Feb & March - Zach Small Stuff

This blog is going to be a compilation of several small things we have about Zachary. Most of the pictures were taken on the same day, hence the same red/white sweater in all of them.

Face Wound
These two pictures show Zach most obvious wound, to date. He has also busted his lip on a number of occasions, where there was blood, but not much swelling. On his birthday, he fell and banged his face on the bed, giving him a swollen eyelid, but nothing thus far as glaring as this street burn on his face. I was at bible study, and the nursery had taken the kids outside to play in the rare February sunshine. At the end of the study, Zach and his favorite male cohort, Stephen, snuck away from the nursery folks and ran into the fellowship hall where we were, giggling up a storm. From across the room, it looked like he had jam on his face, and I thought “how did he get jam only there”. Upon closer inspection, it was a “raspberry”. It looked much better after I cleaned all the dried blood and dirt off of it. Then a nursery worked found me and told me the story. Zach was chasing after a ball, stepped on it, and face-planted on the asphalt. They said he only cried for a minute or so before heading off after the ball. So there you go – Zach’s first highly-visible wound. It took weeks to fully heal.

Coloring
Zachary now enjoys coloring with his markers (crayons only a little bit) enough that he will now, about 1-2 times a week, go to the shelf where they are kept and ask for me to get them out for him. He is generally very particular about the markers. He likes to use them one at a time and put the tops back on (pushes until he gets a click) then puts them back in the marker bag before getting another marker to color with. Zach would prefer for someone to sit with him while he is coloring to make sure the markers do what he wants them to. He also has a grand time putting the top of the marker on his finger and then waving it around.

Bowls
Art and I took our youth group to a paint-your-own-pottery place in February. Everyone was given a dinner-size plate to paint. However, I elected to not paint a plate, but to instead have Zach paint a small bowl (for candy, change, paperclips, etc) for each of his sets of grandparents. The idea came when Art and I went to visit the studio prior to making reservations there. The owner showed us a bowl that an 18 month old had ‘painted’, and we decided that it would be a good birthday present for both my Mom and Dad who share a birthday. Then, while we were at it, we thought Opa and Oma might enjoy one as well. Unfortunately, Zach’s creative flow stopped after putting the second color on the bowls. Well, that is not entirely true, he more wanted to paint things other than the bowls after some time….like his mother, himself, the table, etc. Poppi got the grey bowl, Nana the purple bowl, and Opa & Oma got the orange bowl. They all have black and blue painting on the inside done by Zachary.

Funeral
In late February, Oma Holland passed away. She was nearing 94, and had taken a turn for the worse in the past month, so it was certainly expected. We went to Utrecht for her funeral on March 3rd. Ruurt’s parents were kind enough to agree to babysit Zachary, along with their two grandchildren (Marieke & Ruurt’s kids), so that we could attend the funeral and reception without him. He had a wonderful time playing with Evette (their 2 yr old daughter), and even took a 2 hour nap for them. This picture was taken after the funeral, Zach wearing Art’s tie and being hugged by Tante Mary. He looks very grown-up.