Zachary is a baby bird

Zachary is very into pretending these days. He has been a baby bird for about a week. He was so into it that we even bought him so gummy worms so he could "really" eat bird food.

Here is the nest that Art made for him one morning after breakfast. We were not allowed to tear it down for days, and Zach got irritated when Dexter slept in it.

Our baby bird

Glorious Weather! Coldy Lake!

NOW I finally get it. I finally GET why everyone says that the summers here completely make up for the tough winters. It was wonderful today! Originally, the weather was supposed to be HOT - high of about 91. Lucky for all of us, a nice breeze came through the windy city and dropped it down to a tolerable 86 degrees. We spent the evening, from about 4:30 - 5:45 at the beach. I love that there is a beach so close. I feel like we're on vacation. The lake is clear water as far out as we've gone. BUT IT WAS SO COLD. Art and I were both hoping that Zach would not want to go far out in it and do some swimming. No such luck. After playing around up to his waist, Zach said "Yet's get my swimmies and GO SWIMMING". SO COLD! But luckily it does not take long for the body to go numb. :) Wyatt was desperate to join us out there but Art, admittedly being a sissy, refused to go past his ankles in the cold water so Wy had to settle for getting wet up to his knees. Word is that the water warms up to 'tolerable' in late July. Then a raucous good time building sand castles - with a bucket of clean water every ready for Zach to use when his hands got "too dirty". :)

Zach rode his bike to the beach, and he can really motor when he wants to. We were heading home and Zach was going slower than he can walk, complaining the whole time about a variety of things (don't wash my heat, sand in my feet, tires are white (from the sand), too thirsty, etc). So finally Art and I decided that I would motor on home w/ Wy in the stroller and let Mr. Complainy-Slowpoke make his way home; that way I could get Wy in the bath and cleaned up and dinner (YUMMY cous cous w/ tomatoes, corn, and black beans!) going. Zach did not like this plan, once he figured out that Mommy was going very fast and not waiting for him. So Zachary took off on his bike and left Art way behind. Then it was a fun game to leave DaU so far behind and beat him home. The boys and I got home and Zach turned around to laugh at Art for being so slow. Proper motivation I guess.

Still, despite having to take Wyatt to the lab at the hospital (POSH hospital BTW) for routine bloodwork - heart wrenching, it was a great day. A 2 hour nap for me (much needed since the boys were up at 5:45am and Art slept until 8:30), some time in the morning for just me (w/ Wy asleep and Art & Z outside shooting hoops), and some much-loved beach time. Good day.

I have no pictures to post for this entry, so here is a blast from the past, courtesy of Aunt Juicenana's camera. Try to guess - who is this, Zachary or Wyatt??

Lightning Bugs!!

Finally - we are living in a place that has lightning bugs!! I was taking my 8pm - kids just in bed - walk and it was getting dusk when there they were, just flitting about. I was so excited! It has been over 7 years since we have lived somewhere that had lightning bugs!

Tonight we will hopefully see a bunch with the whole fam. We are going to take a picnic dinner to the playground then head to the beach after dinner. It's really nice on the beach in the evenings when it's cooled down a bit and there is a nice breeze. And hopefully some fireflies!! Our kids have never seen them, so that should be neat.

June 25 - A day that will live in infamy

A day that will live in infamy in our house at least! Zachary Michael Counts, majority vegetarian, CHOSE to eat meat tonight. He is a majority vegetarian b/c he will eat bacon (but who doesn't?!?!), and HEBREW NATIONAL (no cheaper variety - oh how we've tried) hot dogs. He will occasionally eat chicken or gr. beef if he is tricked. Like in Chili or a casserole or something. 90% of the time though, he finds it and picks it out.

Tonight a war was going to be waged, and Zachary turned the tables on us BIG TIME. I made a creamy mushroom sauce (from Germany!) that Art loves, to go over the rice we were having with meatloaf. I don't like mushrooms, but will deign to eat a few. Zach also does not like them, but we told him he had to eat 3 of them w/ his rice. He balked and balked, eating his carrots and tomatoes. Finally, fed up, I told him he could either eat the mushrooms, or EAT SOME MEAT (dun dun DUUUNNNN....).

Much to our SHOCK, Zachary chose the meatloaf. You could tell he didn't like it, but he pretended to. He said "YUMMMM" with a big grimace on his face. Apparently mushrooms are a fate worse than meat.

We don't know if this is going to usher in a new era of meat eating, or if he will put it off until he is 4. He knows that when he is 4, he will have to eat meat.

