Ten on Tuesday: Olympics addition

As most of you know I am a bit of an olympic nut. I love watching it and getting in the olympic spirit. Anna and I planned our girls weekend around the olympics so we could watch the opening ceremonies together yet again. Our favorite athlete, from way back is Michael Phelps, we were fans back in 2004, before he he was the most decorated swimmer of all time. So this weeks ten on Tuesday are my current thoughts on this year's Olympic games. For thoose of you not following the games, you can probably skip this one.

1. Let's start with the opening ceremonies. Who else was holding out hope that Harry Potter would fly into the stadium and light the torch. Seriously, Harry Potter is all things England and you can't have a 100ft tall Voldemort and not have a Harry. I'm just saying.

2. The huge dance fest in the middle of the opening ceremonies were a huge bore.

3. I am sad that my boy Mikey P didn't retire at the top of his games. Don't get me wrong I like cheering him on again, but no one wants to see a great athletes demise.

4. How big of a rip off is it that Jordan Wieber doesn't get to compete in individual all around. Serisouly??? Take the top 24 girls, no matter how many girls come from each country. So sad to see someone's dreams crushed but on the same page I do like Aly and am happy to see an under dog get a chance to compete.

5. I felt terrible for the US men's gymnastics team last night. Even though they weren't in medal position I would have liked to see more of their routines. But I was super happy for the England gymnastic team. I love that my other favorite man, Prince Harry, was there to cheer on his team.

6. How crazy is the dressage competition. I get the horse competitions where they jump over stuff. However, in dressage they seriously just prance around the arena and then the crowd goes wild. So crazy. Also really crazy how much money is spent on this sport.

7. Anna and I spent a lot of time over the weekend googling the age of different athletes
who we had been watching since 2004. We kept thinking they had to be incredibly old, but in reality they were all our age. What does that say about us???

8. I have to work tonight so don't get to watch the women's gymnastic team finals. It is nearly impossible not to find out who wins if you are trying to DVR it and watch it later. But it's ok I will still enjoy watching it after the fact.

9. My new favorite athlete this year is Missy Franklin. She seems super happy and down to earth. I can't believe she swam two races within 15 minutes of each other last night, winning the gold medal in the second race. I just love her happy spirit, so great to see.

10. I do feel like the U.S.A. isn't having the best of Olympics to this point, so hopefully things start looking up. I have been gone for the past four days so haven't got to doing any cheering with Zane, so I'm looking forward to that. He has perfected the fist pump, hopefully we can watch some of the games together soon.  USA USA USA

P.S. Yes I had a blast in Charleston with Anna, but that is a whole post in it's self!

Ten On Tuesday

1. This weekend we braved the heat for a quick Zoo trip to see the sea lions. The new sea lion show opened at the end of June and we were very excited to see the new exhibit and show. It did not disappoint. It was blazing hot, so we really just saw a roaring tiger, the giraffes, the zebras, the bird house, and the oh soo cute sea lions. The tiger was very upset, roaring and passing about, good times at the zoo.

2. Recently one of Zane's favorite activities has been playing in his room with all his stuffed animals. He organizes them, tells me their names, what they say, and puts them to sleep. This weekend we took it to another level with a blanket fort. Zane loved it! That led to hours of family fun playing in the fort.

 Oh yeah, we had to do some doctor visits in the fort as well.

3. I feel like Zane is changing quite rapidly recently, but I haven't been able to really put it into words. But I am going to try to highlight a few of the new developments. First of all his talking is quickly progressing, but still has a ways to go. He is trying to say longer sentences, but they usually come out like this, "Daddy/mommy babble babble babble go potty/night night." Not sure what the middle part is yet, but we are getting there.

4. Zane is now thoroughly in the "why" phase of toddlerhood. It is adorable, but as anyone who has engaged in the hours of why questions knows, it is also sometimes quite frustrating. I personally love when he puts his little hand up and tilts his head and asks "why" to everything I say, such as yesterday in Target. "Why milk mamma?" "Why no juice mamma?" ect.

