July 4th - Cedar Point!

For the 4th of July we went to Cedar Point. Many said we were crazy, but what the heck, we did it. The park actually was not super crowded. Especially in the kids rides, the lines were short. Zack was just completely thrilled watching the roller coaster. He wanted to go on every one, especially Top Thrill Dragster. He could have spent the whole day watching that ride go. He also loved the Ferris Wheel. Sydney loved the Tilt-a-Whirl ride the best, even though it made Mommy almost sick with the spinning - and made Zack almost cry. I can't believe it was in the kids rides, it was pretty fast!!

Both kids loved the Jr Gemini. There wasn't a ride that they didn't love. Well, Zack did get pretty bummed out on the bumper cars. For some reason he couldn't make the car go. I guess he wasn't pushing and holding the pedal down or something. He went on it twice and both times he was just a speed bump. Poor guy!

We got there at 10:45 am and didn't leave until 11:30 pm. We practically had to pull the kids off the rides. We also got to see some great fireworks.

What???

Zack often responds "What??" to us. Is it that Zack *can't* hear us really, or he just doesn't want to hear what we're saying?? I think it's the latter most of the time.

Hot dogs anyone?

Really, I'm not sure where he got this from!

Happy 3rd Birthday Zack!!

Another year has come and gone and you have transformed from a bumbling toddler, into a little preschooler in the blink of an eye! You are a very intelligent, inquisitive, and talkative little boy. I think 80% of your sentences begin with "why..." (and the other 20% usually start with "I don't want to..."!!). Although you can be very stubborn at times, you are sweet and sensitive also, unless you are stealing toys from your sister. Your birthday revolved around your 3 current loves: Thomas the Train, Disney Cars, and the latest love, monorails! You carry your monorail around with you everywhere you go, and of course it has a special parking spot in your bed too. You can spell at least 5 words, and read too - "Zack", "Sydney", "Mom" & "Dad". You share your Dad's love of cars and things that go fast and make loud noises - motorcycles are a favorite too. You can't wait to go to Cedar Point to ride on the roller coasters. You never want to to sleep, and wake up cranky in the morning. You are also quite sneaky and love to squirt people with water guns at the pool! Happy happy birthday!!

Mokencycles!

yep, it's those new fangled vehicles that Zack loves so much!! tee hee hee

Swim Lessons

Zack started his swim lessons today. He was actually not even shy about joining the group and getting in the pool. No surprise he was the smallest in the class, since the age range is from 3 yrs to 5 yrs and he just turned 3 years old when the class started.

Day 7 - I hafta go potty!

He's another travel tip from Mr Obvious - don't give your kids a bunch of juice boxes before you get on the airplane. Apparently it makes them have to use the bathroom - in Zack's case it was 5 times! well, after drinking 2 or 3 juices I guess I'd have to go too! Other than that, I'm happy to report that our plane ride was uneventful, just the way I like them. Landing in Detroit was quite a bummer though - back to reality.

Day 6 - Clearwater Beach

Clearwater beach was our desination today. We had first thought we might not go, due to Zack's sunburn, but decided it would be OK. I didn't learn until after the trip that the SPF factor for a wet t-shirt is only 3, but it seemed like a good idea at the time. We had great weather the whole trip, and today was another sunny beautiful day. The water temperature was in the 80's, it was almost as warm as the air, but just cool enough to be nice.
The kids had a great time playing in the sand and splashing in the waves. After hanging out on the beach, we headed over to the really cool playground they have there. On our way home it started to rain and storm, which was the first rain we had seen on this trip. It was the perfect way to end our vacation.

Day 5 - Gators and more

After sleeping in late this morning, we headed out to Gatorland. It was actually a cool little park that we could all get into for around $50 (unlike Disney at 70 plus a person!). We saw a great Gator wrestling show, saw lots of gators of all sizes, and rode the train. Then we headed over to the new splash park they just recently built. Although the kids couldn't stop talking about it before they got there, they were *very* scared to run around by themselves. Zack insisted that I carried him everywhere, and Sydney did the same for quite some time. They Sydney realized what fun it was and she was running all over by herself having a great time. Zack was still a little whiny, but I think he was also just very tired. He had a great time using one of the water guns shooting everyone in sight. We stayed at the park for about 4 hours.

