Ziggy

Our little kitty, Ziggy, is almost one year old! I realized that I had never posted anything about him... I guess that it's just been a crazy year.

We got the itch to have another kitten last year and I did some searches on Craigs List. I found a litter of tiger-striped tabby cats very close to us. Lynnae and I went to go look, and picked out the one that they called "Prince" to bring home with us. They called him Prince because of his beautiful markings.

We brought him home and went to the task of picking our own name for him. After a few days we had a family vote between "Rowdy," "Bender," and "Ziggy". The last two names were chosen because his tail isn't completely straight... it has a kink in it. Ziggy was the overwhelming winner. He took to the name pretty quickly.

Maybe we should have named him Rowdy though, because this cat has some serious spunk. Recently he has begun to calm down and is actually quite the cuddle cat. He sleeps with one of us almost every night. Charlie and Ziggy are good friends too!

The Girl Scouts Go To The Fire Station

We had a Girl Scouts meeting on St Patrick's Day. We did the usual small St Patrick's celebration, and then walked across the parking lot to the Silver Firs Fire Department. Charlie tagged along for the field trip and enjoyed it every bit as much as the 14 girls. The firefighters were really good with the kids. They talked to them about fire safety and had all of the kids excited about it. They also showed them their full uniforms, and let the girls take turns trying on the coat, helmet, and oxygen tank. The fireman that was leading the presentation put on all of his gear and crawled towards the girls just like firefighters need to do in a real fire. They also showed them their heat sensor, and had all of the girls hide in the room so that the fireman could use his heat sensor to find them. It was at the end of this activity that they received a call and had to leave, so we weren’t able to finish our tour by looking at the truck... But the girls didn’t really mind. They had a great time, and it was refreshing for Mary and I to turn over the bulk of our meeting to someone else! We stopped for a picture in front of the truck that was still there... Each of the girls donned the hat given them by the station. Charlie really liked his hat too!

Charlie the Gymnast

Charlie started gymnastics in February. I signed him up for a 4-week toddler class through the Everett Parks system, and the class just ended about 2 weeks ago. I had been thinking about putting him in gymnastics since he arrived in our family. The little boy is a monkey at heart! Always climbing, jumping and swinging off of everything. I am so glad that we finally did this.

Charlie looked forward to gymnastics and seeing Coach Annie every week. He talked about it nonstop! In class they worked on rolls, monkey jumps (beginning cartwheels,) donkey kicks (beginning handstands,) and lots of jumping and listening. Of course, they also did quite a bit of bar and beam work. They learned how to walk up the wall into a handstand, and walk across a beam to jump into a foam pit. Charlie’s very, very favorite part was the foam pit. He kept telling me he was a sea monkey swimming... Unfortunately, he also likes to burrow in it. Charlie has no fear, it is so great to watch. I usually cannot wipe the smile away from my face for the entire 45 minute class, and walk away realizing that my facial muscles are sore from all of the smiling! Charlie has also made a new friend in his class – Alex (she’s a girl.) Alex was the only other 3 year old in his class, the other 3 girls all were nearly 5. Alex just celebrated her 4th birthday last week.

Charlie loved it SO much, that we decided to continue lessons. Alex is still in his class, and now he is the only 3 year old. Sometimes his listening isn’t great, but his coach is so good with the kids that she gets him excited again pretty quickly. She is always commenting about how strong Charlie is. He can already pull himself over the bar, and will walk across the beam by himself. Cartwheels seem to completely allude him at this point. But this is all so much fun for both of us, that I imagine we will be enjoying gymnastics for a long time to come. Lynnae also started this past week... And I have never seen her try so hard and listen so well ever. We are so happy that we found gymnastics and this gym!

School Valentines Party

Totem Falls had Friday the 13th off of school this year, so the big Valentine’s celebrations were all on the 12th. They also chose to make the 12th their annual Grandparents Day. As I’m room parent this year, I went into Lynnae’s class to help with all of the activities and to deliver treats.

Lynnae’s teacher had them make mailboxes as their homework for the week. It was really fun to see the different boxes and bags that the kids came up with. Then she set up stations around the room where they could make 4 crafts... The 5th station was to pass out their valentines. They had a great turn out for Grandparents Day... Mrs. Stewart said that it was a lot more than she’d ever seen in the past. And the addition of all of those adults made the crafts very easy to manage!

Charlie came along with me too, as always. He had a lot of fun for the first hour or so. Then he started to melt down. Austin’s grandma noticed and offered him cheese and crackers. He was back in heaven for the final hour. The next meltdown came as we were trying to leave. All in all, it was the best he has done yet at accompanying me to school. He even went potty while we were there... Although I wasn’t that happy about returning to a school bathroom myself!