5. I also have found myself in quite a few classic toddler stubborn offs. They generally involve eating. For example Zane decides he doesn't want to eat anything and proclaims himself "all done" within about two minutes of sitting down. We tell him he has to eat at least two bites, hence the stubborn off begins, usually ending with him saying "no" angrily, pushing his plate at me, then landing himself in timeout then he takes his bites and it is over. I get that it is just a phase and he is testing boundaries, blah, blah, blah, but it is still oh so frustrating.

6. I'm headed to South Carolina Friday for girls weekend 2012. It is going to be a celebration of my dearest friend Anna turning thirty and us reminiscing about our love of the olympics together. I am no way prepared for said trip since I am working nights and sleeping my life away. No cute outfits for this girls weekend, but that is what is great about best friends they don't care if you are adorable or in a t-shirt, right Anna?

7. Speaking of nights, I hate it. This is no surprise, though I was trying hard to go into it with a super positive attitude. The work load is lighter, with much less going on during the night, so more time to sit around and not run like crazy like you do on days. But the reverse of that is that it makes my body feel terrible, Zane has to go to daycare an extra day, while I sleep, and I end up feeling lazy and useless all the time. One week down, five to go.

8. I am very excited about the Olympics starting. Maybe while I am sitting around the house being annoyed that I can't sleep anymore, I will be able to catch some of the games. Zane has perfected his USA chant and as an added bonus the diapers I ordered last week arrived and they are special edition USA diapers, with USA on his bottom. How patriotic!!!!

9. With the end of July upon us that means that I have to get started on Zach and I's year in review book. I make one every year for our anniversary and love having them to look back on. I started looking through pictures yesterday and can't believe how much Zane has changed over the year. He still had a baby face last summer and it slowly has transformed into a little boy face. Don't get me wrong I love the little boy face, but I miss that baby face so much.

10. Also with it being the end of July it means that it is freakishly hot here and I'm getting tired of it. We go outside for about thirty minutes a day and end up in a full body sweat. We did get snow cones this weekend which helped beat the heat a little. Zane is officially a snow cone lover as well, finishing off his snow cone all by himself. Yes, he had a shirt on when we left the house, but figured it was just easier to take it off to avoid the hot mess of snow cone on it.

DINOSAUR!!!!!!

I want to remember this new development in Zane's life. It isn't a milestone or ground breaking, but it sure is entertaining. It started about a week ago when Zane ran up to me and said, in a really low, scary, manly voice, some word that I couldn't quite make out. He did this repeatedly, trying to scare us each time.  After about thirty minutes of this fun game I either figured out what he was trying to say or put words in his mouth and decided it sounded like he was saying DINOSAUR.... then he would roar like a dinosaur and was oh so scary.

This has become a regular game for us now. He will sneak up on us while we are sitting on the couch or come running across the basement to scarily roar, DINOSAUR. He cracks me up with his fake low voice and scary face. I have to admit that Zach and I have joined in on the fun, randomly sneaking up on Zane catching him off guard with a DINOSAUR roar of our very own. We are thinking this would be a perfect Halloween trick. Zane dressed up as a dinosaur greeting everyone with a terrifying roar and load.... D-I-N-O-S-A-U-R!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Oh the fun that two brings. Trying to focus on that and not the fit throwing and the emotional basket case that he seems to be quite often these days. We have tried to capture this on video, but of course has failed miserably. I will keep trying and post it if I ever catch it.

Wednesday Update

Things have been a little bit of whirl wind around here since we returned from Oklahoma. I lost my day of rest to pull my house together, do laundry, ect. and went right to work for two days, then had to try to catch up on Thursday and Friday before working all weekend. I have been off the past three days and think I finally have caught my breath, done my laundry, and pulled my house back together. That only took a week and a half, that's not bad right? 