For dinner we headed over to the Disney Boardwalk, and had dinner at the Big River Brew Pub. The food was good, but the tables were small and the whole dinner cost just about the same as the admission to Gatorland :( The kids caught their second wind after having some food and we walked around the hotels in the area. We also stayed for the Epcot fireworks, only because we were in the area - after vowing to get the kids in bed at a decent hour ;) Oh well, it is vacation after all.

Day 4 - burning up the night time

Today we went to a really cool beach at a park called Calidesi Island. We had to drive an hour and a half to get there and then take a ferry boat over to the island. They limit the time you can spend there to 4 hours, but that was just the right amount of time because by that time we were perfectly sunburned. Note to self, *reapply, *reapply, and *reapply!! We saw a big turtle just walking right in front of the concession stand and also gathered a lot of cool sea shells. Another important note is that you should always wear sandals when walking on boardwalks!! We had to run down the walkway and Sydney was screaming in pain because the wood was so hot. It was not a pretty sight. My feet still hurt hours after that event. Yikes!! The beach was beautiful and the water was so warm, it was a dream day.

After our long car ride home (and a good nap for the kids on the way) we went to Downtown Disney for dinner at the Rainforest Cafe. That place is always busy, and I think Saturday night would qualify for the busiest night of the week. By the time we got there at 7:30, it was a 2 hour wait! But I still took the reservation time and we decided after a little bit to go to Planet Hollywood instead. We waited 45 minutes to get in there, by walking around the shops, and then when we got seated, the restaurant was way too loud and we left. Perhaps that is a sign we are getting old or something, but it was definately not the place we wanted to be. So we waited an hour longer and finally got our seat at the Rainforest Cafe. Despite the late dinner time (9:40!) the kids did really good.... until the end when Zack realized there was another "storm" coming on at the restaurant and he started to cry. We quickly exited the restaurant right as it was starting to rumble.

Day 3 - How I got that bad sunburn...

It was a lazy day today, due to the late night yesterday. We decided to go shopping, play golf and then Alan would be meeting up with his friends for dinner.
Let me just start by saying, despite how fun and adventurous the mini golf course promises to be, it will still be about 800 degrees in the sun. HOT HOT HOT It was so darn hot it was almost unbearable. Having said that, we decided that the Adventure Golf was for us, and we started playing at 1pm. Playing is really a loose term as the kids just rolled the balls along and I just tried to make it through the course without having heat stroke. We all had sunburns in the shape of our tank tops when we left.
When we went shopping, Zack decided to spend his Disney Dollars (he had earned $10) on a Car's canteen, that had a water ring toss game in it. Fun! Sydney got a Princess beach towel.
It was bath night and Alan went out to dinner with some friends that live in the area. He went to a Cuban restaurant in Celebration, and the kids watched Toy Story at the house.

Day 2 - Disney World!!

Since it was a weekday, we decided at the last minute to go to the Magic Kingdom in Disney. We got to the gates around 9:30 and it was even hot at that time of the morning. The first ride we went on the was the parking lot tram, then the boat, and finally made it to the park! Once in the park we headed to the Mad Hatter's Tea Party, spinning cups. Next it was the Winnie the Pooh ride, and Sydney started to cry about the Wuzzles and Heffalumps being scarey! She said "I never want to go on that ride again". Seconds later we were surprised in the gift shop by Disney employees telling us that we had all won Dream Fast Passes! They were pretty cool - we could go to the Fast Past rides at any time we wanted to (just once). Too bad a lot of the rides were for big kids, but still, it was a great prize. During that day, Sydney spent much time begging to go shopping and spend her "Disney Dollars" (she had $12) and Zack just wanted to go on the race cars!
We tried to go into an attraction called Mickey's Philharmagic, and found out that it was a very dark, loudy and scarey ride! In fact we left after just about a minute of it. I don't blame them, it was pretty darn intense. So we would be well rested, we went back to our house for lunch and rest, and then by 3pm we were back at the park. It was not crowded at all, and a picture session with Pooh was about the longest time we waited (20 mins). The kids loved the race cars, and Buzz Lightyear laser ride. Zack was a much braver kid than Sydney and his absolute favorite ride was Goofy's Barnstormer roller coaster! He also enjoyed the Dumbo ride and the People Mover. We did have a problem on the People Mover- it broke down in the dark area as you enter into Space Mountain. That would have been a total disaster had it not been for Alan's pocket flashlight, which kept the kids from being afraid. It seemed like we were stuck forever, but it was probably about 20 minutes.
When it started getting dark we headed to see the light parade. However, so did about a million other people and it was so crowded we couldn't see it. The fireworks went off right over our head, and they were pretty. We stayed until the park closed, at 11pm. What a busy day, we were all exhausted, but had a lot of fun!