It was fun to see the kids interacting with their grandparents, aunts and uncles. We don’t really have anything like that here for Lynnae, so I was happy to be able to be there so that she had someone too!

Valentine's Fun

January and February were chaotic months in our home, but we still managed to find some time to celebrate Valentine’s day. About a week before the holiday we made cupcakes, frosted and sprinkled them. Charlie and Lynnae always have a lot of fun decorating desserts!

Then on Valentine’s Day, the kids woke up to some treats. They were really excited! We had a whole bunch of little hearts leftover from Lynnae’s school Valentine’s stuff, so I used them to help decorate the table. Andy was also very nice to me! My mom sent presents for us, Lynnae got a Hannah Montana charm pen and Charlie got Lightening McQueen colored pencils. Andy’s dad sent them each a box of chocolates as well. Great minds must think alike, because Andy’s dad picked out the same box of chocolates for Charlie that I did! Charlie was really excited to have two “choo-choo train” boxes of chocolate.

We took it pretty easy on Valentine’s day... I made a special breakfast, we watched a movie, and just relaxed. It was a fun day for us!

Welcome Caleb Stutzman!

Our good friends - that we consider to be surrogate family here in Washington – the Stutzmans added another little boy to their family last weekend. Caleb Anthony was born on Saturday morning at 8:10am. He weighed in at 8lbs, 8oz and 19 inches long. This is the third baby we have welcome in within 3 weeks! First Tanna Zaniewski born on 2/21, then Dustin Harris on 2/26 and finally little Caleb on 3/14. That’s a lot of babies in a short time frame!

We got to go visit the Stutzmans in the hospital on Saturday – Lynnae and Charlie too! Charlie has been really into babies lately... To the point where he has a baby Care Bear that goes with him everywhere who he insists is Baby Tanna. (He stayed up rocking “Baby Tanna” for 3 hours one night last week, and will even feed her.) He was really cute when he held Caleb – although I had to help him with supporting Caleb’s head! Lynnae has always and will always love all babies... So she enjoyed holding Caleb too.

Carleigh, Joe and Caleb seemed to be doing great while we were there... We skedaddled after awhile because the Zaniewski’s showed up for their visit! So exciting to have so much new life around!

Learning Letters

Charlie and I have been working on a lot of skills for the last few months... Among them are writing the letters in his name, and recognizing his name on sight. I usually hold his hand while he is writing so that I can help guide it if he is getting off course. One day at preschool, about a month ago, while I was doing this I realized that I didn’t have to guide it at all. When we got home I gave him a piece of paper and a crayon, and asked him to write his name. I had to prompt him to remember the letter order, but other than that – this was his work! He got so excited that I was so excited, I think he wrote his name more than 20 times that day. :)

Oh - and thank you Daja for the "rock" crayons for Christmas... they have totally helped Charlie with his crayon/pencil hold. Without them I don't think he would be doing this yet!

Dzana's Birthday

Since my birthday coincided with the night of Lynnae’s 3rd grade concert, I asked Andy if we could celebrate my birthday the night after. I thought that way we would be able to take it easy and get things done in a way that wouldn’t keep kids up until 11pm or something crazy.

Andy asked me what I wanted for dinner. And I told him I didn’t want anything that was going to require a huge production. The theme of my birthday this year was “relax”. So I asked if he could pick up some fast food for us... And we decided that Burgermaster sounded really good. Then, earlier on the day we were celebrating, I was talking with Candice and asked if she and Matt would like to come over... So they joined us too.

After we ate I opened some presents. My favorite gift was easily Aperture. My brother had helped Andy buy it for me. (So thank you to both Andy and Jordan.) I also really, really was excited at my page-a-day Sudoku calendar. I love that puzzle game! And Andy gave me the new Banjo-Kazooie game too. Banjo-Kazooie was the game that Andy and I fell in love with on the Nintendo 64, the year that we were married. When we heard that they were releasing a new game for the X-Box this year, we knew we would have to buy it. Unfortunately, it’s still in its packaging... But hopefully soon it will be time to play!

Then we did cake and ice cream. All in all it was probably one of my favorite birthdays ever. Things had been so crazy and busy in our life for the month before and after, I wanted to just have one special and relaxing day where I could stop. And my wonderful family gave that to me... Thank you!

