Memorial Day Weekend

Over the Memorial Day Weekend, Zander had alot of fun. The fun started with a play date at the Richardson-Vogler compound. I took my camera with me, but was too busy and forgot to take pictures. They had planned a camp out for their children and Zachary. Zander was invited also, but I decided that since he had been sick earlier in the week that probably was not a good idea. The kids played and played until dark. After dark, Ms. Alana got out the glow sticks and the kids wrapped as many as they could around them and just ran all over the yard. It was fun to watch. Zander took his home and we hung them from the ceiling fan for him to watch while he fell asleep.

The next day, we filled up Zander's new pool and turned on the sprinkler for him to play in. Those of some of my most fond memories from my childhood. Jenn and I always had a pool and we would stay out there for hours. I am so glad that he has Rosie and Riley to play with, because it is just not as much fun with one.

On Monday, we did errands in the morning and then went back to the Richardson-Vogler compound for the evening. They had their little pool set up to play in. Then they hooked up the water hose to the slide and made a water slide. That was great fun for all. We set up the big pool and started filling it. It should be ready for the kids to swim in by next weekend. That ought to be interesting.

After that, we went to CiCi and PaPa's to eat supper. PaPa grilled hamburgers and CiCi made all kinds of good eats to go along with them. We had a great weekend. After chasing Zander for 3 days, I will be ready to go back to work on Tuesday.

Swim Lessons

Learning to kick

Zander swimming - not happy about it.

Zander started swimming lessons this month. I took pictures the first day, but of course I have not had them developed yet. I was very apprehensive about these lessons. They take 12 children out of his class and 2 teachers walk them over to the pool where they meet the swim teacher. Now, anyone that knows Zander, knows that his attention span is about 1 second long. If he sees something interesting, he is going to go do it, regardless of what he is supposed to be doing. That would include getting into the water. So I was really nervous about this. I decided that I would watch the first lesson. The water is 36" deep.

The first lesson went really well. He had a very sweet teacher, the kids listened very well and the two teachers from his school were right there (although not in the water and did not have on suits, which I did not understand) in case they were needed. I decided that I was overreacting and went on to work.

Last week, I decided that I would go back and take some pictures. He had a new teacher. He had been sick with a high fever for 5 days and this was his first day back to school. He did OK for a few minutes and then he started yawning. Once he started yawning, he then started crying. Once he gets to this point, he needs to go to sleep. I decided to let him stay in and see if the teacher could get his attention back. She proceeded to look at him, with me standing there, and said, " I don't do crying, whining little kids!" and then she jerked him in the pool by the arm. I just couldn't believe what I was seeing. Of course, this did not help the crying any at all, he is now scared of her and didn't want to do anything else that she said. I knew that was not the time to make a scene in front of the children, so I waited to see what would happen.

If you look at the last picture, you can see that she had the kids just hanging from the side. She is back about 10 feet with another child. This was even making the life guard nervous. He came over and sat beside of me and eventually took Zander and sat him on the side. Even with the blue belt on, he could hardly hold on to the side. Another child got off of the wall and started coming toward her and she pushed his head away from her and he went completely under the water. That was the last straw for me. I took Zander out of the water. The teacher went over to her after I left and said, "You do know that was his mother, don't you?" She replied, " I don't do crying kids." Needless to say the Aquatics Director and I had a rather long talk later that day. He watched the next lesson and even the teachers said that she was a different person and did a great job. I never know what to do in that situation. It has been my experience, if you say something, they take it out on your child when you are not around. Any one else have any advice on how I should have handled this?

I took Zander to his room and he went to lie down in the book center and went to sleep. All he needed was a nap.

School Pictures

I have always gone with Zander when it was time to take pictures. I also have a favorite photographer. When I was a director I always used him (Chris Rimmer, Moments In Time) because he did studio quality pictures at my site. Not only that, he took time with the kids and truely enjoyed his job. These are the 3 year old pictures that he took for me. You can really see Zander's personality.

Last week it was time for pictures at his school so I decided to let him have them made just to see what they would look like. They didn't even brush his hair. They are still cute.