Day 1 - Florida Trip... we have to get up how early??

We started our trip to Florida at 4:20 am. yep, that early. We haven't been up that early since the kids were still drinking bottles. Anyhow, we decided to just dress the kids in their outfits when they went to bed last night, so we just picked them up out of bed at 5am and stuck them in the car. I figured that with the lack of sleep they would just be sleeping the whole plane ride. Well much to our surprise, the kids were up and raring to go and never slept once. Oops, I didn't even bring any entertaining toys or books for the plane because I thought we didn't need them. Even so the kids did a great job on the plane ride and never cried once even when we put them in the car at 5am.
Since we had such an early flight we arrived in Florida at 11am, but our house wouldn't be ready until 4pm. So we took a trip over to Downtown Disney. It was hot hot hot! But the kids had fun going to Lego Land and racing cars. After hanging out and shopping for a little while, we went to our house. It was a really nice house, with a big - no *huge* - TV. And a home theatre system, with 250 DVD changer. Now if we could just figure out how to turn it on!
We had dinner at TGI Friday's and went grocery shopping, then called it a night. The kids slept great together in the same room, other than Zack always wanting to talk, and Sydney wanting to sleep!

Happy 5th Birthday Sydney!!

Well it's been 5 years now since the day you first arrived in this world with a fearsome cry. You've grown into a mischievous, beautiful little girl. You have a deep vein of competition running through you, at least when it has anything to do with competing against your brother. Book reading, hand washing, riding bikes - you name it, you'll compete against Zack for it! I hope that is a good trait - it tends to be a little tiresome on a continuous basis right now. However you are also a very kind and thoughtful girl who is smart and caring. You just started gymnastics, so perhaps there is hope for you not always being so klutzy after all. You also love to cook, or at least eat the dough and chocolate chips. Puzzles and games are also a favorite, along with your Ponies and stuffed animals. We count our blessings each time we think of how lucky we are to have such a super special girl like you in our family!!

Easy Bake Oven fun

The bakers are geared up

We bought an Easy Bake Oven from a garage sale recently. What a bargain - only $5 and it had several new mixes with it. So after many days of looking at it sitting in the corner of our dining room, we finally decided to make some treats. First of all, who would have thought it takes 15 mins to warm up the oven! Then, the mix made a teeny tiny amount of dough- appropriately small to go in this tiny oven. It was a lot of fun making the cutout cookies though, and they really did taste yummy.

Cutting out the cookies...

Are they done yet??

Don't kill me Jesus!!!

Last night we were putting together a Prince "costume" for Zack, and I decided we could make him some sort of vest with an old t-shirt. So I took an old black t-shirt and cut the bottom off of it, since it was too long, and used that as a belt around his waist. Sydney took one look at him and said "he looks like Jesus!!". Then Zack picked up his Prince sword, and poked Sydney with it - to which Sydney loudly replied (outside) "Don't kill me Jesus!!!". Sydney was also very upset to find out that the "jewels" that we attached to Zack's crown (Burger King!) were actually from her school project that she had brought home. oops!

Gymnastics!!

Sydney started Gymnastics last week at the local YMCA. What fun! Her class has 6 other girls in it and for their first night they got to try out all of the equipment - balance beam, rings, bars, and even a trampoline. She was so excited about it, she said she wanted to go back the next night. Zack was a little less thrilled about it all since he only got to watch and couldn't try out any of the equipment - well, until Mommy let him bounce once on the trampoline (which was actually against the rules, but it kept him from whining!)

the Magic show

we went to see a magic show at the library tonight. When I asked Zack what he liked best about the magic show, he told me "cake" which they had after the show! The show was put on by our good friend Andrew Martin. It was a good show. And the cake was good too!