3rd Grade Concert

Lynnae’s elementary school chose January 15th as the day for the 3rd grade concert. They chose January 15th because it is the birthday of Martin Luther King, Jr. The concert had an “I Have A Dream” theme. (January 15th also happens to be my birthday, so I got to spend my birthday at my very first school concert.) They have two split classes for 3rd grade this year... One is a 2/3 split, and one is a 3/4 split – so actually, only half of the 3rd grade participated in this concert.

The concert was pretty cute. The music teacher gave each kid a role – some were speaking, some instrumental, and some singing. Lynnae was going to be playing a percussion instrument, but with one week left before the concert she decided to change roles. She ended up getting to hold the world for the very last song, while a whole bunch of kids holding stars circled around it. She was very proud of her “extremely important” job!

3rd grade is also the year that they teach recorder, so we got to listen to a jazz song from the 3rd graders that consisted only of the notes “A” and “B”. It was actually pretty good. I was impressed with the concert, it was much more involved than I had anticipated. I’m curious to see what the 4th grade concert will be like next year!

A Shower for Candice

Before Miss Tanna Danielle came into the world, Carleigh and I were excited to throw a baby shower for her mommy. And because I am nearly two months behind on my pictures, this is being posted when Tanna is nearly 3 weeks old!

Candice is very loved and had a LOT of baby showers. She had a virtual shower from her husband's Boston-based family, a shower from her friends and family in Oregon, a shower from a good friend in San Diego, and one from a good friend here in Washington. And maybe I'm missing one or two? All of these showers happened before ours, so we decided not to stress out about it and to just focus on having fun. What a great approach to a shower. We were so excited to celebrate Candice's impending motherhood... and it was a great night!

Flying Home

Two days after our New Year’s Eve experience at Legoland, we headed for Ontario airport.
Our flight was delayed two hours.
We ate breakfast at Applebee’s.
We boarded the plane.
Andy sat by Lynnae and I sat by Charlie.
Our aisle companions were not as friendly as before, but it didn’t matter.
I watched Charlie first cuddle with Big Brown.
Then, once we were in the air he pulled out his Alaska Airlines plane that Lynnae gave him for Christmas.
Then he asked for Buttercup.
Suddenly Big Brown became a pillow.
And then doubled as a cushion for the plane.
Buttercup became his sleeping friend... (He picks a special one for every nap and nighttime.)
And then he slowly...
Drifted...
To sleep.

What a great way to end a great vacation.
(Never mind the cluster we endured at SeaTac.)

Legoland 2008: Part 2

Yeah – I am finally at the last of the December pictures! Now for the excuse... Andy gave me Aperture, a photo editing program, for my birthday. It has been a lot of fun to make sure that I get everything set-up and running correctly... And so I don’t think I edited any photos for about 2 weeks! Now, hopefully, I will be able to catch up and get back into March quickly.

On New Year’s Eve we took the free passes that we had picked up at Legoland after Christmas, and headed back. Daja gave her free pass to Liel because they were headed back to Arizona, so Liel joined us. It was a lot of fun the second time around... The first time we were there with a lot of people that had been there many times. This time we got to explore a bit.

Everyone went on the dinosaur rollercoaster, (which I believe Chad said was the “shortest roller coaster on Earth”,) except for me. It was Charlie’s first rollercoaster, and he really liked it! We had fun playing in front of a fountain where you could jump on colored spots on the ground to make music play. We watched the most corny show I think I have ever seen about time travel and Egypt... Where Cleopatra was a valley girl... It was so corny that it was hilarious! After doing a few other things we headed to a restaurant and had yummy pizza for dinner. Then Andy graciously went to go get all our coats from the car, it was much colder than anticipated. Liel and Lynnae hit the log ride, in my opinion... It was a bit to cold to get wet! Then we headed to the New Year’s Eve block party. They had miniland all done up for it, with their own “Times Square” where the ball dropped at 6pm, followed by fireworks. They were handing out party favors for everyone too... It was a lot of fun. Then we hit a few more rides until the park closed, and headed back to Grandma and Grandpa Hayman’s in Vista. I would definitely go to Legoland on New Year’s Eve again!

At my grandparents we hung out until midnight and ate some party food and punch that my grandma set out All in all it was a nice New Year’s Eve... We took care of the celebrating early and then eased through the night until midnight.

Meeting Tanna Danielle

Well, we finally got to go see Tanna when she was nearly a week old! I was really bummed that I ended up being sick when she made her appearance. However, she was so cute that it was well worth the wait. The Zaniewski's seem to be doing very well with their new parenting roles. I can't wait to see Tanna again!