Here is the quick update. On Thursday Zane had his two year old doctor's visit, where after walking into Zane having his own dance/singing party, the doctor asked me if he was energetic/got enough exercise. Yes, saying Zane is energetic is the understatement of the year. I was entertained by the other random questions she asked such as, does he point at things, does he mimic your facial expressions, does he ever do pretend play, and does he ever bring you toys and show them to you. Apparently the bar is set pretty low to pass your two year old screen. I was concerned that he still doesn't talk very well, but she said if he EVER puts more than one word together the he is fine. Great, I will take his clean bill of health without complaint. He weighs 32 pounds (85th percentile) and 38 inches tall (95th percentile). He has been in these percentiles for height and weight since he was born, so he is nothing if not consistent. Only one shot this time, so not bad a bad doctor's visit. 

We did do breakfast before the appointment because we literally had no food in our house. Zane asked me if he could play with Maggie while we ate, which was so sweet, but kind of sad all at the same time. Then while waiting for the doctor he found "Maggie" on the wall of our room in the doctor's office. Zane and Maggie are great friends, usually playing quite well together. I wish we could run over for play dates more often, but it is neat that he remembers her  more now. 

Here is Zane killing some eggs prior to our appointment.

 Zane and "Maggie" in the room at the doctor's office.

Thursday evening Uncle Able arrived for a quick over night stay prior to heading out to Chicago on Friday. He hung out with us Friday while my car was in the shop, which was a God sent so I didn't have to sit in Dobbs Auto Parts with Zane for two hours. He drove us around on our errands and played the role of Zach on the phone when the repair men started telling me I needed to buy things for my car. Zane thoroughly enjoyed playing with Uncle Able and was confused about where he had gone when he woke up from his nap and Able had headed north. "Where Able go?" putting up his little hands in questioning.

After working all weekend I thought Zane and I deserved a fun outing Monday morning. We headed to Suson's farm early in hopes of beating the heat, but turns out the farm doesn't open until 1030. What kind of farm doesn't open until 1030? Not a real farm that's for sure. So we hit up the local road side stand and got some fresh okra, tomatoes, and peaches. I was beyond excited that they had fresh okra. The little old lady running it thought I had lost my mind, but it's a big deal to find good okra around this place. We headed back to the farm and watched the farmer get all the animals in their houses for the day. You will be happy to know they run free in beautiful green pastures most of the time. The little horses came running out and each went right into their house. The farmer said they always go to their own house for their morning breakfast. How fun! 

By the time they actually let us into the farm we were both hot and hungry, but we did see one gem prior to leaving, a peacock showing off his feathers. I think the kids were all slightly frightened by it, but the parents were all thoroughly impressed with lot of pictures being taken while the kids tried to run away. 

 Monday evening Able returned from Chicago and we had a day of fun on Tuesday. Able wanted to see City Museum and I can't take Zane there alone for fear of loosing him in a dark hole. Able couldn't believe how crazy the place is, truly hard to describe. We found a whole new door that leads to the middle part of the museum which is ten stories of random dark caves, tunnels, and places to explore. I, personally, was highly claustrophobic in this area but Zane loved it, exploring all the dark holes, passage ways, and tunnels. He walked fearlessly into a dark tunnel with a strobe light, which lead to about a six foot tall slide with out questioning it. I think he could have ran around in their all day but I needed out and Able wanted to see the rest of the strange collection of things in the museum. Zane also rode the little train all by himself. As I was trying to explain that mommy was too big to ride it with him he ran off and hopped right in. Why did I think he would care that I couldn't ride it with him? It made three loops through a black lit area, a dark tunnel, and God knows what else, but came around waving each time.

Sliding down the tree slide.

 You can't tell but this is really a dinosaur mouth he is crawling through.

 Waving high from the train.

After our museum fun we had dinner on The Hill, which topped off a busy day of great fun. Zane and Able had lots of fun times in the basement, playing with trains and jumping on the couch while I tried to recover from all the fun.