Are you....

going to go outside? Are you going to go in the garage? Are you going to go in the basement? Are you going to work?? What are you going to do right now? But what are you going to do right now?? I love you. Go make some money. Good night.... Good bye. I love you. Go make some money!
Sydney says this every night when we turn off the light at kiss her goodnight. Apparently that one (or maybe two..) times we went outside after she went to bed really freaked her out. Especially when she woke up and couldn't find us anywhere in the house. oops.

My new friend

Today we heard about Zack's new friend - Ian! This is the first school friend that we've heard about Zack playing with. Perhaps it could be a long time friend... like co-worker Chloe!

Zenobia Shrine Circus

The circus was in town this weekend so we took the kids. It was quite a treat for everyone - lions, monkeys, dogs, elephants, hula-hoop girls and much more!! The kids especially liked the light up necklaces that they got... and the cotton candy.

Mommy...

"I want to stay with you forever" (whispered to Mommy by Zack as I carried him to bed)

the Jellybean Tree

I finished up a mural in the kid's play loft today. It's our own Jellybean tree!

Ski day 3 - Keystone

For our last day of skiing we decided to stay right at our own resort. Once again it was a beautiful sunny day - we had to eventually take off part of our coats and put them in lockers because we were getting so overheating on the slopes! That's because we were doing some trick moves at the A51 terrain park. Or maybe not - perhaps we were really just falling off the box that we were trying for the first time - but we weren't afraid of the jumps and had a great time playing around.


Alan "rocking the box" at the terrain park...


For dinner we had some brews and a pizza at Fatty's Pizzeria in Breckenridge.




It was a quick trip, but a much needed break.

Ski day 2 - Loveland

Loveland is an awesome local ski resort that sits on top the Eisenhower tunnel. It's right on the continental divide. We went skiing there on our 2nd day. We go there almost every time we are in Colorado, but I think this was one of the very few times that it was actually warm instead of frigid. With the altitude so high, above the tree line, it can get pretty nasty up there when the temperature is cold and the wind is blowing. We had a great day of skiing, and had some fun wipe outs too!

After skiing we went to the Dam Brewery. Yummy!

Ski trip to Colorado!!

Sure, this is supposed to be a kids blog, but we like to put in notes and stories about other things too. We took a quick ski trip out to Colorado this year and stayed at the River Run condo in Keystone. http://www.vrbo.com/21218 What a great place to stay. This was our 2nd time at this particular condo. You can always get good deals at the last minute if you search for them.

On our first day of skiing, we went to Breckenridge. They got a new gondola since the last time we were there. Speaking of which, lift ticket prices are soooooooo expensive now. We had to pay $172 for only 2 tickets, when almost 3 years ago we only paid $43 a ticket. Ouch!

Breckenridge had great snow, and it was sunny. We even skied the Devils Crotch! (a double black diamond run) After skiing we headed to our favorite restaurant, Downstairs at Erics in Breckenridge. Remember Alan taking that fall on the stairs???

Woopy Woop

The kids take the bungie cords that are in the truck and have them hanging between the car seat and the back of the front row seats. Then they hang the other bungies on them. They now serve as phones, devices to steer the train, and Zack especially likes them when the look like "woopy woops"!

Too many!!

We went to the Toledo Zoo to see to see a performance that the Toledo Ballet was putting on. It was excerps from the Nutcracker show that they put on every year. Well, during the dance of the sugar plum fairies, all of the dancers came out on stage and had the same outfits on. When Zack saw them all, he loudly proclaimed "there's too many!!!" He said it so loud he almosted seemed distressed by their appearance! He got that from a book called "Too many frogs", but I think he really meant to say that there's "alot" of dancers :)

Alpine Valley ski trip

Zack takes his first cruise down the hill at Alpine Valley. He made it all the way down without falling, skiing right next to Mommy. He had a good time and went down the hill 4 times, until he started getting a little grumpy, then he was easily convinced to go enjoy some hot chocolate in the lodge. He said the best part of skiing was going up the hill on the Magic Carpet and he wouldn't stop telling us that he wants to go on the chairlift next time!



Sydney was doing a really good job skiing - especially since it was only the second time she's been skiing! Here she is going down the hill all by herself. She is becoming a pro at going down the hill - very fast - in a straight line. Oh well, there's always next year to learn "pizzas and french fries"
Hopefully we'll get a few more days of snow around here so we can go again - and get Zack up on that chairlift!!

