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.