Zeeke turned six this week!  He had a party at school, then came home and opened a bounty of Yokai Watch toys. 

Conversations with Zeeke:

"Did you put something in your hair today?"
"No. Why?"
"Your hair feels really weird. Are you sure you didn't put anything in it?"
"Well, I did put glue in my hair."

Steve: "Zeeke, you got crumbs all over the floor."
Zoe: "And I got crumbs all over my chair!"
Steve: "You two are an m-e-s-s."
Zoe: "Whaaat?"
Zeeke: "Monsters. He called us monsters."
Steve: "No. I said mess! M-e-s-s!"
Zeeke: "Too late to take it back, Daddy."

In the interest of getting these blog posts out, we're going to be focusing on photographs and things Zeeke has said for the foreseeable future. 

Conversations with Zeeke:

"Victory tastes like candy and failing is a piece of cake."

Walking through the Italian Market:
"What is that?"
"That's ground lamb and next to it is ox tail."
"Daddy, do the hunters give the animal a choice if it wants to be food?"
"Well, these animals were probably raised on a farm, not hunted, but no, the animals don't get a choice."
"Not fair..."

Hiking:
"Daddy, are we lost?"
"No, eventually this trail will take us back to Forbidden Drive."
"When?"
"I'm not sure, bud."
"That means we're lost."

Tuesday, Karen treated Zeeke to a donut for having a good day at school.

Saturday, Steve & Zeeke went to the Kite Festival at Penn Treaty Park.  Zeeke once again won a cool trophy for his kite design.  Unfortunately, he let go of the string about ten seconds after they got it into the air and it ended up trapped in a tree.  But at least there was ice cream and a new playground.

Sunday was Karen's birthday.  While Steve stayed home to make a carrot cake, Karen & Zeeke went to the Wagner Free Institute of Science, where they saw lots of cool exhibits and did fun science experiments.  When they were done, they got burgers from Shake Shack.

Zeeke had a very hard week.  On Monday, we found out the new couch we'd ordered was coming.  Steve & Karen told him that there would be no eating or jumping on the new couch.  This was bad enough, but to make matters worse, he hadn't realized they would be getting rid of the old one.  Just the thought of losing the faithful old couch he'd spent so much of his life on sent him into a state of deep melancholy.  

On Tuesday, the delivery men brought in the new one and took the old one out to the curb.  Fortunately, his friend Zoe came over for a play date which made the transition a little easier.  Plus he got to show her his magic trick with the new coffee table.

But the couch wasn't out of their lives yet.  The next day, the garbage collectors refused to take it, so it sat in front of the house for another week.  Every time Zeeke left the house or returned home, he ran to his old couch, awkwardly exposed out on the sidewalk, and sat down in it

As the days went on, the couch collected trash, bad smells and even graffiti, but Zeeke persisted in his visits until one day he suddenly became as exasperated by its lingering presence as his parents.  He was finally ready to be rid of it.  (Fortunately, Karen arranged to have it picked up on the following trash day.)

Conversations with Zeeke:

"Oh, no, Daddy, there's a giant spider behind us!"
"What's his name?"
"He has no name and he kills anyone who tries to give him one."
"Harsh."
"Oh, no! Everyone in the city tried to name him and now they're all dead!"
"Whaaaaat?"
"Oh, no! Now everybody in the city and in North America is dead!"
"That's terrible!"
"Oh, no! Now everybody on the Earth is dead! I better use my double heat beam on him."
"Wait, you could have stopped him before he killed everyone on Earth? Why didn't you do that earlier?"
"It's my legendary attack. I only use it if it's a super big deal."
"A giant spider killing everyone on the Earth isn't a super big deal?"
"It is a super big deal, Daddy. That's why I'm using my legendary attack."
"Ok."
"Oh, no! Now it killed everybody in the universe!"
"Great...."
"Oh, no! Now it's killing everybody in the second universe."
"There's more than one universe?"
"There are millions of universes, Daddy."
"Is there a universe we can escape to?"
"It would be very dangerous for you to leave our universe, Daddy."

On Saturday, after art class, Zeeke went to his pal Zoe's birthday party.  Since he'd heard it was a drop-off party, he ordered Steve to leave immediately.  He had a blast making cupcakes and playing with his friends.  When Steve came back to pick him up, Zeeke was under the couch.