Sledding

Even though we only have enough snow to barely cover the ground, we had to get out sledding. It's really only been snowy for a couple of days this winter. Hardly any snow at all, so this was our first sledding trip of the winter. We went over to Sidecut Metro park close by our house. The hill wasn't really steep, but the kids thoroughly enjoyed it.

On our last trip down the hill, the sled finally gave in to the enormous weight of Alan's butt and a hole was broke through the sled. haha It probably had more to do with the stick they ran over on the way down, but the verdict is still out. :)

Best artwork ever!

Here are the latest pictures that Sydney drew for us. One of Sydney & Mommy and the other of Zack and Daddy!

"Oh my goodness..."

"... it's a Nut Grabber!" Sydney's new catch phrase around the holidays :)

"Oh my goodness!!"

Zack exclaims as we are out for a drive looking at all of the Christmas lights on other people's houses.

Lights at the Zoo

We took a trip to the Zoo tonight to see all of the Christmas lights. The kids loved the "dancing" lights which were synchronized to "I want a Hippopotamus for Christmas". Zack and Sydney went to see Santa and they told Santa they wanted a train & red race car (Zack) and a ballerina & princess (Sydney).

Don't look now!

We watched the classic Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer last night. Every time the Abominable Snowman came on, Zack covered his eyes with both of his hands!

"Mom??"

"What Zack?"
"Whatever!!"

Halloween

Halloween was a lot of fun!! We couldn't have asked for a better night, it was actually warm, almost 60 degrees I think, so we sure weren't cold running from door to door. We were lucky to recruit Grandma & Grandpa B over to pass out candy while we went all around the neighborhood. We stayed out for almost the whole two hours. What a great time!

That blue thing!

We went for a camping trip this past weekend to Maumee Bay State park. We have really been enjoying the new camper and getting a lot of use out of it so far. This past trip we had Grandma and Grandpa B camping next to us in their RV. It was a lot of fun and the kids were always scampering back and forth between the campsites. They kept very busy catching caterpillars - they caught 4 different kinds. We also went down to the beach, on bike rides, and nature walks. When we were walking on the boardwalk nature trail, Zack wanted to be carried by Grandma and he called her "that blue thing" since she had on a blue coat! His favorite part of the camping trip was "playing" and "eating white things" (marshmallows!). At least he's incorporating his colors into his speech very nicely!

Investigation: Sydney's Treasures

Perhaps you've seen Sydney carrying around her "treasures". They are all stored in one of several purses, and even a miniture jewelry box which was selected personally by Sydney from a garage sale. Well one night we decided to investigate what the treasures really were, so we checked them out when she was sleeping. Here is what we found:

Assorted Dora "puffy" stickers, bracelets, foam disks from toy gun, Easter egg, rings, train whistle, flower eraser, buckeye, beads, and a flag from our lasagne at the Spaghetti Warehouse.

Zack's race car, blanket from baby doll set, lip balms, Cinderella from birthday cake (with two dresses), 6 cents, super ball, rubber frog, piece of paper with scribbles on it, beads, items from baby doll medical set: empty prescription bottles and medical tray.

Camping slips from our last camping trip, teddy bear with "S", 2 of Zack's cars, lizard toy, 2 feathers, Buzz Lightyear doll, Gummi bear doll, train whistle, tickets, Garfield pencil topper, beads, bead "poodle", bread tie, tag from pajamas, Dora puffy sticker, and another foam disk from the toy gun.

Cedar Point

We took a trip to Cedar Point for the evening. Here is a picture of Zack on a ride, just moments before he noticed that Mommy abandoned him to go take pictures of Sydney and Daddy on the Jr. Gemini!!

We all had a great time. Can't wait to go back next year!

5, 6, 7

That's the way Zack counts... not sure why, but instead of 1, 2, 3 it's always 5, 6, 7! I guess he's already ahead of the game :)

Muddy the Mud Hen

We made a trip over to Fifth Third field tonight to see the Muds Hens play. We got to sit up close, behind the home plate. Really great seats! We also got to see some goofy characters called the Zooperstars (http://www.zooperstars.com/). I think eating the big container of popcorn was the most fun of all!