Apparently, I am still learning how to use this blog. The pictures across the top are his school pictures and the ones down the center are from Moments In Time. I did purchase the proofs so I could share them with you.

3 Years Old?!

Zander, Chef Peter, CiCi

Zander's Birthday breakfast

Zander at the doctor- Doesn't he look sick?
Where does the time go? I can't believe my baby is 3 years old. The morning started with us going to Lowes Foods to pick up the birthday cupcakes for Zander's first birthday party at school. They brought out a large cake with yellow flowers on it. Pretty, but not Go Tarheels cupcakes. I should have known that it was going to be a long day! When we arrived at school, Zander sat down to eat his breakfast and the teachers and I chatted about Zander's last birthday. We spent the night in the ER of our local hospital. Zander had 106 degree temperature. He was able to go to his party the next day, but did not feel well. I gave Zander a kiss and left to go to work. The plan was that I would return at 2:30 for his party. However, I received a call at 11:30 from Zander's teacher saying that he had 102 degree temperature. I picked him up and we went to see Dr. Ball. By the time we arrived, the medicine had lowered the temp and he was feeling fine, as you can see from the above picture. Dr. Ball decided that he had a virus.
Zander's favorite thing in the world is Japanese cooking. He was a Japanese chef for Halloween. I made reservations weeks ago for his new favorite restaurant, Tokyo Japenese Steakhouse. His favorite chef is Chef Peter. We reserved the whole table. He had been looking forward to it. Since his fever was down, we decided to let him go. CiCi, Aunt Paige's family, Daddy and Uncle Travers went with us. Zander had the best time ever. He got to wear his Chef costume. Chef Peter did many tricks and entertained us all. They played the drums and sang happy birthday to Zander. At the very end, Chef Peter went in the back and came back with a piece of cloth with a Japanese symbol on it and tied it around Zander's hat so his hat would look like Chef Peters. We took many pictures. Make sure to check out the link to the other birthday pictures. http://picasaweb.google.com/bohenstiel/ZanBday31?authkey=woocseyPI6s

Unfortunately, when we got home, I realized that Zander's temperature had spiked again and now it was 104.5. The nurse told us to rotate Ibuprofen and Tylenol. We rotated the medicine every 3 hours and the next morning he seemed to feel better. We decided to go ahead with his birthday party. Vicki and Alana were so generous to let us have the birthday party at their house. We all had a great time!

Mother's Day

PaPa and Zander

Zach and Brady

Marty , Riley and Rosie

I know Mother's Day was last Sunday and I am a little behind. That seems to be par for the course these days. My Mother's Day was great. This was really the first one that Zander made me feel special. My morning started with me getting to lay in bed with no one else there for an hour and a half. Summers brought me breakfast and I just layed there and watched TV. That was something that I haven't done in a long time.



Then we went to Granny's for lunch. Mom picked up food from the Seafood Shack so no one had to cook. It was very good! Plus there were only a few dishes to wash. We went to the park for a while to let Zander play. He had a wonderful time. He still loves to be pushed in the toddler swing. He would stay in it the whole time if you would let him.



Next, we went back to Granny's. Steve, Tracy and Zachary came. PeeWee and Marty were also there. The Brady Bunch came over also. We had hamburgers and hotdogs and all of the kids got to play.



When it was time to go, Mom reminded me that I had not even told her Happy Mother's Day! How terrible! The day was so busy that I forgot the whole meaning of the day.



I am so glad that I got to be a mom. I cherish every second that I get to spend with Zander.



Happy Mother's Day to you all.
P.S. Thanks to Alana for the Pictures

Girl Friend

Zander and Madi

Zander and Madi

This is Zander and Madi. She is the first child that Zander formed a relationship with at the YMCA school. He informed me this morning that Madi is his girlfriend. She is a little doll. She has the most beautiful green eyes and talks a mile a minute just like Zander. They are the only ones in the class that speak in sentences and I think that is why they like each other.