Sunday, Karen & Zeeke went to Ikea with Jen & Amelie.  When they got home Zeeke asked Steve, "Daddy, tell me what to write in this book!" so Steve dictated an e.e. cummings poem to him.

Wednesday, Zeeke's pal Zoe came over for a play date after school.

Friday, on the walk to school, Zeeke and his friend told Steve about the Candy Girls, the Money Girls, and the Mean Boys in their kindergarten class. The Candy Girls will steal your candy. The Money Girls will steal your money. And the Mean Boys will push you down in the schoolyard. According to Zeeke's friend (who by her own admission is an ex-Money Girl), there's even one or two kids that manage to be all three and "You don't want them at your birthday party."  It's clearly not as bad as it sounds though, because when they bumped into one of the kids they spoke of fearing so much, the three of them skipped off happily through the schoolyard together hand-in-hand.

Saturday, Steve & Zeeke took his pal Zoe with them to a local Egg Hunt.  After a very long wait in line, it turned out that the egg hunt had been cancelled and the organizers had fled, but the kids were good sports about it.  They still got a little candy, met the Easter Bunny, made a craft, and got to tell Easter jokes over the PA system (see below).

Sunday, Steve & Zeeke headed to the Wissahickon for a Family Nature Hike.  Unfortunately they got there a little late and the group had relocated due to construction.  So they hiked alone in the snow, smore-less, and got a little lost trying to find their way back to the car.  When they got home, Karen invited Jenn & Amelie over for a play date.

Saturday was Zeeke's last art class of the semester.  His teacher said he's been really impressed by Zeeke's focus and enthusiasm.  We'll have a few weeks until the next class, which will be Mixed Media.

On Sunday, Karen & Zeeke went to the main branch of the Free Library to see a production of The Fisherman and His Wife.  It was a great show and then he got some computer time.

Wednesday was a snow day, so Tim, Lettie & Winnie came over for a play date.

Saturday, while walking home from art class, Steve & Zeeke ran into Maripatt, Dudley, Sadie & Lulu at Purple Flower Mountain.  Zeeke ran around, climbing trees with Sadie and visited a snowman.  

Sunday, Karen & Zeeke went to Ikea with Jenn & Amelie.  They had a ball in the play room and doing activity books.  There was even someone there making balloon animals.  Zeeke loved his balloon snake and brought it with him when we went to New Jersey for dinner with Pop-Pop & Gigi.

Conversations with Zeeke:

"That baby was as fat as a chicken on a carousel!"

Zeeke's behavior at school started getting bad again, so he & Karen implemented a new system to keep track of how each day goes (utilizing the basement door chalkboard): red sad face for a bad day, yellow expressionless for a so-so day, green smiley face for a good day, and some sort of rainbow star for a great day.  Zeeke was very proud when he broke his bad streak!  Fingers crossed!

Saturday, Steve gave Zeeke the mission of chatting up at least one of the other students at his art class and finding out their name. Unfortunately, he said everyone was too busy working and he didn't want to disturb them, but as we were leaving the building, a boy named William called out, "Hi, Zeeke!" and then the two of them played an imaginative game of superheroes (with William's little sister) for twenty minutes.  So mission accomplished!  Sort of.

Sunday, all three of us went to the Franklin Institute for the day.  We made buildings and then demolished them with the earthquake machine, watched astronauts training via virtual reality headsets, ate freeze-dried ice cream, and saw many planetarium shows.

Conversations with Zeeke:

"What are you eating, Zeeke?"
"I think it's a hashtag."