Camping at Hayes State Park

We went to Walter J Hayes state park camping this weekend. It was our first "long" trip... all weekend! The weather was very hot on Friday when we got there. Thank god for airconditioning! On Saturday we went to the beach and played in the water and sand. Mom & Dad need to get some buckets and shovels for the camper, but we still had fun. The only bummer was when it rained on Sunday morning. Actually it started raining and it just never stopped! We packed up the camper and went to McDonalds for breakfast. Yummy!!!

Our New Camper

We are picking up our new camper tonight. It's a 2007 Fleetwood Niagra... http://www.fleetwoodcampingtrailers.com/series.aspx?id=5&sn=Highlander Very cool, and not much "roughing it" at all! Our first trip is planned for Maumee Bay State Park. I hope we can figure out how to use it :)

Zack's a Genius!

well, we had our suspicions, but now they have been confirmed - Zack's a genius! When I picked him up from school yesterday the teacher mentioned that he really surprised them. The teacher was reading a new book and they got to the page with a plane skywriting. When the teacher asked, "what does this say?" Zack answered "Drink Milk!", and he was right!! Just imagine, reading at 2 years old, what's next?? You can imagine the surprise when the teachers heard his response, and were stunned, but then couldn't get him to repeat it. well, it does help that we have that same book at home :)

Nakes! Nakes!!

If you are ever considering taking a journey into the jungles, Zack is the one to take with you... he is an expert at pointing out "snakes". He shouts out "Nakes! Nakes!" almost 3 or 4 times an hour. He sees the snakes that people normally overlook, like the spaghetti, string, grass on the floor, lizards (not really lizards, they must be snakes with legs), food cut into strips, and much more! He'll keep you safe :)

Happy Mothers Day!

Today I am such a proud mom - Zack has figured out how to fart on command (yes, I really said that!) and Sydney threw such a hissy fit that she bit me tonight. How precious! Seriously, I did get a very nice gift from Alan (spa certificate!) and although it has it's ups and downs, I am truly blessed to have two wonderful kids and a supportive, loving husband. :)

Knock Knock! Who's there??...

why it's just a rock smashing around in our dryer! Sydney stashed away one of her favorite items, a large rock, in her coat and Mommy forgot to thoroughly check every single pocket for treasures. I thought that thumping sounded a little too loud to be *just* a zipper!!

The Tale of Two Jammies

After talking to our Pediatricians office, they recommended that we do not stay in his room, but we calmly place in back in bed when he gets up, reassure him, and leave his room. Ok, that sounds reasonable enough (ha!). So we get ready for a tough night of resistance last night. Trying to defuse some of the clinginess, Dad puts Zack to bed. I can hear them reading books, then rocking, and finally he is put into his bed and Dad exits the room. The screams begin... however, they stop within about 3 minutes! And surprisingly they don't continue. Dad then informs me that Zack can no longer climb out of his bed since he is back in his roomy winter jammies (he has been in a much smaller, spring 2 piece jammies due to the warm weather on vacation and at home)! We also turned on the humidifier for some "white noise". I don't think we've had such a good sleep in a long time!!

We have a climber!

Hell hath no fury greater than a toddler who doesn't get his way. Our little guy has continued his insistence on having someone staying in his room with him all during the night. And I mean *all* during the night! I sit in his bedroom until he falls alseep, and then when he wakes up screaming in the middle of the night because I'm not there, I go back and sit some more. When I try to leave when he's awake, he just gets up and climbs out of crib, to find me!
This is a "sleep separation" technique and it's supposed to help, however, I just don't think it's working. Well, I know it's not working because I have spent many nights and hours just sitting around in his room waiting for sleep, and then trying to escape unnoticed - which sometimes is not so stealth-like and the whole process begins again. Yikes. We need to find a new approach because this is getting old very fast and our whole family is cranky

Day 7 - the Princess day

Today was all about the Princess... Princess Sydney that is! We promised her a trip to the Bibbidi Bobbidi Boutique if she stopped sucking her thumb. Well she did stop stop, for a while, and now and then, but the dress was bought and the appointment was made so she got to go even though she has not completely stopped. I think it's improving. She went to the salon and got a hair extension put in, and makeup put on. What a beautiful princess she was.

Grandma spoiled Sydney and Zack with several stuffed animals while they shopped. They got to go on the merry-go-round and eat some chocolate! Sydney's favorite part was strolling around Downtown Disney showing off her glamorous new look. She definitely was a princess for the day!