No picture to go of this momentous occasion, so here is a picture of a Zach-requested father/son outfit. :)



April 30th. It was a surprise to Art. Zach saw that DaU was wearing his yellow shirt and Zach, when I was putting clothes on him, asked for his yellow shirt too "just yike DaU" (the boy has no "Ls" in his language yet)

Counts Family Get-together June 11 - 16

After much research, debating, contemplating, comparing, etc, the 2009 Counts Family get-together was held in Savannah, GA. Art's parents paid for us to fly since it would be something like 16-18 hours for us to drive down there.

Thursday morning started very early. We were attempting to go to the airport w/ no stroller and as little stuff as possible. Of course it's raining. And we're late. We are huffing it the best we can, me carrying Wy in the sling and pulling the suitcase and Art carrying a backpack, a diaper bag, and Zach. Uggh. Only one train change in the loop (thank goodness for the Purple Line Express) and we're at Midway, about an hour after we left. No problem with the flight, both boys were great. Wyatt cried for just a bit, but quickly calmed down. Arrived in ATL with MeMa's happy face to greet us. Baggage collected, carseats installed (thanks MeMa for letting us borrow the Leisure Dr. carseats - and getting a new swanky toddler one for Zach), and off we go to meet up w/ Janneke and Karl E., our rides down to Savannah. We split the kids up, but had to switch after 2 hours or so b/c Zach was crying for his mommy (after his shortish afternoon nap). A bit of chocolate milk helped calm the boys down. Made it to Savannah in time for dinner. PCounts family already there, which thrilled Zach. He loved loved loved having his cousins around. Zachary and Andrew were sharing a room, and we thought we would let them share a bed in case someone else needed the other bed. So here they are sharing the trundle bed



They both woke up crying at various points in the evening, so the remaining nights Zach slept on the bed and Andrew slept on the pull-out trundle...mostly. Two nights, Zachary asked if he could sleep in the crib (in the same room). Odd, but ok.

The next few days are a jumbled haze of dealing with Wyatt's awful awful awful temperment. He had gotten shots the day before we left and was dealing with a fever. Compound that with him being a bit stranger-shy made for lots and lots of screaming. He was just never happy. Two days he ended up taking 3-4 naps instead of his usual 2. He was out of it. Uggh. He calmed down and was feeling better our last night there - the night we went over to Patrick and Laura's. He was an angel, totally happy and charming. Perhaps all those people in one house was fairly overwhelming. Sigh.

Fun things we did: swimming at the neighbor's pool! We got just about everyone out at the pool and had a grand time...even Wyatt for about 20 seconds.

On Saturday, the whole kit and caboodle, minus Shayna, Wyatt, and Oma Sweet, took off for the farm, about an hour's drive away. Zach was thrilled to be invited to ride in the minivan with the PCounts family! Love love loves being around his couzez. I had to cancel a lunch date with Stephanie & Brian Hampton (who were vacationing in Hilton Head) b/c Wyatt was unbearable. Here are a slew of pics that Art took at the farm. Zach thoroughly enjoyed himself.

SAND!

.. Corn growing
..

After everyone got back, it was time for a little rest, a little swim, and getting ready for the BIG NIGHT. We were celebrating Poppa's 70th birthday. This meant a catered meal (the kids ate early with pizza and a mini celebration for Andrew and Zachary who's birthdays are just under 3 months apart), dressing up, then later, a Pictionary-type game where the clues were favorite memories from all the kids. Very nicely done. Then it was suddenly late and time for bed.

Sunday, church, naps, visiting with the Taylors, then swimming some more!

Monday night we went, after Art's special dinner, to Patrick & Laura's house for dessert and catching up. Unfortunately for everyone, chatting lasted until the wee hour of midnight b/f I insisted we leave. The kids had gone to be just great - no problems, well, a little crying from Zach who was afraid we would forget to take him back with us. He has no idea how far from the truth that could be! Wyatt went to bed like a champ with no sounds from him at all. Unfortunately they were not so great at being awakened. They both cried a bit in the car on the way back to Oma & Opa's. THEN the night of misery really began. Zach went to bed just fine, but Wyatt had other ideas. He was up for the next 2 hours, in our bed, in his bed, back and forth, tossing and turning. Uggh. He went to sleep around 2am, and woke up at 6am (trying to kill me!). So Art and I effectively got 4 hours of sleep b/f our long day getting back to CHI.