Our friend Pauline asked Zeeke to complete some well-known proverbs and his answers were pretty amusing:

1. Don't change horses... "get them harnessed."
2. Strike while the... "missile is coming at you!"
3. It's always darkest before... "it's lightest."
4. Never underestimate the power of... "sight."
5. You can lead a horse to water, but... "you can't lead a horse to air. Do you know why? Because air is all around you. There's no place where it just isn't."
6. Don't bite the hand that... "is bad."
7. No news is... "wrong news."
8. A miss is as good as a... "hit."
9. You can't teach an old dog new... "dance moves."
10. If you lie down with dogs, you'll... "lie down with cats."
11. Love all, trust... "all."
12. The pen is mightier than the... "soul. Get it, pen-soul! Pencil!"
13. An idle mind is... "nothing!"
14. Where there's smoke there's... "fire!"
15. Happy the bride who... "has a wife."
16. A penny saved is... "a quarter."
17. Two's company, three's... "already there."
18. Don't put off til tomorrow what... "you can put off today."
19. Laugh and the whole word laughs with you, cry and... "the whole world cries with you. I knew that one!"
20. There are none so blind as... "people that need to read braille."
21. Children should be seen and not... "stolen."
22. If at first you don't succeed... "you keep trying!"
23. You get out of something only what you... "think can get you out of it."
24. When the blind lead the blind... "everyone will become blind."
25. A bird in the hand... "of a tree."
26. Better late than... "still there at the end of the day."

Monday was President's Day and we headed over to Jersey to do some shopping.  After grabbing some burgers (and photos) at Weber's Drive-In, we went to the La-z-boy store to buy a new couch.  Zeeke sat in every chair in the joint and then started climbing into Ottomans and coffee tables.  He particularly liked a coffee table with a hidden storage space and spent so long happily playing inside, like he was a magician with a disappearing box trick, that we decided to buy that as well.  Afterward we hit the book store for more Yo-Kai Watch books.

Wednesday, while doing homework, Zeeke scolded Steve for mispronouncing "W" in Spanish.  "Daddy," he said, "you used to be at the front of the line, but now you're at the BACK of the line! And Mommy's at the front!"  But Steve got back in his good graces by making Google Translate's voice synthesizer say, "Sweet Baby Zeeke.  Zeeke is a sweet baby."

Thursday, we switched our cable provider and suddenly got back all the kids channels that Zeeke hasn't gotten to watch for the past couple years (including one that plays new episodes of his beloved Yo-Kai Watch).  While watching the commercials for their shows with rapt attention, Zeeke turned to Steve and asked, "Why does everything have to be 'extreme'?"

At art class on Saturday, Zeeke designed a superhero called Psychec X (sic): "The X is for darkness! But he's a hero!"  He also designed Psychec X's headquarters: "When he wants to train, he goes to The Blank Room. Another room is The Aerodynamic Robot Map Room."  (Upon further questioning, he explained that it's the robot cartographers that are aerodynamic, not the maps.)

Conversations with Zeeke:

"Daddy, if I get too hot all of my existence modules run out and I disappear forever."
"Ok, let's walk in the shade."
"That's a good idea, because all but ten of my twenty-hundred existence modules are really low."
"Phew."
"Yeah, it's actually really good, because I was about to disappear forever."
"And just so I know, if you do disappear, is there anything I can do to bring you back?"
"No, I'll be gone forever.... well, there is a way, but it's really hard!"
"I don't care how hard it is I'll do it! Tell me how!"
"Ok, well, you'll have to find the magic stone that's hidden and tap it against a rock sixty-hundred times and I'll appear back right on the other side of the rock and I'll walk around to where you are."
"All right, where do I find this magic stone?"
"Well, I don't know, but I can tell you a hint. You'll have to go to New York City where Zoe went and to Paris."
"Well, that will be a nice little vacation."
"And in each place you'll find half of the map and when you put the two halves of the map together one side needs to be in a cold place and the other side has to be where it's hot. And then the map will show you where to find the magic stone."
"All right, got it!"

Monday, after school, Karen & Zeeke took a trip to the library.

Tuesday, after school, Steve & Zeeke joined Tim & Lettie at the Pub on Passyunk East.  Hanging out in the back room, the kids drank Shirley Temples, drew pictures, played games, and put on dance recitals for the waitress (and anyone who happened to walk by).

Wednesday, Zeeke had a half day, so Steve & Zeeke went to the playground.  Zeeke rode his bike all the way there and back.  He chatted and played a little with Dashiell, one of the first graders from his school.

Saturday, at art class, he made two paintings on canvas.