This is Zanders last day as a two year old. We will be celebrating his birthday on Friday and Saturday. I will post pictures on Monday.

On a different subject, Zander asked me yesterday if deer have allergies. He wanted to know specifically if Bambi has allergies and what does a deer cough sound like. Well, I don't know? I have never thought about that. I guess I will have to ask someone that knows about deer.

Have a wonderful day!

Grandparents house

Look at the focus! Can you tell that CiCi has a new camera. Mom and Dad were nice enough to pick up Zander last week while Summers and I worked late. He had a ball as you can see. He is such a creature of habit though. Dad says when they go outside, he has to have his bat, all of his softballs, a basketball and a golf club. He also still thinks that he has to cook in CiCi's kitchen.

On this particular evening, they pickied him up and I think he was going to be there for about 1 1/2 hrs. He needed to do all of that plus eat dinner and have a bath. Somehow CiCi pulled it off. Summers says that he was a little upset and whiney before bedtime because he didn't get to do everything. Maybe next time!

Lions and Tigers and Bears - Oh My!

On Sunday, April 27th we all went to the zoo. That includes, CiCi and PaPa, Steve, Tracy , Zachary, Alana, Vicki, Brady, Riley, Rosie, Summers, Zander and myself. We had a great time! The weather was beautiful. We had a pinic lunch and rode the Tram. All of the kids had a great time. Click on the link to view all of the pictures from the trip. http://picasaweb.google.com/bohenstiel/Zoo This was Zander's first trip and he was a real trooper. He was very excited to see all of the animals from one of his favorite movies, Madagascar. He was most looking forward to seeing the KAA snake (Python), but he fell asleep. We all had a great day.

Picasso

How do 2 year olds get into stuff so fast? I left Zander sitting on my bed for less than a minute while I walked to the other bathroom to collect the dirty clothes. When I returned he said, "Mom, what is this?" I looked up and he had light green fingernail polish all over his lips and one cheek. I asked him if he put it in his mouth and he said no, it was too hot. Oh, well, I got off as much as I could and I guess the rest will have to wear off. I sure do wish that I had a digital camera for times like this!

Blond Moment

We were very disappointed when we moved the furniture out of Zander's room to make room for the new furniture to find that the carpet had darkened all across one side of the room. It was a huge area. It looked like water damage, but we couldn't find any sign of water damage. Summers even pulled up part of the carpet to check out the flooring underneath and everything appeared to be fine. We decided that it made sense to go ahead and put down a new floor before moving all of the furniture into his room.
Keep in mind that this is about 3:00 on Sunday afternoon. The flooring still needs to be purchased, furniture moved to Mom's, flooring put down and then furniture moved into the room. After all of that, I would still have to organize all of Zander's clothes that are now in laundry baskets.
Mom, Zander and myself go to Lowes to pick out the new flooring while Dad and Summers go to move furniture to Mom's. We are looking at all of the types of floor and have almost made a final decision when my phone rings. It is Summers and Dad. Dad said that there was not anything wrong with the carpet. I couldn't believe what I was hearing. I had vacuumed, and looked at the carpet several times. It was ruined. He went on to say that there was a light bulb out that was casting a shadow from the ceiling fan onto the carpet making it look like a stain. He promised me that the stain on the carpet moved when he moved the ceiling fan.
Well, needless to say, I felt like and idiot and I had just wasted a big portion of our day for a shadow. On the up side, most of the furniture is in place. We still have to put together the bunk beds and at some point I have to paint the room. Pictures will follow soon.

Whew!

