that proportion). All three of us are having a great time with him.

Now that I have THAT caught up, I can go about my regularly scheduled posting without feeling like I left something out of order.

...Curtis & Anna can get into all kinds of trouble. :) This is what greeted me less than 15 minutes after Curtis got home from work tonight.

Anna's teacher assigned them a project for St. Patrick's Day. They needed to design and build a Leprechaun Trap. Anna had a nice diagram drawn and lots of big plans about how this would work. She even included signs that instructed them NOT to climb the ladder or take the gold 'bait' (because they were told that Leprechaun are naughty and do the opposite of whatever they are told). She also wanted to put food into the trap so that they would have something to eat and not die until she came to check the trap again. Too cute...

In the end, no leprechaun were caught, but they did visit the traps and leave behind glittery green coins and pieces of tiny Leprechaun clothing.