The king of timeouts continued his reign of terror at school this week. After repeated reports that he'd frequently have a good afternoon after a really bad morning, we started to wonder if we needed to re-think our breakfast strategy. For the longest time, it was so difficult to get any food into him, especially in the mornings, and so breakfast had become an enticing but nutritionally weak meal high in sugar and carbs. Determined to change that, Steve went shopping for some high protein options Thursday. Oh, the difference a few breakfast sausages can make! He had a great day on Friday.
It also didn't hurt that Karen told him he couldn't go to the airport to pick up Aunt Patsy if he didn't have a good day. He was very excited about seeing her and she made a big impression in just a couple hours (one of the car door's is now known as Patsy's door). After his bedtime Friday night, Karen and Patsy snuck out to Cape May for a girl's weekend with their friend Heather.
Saturday morning, Steve & Zeeke ran errands to Target and Old Navy, then headed out to music class. Zeeke continues to be a ham in class. During one song, when the kids are supposed to bounce tennis balls, Zeeke came up with this trick where he'd charge towards one of the teachers with a tennis ball raised high in hand like he was going to spike it in their faces, then drop it harmlessly behind his back at the last second, causing their brief terror to turn to hysterical laughter.
That afternoon, the boys went to the playground. After a year or more of not liking the swings, Zeeke's starting to enjoy them again. Although his "wheeeees" are still somewhat subdued compared to the other kids' and he's usually shouting "Slower! Slower!" instead of "Higher! Higher!" The fun really got started though when his best bud Sadie showed up. There was much running around and squealing with delight and feeding of imaginary animals.
Sunday morning, Aunt Dena came over and rode over with the two bachelors to Jack & William's birthday party at Bounce U. Zeeke really enjoyed the first bouncing room, but when we moved into the more sports-like one he was less enthused and spent quite a bit of time acting as automatic ball return for the girls who were shooting hoops. When it came time for pizza and cake, Zeeke wanted to sit with the adults. He refused to eat pizza until he saw there were pepperoni slices and then endulged thoroughly. The goodie bag included a temporary tattoo of a toucan and some great toys, all of which Zeeke has really enjoyed.
Unfortunately he fell asleep on the drive home and then refused to nap when they got back. So, they headed out for a long afternoon at the playground, where Zeeke made friends with a boy named Manuel. Steve actually got to sit back and rest a little, while the two boys drew with chalk, ran around doing tricks on the jungle gym and pretending to be monsters.
All in all, Zeeke was amazing about Karen being away for the weekend. When they bought some new crayons, he asked Steve to "draw a picture of Mommy," but there were no tears at all. Fortunately he enjoys the intense one-on-one attention he gets when one of us is away.
Health Update: We had a scheduled trip to the hemotologist this week and Zeeke's platelet count countinues to be healthy and high!
Conversations with Zeeke:
KERPLUNK!
"Zeeke!"
"I'm ok, Mommy! I just fell into the garbage!"
"OK, Daddy, we're going to play a game called Hide and Drink."
"I like it already!"
Looking out the window on a windy day:
"Mommy, the trees are dancing!"