I haven't posted anything this week because there is just no time. I have worked the last two Saturday's , work is insane, and I am trying to study for a final that I am sure I am going to fail. The whole semester, I have been able to use study guides, etc. to take weekly quizzes, but now I have to take the final this week with 25 questions on each of the 18 works that we have read with no notes! Oops! There is no way that I am going to pass this thing.
This Saturday was the large Director's Conference that I have been planning for weeks. I am so glad that it is over. It was alot of hard work. I think that it was a success though.
Next Sunday, we are all going to the zoo. Did I mention that Paige is having an open house this weekend? Why do I care, you ask? Well, that means that in the midst of all of this stress, I now have to get a whole bedroom suit of furniture and a full size bed and put it some where before 2:00 today. Now those of you that have been to my house know that the living room floor is the only place to put said furniture. I stayed up very late Friday night going through Zander's closet, throwing away items and taking apart his crib. I took his bedding set to the consignment store only for her to tell me that she wouldn't take it because it wasn't in plastic bags. Oh well, I guess it will go on EBAY if I can find a large box to ship it in. Summers had worked all day building a deck and was less than thrilled that the furniture had to be moved. He didn't think it through. The crib is over by the dining room table in a million pieces. He sat the new furniture in front of it. How am I going to get it out? The existing furniture in Zander's room has to come out to make room for the new furniture. Thankfully, Mom and Dad have agreed to let me put this stuff in their basement until I can have a yardsale. I guess that will be the next big hassel. Oh yeah, did I mention that Paige still has the bedsprings for the bunkbeds for Zander's room, so I guess he will still be sleeping on a matress in the floor until she sells her house.
I am sure that this rant doesn't make any sense to any of you, I am confused, but I feel better. Have a great Sunday.

Monday Morning

It is Monday morning, but it feels like Monday morning. Zander was up most of the night with his first stuffy nose. Of course, Daddy slept right through all of his thrasing around. I don't know how many times he kicked me in the head or pulled my hair last night. But, just as I thought the day couldn't get any worse, we head outside to get in the car and see a big mess and neighbors outside. Apparently, a drunk driver came very close to hitting our house last night. Not just our house, the very spot where we were all sleeping. The car went down the full length of the yard, hit our 3 ft. culvert, crossed the road, flattened the stop sign and continued to make a huge mess of the neighbors yard. I found the car down the street. I expected it to be more torn up than it was. They had taken the license plate off before they left the scene. It was obvious that they had been off the road several more times before coming to a stop.
So, things could have been much worse this morning and I am very glad to be at work and be alive this morning. Although, I am still sleepy.
Have a great Monday!

Happy Easter

It is cold!!! The Easter Bunny spent alot of time trying to make Easter special for Zander this year. Why? Zander collected all of his pacifiers and put them into the Easter basket. He then wrote a letter to the Easter Bunny explaining that he was now a big boy and he would like for the Easter Bunny to take the pacifiers to his cousins Ruby and Eliza Claire in Texas. He did well until he realized that he was in his bed with out his pacey. He cried until I couldn't stand it any more. I think he went to sleep at 10:30. Oh yeah, during the night on the night before Easter, he woke up and looked at me and said, "This pacey will not fit in Liza Claire's mouth, I might need to keep it."
On Easter morning he got up and ran into the living room. There was a basket with bubbles, 8 easter eggs with little chocolate bunnies inside, a big chocolate easter bunny and a Charlotte's web DVD. He also had a note from the Easter Bunny explaining that since he was such a big boy, he had left him a big boy present. It was a green riding toy with pedals. He didn't really pay any attention to it or anything else for a while, because he was way too busy opening each egg and taking out the bunnies and eating them.
After nap time, we went to Granny's for Easter lunch. Then Vicki, Alana, Summers and myself hid the around 200 eggs for all of the kids to find. They had a ball. Each child got alot of candy and fun was had by all. Pictures to come later.