Tuesday morning after a nice breakfast, we got packed up and headed out the door. The kids were calm and pretty easy the ride back. We were in Oom Karl's car, and he was in Laura's, dropping it off at the ATL airport for her (she flew out of Savannah on Sun on a business trip). We were a little late, so we ended up eating our packed lunch in the car. I'm very sorry for Karl E., who will surely find bits of food in his back seat for months. No problems at the airport, and the flight was easy. Wyatt cried a bit during the beginning and take off but then promptly fell asleep on Art who also fell asleep. I tried to sleep but Zach kept interrupting me to ask things, or show me things, etc. He did great entertaining himself on the flight. I kept trying to get him to lie down on me and take a nap, but no game. Today ended up being the first day in his whole life that he did not take a nap at some point. Crazy. We got back to the airport and decided that we had to take a cab. We were so exhausted, barely upright, and the thought of braving the El was just too much (for me at least - Art thought it would be ok). Luckily there was relatively no traffic and we got home quickly. Doubt we'll cab it again though, b/c there were no car seats. I put Z in a regular seatbelt, but Wyatt was all over the place.

Got home, cooked pizza, ate. Boys in bed at 6pm, parents in bed at 7pm. All exhausted!

It was a fun trip though, and great to see everyone. It would have been better if Wyatt had been himself...maybe next year!

June 4, 2009: Happy Birthday Wyatt Carsten Counts

Happy 1st Birthday Wybaby!

Glitter ball: By far, Wyatt's favorite birthday gift. With a close second being a musical helicopter that has 4 balls.

Wyatt got a few presents earlier from Nana, but the rest were opened on his actual birthday. It was nice that Wyatt's birthday is just 4 days after Zach's b/c Zachary has not yet forgotten that he JUST got a bunch of presents that he go to opens. So there was not much whining or complaining about presents. Some yes.

Wyatt's birthday morning started much the same as Zachary's - with balloons being dumped on him in bed.


He was not as thrilled with this as Zachary was.

Here are Zach and Wyatt playing in the crib with the balloons.

More playing with balloons

Then off to breakfast with some present opening!

Zachary "helping" Wyatt open his presents.

Wyatt very carefully opening his present.

After Art went to work and Wyatt took a nap, we took off for the library. Today was Wyatt's first day at "Book Babies", a storytime for kids 1yr - 18mon. He has been to Zach's storytime many many times, but never really got into it. Today however, he was very happy with everything. He paid attention to the stories, he stood up and did the dancing and clapping and such. Full participation. Must be his advanced age. :)

During dinner, Wyatt got his birthday cake.
Here is the presentation

Wyatt apparently has no fear of fire. Must remedy this.

And the consumption

Like a dummy, I did not make sure my camera battery was charged. Nor was I responsible and have the spare battery fully charged. Sadly, this was the last bit of Wyatt's birthday recorded.

We enjoyed Wyatt's first birthday. Zachary enjoyed saying "Wyatt is now 1" over and over.

Zachary the musician

Zachary loves the drums. He has for some time now. He drums with everything - things that make sense like chopsticks when we eat at Zoba's to the crazy things like coat hangers. Wooden spoons and forks are a favorite, as are the foam borders to the letters in the playroom "carpet".

No, we did NOT get him a drum or a drumset for his birthday - nor do I hope anyone else gets him one. We DID however get him a set of drumsticks. "Real" drumsticks. Ones "real drummers" use. According to Zachary. Now he can be just like the drummer at church. He is very excited about them, and has been breaking them in on various things. We've got to get him a mouse pad to use as a drum practice pad. For now, he has Dexter's sleeping box.



All professional drummers wear footie pjs right?

Hanging with Nana

Nana came to visit the boys (not us of course!) from May 29th - June 2nd. She wanted to be here for both boys' birthdays, but did not have the vacation time. She was here for Zach's 3rd bday, and we celebrated Wyatt's 1st birthday a little early for her.

Nana arrived on May 29th...with much fanfare. Her flight left ATL on time, flew for over an hour, then turned around and went back to ATL. They were nearly to CHI when they experienced plane trouble. No problem. Zach, Wyatt, and I picked Nana up from Midway. Zachary, the great welcome committee, ran up to Nana as she was coming down the escalator.

Things we did with Nana:



The boys both eating breakfast - feeding themselves.

Clapping game at lunch time


Wyatt and Zach playing a crazy throw-the-head back game.


Here is the video of that crazy game.

Zachary and Nana playing parking lot
Zach has no pants b/c it is easier for him to use the potty by himself if he does not have to deal with pants in the way. Baby steps.


Nana and Zach watching the panda video that Zachary got for his birthday (from Nana). Came with a stuffed panda bear as well which he loves.


Wyatt watching with Nana and Zach for a bit.


Zachary helping Wyatt open his birthday presents.


Birthday party hats for Zachary and George. I had to look up on the internet how to make hats - it has been a LONG time since I've done that.

Nana also got to participate in several other things that can be found on Zachary's birthday blog post: going to the hospital to give "new babies" Zach's pacis, going to Chuck E. Cheese. She was also there when Zach started riding his bike at the playground.

Lots of fun with Nana and the boys!