Day 6 - Relaxation time!

After a whirlwind week of entertainment, Friday was our day of rest. We took a trip over to Downtown Disney in the late afternoon and had dinner at the Rainforest Cafe. Of course the line was really long (2 hour wait), but even after all of that waiting, the kids had a great time looking at all of the animals while we ate dinner and they didn't seem to mind.

Day 5 - Sea World

We took a trip to Sea World in Orlando today with Grandma and Grandpa Willford. It was a good day of checking out all sorts of sea creatures. Out of all of the animals, I think the kids liked the polar bears and penguins the best. They had a really nice habitat set up for the artic animals and you could see them running around and playing. We also saw a dolphin and whale show. Both kids liked the show, but got a little fidgetity at the end. They also liked walking

through the shark "tunnel" and seeing the large fish. One of the gift shops had a cool floor which was an aquarium... and the ceiling was an aquarium too!

That night we decided to get really crazy and go see the fireworks at Epcot from the Boardwalk and Swan & Dolphin hotels. The kids did really well and had a lot of fun walking around at night. Zack was only a little frightened by the loud fireworks, but overall it was a great night!

Day 4: Clearwater Beach

After a late start, we headed for Clearwater beach today. There was a lot of traffic near Tampa, but the car ride went well - perhaps because we put a stop to the new car game "Yes" (antagonistically prompted by Sydney) and "No!" (responded loudly by Zack). We ate some lunch in the car on the way to the beach, and arrived around noon.
Clearwater was so crowded we thought we'd never find a parking spot. Eventually we did, and luckily it was a short walk to the beach. The kids had a great time playing in the sand and Sydney enjoyed the water more than Zack did - although Zack did like being carried out into the water. Around 4 pm we took a walk on the pier, and ended the day with some ice cream. The kids passed out from exhaustion shortly after our trip back home started since neither one had a nap today. We had a late dinner of pizza. Zack had a terrible time going to sleep - and he learned a new trick - how to climb out of the Pack-n-Play! We had to put him back to bed about 5 times until we eventually got him to sleep by sitting in the room until he fell asleep. Guess that's what we get for messing up the "schedule".

Day 2: Our first full day in Florida

"Oh look!" he cried, "It's 6 AM, our vacation fun must begin!"... and so it began, at 6 am when Zack woke up. Since his bedroom is right next to Sydney's, they were both up bright and early - except it sure wasn't bright yet. The sun isn't up at 6am we found out. After about an hour of wishfully faking sleep on the couches, Alan and Lisa gave in and got up and started our first day. We went over to Grandma and Grandpa's house. As the day warmed up, we went over to the clubhouse for a dip in the pool. Zack is a crazy guy his year! He just runs up to the pool edge and jumps right in! It was hard to keep up with him, running between the hot tub and the pool (not to mention not a very pleasant change in water temperature!). Sydney also had fun in the pool and didn't want to leave. However, all good things must end and we had to call it quits so we could have lunch and steal a nap after that early start to the day.
For dinner we went to a mexican restaurant that didn't exactly cater to kids. Zack ate a whole bunch of chips - all dipped in salsa, which wasn't very mild. That night Zack woke up at 2:30, 3:30 and 4:30am! At 4:30 I realized that he wasn't going back to bed without me, so I slept next to him in his room. What a night!

Day 1: The flight to Florida

Our flight to Florida actually went really, really well. Sydney enjoyed having her own seat on the plane, and Zack fell asleep for most of the flight. Then, when we woke up, they both enjoyed watching Bob the Builder on Alan's notebook. After a long car ride from the airport, we finally arrived at Grandma and Grandpa Willford's house. Eventually we made it up to our rented house (which is really nice) and called it a night. The weather was in the mid 80's today and looks like it will be nice all week.

Love is in the air!

Springtime is hit Toledo - the birds chirping, nice weather now and then, and love is in the air! Zack has his first "girlfriend" at school - a little toddler named Ellie (I think). When Zack gets to school Ellie jumps up and runs over to see him. She hugs him, kisses him and strokes his hair! awww Sydney also informed is that Aston wants to marry her :) I hope they finish preschool first.

What really counts is...