Sunday, all three of us went to the art museum and spent most of the day there.  We took the kids tour of the cubism and furniture sections, designed a chair, had lunch at the cafe, created ink stamps to make postcards with, played with some cool modern art toys, and then ran around outside, exploring the new statue garden and the gazebos.

About some weeks in life there isn't a lot to say.  This week Zeeke discovered Mad Libs, which required a quick lesson on the different parts of speech.  He wanted to know if "Italy" is an adverb.  Saturday, we hit an insane pot hole on the way to a Bar Mitzvah, which forced a slight change of plans.  While Karen attended alone, Steve & Zeeke salvaged the day by walking up to his art class and hitting the comic book store for an issue of Yokai Watch.  

Conversations with Zeeke:

Michael Stipe (singing): "That's me in the corner.... that's me in the spotlight...."
Zeeke (running over to Steve's laptop and craning his neck around to see the screen): "Where is he? Which corner? I want to see him!"
Steve (clueless): "What are you talking about?"
Zeeke (still looking): "He said he's in the corner!"

Tuesday, after school, as snow flurries were starting to fall, Zeeke got a haircut.  

Wednesday, his class took a trip to the Walnut Street Theatre for "StinkyKids: The Musical."  Zeeke had a good time and had this to say about it:  "The kids weren't really stinky.  They just made some mistakes."

Friday evening the kindergarten and first grade classes in the Spanish Immersion program at his school had a potluck at the rec center.  The kids had a blast playing in the gym, sampling any food that had sugar in it, and apparently giving out free tattoos.  It was nice to meet some more of the parents of the kids he goes to school with.

On the weekend, Zeeke was feeling a little under the weather, so, we mostly just had a quiet weekend at home.  We did go to art class where Zeeke did a great self-portrait surrounded by his favorite things.  Sunday was the Superbowl, which Zeeke was very excited to watch right up until he remembered that it was a football game and decided to do something else.

For the past few months, Zeeke has been absolutely obsessed with something called Yo-Kai Watch.  We've been reading the manga (Japanese-style comic book), watching the cartoon, and going to McDonalds just for the Happy Meal toys, but this weekend we enabled his obsession.  Hearing that Toys"R"Us was closing stores, we grabbed Zeeke's gift card from Aunt June and let Zeeke go crazy.  Then, as he was having a grand time playing with his Yo-Kai Watch toys, Steve noticed they had game apps and put them on Zeeke's iPad.  If we never have another conversation with him that isn't about Yo-Kai, we have only ourselves to blame.

Zeeke did a lot of paintings this weeks.  At school, he painted a panda eating bamboo.  At art class on Saturday, they were painting on canvas and he got downright psychedelic.  After class, we hit the playground.

Sunday, Zeeke went to an amazing Star Wars-themed Jedi Knight birthday party for his friend Delano.  There were costumes and lightsabers and real life Jedi Knights to train them.  To say that Zeeke was an enthusiastic participant would be an understatement (see the video below).

Conversations with Zeeke:

"Daddy, in the scramble of letters that come out when you summon a yo-kai, it's not just random. It's French."
"Wow, that's weird. How do you know it's French."
"Because I know every language but French, even the ones that are just symbols. So it must be French."

Running down the street shouting:
"Ahhhhhhhhh! Ahhhhhhhh! I am a cat! I am a cat!"
He stops suddenly and looks back at Steve:
"Sorry, Daddy, I just had to scream."
"That you're a cat."
"Yeah....."

Doing his Spanish homework:
"Daddy, what does cuca mean?"
"Hmmm.... looks like a cuca is a catterpillar.... or a woman who likes to gamble."
"I think it's probably a woman who likes to gamble. That makes the most sense."

Monday was Martin Luther King Jr. Day.  Steve & Zeeke went to the Please Touch Museum for the final day of the Daniel Tiger exhibit.  He made some cool MLK-related crafts and got a free ride on the carousel.

Tuesday, Zeeke's class went to the Museum of Art.

Thursday, after school, Zeeke was obsessed with what happens to water before it comes into our house and after it leaves, so he Y Steve watched every video they could find about water treatment plants.  Zeeke was totally obsessed.

Sunday morning, we met up with Nick & Zoe at the playground.  In the afternoon, we visited Tim, Tanya, Lettie & Winnie.  The kids played and then we ate pizza and watched the Eagles NFL playoff game.