Kid's Carnival

How do I get drug into these things? They always sound like so much fun. Today Zander and I went to the Kid's Carnival at the Greensboro Coliseum. I thought if we arrived when it opened that there wouldn't be many people there and the lines wouldn't be long. Wrong!!! It is only 39 degrees and the wind is blowing like crazy. There was such a long line that we had to stand out in the freezing cold for about 10 minutes while they let people in.
Once inside, I look around and instantly saw that this was an event for 5-12 year olds. Now, they had marketed the event as a whole family event so I was disappointed. I saw 4 rides that Zander could ride. He did not want to ride the merry-go-round, so we went over to the dinosaurs. I put him in and to my horror, it went up in the air and around very fast. Thank heavens that when he gets on a ride, he turns into "stone boy". He doesn't move and he puts on this very serious face. (Pictures to come later) When he got off I was afraid that he wouldn't want to ride anything else.
Next, he saw the helicopter rides. We stood in line for about 10 minutes. When it was our turn the man that was running the rides tapes up a homemade sign that says "No one over 150 lbs." I was horrified! What do I do? I obviously can't get on and Zander is not getting on this ride by himself. Well, the woman in front of me said, "I guess my daughter will be riding by herself." She let the man put her on the ride. Well I decided that I was getting on that ride. When we got to the man, he looked at me and said, "he is too short for this ride". I said, "there are other children on the ride that are shorter than he is and you didn't measure any of them." I held my breathe as he began to speak, he said, "Well, you are too tall for the ride". Was I going to push the issue and make him tell me in front of everyone that I was too fat for the ride? While I was deciding, the lady in front of us asked Zander if he wanted to ride with her little girl. He decided that he did not want to ride if Mommy couldn't ride. I was saved. We got out of line and went to the next disappointment.
We then went to one of the many jumping things. He wanted to get in which surprised me because he had a bad experience at a birthday party on one with some big kids and usually doesn't want to get in. He got in and climbed over the first hump. As I was encouraging him to go over the next rock wall type hump, I realized that he wasn't going to be tall enough to get through the next section and guess what?!! No one over 150 lbs. is allowed in again. You have got to be kidding me. Why did I pay for a ticket? I can't do anything. So, when he got close enough to me, I grabbed him and pulled him out.
He was able to ride the train and a dog. Next, we went outside to the pony rides. He rode a pony named Andy and had a ball. Then we bought some carrots and fed the goats and Camels. He loved that. He really wants a baby goat. I would get one for the backyard, but I am afraid that our neighbors would eat it. All in all, it was a fun day. We were really cold so we decided to go home.
We did also go by the local hardware store to view the chicks and ducks that were dyed colors. That was Zander's favorite part of the day. They are so cute. I had to resist the urge to bring home baby ducks. I have done that and will not do it again. Happy Easter!

Vacation Day

On Friday, I had the day off from work. Zander and I went to breakfast at Mickey's with Cici and Papa and all of their breakfast friends. It was nice, we haven't gotten to do that in a long time.
When we got home, we dyed Easter Eggs. This was our first time. I think I got it all on video tape but you know how that goes. We will see. It was quite uneventful. We covered the table, I let him drop the tablets in the water. He was more interested in the magic (clear) crayon that came with the pack than anything else. We dyed our eggs and cleaned up. I hope that he remembers times like that with me as fondly as I do. That was Easter to me, getting to dye the eggs and taking pictures after church on Sunday. Then our parents hid eggs for us at Granny's house for us to find. They weren't just thrown on the ground either, they hid them. It was alot of fun.
So, in memory of my childhood, we will have the first annual Easter Egg hunt tomorrow after lunch. I have stuffed over 100 eggs full of candy. Sounds wonderful, huh? The only problem is it is only supposed to be in the 30's tomorrow. We will see how it goes.

Triad Children's Show

Happy Easter!!! Our family attended the Triad Children's show last week. We had alot of fun. Zander did his favorite thing - play basketball. He was Hansbrough of course. He also loved the petting zoo. He got to play with a corn snake, bunnies, chinchilla's and several other animals. We did not know that the Easter bunny was going to be there, but we took a minute to have a picture made. We hope that you all have a great Easter.

Sammy's Story

When I was really struggling with Zander and potty training I made up a story to help with the situation. Now every time he sits on the potty at home, he begs me to tell him the story about Sammy. Last night, I proceeded to tell him the story, after a particularly long, rough day at work. At the end, I helped him pull up his pants and he wrapped his arms around my neck and gave me the sweetest hug that I think he has ever given me and said, "Mom, you forgot to say and Sammy loved his mommy very much!" Is there a more perfect end to any day?
Go hug your kids and tell them you love them.

