Santa!

Zach saw Santa for the first time last Thursday at St. Mark's Hospital. To be honest, I expected tears. But, Zach went right up to Santa for the picture and stared at him in awe. Then Santa gave him a little stuffed Rudolf Raindeer and a Barbershop Quartet sang "Rudolf" to him. He loved it.

Birthday/Attic Girl

My birthday present from Darryl finally arrived! He has been giving me clues for the last 6 weeks. He told me that it was "one of a kind" & "my collage roommates would like it". What?!

So what arrives? A personalized license plate. It stands for "Attic Girl". When Darryl and I met I lived in this tiny, quirky apartment called "The Attic". I was the tallest one living there at the time and I hit my head on the slanted ceilings all the time. But, we loved and took great pride in being Attic Girls! Thanks Darryl! I love it!

(Just had to add this picture because the kid is cute!)

Happy Thanksgiving!

We had high hopes that Zach might actually eat this Thanksgiving. But, no luck! He enjoyed a lovely meal of goldfish crackers dipped in ranch dressing. Yum! He then went down for a nap so his parents could actually eat. Zach wandered downstairs on his own 20 minutes later carrying his baby monitor. Thanks!

(Half) American Ninja

Zach was a Ninja for Halloween courtesy of Old Navy. His extended Halloween started on Thursday when he attended a party at his pre-school. He made a ghost out of a sucker and drew a spider and here he is frosting a cookie with Mommy.

On Friday night, we went to Trunk-or-Treat and had dinner and some homemade root-beer in the cultural hall while we waited for it to get dark enough outside. We tried to get Zach to wander and play with the other kids, but he just wanted to hang with Mom and Dad.

Grandma and Grandpa Zentner came after dinner to take Zach around to all the cars. He was a bit sceptical at first...

...but caught on fast once the candy started coming. His first stop he got a KitKat and then was offered another KitKat at his second stop so, being the good boy he is, he offered his first KitKat in exchange and was very confused when he got to keep both. 

The confusion didn't last long as he soon figured out that he was cute enough to take whatever he wanted. By the end of the night his "Trick or Treat" was even mostly intelligible!

Soccer?

For the last three weeks, Zach has been going to soccer lessons at the local rec center. I can count on one hand the number of times he's actually kicked a ball in the class! Don't get me wrong, he loves the class, but only for the cones! His favorite thing to do is to try and stack all the cones that the other kids are using in their drills while we stand on the sidelines and urge him to kick a ball like all the other kids. He still got a long way to go before he's the next Beckham!

Shoes and Socks

I think that Zach's bizarre infatuation with shoes and socks is another expression of his main goal in life: to make it to adulthood by age three. He will do anything and everything that makes him feel like he is a grown-up, without regard for the generally accepted norms of behavior (for example, not using sweaty socks as gloves!). As a father, this is rather wonderful as it provides years worth of material to hold over his head when he actually begins to approach adulthood! Behold the latest examples of the shoes and socks fascination:

Pretty baby!

Lately in Zach's speech therapy they have worked on encouraging Zach to mimic, either sounds or actions. Zach has gotten pretty good at it! He mimics cleaning, cooking, even putting on makeup just like mommy!