Precious Pie

Zen lost his battle with awakeness on a long walk around Evanston. Too bad his nap only lasted 5 minutes, until we got home, and then he was a terror tot for the rest of the afternoon! I prefer to remember those sweet 5 minutes, captured here on film...

Cool Shades Club

Day at the Park

This is what the Huzars will do to you if you come to visit--make you walk to the lake and spend hours in the fresh air at the park. Consider yourself warned! It was nice to see Aunt Suzy make the trek from Schaumburg. The boys had a great time playing with her :-)

New Shots of Dad and Zen

Zen at 15 Months

Zen has developed quite a little personality. He's quiet around strangers, staring at them with his big brown eyes. He's a little wild man at home. He leaves no stone unturned as he sets about the systematic destruction of the neatness of the house. His goal is to go from room to room, taking things off of every table, clearing every shelf, and unloading every cabinet and drawer. He's also quite pleased with himself as his ability to climb and to reach higher and higher is developing. He takes every opportunity to sneak into his brother's room if the door is open. He is starting to figure out how to get himself undressed. Shoes and socks are easy--they get flung off during every car ride and several other times during the day. The other day he got his t-shirt off, and if he's not wearing pants, the diaper is history!

Zen's our tough boy. He loves to wrestle with Dad and Zion. Last weekend Ben spent the night on Saturday, and he and Zion spent a good hour including Zen in their running/chasing/shooting game. Yes, this is the same mom that cut all the guns off of Zion's toy soldiers when he was 4, and who didn't even allow squirt guns unless they were shaped like fruit or animals...sigh.

Zen started speech therapy several weeks ago. He is quite proficient at getting what he wants from us through a series of pointing and expressive noises; the speech therapist is teaching him sign language. They've ruled out any physiological or cognitive reason that Zen isn't talking yet. He's just a "late talker". Zen is picking up on the sign language very quickly, especially when he sees how excited we get when he uses a sign.

Our favorite part of the day with Zen is right before bed, when he becomes a kissy, huggy, adorable little ham. I think he knows that it's harder for us to put him to bed when he's acting that way. We all sit in the living room and watch him perform--catching and throwing a ball (his favorite thing), wrestling with his stuffed animals, and dancing. The other day, my friend Wendy commented, "I can't even remember a time when Zen did not exist." It's funny--it's getting harder for me to remember those times as well! Enjoy the latest picture.

Rainbow

Sam snapped this picture during last weekend's rainy Sunday while Zen and I napped. It's so perfect, it almost doesn't look real!

We've been OK here. We're on the second rotten cold in the past 6 weeks that Zen has gotten and passed around the whole family. In my case, that means I have additionally had 2 post-cold sinus infections. I'm full of antibiotics, steroids, anti-nausea meds to curb the side effects of all the other meds, sleeping pills to counteract the effect of the steroids at night ('cuz they make me sooooooo jittery). I feel like a junkie. You know it's bad when you start to get embarrassed to see your pharmacist, like, every other day. But, like the rainbow, I see light at the end of the tunnel. I'm having surgery on my sinuses in 2 weeks, and this should help things a lot. I'm looking forward to having Mom come and take care of me for 9 days! We miss her.

Video--Giant Swing

This was Ben's turn. Both boys were VERY quiet up there. Terror, perhaps????

Video--Ice hike, Lake Geneva

Boys on the ice

Weekend Retreat

I took Zion and Ben up to Covenant Harbor for Winter Fest. The camp had us going from early morning to late, late night. I was really proud of the boys for trying lots of things they hadn't before. There was no snow (it had melted the day before in a freak warm spell), but there was 13 inches of ice on Lake Geneva that provided its own fun. Saturday was stuffed with activities: ice hikes, broom ball, a version of the iditarod dogsled race (which our team won), mountain boarding, observing ice fishermen and helping them drill holes in the ice, air hockey, pool, a bounce castle, and much, much more. The biggest challenge was experiencing the giant swing (pictured here in the video--the name doesn't give it justice) in which campers were harnessed in and allowed to free fall, almost bungee style, until the rope caught them and catapulted them back and forth 30 feet off the ground. WOW! We had a great weekend, but all were exhausted on the way home. I wondered how I did full summers of camp counselor duty for 3 years in a row?????

These Boots Were Made For Walkin'

It seems that Zen also has a shoe fetish like his cousins Madison and Jake.