Conversations with Zeeke:

"What was your favorite thing about going to the art musuem?"
"Oh! There was a lunch room! With two TVs!"
"Did you see any of your favorite paintings?"
"Yeah, sunflowers!"
"Van Gogh?"
"Pfft.... his name is VINCENT Van Gogh, Daddy...."

*whirring sound*
*screams*
"Daddy, the remote control car won't let me out of the kitchen!"
"Dude, you control the car. It doesn't control you."
"But I don't have the controller!"
"Well, then just turn the car off."
"I can't! I don't know where it's hiding and it always jumps out and gets me!"
"Well, the two of you are going to have to work that out. I'm not getting involved."
"Ok, Daddy..."

Talking about why he likes it when his teacher punishes him by sending him to the first grade class:
"There's good music and everybody watches me do my dance moves."

"I don't know why they call them Happy Meals. They don't make anyone happy."

We spent New Years Day much like the day before, hanging out at Jen & Kim's, except the kids were more tired.  The four of them had insisted on cramming into a tent in the master bedroom and not a lot of sleeping went on.   Zeeke was so zonked he actually napped.  

Wednesday was the first day back at school, but his teacher was out sick so he had a substitute.

Thursday, school was cancelled because of snow.  Zeeke had no interest in going out to play in it, so we just had a quiet day at home.

Friday was another snow day.  In the morning, we trekked up to Nick & Nadine's house for a great play date with Zoe, Sadie, Amelie & Delano.  Many paper airplanes were made.  In the afternoon, Zeeke spent a few hours building a cool K'nex airplane that he'd gotten for Christmas.

Saturday, he helped out around the house.  His favorite task was opening mail for Karen.l

Sunday, Karen & Zeeke went to Ikea with Jenn & Amelie.  The kids had a great time riding the bus together, drawing, lunching, and playing in the kids-only playroom.

Conversations with Zeeke:

"Here, Daddy, use these markers. There's so many colors! There's gray.... and another gray...."

"Daddy, there are people who have been living in space since 1887!"

"Daddy, we should make a tv show called 'Babies Are The Smartest.' It's about these really smart babies that are all named Goo Goo Gaga. Except the baby who is the smartest of all is Boo Boo Baba. And there's a grown-up who's like a hundred and isn't very smart at all and he asks the babies questions. His name is Clacky Clacky Booboo. Ugh.... all these crazy names are making my socks hurt!"

Monday was Christmas.  Zeeke woke up and tore into the stocking by his bed and then we all went down to see if Santa had left anything else under the tree.  After we opened presents and made a big batch of butternut squash soup, we got dressed and headed over to Sarah & Mike's house for the day.  Zeeke had a great time hanging out with Riley & Bella, opening presents, and eating delicious food, then got straight to work on the huge stack of activity books he received. 

The rest of the week was a restful blur of Lego and activity books, but Sunday was New Year's Eve.  So we whipped up some Buffalo chicken dip and headed out to Jen & Kim's house for a sleepover.  Zeeke, Moira, Jack & William did a pretty good job keeping themselves entertained while the grownups conversed, drank, played games, read and napped.

Conversations with Zeeke:

"Zeeke, let's build your X-Wing Fighter!"
"I really want to work on my activity books."
"Do you think I should do a little building on the X-Wing while you do that or should I wait for you to do it?"
"I think you should wait for me to do it."
"Sigh.... yeah, I think so too."

"Should we have some pineapple, Zeeke?"
"Oh, yes, that's the best fruit of the evening."
"Yeah?"
"It's actually true. Pineapple is the super perfect fruit of the evening!"

"If the blob sees your fear, Daddy, it will dump a gallon of blobs on you. Is that disgusting?"
"Sounds like it."
"Daddy, it sees your fear. It sees a lot of fear."
"Uh oh...."

Each day after school this week, Zeeke was methodically putting together the elaborate and complex Lego Star Wars Tie Fighter he got for Christmas from Pop-Pop & Gigi.  He really enjoyed following the instructions and waiting to see how each part would contribute to the final spaceship.  Playing with it once it was done was nice too!

