For Zen's Memory Book

Our computer crashed last month and we just got the new one fully up and running, therefore blog time has been somewhat limited (frustrating not to be able to post pictures). However, I have been meaning to post some sweet and cute "Zen-isms" for awhile now, so here they are.

Zen, at age 3, is alternately sweet and fierce, antagonizing his brother one minute and protecting him the next. He loves to "rattle" (wrestle) with Zion in the living room. They take off their shirts and put all the pillows from the couches down. Zion is much gentler on Zen, who will sometimes pull some real down-and-dirty wrestling moves on his brother!

Zen has learned all his colors and is starting to get really excited about the alphabet--he points out the letters that he knows all the time, wherever we go. All these familiar letters are associated with names of his friends and loved ones, so his conversations go something like this:
"hey! hey mommy! There's Brian's letter! See Brian's letter?" or, "MOM! I see my letter! Mine and Zion's!". He also is going through a stage where he thinks that if someone's letter is prominently featured on something, it "belongs" to that person. For awhile, he insisted that his boots belonged to Daddy because they had an "S" on them. He made a "J" for Jake and Jedi out of marbles the other day that he was very proud of, and Q sightings are always followed by, "baby Quinn!".

Zen has adjusted to the time change waaaaaay sooner than we wanted him to. He'll join us in bed sometime after 6:00 to "tuddle" and demand juice. He still has a lot of trouble with his hard c and k sounds, so everything is replaced by "T" or "D". He refers to Aunt Susie as "aunt tootie", which is also what he uses for "cookie." I sometimes think of her in my mind now as "Aunt Cookie," (which is cute because Auntie Susie is so sweet!).

Zen loves his Dr. Seuss alphabet cards and has had them for awhile now. When they were brand new, he decided one nap time to take a bite out of the corners of his favorites. This afternoon while we were playing with them, he laid out the ones he had munched on and commented, "I bite these. When I baby. I soooo bad. I not do that again." Zen has no problem judging others or telling them what to do (hmmm, I wonder which brother he got that from?). He'll tell someone "You bad!" especially if they are doing something he doesn't like. Zion is often on the receiving end of this statement. He also tells us all the time that something is a "bad idea." Such as putting him to bed before he's ready--"that bad idea."

Zen is VERY huggy and kissy right now. He loves his teacher, Ms. Goly, and will run to hug and kiss her as soon as he comes in the door in the morning. She says that he is very gentle with the babies in the daycare and also very protective of them.

Some of Zen's latest passions include playing "hot tea" (hockey) in the basement and going to the park to play with neighborhood friends. He is getting to be a good, big boy and we are enjoying him more and more every day of his life.