Checkmate Mate

When your kid pulls out a chess board, you know you have done something right

Zane & His Robots

I love this robot.  Zane and Zach have so much fun working on projects together with it.  I can see it developing into so much more as the years go by too.

We are still in the phase where he wants to build already designed robots, but he finds the projects on his own, and does most of the building.  He does ask for help with pieces that he can't get together (some of them are really tough to get together, even for me).  Zach helps him troubleshoot when he runs into problems or wants to modify something.

These are no small projects either.  Zane started this particular robot in the early afternoon, and he was late to bed by the time he got it up and running.  It is worth it though.

Marble Runs

One of Zane's favorite things to do is build and play with marble runs.  It has been his favorite since he was just a little guy.  We used to use it during his ST, with each piece being the thing he was working for during ABA therapy.  Over the years his collection of blocks and marble run pieces have gradually increased, and Zora has decided that she also enjoys marble runs.  Over time, it has become a family activity to pull out a portion of the blocks and start building, combing multiple sets of runs and blocks to make new and interesting marble mazes.

State Fair!

This year the pictures aren't great, but we had the best time.  For the first time in years, probably decades, I also got a wristband to ride all the rides, courtesy of my parents, who we met up with.  I wasn't sure about it, but since Steve wasn't running around with us, and an even number works better, I decided that I would do it this year.  Zora wasn't just happy, she was ecstatic.  It made it so much fun to join in instead of being on the sidelines.

The ride I thought was going to be the easiest ended up being sort of scary for me...that one where it is a bunch of swings that spin in circles.  Every time it changed speeds it jerked me back and I felt like I was going to get dumped out of the seat backwards, combined with my seat continually swinging too close to the empty seat in front of me.  I was never so glad to get off a ride in my life, including some massive roller coasters.

The one that scared Zora the most was not the roller coaster or some of the other "bigger" rides (including the swings), was the dinky "haunted house" thing.  She was clinging to me as we wiggled back and forth in one of those converted semi truck trailer sized rides, where lights occasionally flashed.  It was the only ride she had no interest in riding again.  That surprised me.


Both of the kids were thrilled that they were both big enough to finally ride the bumper cars.  We had a blast aiming for each other as we spun around.  Both kids were giggling so hard.

Zane, the daredevil that he is, rode some rides on his own this year because Zach and I looked at them and said "no way am I getting on that thing!".  So, he had fun on things like the zipper.  One other ride requires the riders to help pull themselves around to make it scarier, and after the first time, with a kid his age, he was frustrated that it didn't go fast enough.  I told him that if he wanted to go faster, find some bigger kids to sit with.  He ran back, found a group of high school kids and joined them.  At first, they were being nice until they understood he wanted to go fast, and then they all had fun spinning like crazy people.

It was cool and threatening rain, but the weather held off until it was late and time to go anyway.  It was cool enough that we told the kids that we wouldn't do the log flume (water ride) until the last ride so we wouldn't have to walk around wet.  It ended up being notable when we got stuck going up.  Apparently, we also completely soaked the riders below us when we came down the first run.  Ha! 

We had so much fun.  We even ran into Steve & Nora for a bit.  For the first time the kids were actually interested in the educational stuff in some of the buildings (the one where they have the Parks department, and the water safety stuff, in particular).   It was an awesome time, probably the best year yet for us.

Looking Back: Early February 2011

Since I skipped about 8 months of blogging, I wanted to do some quick catch-up posts.

These are some of the highlights from the first half of February 2011

Zora snuggling with Zane as he plays his Nintendo DS

I forgot how long his hair used to be

I only intended to trim the ends, but he decided he wanted it like it used to be.

Post hair cut, looking at an infinity of Zane's in the mirror

Oma treats us to a meal at Subway after spending the day with Zora

Gymnastics

Enough snow that it buried our planters. (notice the 4th one you can just see the handles)

And some of my favorite pictures from that time period, taken while Zane and I waited for Zora to finish at Reading Explorers.  He was playing his "Nintendo DS Extra Large" (he always adds "Extra Large" on the end of the name)

My Happy Guy