Thursday, after school, Steve & Zeeke went out to pick up a present for his teacher and visit the Christmas lights on 13th Street one last time.

Friday, Tanya snapped a great photo of Zeeke, Lettie, Peyton, Zoe, & Sadie hanging out before school.

Saturday, we had Dudley, Maripatt, Sadie & Lulu over for a lovely evening of chat and pizza. 

Sunday was Christmas Eve.  We went to the Arden Theatre for a modernized production of Peter Pan.  Zeeke enjoyed the show and chatting with the cast afterward.

Conversations with Zeeke:

"Daddy, I made friends with the fifty monsters."
"Oh yeah? Where'd you meet them? At the rec center?"
"Well, no, I just see them all over. They're the fifty ancient monsters."
"Oh, which one's your favorite?"
"The Asslick Chameleon Monster."
"The what now?"
"The Asslick Chameleon Monster."
"What does he lick? Never mind. Who's your second favorite?"
"The Ice Spider. And my third favorite is the robot yeti who beats up bigfoots."
"What's his name?"
"He's just called the robot yeti who beats up bigfoots."
"Haha.  These are terrible names."

Zeeke is in a Spanish immersion kindergarten class so most of his day is in a foreign language.  For the first two months, it was tough to tell how much of it was sinking in, but lately he's been slipping into Spanish even at home and it's really amazing.  One night, while washing his hands in the cold kitchen sink, he started yelling, "Mucho frío! Mucho mucho frío!"  Sometimes it comes out as Spanglish:, "Daddy, all your música is about un mapache."  Even when he gets the words a little wrong, his accent is always great.

Friday evening was the Christmas party at the rec center.  Santa Claus was there and Zeeke had a blast playing hula hoop games with Lettie and others.

Saturday, while Steve was out Christmas shopping for his side of the family, Karen & Zeeke mailed the Christmas cards, bought donuts, and went to the library where Zeeke got to try out his new headphones from Grandma Joy.

Sunday morning, they went to the art museum where Zeeke drew Karen's portrait.  In the afternoon, we all headed out to Pop-Pop & Gigi's for an early Christmas with the Wilsons.  Zeeke got some great presents and played a lot with his cousin Jackson.

Conversations with Zeeke:

Offering Steve financial advice:
"Did you know that a good way to be rich is to like make something people really like and make it cost like... FIFTEEN DOLLARS?"

Sadly, after a month of being well-behaved at school, Zeeke has started to slide back into his old ways.  He doesn't seem to even really understand how his behavior is any different or why he does the things that he gets in trouble for.  Since sending him to the first grade class as punishment doesn't bother him, his teacher is considering sending him to the pre-k class.  When she suggested the plan, he sank into such a depression that he spent most of the night crying.  We consoled him, of course, but kept reminding him that it was his behavior that was causing this punishment.  

Saturday, we got a little snow, which made for some fun walks around the neighborhood.  While Karen was at work, Steve & Zeeke picked up some more Christmas lights and decorated the tree.  When Karen got home, we all went out to P'unk Burger for dinner.

Sunday, Grand Pop Bob and Grandma Joy came up for a fun-filled extravaganza.  We started with a trip to the Franklin Institute to see the Terracotta Warriors.  Zeeke made it a little deeper into the giant heart before freaking out and fleeing this time around.  After that we grabbed lunch at the Imperial Inn in Chinatown, visited the Reading Terminal Market, toured Septa's Christmas bus, and checked out the Christmas Light Show and Wanamaker Organ Concert at Macy’s. 

Conversations with Zeeke:

"Daddy, which would you rather kiss? A giant kissing bear..."
"I pick the giant kissing bear!"
"...whose kisses are poisonous.... or.... an alligator?"
"Sticking with the giant kissing bear."
"But it will poison you!"
"Yeah, well, still seems about as safe as the alligator."
"But the alligator looks just like a little baby and it's soooooo cute!"
"Awwww... but I'm going to stay with the giant kissing bear."
"Ok, but the giant kissing bear is so scary, it will make you run away."
"Well, maybe that's for the best...."

Monday, we went over Lettie's for an impromptu after-school play date.

Tuesday, Zeeke drew an amusement park for art class.

