Feb.25, 2008: Zach's Busy Day

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Zachary must have realized that today is a special day – his Poppi and his Nana’s birthdays. He behaved “extra special” today in honor of the occasion. First, he colored some birthday cards with crayons – a first for him. He generally just uses the markers, because they are so easy to clean up, but today we tried something different. He was quite perplexed at first because there were no tops to put on or take off. Zach soon saw this as an advantage – he quickly discovered the joy of coloring with a crayon in each hand.

Later in the day I was trying my hardest to get some “administrative” work done on the computer (all part of my role as Domestic Engineer), and I begged Zach to please go play nicely and I would join him in a bit. I was not really paying any attention to what he was doing, but I did see him coming back and forth into the living room. I didn’t really care what he was doing since he was being quite and giving me a moment to get stuff done. Finally, I got up off the couch to join the real world. Much to my dismay, Zach had taught himself a new game: Empty the closets. He had opened all of the closets in our room and removed everything as far as he could reach: shoes, towels, washcloths, sheets, pillowcases, and so on. [I later found that he had cleaned out his own sock drawer, but for some reason put all his stuff in the trash can. Zachary also took Art’s clothes from the bed and put them in his dirty clothes box in his room.] There was a large pile of our stuff in the doorway to the living room. This pile had been hidden from my view on the couch by the black leather recliner. Zach was quite proud of his accomplishment. I was wondering to myself what in the world it was all for until I watched him deposit the last washcloth on the top of the pile, throw his hands above his head, and fall dramatically on the pile. Now this is a typical game that Zach plays, but only in our bed. Art will fluff up all the covers into a pile for Zach to fall on. Apparently, unable to crawl into our bed on his own, he made his own pile. Sigh. I started to remove linens one by one until I was left with only the shoe pile at the bottom. Zachary had been nice enough to allow me to clean up all the linens, but when I got to the shoes, he had other ideas. He threw himself on the pile to protect them, then rolled around on the pile a bit. Silly kid! I could not help myself and started laughing, which of course got Zach laughing as well.

To end his busy afternoon, he got put down for a nap that he did not want to take. After about 45 minutes of him just chatting in bed, I went in there (where he was standing up w/ his trucks), admonished him, and made him lie down. 5 minutes of screaming and he was fast asleep. I peeked in on him, and saw that he had fallen asleep sideways in his crib. How he was able to fall asleep like this I do not know, but he didn’t even notice when I moved him to a more comfortable position.

I am hoping we don’t have TOO many of those types of ‘busy days’.

Zach getting silly with his toys

Here are just a few pictures to show how Zach has adapted his current ways of playing with his toys into new and interesting ways of playing. First, it must be said that since arriving back in Düsseldorf, after a month in the US, Zach is a changed man. He is no longer obsessed with some of the toys he used to be – he rarely plays with his pots and pans, and does not care a lot about his musical toys either. He has a NEW LOVE – cars, trucks, planes, and pretty much anything with wheels. [EDITOR'S NOTE: Zach is right this second playing with his old favortie pot - cooking, yep, cars!] He insists on taking a truck or two to bed with him, and generally creates a highway out of our radiator topper in the living room, by lining all of his trucks up in a line. If you are reading a book to him and a dump truck is mentioned, he MUST stop everything and go get one of his dump trucks. He is endless fascinated by his Christmas present from Aunt Joy: Richard Scarry’s “Cars, Trucks and Things that Go” book. Each day is spent with him pointing to various things in the book and us quickly (before he physically turns our head or gives us a poke) telling him what it is. He will also point things out if we ask him, like “Where is officer Flossy?”, or “Where is the station wagon”. He knows them all. That being said, he has found new, fun, things to do with his old toys.

One evening, January 19th, Zach started piling all of his toys onto Art. Then, when it was evident that the books would not fit, he emptied out his book cabinet into a pile next to Art’s chair. After that, he made it clear that he would like to somehow sit amongst all the toys with Art.

10 days later, January 29th, it was nearing time for Zach’s morning nap. I asked him if he was tired and wanted to go lie down. He proceeded to lie down on the floor (not uncommon for him) and get settled. However, he was not satisfied. He got up, went and got his trains, arranged them around the floor, and lay back down again. He kept pulling the trains closer and closer until they were just right. So silly looking – certainly picture-worthy!

