Future Shock

Mom was explaining to Zack today that since he's gotten so good at pooping in the potty, we will no longer be giving him little cars as presents for success, we are instead moving to stickers. Mom said something like "In the future, you will get stickers."

And Zack replied "I don't poop in the future, I poop in the potty."

First Joke

We got the Cars DVD today and were watching it in the car. Zack and I were later talking about the characters.
"There's Doc Hudson," I said.
"He not silly. They're not silly." said Zack
"What about Mater? He's a silly tow truck," I said.
"He's not silly, he's Darth Mater. Hee Hee Hee. That's funny" Zack said.
I couldn't help but laugh too.

First Anatomy Lesson...

I was giving Zack a bath today and was leaning over the tub. He was staring at my chest and said, "What's that?"
Being a mom that wants to be honest, I said, "Those are my boobs."
Zack says, "You have two." He pointed at each of them "One, two."
"Yes..." I said.
"What's that?" he said pointing again.
"My cleavage?" looking down to see what he was pointing to.
"Boob package. It's a package for boobs."
I laughed, "Yes, it's called a bra! It is like a package for my boobs!"

Strong preferences

Zack has expressed opinion in the past when asked about what clothes to wear. But now he's starting to proactively demand what he wants to wear. Last week, he wanted to wear his boots to school during a warm day. And the other day he wanted to wear red shorts. BTW, red is his first official favorite color.

We tried teaching a knock knock joke to Zack today. It ended up a bit like this:
Me: "Knock knock"
Zack: "Who's at the door?"

Broken Arm?

Zack fell in the hallway and had a minor bump against the floor, banged his arm against the wall and was whimpering a bit. He came to me, holding his arm. I kissed his arm (which was fine, just a bruise) and then he said to me,
"I need some batteries for my arm"
"Why?" I asked puzzled.
"Because my arm doesn't work."
Jen and I couldn't help but laugh.

Zack's Little Finger

At dinner today, Zack peeked his finger over the side of the table and said, "hi." Thus began a long conversation between his finger (named Zachary) and mine (named Mommy Finger). He put his finger under the table and said, "I'm hiding." Then he stretched his arm away from me and said, "I'm far, far away." His hand went up in the air, "I'm flying!" and it dunked into his milk "It's cold!" The cutest was when I showed him how my finger could dance and wiggled it around. He said, "I can't, I have no feet." Then I asked if his finger would like some lasagne and he explained, "I have no hands." When my finger crept up and threatened to steal a grape, he said, "You can't, you have no hands." We went to have a bath and his other finger joined, "We're going swimming."

I figure as long as it doesn't start saying "red rum" then it's all OK. ;-)

What's on your left shoulder?

Zack surprised us tonight with that question as I walked into the bathroom where he was getting a bath. On my left shoulder was his blankie, but I was surpised as how accurate he was given I was facing him. For the past few months he's been uncanny in his right/left accuracy which amazes me because I distinctly remember having to ask my sister which was right/left when I was around 6 or so.

Zack quote of the day "The Space Shuttle does not have a penis"

Questions about the baby

I had a funny conversation with Zack recently about one of his baby sisters I was holding and soothing while sitting on the couch.
Zack said, "Can I touch her?"
I said, "Yes"
"Can I see her tummy?"
"Yes" as a lifted up her shirt for him to see
"Can I kiss her?"
"Yes"
"Can I see her hair?"
"Yes"
"Can I take off her hat?"
"Yes"
"Can I touch her hair?"
"Yes"
"Can I run my car up and down on her head?"
"Umm...No"

Gracks Family 2.0 (and 3.0)

Gracks Family 2.0 (and 3.0) was released on August 23, 2006, ahead of the expected September launch date. Lead developer Jen Grant (userid= "mom") pushed both models live within a span of 5 minutes on Wednesday afternoon.
Subsequent testing on the live systems for the 48 hours after launch was successful, development was verified, and the new family was checked out of the Sequoia Hospital version control system on Friday. The new family version is home and adjusting to its new look and feel. Fortunately mom is equipped with an Intel Dual-core Infantrino processor for parallel feeding.