Zack is starting to learn about numbers. When Sydney started learning, her favorite number was "two". She had to have "two" of everything - two books, two sippies, two blankies. To this day she still has her mix of apple juice and orange juice in the morning and she sleeps with two blankies (most days, when she hasn't dragged every blankie in the house into her bed...). Well Zack's favorite number is "nine". When asked how many shoes he has, it's "nine!". How many fingers? "Nine!" How many cookies do you want?? "Nine!" Not to be outdone, Sydney now says that her favorite number is one hundred. :)

More Milk!!

Today Zack said his first "sentence"... well, it was actually two words, but it was a command! He said "More Milk!". I'm sure "Dad, can I have some money?" will be following soon.

Tickle my diaper!!

No comment!

Zack is back on track

We went to the Dr's today for a weight check on Zack. He was 22 lbs, 4 oz, which is actually up on the growth curve again!! yeah! All of that nagging to eat has paid off. Actually it was probably more related to the instant breakfast we have been giving him twice a day in his milk. He seems to like it, and it's got a lot of calories and protein for him. His Dr said is weight was not bad, and everything seems to be OK.

It's such a relief to know that there's nothing wrong with him, and he's back on track with his weight gain. Now if we could get rid of those ear infections we'd be all set!

Test results are in...

and they are "normal". Zack's biopsy results for Celiac Disease all came back normal and looked good. Whew! That was good news to hear. The "plan" of action now is to increase his calorie intake and to get him weighed again. Not much of a plan really, but I guess that's the key to gaining weight - no rocket science needed. We're going to give him that Carnation Instant Breakfast powder in his milk. Hopefully someday his diet will be broadened to include something other than chicken nuggets and dehydrated corn! :)

Snow! Finally!!

We had the first snowfall of the year today. That's right, actually the first real snowfall of the season, and January is almost over! It's been a pretty sucky year for snow sports around here, but at least we got to go out and enjoy it a little bit, dispite the low temperatures. Unfortunately the low temps have kept the snow from packing, so we didn't get to make a snowman. It was perfect for pulling the sled and making snow angels.

Funny words of the week

It's so cute when Sydney says "try-dangle" instead of "triangle". Zack is getting better at saying "ball" and all of his animal sounds, but still not very good at any words in general. Hope he spits some of them out soon... "bbbbbbBBBBBBBAAAAAA!!!!!" is getting very tiresome :)

more COSI...

Dancing on the keys!

COSI trip

Today we explored the fun and mystery of science! We went to COSI Toledo and had a great time. Here is a picture of Sydney and Daddy making a ball float in the kids area. Both kids had alot of fun and Mommy & Daddy did too. Us big kids got to rid across a tight rope on a bike, and become a human "yo-yo". Zack's favorite activity was pushing around a Little Tikes lawn mower. Maybe we'll have to get him one for the summer... We'll definately go again!

TRRRR BUUUU !!!!

We got Zack a plate set last night, it's a Tonka one with trucks all over it. We thought he'd really love it... little did we know that he would act like it was a book and point at the trucks all during the meal and want us to acknowledge every truck, over and over! All during dinner he just pointed at the trucks saying "TRRRR" and "BUUUU". Who'd thunk it!

Trucks!

**~~~ Happy New Year!! ~~~**

Zack just can't get enough of his trucks, cars, and tractors! Here is his intensely reading his truck book while he gets his diaper changed!

The latest obsession...

is sock fuzz!! yep, that's right, that leftover sock fuzz that congregates under your toes - that's what Zack is really obsessed with right now. The boy will just pull off both of his socks all of a sudden and spend 5 or 10 minutes just deeply engrossed in pulling little bits of sock fuzz out from between his toes! He's also a very neat kid, so he'll give me the bits of fuzz instead of just putting them on the floor.

No buttons!

Just as the fads in fashion pass each year for adults, it seems that Sydney has her own fashion rules to live by. Recently it's "no buttons!". At first I thought the fashion faux pas was only buttons on the back of the shirt (for the neck) but now I've been told that it's buttons up the front too! Apparently Sydney has come to associate buttons on shirts with "baby shirts" like ones that Zack might wear... however she still has not been convinced that only babies suck their thumbs. Maybe someday she'll listen. Remember the "red boot" fad of toddler years, and the "party dresses"? I wonder what else this year will bring - other than "pink" clothes of course.