Lastly, Zachary has been using his lawn mower to move things around the house. He puts his Bob the Baumeister (Bob the builder in German) bouncy ball on the lawnmower and rides it around the house, along with several other select toys. On Feb. 10th, his sippy cup of milk got top honor of a ride around the apartment. Zach went very slowly and carefully to ensure his cup did not fall off. I do wonder where he gets these ideas.

Feb 11: Dexter the Vulture

Dexter startled me the other morning. Zach and I both slept late and Art was already gone for work. When I finally dragged myself out of bed and got Zach, I was still pretty groggy. I went to the kitchen to get our breakfasts started. I noticed a slight movement above my head and looked up. I practically jumped backwards with surprise. Before Art left for work, I asked him if Dexter was inside or out, and he said out. So there was our little liger (lion-tiger mix) perched inside the big mixing bowl we keep on top of the kitchen cabinets - just staring down peacefully, yet a little scarily. He stayed there, just watching me until I had gotten breakfast on the table. Slighly unsettling really. But he is pretty. :)

Happy Valentine's Day!

Happy Valentine's Day to you all! Our celebration today includes going to the glasses store to purchase some replacement glasses for Art. Zach had done a number on them a week or so ago, and yesterday, during one of the talks at Art's seminar, they finally bit the dust. He had to give his presentation with just one earpiece of his glasses...just like college all over again! :) Good thing he has contacts to tide him over until the glasses are ready - no wait, they expired in March 2007! :)

Zach and Mom got to celebrate with chocolate , while Dad chose to celebrate with cashews. Dexter got a free bite to us all as his gift. :)

We hope your day is filled with LOVE LOVE LOVE!

BTW, Zach did all the coloring on his Valentine's Day card. He is VERY into coloring with markers right now. However, he seems more interested in putting the tops correctly back on (he waits for the click even) than he is with the actual coloring.

Feb 2, 2008: Zach & Düsseldorf’s First Snow

Feb 2 was a Saturday, and I was, as usual, reluctant to get out of bed, despite the fact that Zach had slept until well after 8am. Art graciously went to get Zach out of his bed while I lay there like a slug in our bed, and brought Zach into our room to say hello and roust me out of bed. Art was looking out the window and said “Shayna you have got to see this”. I was slightly irritated, b/c I thought that he was referring to the fact that it was light outside, meaning that we had gotten to sleep late that morning (it is still dark in Düsseldorf in the mornings until nearly 8am). I knew what time it was from the clock and didn’t need to look outside to see that it was “late”. Art insisted, and I grudgingly got out of bed and THERE WAS SNOW ON THE GROUND. It was beautiful! A light white dusting on everything. I immediately bundled Zach into his snow bib outfit, which he had never worn, rain boots and cold weather gear and sent Art, Zach and Dexter out to play while I made our Saturday morning pancakes. Dexter, who had been in snow before in ABQ, was still not a fan of the wet stuff. He did lots of high stepping and bounding to stay out of it while following the boys around. Zach did not seem to have much of an interest in the snow except where it had melted and formed puddles where he could stomp them silly. Not enough snow for snow angels or men, but it was pretty to see. Throughout the morning big fluffy flakes would fall for 3-4 minutes at a time, then stop. It was very pretty.

The day was doubly special because Zach’s Oma & Opa were coming to visit for the day (they were in Holland), escorted by Oom Hans and Tante Jop. Zach refused to go to sleep during the hour+ we left him in his bed, and was quite pleased to be relieved of his incarceration by his Oma walking in and getting him out of bed! After a few minutes of visiting, and us getting the Dutch goodies they brought for us (chocolate, cheese and Hamkaas, and beautiful tulips), we all set out into the sunshine (snow was starting to melt, but had not yet), yes sunshine, to lunch. We took the 712 tram up 3 stops to a restaurant there that Art and I have been wanting to try. It turned out to be very nice. We had the entire back room to ourselves, and Zach was wonderfully behaved. He flirted and charmed the waitress out of about 3 cookies. After a filling German lunch, the group decided to take a walk through the large park (the one that encompasses the 5 trams stops from our street up to our church). We walked and walked and walked. Some of the trails were a little difficult, but it was all worth it to see the beautiful birch trees and the snow all over the ground. Zach finally fell asleep around 4pm as we were heading back to our apartment. We all talked with Oma Sweet, as it was her 101st birthday on Feb. 2nd!! Art and Oom Hans had a few darts competitions, we all had tea and chatted for a bit, then the happy Dutch party headed back home. It was a very nice visit to add to a wonderful way to start the day. The snow was still on the ground the next day when we were heading to church – only in shaded areas. It was all gone by the afternoon.