Through all the craziness Zane has been a great sport, in wonderful spirits, entertaining himself, and he is becoming quite the helper. He thoroughly enjoys "cleaning" a.k.a giving him a wet wipe and he "cleans" his bed, the changing table, the floor, the wall, really whatever he can find. He did actually dust the top of the coffee table and clean the front of the stove today. This back fired when I wanted to sit and drink water and he kept saying "mommy, get up, clean." He is great about putting his toys away and knows where everything belongs. I can see that I am going to have quite the helper/little worker on my hands, which is great. He also has started to be able to dress himself, with just a little assistance needed with the shirt. He has mastered getting his pants on, pulling them way up, Grandpa Blakley style. 

Here is Zane proudly showing me his clean coffee table. 

 Here he is cleaning the floor, trying to get me to join him. 

Let me reiterate that he requested to clean, I did not make him clean the hardwood floors with a wet wipe, I promise. 

This morning Able headed home and we prepared for Grammi and Pappa's arrival this evening. At around 3pm, after a failed afternoon nap attempt, I told Zane that they were coming. This led to Zane standing at the door yelling for Papa for hours. Maybe should have waited a little longer to tell him they were coming. He was very excited to see them, showing them all his new toys, his dance moves, and all his new tricks. He put on quite the show at bedtime with hugs, pats, and blown kissing all around. He will be hanging out with Grammi and Papa while I sleep the next two days. Tomorrow is my first night shift, hopefully I enjoy the slower pace of nights and don't want to jump off the bridge from exhaustion at the end of it. Wish me luck!

Top Ten On Tuesday

We are finally back from our epic trip to Oklahoma, which ended with a 30 hr marathon trying to get back to the STL. It is a story better told after I have a few weeks, months, or possibly years to digest it all. Needless to say not really inspired to write a ten on Tuesday so I am going to post my top ten favorite pictures, out of the two hundred or so that I took while we were in OK. So here is this weeks top ten list. 

10. I love this picture because even while Zane is holding a screaming newborn he knows to say cheese when the camera comes out. To be fair I did not have the camera at the ready when Zach gave Everett to Zane, so I missed the cute initial picture and captured Everett's panic instead. Love it!

9. Classic kids photo from 2012. The iPads came out when the adults need to rest for a second. Maggie and Zane needed some assistance, so of course Brendan stepped in with a tutorial.

8. Here is science time with Uncle Brent and Grandma. We initially did the volcano experiment inside, but of course it was much better the second time around coming out of a sand volcano. I also love that Maggie was trying to wear Zane's hate, with not much success.

7. Zane after jumping into the lake down to Uncle Able. He loved the lake and really kept his personal life guards on their toes.

 6. I like this picture because there is a picture just like this, with us on the same couch, taken when we were dating. Somehow Zach looks exactly the same and I look terribly tired, old, and much larger. What happened? Still love it, especially with Able creepily looking at his from the bed.

5. Grandma Blakley with all her grand sons. Classic picture.

\

4. We made an outdoor water bed that the kids really enjoyed. It was made better by the tea pot that you could poor water on people with. As a follow up there is shot of Zane pouring water on Maggie shortly after this, but isn't nearly as good.

3. Love this picture of Mr. Zane Able with his name sake, Uncle Able. These two had quite a few adventures together this trip. And I think Zane finally has gotten past is fear of men he doesn't know and now thoroughly loves his Uncle Able.

2. There is basically a tie for my favorite picture, so I will put them as two and one. Mom had two blow up swimming pools which the kids loved to run and jump into. They would run all the way down the yard, we would count to three, then they would come barreling down the yard into the pool. These are Zane two best entries. 

1. For everyone concerned, no he didn't break his neck, and yes those are his legs sticking out of the water. 

We had tons of summer fun in the blazing hot Oklahoma July heat, as you can clearly see.

