sleepless in las vegas

I am feeling better than ever. I really have no complaints as of late, except the fact that I some kind of internal alarm clock that wakes me up at 4 am. Usually, I lay in bed and toss for an hour or two before I fall back asleep. Sometimes I wake up and work on a project. Other times I exercise and take on the day. Today I am going to surf the web. I need to research the best homemade play dough recipe. Later today for history we are going to carve hieroglyphics in "clay" and bake them in the oven. (we're learning about ancient Egyptians, btw.)

Anyway, as I was tossing and turning a minute ago, I was thinking about how funny Zack is. I accidentally laughed out loud and tried not to wake up Aaron... so I snuck out of our bedroom and figured now is as good as time as any to document it. His is so full of personality, I can barely stand it. I mean, his little voice could not be cuter and things that he says are hilarious, but it's his facial expressions (whether he's talking or not) that just make me bust out laughing.

Recently, meaning the past month or two, he pretends that the reflection he sees in the mirror is another person. It's usually while out in public that he passes a mirror his size and starts talking to it. He has said a range of random things (and usually when he confronts his reflection, he's pointing his little finger and pulling a really silly face.) I know I've forgotten most of the funny things by now, but these are a few I can remember... "What you looking at, kid?" "Hey! Don't I know you?" "Cool shirt, dude!!" "Did you lose your mom? You better go find her." The most common threat he gives is "Stop looking at me/pointing at me!!" Usually after he talks to himself, he will look at me and say, "What's so funny?" as if I have no reason to smile.

Earlier this week, the kids and I were picking up a few things at the grocery store and Zack was in the front of the grocery cart. As we passed the fresh fish, Zack quickly grabbed his nose with two fingers, scrunched his face up and said with a nasally voice, "Can we pleeeeeeease go to another store??" I could not help but laugh because his facial expression was exactly how I was feeling. It really did stink!

While swimming yesterday, I stuck him in a friend's floaty and took him out in the middle of pool to chat. It was a seat-type floaty and I could tell he was enjoying sitting back and relaxing. He looked at the big blue letters written on the front of the float and asked, "Does this say SUPERMAN?" I told him no. In fact, it says MY BABY FLOAT. His face dropped and he immediately responded, "Get me outta here." I knew he was going to dislike being in anything labeled BABY but it was fabulous to see the disgust on his cute, freckled face. We took the floaty to the steps. He kicked it aside and wouldn't go near it again. They grow up so fast, don't they?

Ben was trying to swim from one end the pool to the other without coming up for a single breath (Aaron told him he would pay him a dollar if he could do it.) Zack was cheering him on from the sidelines and kept saying, "Swim towards the light! Swim towards the light!" Honestly, I don't know where he gets his material. Aaron had to pay up, by the way. Ben is an awesome swimmer!

Sylvia, Sabrina's little three year old, is Zack's best friend. He really loves her even though he pretends that he doesn't. See-- every time they are together, Sylvia begs Zack to marry her. He is constantly giving her lectures like, "If you keep wanting to marry me, I will not play with you anymore." She is so cute and they are seriously the best little playmates. I love to watch them together and Ben and Luke LOVE to tease him about what he "played" with Sylvia because it's usually house (or mom and dad as they call it.) Yesterday, Sabrina and I were talking and Sylvia interrupted with an enthusiastic, "Zack and I had lots of babies and they got really sick and died! We tried to take them to the doctor, but they just died!" We thought that was really sad, but she was already off to something else before we could respond. Later, when Luke and Ben were not around, I decided to see how Zack felt about having babies with Sylvia. This was basically our conversation.

Me: Zack, did you play house with Sylvia today?
Zack: Yep. She said we had to have babies this time.
Me: How many did you have?
Z: Ten. I think ten is a lot.
Me: Ten is a lot. What happened to them?
Z: They all died.
Me: That's what Sylvia told me. How did they die?
Z: Sylvia said they got sick and we had to take them to the doctor.
Me: Were you sad?
Z: I was sad because I wanted them to get shot.
Me: You don't want your babies to get shot.
Z: Yes, I did! A bad guy got into our house and took his gun and shot them all and they were bleeding everywhere. But he never could shoot me, even though he had a machine gun.

Amazing how differently boys and girls "play" isn't it?