Out of the mouths of Babes

For those of you that don't know, Zander goes to the YMCA school close to where I work. This is perfect for his love of basketball, but he is not old enough to play yet. There is this darling lady named Ms. Ethel that works at the front desk. She always makes it a point to stop what ever she is doing and talk with Zander when he comes in each morning. This morning, her boss was standing there and a gentleman was sitting in a chair behind her beside of all of the basketballs. Zander said Good morning and then proceeded to say, "I want to hold your big, hard balls!" Well, I knew what he was talking about but they didn't and asked him to repeat himself to which he said, "I want to hold your big, hard balls!". After the gentleman about fell in the floor laughing, they let him go behind the desk and bounce the balls. The conversation very quickly changed to "Hansbrough does not wear his mask anymore" and "When I play ball at Chapel Hill, I will tell Roy Williams what to do".
It just goes to show that you never know what they are going to say and who they are going to say it to.

When I grow up

This was a big weekend for Zander. On Friday night (Great) Aunt Tracy decided that she wanted to have a sleep over. She invited Zander, Brady, Rosie and Riley to stay with Zachary. They all survived and much fun was had by all. Summers and I went on the first date we have had in a long time. This is only the second night that Zander has spent away from home. We went to see a very stupid movie (Blades of Glory) but it was nice to be out of the house for a while. On Sunday, we went to the park for an Easter egg hunt. That was very interesting. CiCi and PaPa were there to watch. I gave CiCi the bag to hold, Summers had the camera and I had the camcorder. They said on your mark, get set, go! Well the next thing I knew, it was over. There were so many children and the parents were kicking the eggs to their kids, that it was over before we even formed a strategy. Needless to say there won't be any great pictures. Zander got 2 eggs and promptly ate the candy. He then proceeded to look very sad in front of the other moms and 2 of them gave him a piece of candy. He had a good time none the less. He got to play on the playground and that was all that he cared about. Then we went to Granny's for awhile. Next, we went to the Mexican restaurant with CiCi and PaPa. We always use this as a time for Zander to practice what little Spanish he knows. The employees are great and take a lot of time kidding around with him. Tonight for some reason the owner kept coming over to the table and talking to him. They were discussing the spanish words for mouth, eyes, nose and then ears. Zander told him that ears hear loud noises like fire alarms. He then asked him if he was going to test the fire alarm. The man then asked Zander if he worked for the fire dept. He asked him if he was going to be a fireman when he grew up. Without hesitating, Zander said, "No, my mom said that it is too dangerous!" He then started telling him that he was going to be a Japenese chef. In the meantime, the waiter came and took some of our plates away. The next thing I knew, Zander said, "Here" and handed his plate to the owner and then said, "Clean this table up!". I was mortified. He very nicely took the plate and walked to the checkout area. When we got up there he was still holding the plate like he didn't have a clue what to do with it. He continued to talk to Zander. I know that it sounded rude, and I tried to explain to him that it was his restaurant and he did not have to clean up that tables. I hope that they let us come again.

Grandparents return

We are so excited that CiCi and PaPa have returned from Texas. We stopped by on Wednesday evening to get some kisses. Zander also raided CiCi's kitchen as he always does. I swear the child doesn't eat anything at home, but the minute he walks into her house, he wants one of everything. He also got to ride on the lawn mower while PaPa spread out the fertilizer. When we went home that evening and got ready for bed, Zander said his prayers. It went something like this:
God bless CiCi and PaPa, CiCi game me apples,
God bless Aunt Jennifer,
God bless cookie monster,
God bless our Tarheels,
God bless Rayshawn Terry, his throat hurts,
God bless Wright and Lawson and Green, they had a bad game,
God bless Hansbrough, he was crying on the TV the boys had to go back to Chapel Hill and he fell down and got blood on the floor,
God bless Roy Williams, make him have a happy face,
Oh yeah, God bless Granny, Aunt Tracy and Uncle Steve.

You never know who is going to get God Blessed, it is always interesting. God Bless you all until next time.