Ten on Tuesday

1. Today Zane learned the concept of up and down. No I did not set out to teach him this, I was at work trying to teach the new doctors how to be doctors, I hate July in the hospital. But when I got home he was saying it, backwards at first, so I took that opportunity to in force that his feet are down and his head is up. Maybe he can play the up down game with Uncle Able this weekend. Pants... up, shirt... down, Thunder... up ect.

2. Friday was the hottest day in June ever here in the STL. It was only 107 degrees, that's child's play compared to where I grew up where we are constantly are rocking 110 to 112 degree temps. Can't wait to head there tomorrow! Luckily this current heat wave hasn't had the crazy STL humidity, it was more the Oklahoma, feel like your catching on fire heat.

3. Needless to say Zane and I spent most of our time inside this week. I had not been brave enough to let him play with his new play dough, but decided the heat wave was a perfect time to bust it out. He did a great job, not trying to eat it at all, making snakes, cutting it with his play knives, and working on our colors as well. I was thoroughly impressed to the point that I am going to get a few more colors to help with learning his colors.

4. Zane's other new favorite activity is playing with his stethoscopes. Unlike most two year old's, Zane has had two stethoscopes hanging up in his closet since birth. Initially it was due to his heart condition, then it was for randomly listening to the sound of his beautifully normal heartbeat, then for random listening to his lungs to see if he was wheezing, and now for Zane to listen to his animals hearts. He knows just how to work it, putting it in his little ears and putting it on people/animals hearts and then on their backs, to listen to their lungs of course. His assessment is complete with him taking death breaths. Here he is listening to the babies at the Magic House. I haven't been able to get a good picture of him listening to his animals here, but it is shades of my childhood for sure.

5. Zach spent Saturday at my friend Becky's house helping her husband fix/rewire his ceiling fan. I had to take Zane back to the doctor to make sure he wasn't contagious before heading home to meet the baby, then we headed over to visit Becky and Mike as well. Zane had a great time playing fetch with their dog. It almost made me sad that he didn't have a dog or a pet, but then I remembered that a dog is too much work when you already have a two year old, so we will go visit Becky and her dog Nelly whenever he wants.

6. Tomorrow we are flying home on the fourth of July! I feel that is a highly patriotic thing to do. Hopefully all goes well, we are way over packed with funtivities for Zane to do on the plane, but we are going to need all the tricks and snacks we can get. I am praying he sleeps somewhere in the journey!

7. In super exciting news my adorable son gets to have health insurance when he turns 27 thanks to the fact that the health care bill wasn't over turned. It was never a political issue or a religious issue to me it was a deeply personal issue, as a parent of a child with a pre-existing condition. I wept when I found out the news.You can agree with it or disagree with it, but just keep in mind that millions of families have been greatly and profoundly blessed by this decision. If you take nothing else away from it you can at least count your blessings that you and your family are healthy so that it doesn't have to be a huge deal to you. To anyone who wants to say it's the worst thing that has ever happened I would just ask you to think of all of these families, mine included, and go back to your mother's old advice of "If you can't say something nice don't say anything at all."

8. So figured out why we aren't getting any squash from our volunteer squash plant. Probably because it actually is a pumpkin plant. Mystery solved! We do have a tiny little pumpkin though, which is exciting.

9. This weeks fun summer recipe is Key West Honey Grilled Chicken. I have decided I am a big fan of cilantro and am going to need to plant my own cilantro plant next year. We had this Sunday and it was light super tasty with some veggies and rice.

10. Finally I cannot wait to meet baby Everett. I have been loving looking at all his adorable photos, but I know that he is going to be 100% cuter in person. Hopefully Zane is gentle and loving or just not interested in the small, new person. I think he might find it a little weird that his run as the baby of the family is over. He got two years, poor Maggie only got ten months.

Happy Fourth of July everyone, be safe, and have fun celebrating all the amazing freedoms and blessing we have living in this country.