As a side note, this was the start of a very busy weekend for us. Friday night we at dinner at Curry (a currywurst and fry place) w/ some friends, Saturday was the big adventure above, Sunday, after InsideOut, we had a late lunch at the home of some friends from church. Sunday evening we went downtown to the Altstadt to see the craziness of Carnival starting up. Sure enough, even at 6pm, the party had already started. The bars were packed, the streets were packed, costumed people everywhere, and lots of live music. There was glass all in the streets where people would just drop their bottles. Sadly, all I could think of was “all that pfand” (the money you get back when you return glass or plastic bottles to the stores). Then Monday we went to a coworker of Art’s to watch the Superbowl. Monday was a holiday b/c of Carnival – it was Rosen Montag (red Monday). A very busy few days!

November & December 2007 Antics

Lots of silly pictures were taken in the 6 weeks prior to our extended visit to the U.S. – not surprisingly, most of them involve Zachary.






Two sets of pictures depict a typical evening at our house. Generally, after dinner, Art and Zach play play play, which involves a multitude of physical activities (wrestling, throwing onto the bed, riding the horse, etc). This goes on until it is nearly Zach’s bedtime. It is easy to see why he is grateful to be in bed – he gets exhausted from all the playing. 2 (Nov 17) of the pictures were while Zach and Art were resting from all their playing – both sprawled out on the floor. I like that they have matching pillows for their rest time. 2 others (Dec 9) show Art holding strong as the horse, and Zach needing a rest during his long ride. Check out Dexter’s eyes in one of these! No wonder people fear him! :)



Two pictures (Dec 1) were taken from our InsideOut (church youth group) Christmas party. Zach really enjoyed wearing the wobbly headband. I could not get him to stand still long enough to take a picture. See if you can guess who is behind the disguise, holding Zach. :)



On Dec 5th, Art’s work had a Christmas party. One of the families there was quite familiar to Zach. We had spent the day at their house, and they were also along on the Spain conference. Their youngest daughter, Luca, had quite an affection for Zach. She enjoyed that he would let her lead him around whereas her two brothers would not generally indulge her. Here are two pictures showing Zach has already learned it is best to just let the ladies do what they want. I love the smile on Luca’s face as she is looking at her hand holding Zach. Zach was up well past his bedtime, but was doing great until their 3 kids left. He melted down soon after they were gone, and we of course left the party early.


Here is a picture (Dec 6) of Zach preparing to help me pack our suitcases for our 4 week US trip.






On Dec. 8, we took a bus, then a train to Mulheim to attend Hannah’s 3rd birthday party (she is the bi-lingual who taught Zach to say Nein). Here is Zachary waiting at the bus stop, and then again playing with Mom on the train.





Dec. 9th, we decided to capture some of Zach enjoying his bath times. He loves to run nakey from his room to the bathroom and splash around. He hates his face and head to get wet though, so that always puts a damper (har har) on bath time fun! We liked the look of his faux-hawk here (guys in Düsseldorf don’t have real mowhawks, but they like to wear their hair as though they do, hence the fauxhawk)




The last picture is from Dec 29th, after a weekend in Savannah for Counts Family Day. Zach was exhausted, and very cutely (IMHO) asleep in the car, using his Beluga whale as a pillow. This is one of the few pictures we have of our 4 weeks in the US since everyone else was taking so many! Our camera got a break until we came back to Düsseldorf.

Feb 2008 - 6 Months Pregnant

Ugghhhh.....I feel like a whale! I am 24 weeks pregnant, and I am seriously starting to feel it. However, I am very grateful, because I really have no serious ailments and we have some friends right now that are having serious pregnancy ailments. So I'm more just complainy.

This baby boy is already very different from Zachary, and he's not even born yet. For example, during Zach's ultrasounds, he would rotate his body to wherever the wand was and spread his legs wide - enough so that they technician said "yes, we know you are a boy, but I need your arm measurements". Baby boy 2 however curls inwardly and shys away from the wand. The most noticable difference between the boys is the amount of movement. Zachy was a serious mover - very hyper (surprise right?), and zooming all over the place. Baby 2 is more subdued. He moves around a bit, mainly after I eat, and he likes to poke/kick me in the same place over and over to the point of annoyance. I generally end up giving him a little shove so he'll move to somewhere else. I think he does it on purpose to irritate me. :)

The pregnancy is going well thus far and they are pleased with where everything is.

