Zeeke's new favorite word is "Never!" We'll point out that it's time for him to try the potty and he'll shout dramatically, "No! Never!" It's pretty funny and fortunately he's not as stubborn as his pledge. We were curious where he picked up the habit and then overheard his teacher Annie saying it with the exact same inflection. Another verbal quirk is telling us what he wants or doesn't want by whether it's his favorite: "Ice cream is my favorite" or "Baked Ziti is not my favorite."
Sunday was a very eventful day that got off to a terrible start. Karen got up with Zeeke and when they got downstairs, she opened the toilet only to find a live rat inside. Impresively, she had the piece of mind to shut the lid, put something heavy on it, and calmly tell Zeeke that she needed to go and wake up Steve. Steve verified the situation and added some more weight to the lid, then we bravely fled the house to get doughnuts and shop at Target.
When we got back, Zeeke impressed us by drawing a really great face. After checking that our visitor was still there, we headed out again, this time to a firefighter-themed birthday party for Zeeke's classmate Delano. It was a lot of fun and despite the big dose of sugar, we managed to get Zeeke down for a nap when we got back. While he was asleep, Steve figured out what to do about the rat problem, squirting some bleach into the tank and letting the fumes asphyxiate it.
When Zeeke woke up, we fled the dead or dying critter and went to Steve's parents house for dinner. Zeeke loved having everyone's full attention and was a total ham for his doting audience. While we were there, they broke out a great old set of wooden blocks that Steve and his brothers used to play with when they were kids. Zeeke liked them so we brought them home.
While Karen read Zeeke bedtime stories upstairs, Steve disposed of the corpse, bringing an end to a very long day.