Life with Zach

We spent today at the garden. Well, does part of a morning count? When you have a six-year old and an 11-month going on 3-year old, 90 minutes can feel like a day! It was a beautiful morning to be outside. The weather was so mild, and although breezy, a near perfect day.

Zach enjoys our trips to "the garden" as he calls it just for the sheer exuberant joy of being alive and outside. Today, he weeds for all of 10 minutes and then declares how hard he's worked and asks if he can go play. Play? That's what you just spent the last 10 minutes doing while I was weeding. But I can't resist his quest for new adventures . . . just as he's about to leave, we find a little egg abandoned in the weeds. For one small moment, his attention is captured as we try to figure out what bird this egg belongs to . . . head bent intently studying his treasure: these precious moments we get to share. (Turns out, we found a bobtail quail's egg which is now a part of my son's treasure collection. Who needs pirates or gold?)

We weeded most of the 2 potato rows -- well, I weeded anyway -- except I wasn't quite sure which ones were potatoes and which ones were weeds. But I enjoyed the peaceful time outside and Zach's antics, until I found out he was throwing dirt at the pigs and that the electric fence "only hurt the first time you touch it; it doesn't hurt at all the second time!" Life is never dull with Zach!

Precious time spent together on the swings. We try to find time to swing every afternoon. Zach has learned to pump himself on the swing and loves to go as high as he can. Brynn just loves to swing (she cries when I have to take her out). I am pushing Brynn, trying to videotape, and watching Zach show me how high he can swing. Suddenly he yells: "Look, Mom! Brynn and me are swinging oppsicle!" (Translation: opposite) I am laughing so hard, I can't push or videotape! Life is never dull with Zach!

It's dinner time at the end of a long day. I love our dinners together as a family; quiet time to reconnect, share and wind down our day. Zach is having his usual trouble sitting still and suddenly ends up falling out of his chair and smacking his nose on the edge of the table. I am around the table holding him before I even realize what's really happened -- I'm sure his nose is broken. Chaos reigns -- blood spatters everywhere, Zach starts howling, Brynn starts crying and Dan starts giving instructions ("Janel, do you have any idea how to stop a bloody nose?"). Did I mention life is never dull with Zach?

I love my "never dull" life with Zach!