Wednesday morning, Zeeke came running into the kitchen to deliver a weather report. "Daddy, today, it's going to be sunny, but tomorrow and the day after that it's going to be rainy."  Steve was grateful and impressed, but remained suspicious since his weather app disagreed.

Thursday, Zoe came over for a play date after school, then we went up to the neighborhood tree lighting at the fountain.  Zeeke enjoyed all the festivities and free food and told Santa he wanted "a Transformer that can change into ANYTHING!"

Saturday, we took a cold trip to the Zoo.  

Sunday, we met up with Zoe at the playground and tried to visit the library but it was closed.  When we got back home, we decided to swing over to West Philly and catch the movie Coco with Jen & Amelie.  It was great and the kids had a blast.  "Daddy!" said Zeeke enthusiastically. "There's a lot of Spanish words in this movie!"

Conversations with Zeeke:

Late night bathroom chat:
"Daddy, if three people ever sit in that tub, a big mouth will open up and swallow them. I'm really scared."

Saturday was Zeeke's last art class of the season at Fleisher Art Memorial and we finally got to see the last two pieces he's been working on for a while.  

Sunday morning, we went to Ali, Kate, Delano & Rosa's house for a great Friendsgiving brunch with the families of a lot of his old pre-school friends.

Conversations with Zeeke:

"Daddy, did you know that there's a certain medicine that if teenagers take it, it makes them dance for like a half and hour and then act really silly for about an hour."
"I think I know that one."

Tuesday, Zeeke's school was closed for Election Day, so we met up with Tim, Tanya, Lettie & Winnie at The Franklin Institute.  Zeeke and Lettie had a blast running around like little maniacs and they introduced us to some rooms we hadn't visited on our trip.  After many, many hours, we headed home in the rain.  At our polling place, Zeeke insisted on working the machine and was happy to get his "I Voted" stickers in both English and Spanish.  

Friday, school was closed again, this time for Veterans Day.  Fortunately, Tim & Tanya invited us and Nick & Zoe over for an afternoon play date.  Lettie, Zoe & Zeeke played games, tortured each other, and put on shows while the grownups had some drinks.  

Saturday, we went to the fabulous CraftNOW Create event at The Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts.  Zeeke sewed a fabric flower, decorated a top, and made beautiful balancing dragonfly.  We even got to see our friend Addie and her woodworking friends making chairs!  After a quick lunch, it was off to art class.

Sunday morning, Steve & Zeeke went for a hike with the Family Nature Club.  Zeeke got to try his hand at starting a fire with both a bow drill and a hand drill.  In the afternoon, Karen & Zeeke went to library, where Zeeke happily discovered a Pokemon manga and played on the computers.

Conversations with Zeeke:

"Hi, Benjamin Franklin."
"That's not Benjamin Franklin, Daddy. That's Benjamin Franklin's butler."
"How do you know the word butler?"
"A book about Batman."

"Daddy, are there any dangerous jobs?"
"Sure. Soldier, police officer..."
"No, I mean super dangerous like... getting struck by lightning."
"I don't think there are any jobs where you get stuck by lightning."
"Or like any job where you get hurt and killed and it's super painful? What are all the jobs where you die?"

Tuesday was Halloween.  There was a costume parade at Zeeke's school in the afternoon.  For ease of getting dressed on his own and because his shield is quite weapon-like, we had him wear last year's lobster costume.  After an early dinner, we got him into his Captain America costume and met up with some of his pals to trick-or-treat along 13th Street.  Zeeke and Sadie held out the longest, neither wanting to stop collecting candy until the other was also done.  A few minutes after Sadie & Dudley dropped Steve & Zeeke off at their house though, Lettie and her family came by, so Zeeke rallied for another couple blocks with her, before collapsing in exhaustion on their front porch.

Saturday morning Zeeke donned the Captain America suit one more time for Moira's epic 6th birthday party.  There were fantastic games, including turn a grown-up into a mummy, and a decorate your own cupcake bar.  And then it was off to his art class.

Sunday we went to Pirate Adventure Day at the Brandywine River Museum of Art.  There were lots of pirates to talk to, pirate crafts, a pirate scavenger hunt in the art galleries, and a two-person interactive production of Peter Pan.  Plus we ran into our friends Karyn, Zack, & Maddie there.  When we were done, we went outside and explored their garden and sculptures.