On a side note, I realize these aren't the best ever pictures, but I claim that I have been sick w/ a cold for the past 4 days. I have been feeling very guilty that I have not taken any pictures of this pregnancy when I have one a month w/ Zach. So I will try and do better.

Also, I have been looking back at very late pregnancy pictures from last time, and have decided there is NO WAY that I can possibly stretch that big, and I will just refuse to get that big. Hruumph. Seems impossible that the human body can do that.

Zach is intrigued with the belly. When he can't get my attention, he has figured out that a hit to the belly gets immediate results. When I tell him to "be gentle to mommy", he then pets me, as though I am Dexter. He occasionly will just walk up to me and gently pat the belly or rest his head on it (neither of which he did prior to it being humongous).

November 2007: Child Labor Laws? – Zachary & dishes

One of the fun things that Zach likes to do is help with the dishes. Primarily he likes to be the one to load things into the sink, but he is willing to help scrub from time to time. This is great, because a few times a week Art and Zach can get the dishes done BEFORE Zach goes to bed – much better than Art and I doing them once Zachary is asleep. We are grateful that he is still a helpful little boy and likes to do as many “big” things as he can. I definitely take advantage of him knowing where the trashcan is and have him “please go put this in the trash” quite frequently. Here are some pictures and a video of Zach doing the dishes. They were taken in November 2007, but it is something that he still enjoys doing now, in February 2008. When he is not playing with all his cars of course.

Nov. 16-18: Counts Family Meets Sinterklaas and Piet

Art’s Parents were in Holland for several weeks in November. We were in Spain for part of their visit, and had Staci visiting us for nearly the rest of their time in Holland, but we did manage to get over to Utrecht for the weekend to spend some time with the family. The weekend we just was coincidentally a very big weekend for Holland. Two major events were taking place: the arrival of Sinterklaas to Holland and the Dutch National Team qualifying football (soccer for Americans) game, and we got to participate in both!

We arrived in Utrecht in time for afternoon coffee at Oma’s. Annemieke again graciously allowed us to not only stay at her apartment for the weekend, but also vacated her room for us as well! Once she got home, the three Dusseldorfians and Art’s parents said our goodbyes to Oma and Tante Mieke and headed over to Annemieke’s apartment. It was a low-key evening, just sitting around and visiting. Saturday was the big day! Annemieke was given the special privilege of getting to be part of the group that greets Sinterklaas at the end of his long parade through the city. AND, she was able to invite people to accompany her! It was a wonderful event. We headed down towards the Dom around 2pm – the parade already in full force. We avoided most of the crowd since we had to get to the ending point, at the University of Utrecht. We were ushered into the building and got to wait for the arrival of Sinterklaas in the warmth and comfort of the university building. At long last, a crowd of singing dressed up kids and adults alike converge outside, one story below us. We got to see the tail end of the parade, as it ushered in Sinterklaas, riding his white horse Americas. The back story was that the original horse got sick or died, and this horse was brought in at the last minute. The new horse was NOT a fan of the crowds, so Sint dismounted and walked the rest of the way to the Univ. Sint was surrounded by several Piets, which was something new for me. I thought that there was just one Piet and one Sinterklaas, but there is only one Sint, and many many Piets, of varying expertise. There is an entire back-story every year, as told each evening before the regular news, on Sinterklaas Journal, of how the novice Piets get into trouble and mess things up, always threatening the success of Sinterklaas making it to Holland. It goes on for weeks. All of this was new for us.




Sinterklaas makes it to the University and is officially greeted by several people. He then goes out onto a balcony to address people. After that was our chance! We got to meet Sint, as well as several of the Piets, and take pictures with them. Our normally jovial little boy turned difficult, refusing to take a decent picture with anyone. He did enjoy Piet because he passed out papiernoten (a gingerbread like treat) which Zach thought tasted great!



It was a very neat experience to see all of the craziness that goes along with Sinterklaas’s arrival to Holland.






Back to Annemieke’s apartment where we get ready for the BIG GAME. We all put something orange on – Art and I had brought our Dutch jerseys for the occasion. There were tons of yummy treats (Zach trying to eat the Hamkaas) to snack on. Zach went to bed early and the game started around 8pm. It was a better game than the Dutch generally play. I unfortunately was beat and went to bed at half-time, after practically falling asleep on the couch.
Zach slept deliciously late on Sunday, and we got together for one last visit over at Oma’s. Zach had to be awakened from a nearly 3 hour nap so that we could get back on the road and give Oma a chance to rest. What a wonderful trip!