Zachary is learning a valuable lesson–that sometimes mom knows best.

Had he listened to me and put his brand new $100 bill away when I told him to, it wouldn’t have fallen out of his pocket. And he wouldn’t have mowed over it. What makes it heartbreaking for me is that this is $100 he earned himself, mowing lawns. As much as I want to simply replace it, I know that I would be doing him a disservice if I did. If I dropped a hundred dollar bill on the street and walked away, no one’s going to give me another one. Hopefully, my bank will take pity on him and swap the pieces of his shredded bill for a new one (I think we’re close to 50%). Otherwise, my heart will hurt because he’s upset. But I bet that next time I tell him to do something important, he listens to me.

–John Lennon

Tonight we watched the very first episode, “Days Gone Bye.”

When it first started, I was questioning my parental choices. But once he started commenting on all the underlying themes, and noticing things that a lot of adults I know wouldn’t catch, I relaxed. Granted, this is episode 1, and there’s a lot of shit that goes down between then and now. But after watching the news with him, which covered ebola, ISIL (ISIS??) beheadings, Ferguson, and the teen who was shot in his own home, I think a little fake zombie apocalypse is just what’s needed to lighten the mood.

Besides, if there’s anyone I want with me when the zombie apocalypse does go down, it’s The Goose. He named every gun, helicopter, and military vehicle that appeared in tonight’s episode.

Which brings us to sushi and bowling. Chris wanted all of us out of the house so he could get some rest, and seriously, who can blame him? So he requested that I go and “do something fun” with the boys–I decided on bowling. Zachary hasn’t used his bowling ball since he received it for his 7th birthday (and he’s almost 8), and who doesn’t love a good bowling alley on a Saturday night?

First, however, we had to stop at Marshalls for some new pillows, and it turns out there is a cute little sushi place in the same strip mall. I made the decision that we were going to eat there; it was, after all, right across the street from the bowling alley. Turns out it was a pretty good decision. The sushi was really good, and I actually got Zachary to try some, which he enjoyed except for my wasabi-laden soy sauce. The dinner entrees were yummy, the ambiance was great, and the boys and I had a really enjoyable dinner.

Next stop, bowling! Bowling with an almost-8-year old, and a 4-year old can go one of two ways: great or awful. This time was great. We got there about an hour before cosmic bowling, and we bowled a few games. Then cosmic bowling started and instead of leaving, Zachary asked if we could bowl one more. Of course, I think he wanted to show off his awesome robot dance moves more than he wanted to bowl–we don’t have cool strobes and black lights at our house. So we stayed for one more.

It was a really fun night, and very memorable. The boys were nice to each other (which wore off the next day, I knew it was too good to last too long), and we all had a lot of fun. There were also a few laughs–Jonah never disappoints. Check out the video of poor Jonah, learning the hard way, not to follow the ball down the lane, hee hee.

If you’d like another little chuckle, check out Zachary’s smooth dance moves.

A catcher and his body are like the outlaw and his horse. He’s got to ride that nag till it drops. ~Johnny Bench

Zachary is getting a good feel for catching, and the new stance Chris has him in has definitely improved his batting. I created this little video of him at our last game against the Mets. Unfortunately, we lost. There’s always next time!

For those interested, this video was taken and modified entirely on my iPhone 4. The video was shot using the regular iPhone 4 camera, and then modified using the Silent Film Director app, where I sped it up a bit, added a 70s filter, and my own music.

It’s also very interesting to see how Chris and I have influenced him, and his vocabulary. We never really talked to him like he was a baby or a child, which is evidenced by his use and understanding of words and terms well beyond his age. This can be a great thing, but every coin has two sides, and many words have multiple meanings. And it can often be amusing to hear Zachary’s definitions of words he thinks he knows.

A perfect example came from a Goosebumps book he was reading the other day. I randomly have him read out loud a few pages of the various books he reads to check his comprehension, and he came across the sentence “The window was framed by large, black, ominous shutters.” I made him stop there, because I was sure the word “ominous” was going to trip him up. As it turned out, however, I was wrong. He very clearly defined ominous as “scary and evil”, which, while technically defined as “…foreboding or foreshadowing evil…”, Zachary obviously got the point.

No, ominous did not trip him up at all–but he still had an odd look on his face, like he didn’t quite understand the sentence. After a moment of thought I realized the word that was causing him problems was “framed”, so I asked him if he knew what that word meant. He told me he did, but he didn’t understand what it had to do with a window. Now it was my turn to look perplexed, and I asked him to tell me what the word “framed” meant, to which he replied, “That’s when someone tries to get you into trouble by blaming you for something that you didn’t do. So what would someone be blaming a window for, anyway?”

Priceless. My 7-year old doesn’t equate “framed” with enclosing something, like a picture or a window; no, he understands the nefarious act of falsely accusing someone of something. Where did I go wrong? (That’s a rhetorical question. Heh, one of these days I’ll write a post about that word.)

Of course, that’s not to say that we won’t move before he’s out of school–in fact it would be really odd if we were still on Lake Alden for the next 10 years, but you never know. I like my home. 🙂 We also have to consider Jonah. There’s no way to afford FLEC for both of them, when Jonah starts kindergarten in a few years, so he will likely start Apopka, where Zachary is now.

There are a few other, personal reasons, for the switch, but this post isn’t about me. 😀

As for totally screwing Zachary up before he moves out on his own some day, only time will tell. I have plenty of other opportunities to mess him up major decisions to make on his behalf between now and then.