Conversations with Zeeke:

"Daddy, there are two Armandos in my class. And they're twins, but they don't live together. And they have the same attitude! When they see me, they say 'Ew!'"

"So what does your gym teacher have you do then? Did you run?"
"Well, some of us ran, but we weren't supposed to."
"No? Why not?"
"We can only walk. You see, Daddy, Mr. Horizon is just like this really ordinary person."
"Oh, ok."

After he and Jack made Steve into a toilet paper mummy:
Karen: "Zeeke, what was your favorite part of the day?"
Zeeke: "Moira's party!"
Karen: "What was the best part of the party?"
Zeeke: "Using all that toilet paper! You never let me use that much toilet paper!"

"Daddy, did you know that Aldo's in the lobby and Loggy's in the office? And Little Cookie Lulu is in the sweet treat room trying to get another cookie? And that the sweet treat room is on fire? And that she's Aldo's little sister? Now she's trying to get a chocolate bar but Little Piggy Popper keeps popping out piggies and there's already way too many piggies so she's gotta stop."

Zeeke had another good week at school.  He seems to be figuring out how to play the game and control his more disruptive impulses.  Of course a big part of his motivation is getting rewarded with iPad, television, and fruit snacks.  

Thursday evening, there was a Harry Potter Halloween Party at the Rec Center, but it was a little overwhelming for him.  He much preferred just playing soccer outside with his friend Cecily. 

Saturday, we went a birthday party for his pal Sadie where he got to catch up with some of his old pals from day care.  After a great time there, we headed uptown to his art class and did some early trick-or-treating on at the Fall Fest on Passyunk Avenue.

Sunday, we had planned to go for a hike, but it turned out to be a very rainy day, so we stayed in, eating cinnamon rolls and watching The Brave Little Toaster.  We put the finishing touches on Zeeke's Halloween costume and built a chocolate cookie haunted house. 

Conversations with Zeeke:

"I love Bobby."
"Who is Bobby?"
"Bobby is my head. I hate my head. That's why I hit it like this."

"Someday I want to be as old as my head. My head is 98 years old."

"Why do you hate your head?"
"Because it makes me not be able to see my head and I want to see my head."
"And your head's name is Bobby?"
"No my head's name is The Head."

Joe: "Look at you, you're the spitting image of your mother!"
Zeeke (giving him the stink eye): "Do you even know my mother?"
Joe: "And you've got your father's personality!"

"How are you kids doing down there, Zeeke?"
"We're playing Try To Get Everything!"

Zeeke had a good week at school, yes, five whole days!  If you're keeping score, which we totally are, that means he's now officially had more good ones (15) than bad (12).  He's also starting to shake off some of his shyness and connect with his new classmates, recognizing them, using their names, saying hi and goodbye, responding when they talk to him.  

Zeeke's new thing to do when he wakes up super early is to turn on his radio and listen to National Public Radio. We think he likes it because their call letters are the same as the TV station where he watches PBS Kids shows. They've been having a pledge drive this week, so over dinner one night he was filling us in on how that's going. "This morning there was a college challenge!"

Wednesday, Zeeke earned some ipad time by raking leaves, which he thought was great fun.

Saturday, Zeeke painted his wooden sculptures at art class and then we came home and carved a jack o'lantern.  Zeeke chose the face, Steve worked the knife.

Sunday, after failing to make it in to the over-crowded Boo At The Zoo, we grabbed some pizza and went to the Halloween Family Fun Day at The Woodlands, a beautiful 18th century cemetery in West Philly.  There was a scavenger hunt, arts & crafts, spooky history, medical oddities, and folks making electronic music.  Zeeke enjoyed his first cemetery experience and is already talking about when he can go back.

Conversations with Zeeke:

"Daddy, did you know that with my humming I can shatter glass and knock down trees?"
"Wow, is that something you would actually want to do?"
"Well, yeah, if I was being attacked."
"If you were being attacked by a tree?"
"Yes, if a tree tried to get me."
"Has that ever happened?"
"Well, it hasn't happened, but once at The Big Slide a tree tried to get me."