Here are four of my favorite shots (click on them to enlarge). At the bottom is a link to the slideshow on Flickr, to see more.

Perfect

She's Ready!

Chris and Scottie

Pretty girls!

Cheese!

Check out the full slideshow

The slide show below consists of pics from our first few days visiting Denver, including pics from Dinosaur Ridge. I had to get funky with filters on a few of them, but ended up pleased with the results. So check ‘em out and enjoy. Wedding pics will be next!

The funny face never goes out of style

‘m so glad that April is over. It was a really crappy month for the Johnson/Conger families, and we ended the month with Jonah missing Easter because he brought home some strep throat (the gift that keeps on giving), and Chris and Zachary went down hard. Fortunately for Zachary, he was feeling almost 100% by the end of the week, and played a great baseball game Saturday. Unfortunately for Chris, the strep bug gripped him tighter than an upside-down pole dancer grips her pole, and he was a miserable mess for almost 3 days.

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.)

Zachary gets to work

Chris and I went back and forth, and while money wasn’t the issue (we had a generous benefactor the past two years), we decided we wanted Zachary to attend the school that was just down the street and has earned a great reputation over the past few years, instead of shuttling him 30-40 minutes each way, every day. We also want The Goose to start creating the kind of friendships that span elementary school, middle school, high school, and beyond. He would not be able to do that if we kept him at FLEC–once he hit high school we would either have to move to keep him in a high school with his friends, or we would have to pull him away from all of the friends he’d made over the years. We’d rather pull him away now.

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.

The afternoon’s love fest started with Zachary trying to watch the cartoon that Jonah was watching and Jonah blocking Zachary’s view. After a few renditions of “get out of my way!” followed by grunting and heavy breathing, I was not surprised when the high-pitched shrieking reached my ears.

When I got to the living room I found Zachary looking contrite and trying to console a wailing Jonah. Okay, he was really trying to talk him into not squealing on him. Which of course, Jonah promptly did. It seems that Jonah had been standing on the couch, and when he wouldn’t get out of Zachary’s way, Zachary pushed him. Off the couch.

From these pics it’s hard to see how big and dark the bruise was (the little bugger won’t stand sill!), but it’s several days later and he still has his “trophy”.

I’m sure this is just the first of many brother-inflicted wounds to come. I think it’s time to invest in a first aid kit. Or a stand-by EMT.

Sigh. Another rite of passage over. Next thing I know he’ll be asking for the car keys.

This is such an important and worthwhile cause that I’m having Zachary walk with me. I’m so looking forward to Zachary meeting my friend’s son, Will, who was born premature (at 25 weeks) and has his own share of challenges. From what Janey has said, Will is a funny, precocious, lively and dear kid and I think he and The Goose will get along famously. I hope The Goose can keep up with him!

I need some help, though.
As you can see if you look over there ————————————>
I’m a little short of my goal. Every little bit helps. $10, $15, $25, etc. Please open your hearts and your wallets and donate a little coin to this wonderful organization. Help me and Zachary help babies in need. Just click on the badge.

If you’re interested in learning more about Will, Janey is always too happy to talk about her wonderful son. Check out Confessions of a Middle-Aged Suburban Diva.

The cousins ran the race

March started on the water, with Chris and I still out on our cruise which you should have read all about by now. The first few weeks of the month were pretty normal. Then came the week of 3/21. Aunt Carol and Uncle Dick came to FL to visit. We didn’t get to see nearly as much of them as we would have liked but they did see Zachary and all the cousins participate in the Mirriam Kitrell 5K run for FLEC. Bless his heart, he ran the entire thing (not the whole 5K, the first graders run half that).

Carol and Dick even went to one of the Goose’s baseball games, and then treated us to a fun day at Joker Marchant stadium, home of the Detroit Tigers spring training. It was a glorious day and everyone had a lot of fun. That was also the weekend our refrigerator decided to go kaputz. I’d be lying if I said I was sad about that, because I had a sweet little number delivered the Saturday we were at the baseball game. It’s awesome with a capital awesome, and only cost us $560 of our own cash.

My new best friend

The rest of March was spent working, cleaning up crap (literally–Jonah just can’t seem to get his shit together, so to speak), going to baseball practice and games, and in general living the dream.

It doesn’t look to be letting up, either. April is already shaping up to be as busy as March. Oy Vey!

View the insanity below.

Created with Admarket’s flickrSLiDR.