Technical Specifications:
Model Name: Zoe Margaret Stack
Release Date: August 23, 2006 12:33 pm
Style: Laptop
Operating System: Female
Processor: One hungry tummy
Memory: None yet, but expandable
Storage: So far, unlimited capacity
Software: SleepThruAnything, CryLouderThanMySister
Display: Blonde hair, dad's face, and closed eyes.
Length: 18.5 inches
Weight: 5 pounds 15 ounces
First Words:
#include
main() {
printf("Hello World!\n");
}

Model Name: Zadie Elizabeth Stack
Release Date: August 23, 2006 12:38 pm
Style: Laptop
Operating System: Female
Processor: One hungry tummy
Memory: None yet, but expandable
Storage: 2 fluid oz. Limit tested, exceeded and reboot required many times.
Software: BornToSuck, CharmingSmile
Display: Brown hair, mom's face, and active alert eyes.
Length: 18 inches
Weight: 5 pounds 11 ounces
First Words:
class FirstWords {
public static void main (String args[]) {
for (;;) {
System.out.print("I want a pony! ");
}
}
}



About the Gracks family:
Founded on September 6, 1998, the Gracks family is a Silicon Valley-based dual income (usually) nuclear family with three silly children and one cute dog. The Gracks family is a leading provider of creative family diversions and used diapers. Early investors include Grant Pacific Ventures and the Stack Capital Partners. The Gracks family is headquartered in Redwood City, CA.
http://gracks.blogspot.com

Scrambled Eggs and Rrrawwwrrr!

The other day for breakfast at grandma and grandpa's, zack was doing dinosaur impressions but was also hungry, therefore he requested some "scrambled eggs and rrrrawwwrr!" for breakfast.

Cute stories abound

So I have been keeping a list of cute stories that I wanted to remember to blog about. Well, I've finally got a few moments and here they are!

Friendly to everyone
One of Zack's favorite people is Clark who lives across the street. Clark and his friend Adam were outside throwing a football around and Zack saw them through our front window. He whoops, runs to the window and yells as loud as he can "HI CLARK!" then he pauses and says, "HI OTHER KID!"

To each his own
Sometimes Zack wakes up early and crawls into bed with us. One morning, he crawled into bed and saw the pink and yellow blankies that Andy and I both still have under our pillows. He then very carefully picked the pink blankie and said 'mommy' pushing it to me and then took the yellow blankie and put it near Andy's face and said
'Daddy.' Then he curled up with his own blankie as if all was right with the world.

And they all fall down
Earlier this year when Zack was new to his bed, we heard a THUNK one morning and then Zack crying. Andy leapt out of bed like it was on fire, started to run and then took a nose dive on the carpet his limbs flying everywhere. After asking if he was OK, I went to check on Zack, who was fine, but had gotten caught up in his sheets and rolled off the bed. As we got back into bed, I asked Andy if he had tripped on something - a toy maybe? Nope, he just slipped and fell. Like father, like son I guess. Later that day, fully awake, I realized how funny it was.

The joy of a thousand mattresses
We went shopping for a new mattress and Zack made friends with two other little boys - Justin 5 and Brandan 7 who were also waiting for their parents. All three of them would squeal and jump on the matresses. Zack chased them around as they would jump from bed to bed pretending he was a monster trying to catch them (he wasn't big enough to jump from bed to bed). He also climbed up on one of the beds pointing "shark!" to one of the corners of the room and began jumping with them. It was clearly more fun than even going to the park. Who knew that shopping for a new mattress was so much fun?

We have a jumper! and a new game

Zack has taken to jumping off things in the last week. At the park he's jumped off ledges onto the sand, some ledges even 4 feet up! I was shocked, but he seems to love it. Yesterday he climbed up on a 2 step ladder i had set up and jumped (up!) and then down the 2 feet onto the hardwood floor. It's a bit worrysome since we're not sure if he knows his limits, but Zack has been measured and careful so far.

Also Zack made up a new game this morning and named it himself. He called it "Peek-a-ball". He would go into the front living room with two rubber balls, raise them high with his arms and throw them up in the air, and then run around trying to find them as they bounced all over the hardwood floor. He looked at me and said "Daddy, I'm playing Peek-a-ball!"

Strawberry Patch

Here's a great shot from the strawberry fields in Watsonville were Zack was happy to pick (and eat) the strawberries

scary sharks

While in San Diego, we attended a birthday party with our friends Becca, Eric and their little ones Retta and Jack. They had a huge blow up slide, jumping thing, but when Zack crawled through one of the parts there were sharks. Here he is saying 'scary, scary, get me up' and we told him to punch the sharks so they wouldn't be scary anymore.

At the theater

On a whim, we went to the Children's Theater production of 2 little pigs in Palo Alto. The same company that I took summer classes with, the same theme song sung before the show "The Children's theater is lots of fun" and the same guy running the program! Zack seemed to enjoy the dancing kids, the singing and the play itself. He clapped at the right times and commented on where the big bad wolf was a couple of times. But, given that he's related to me, I was not surprised when he stood up in the middle of a scene (we were right in front) and said "I want a cupcake."

Silly stories

So it's been a while since we've posted, so the silly stories have been piling up! So we're going to try to remember all of them...

Zack has now watched the movie Madagascar at least 8 times on the DVD in our new minivan (or vinivan as zack says). As it turns out he's been talking about it in school and at one point his teacher said 'well I guess I ought to see that movie too.' Zack became very serious and said "you may come to my car and watch it anytime."

Because it's summer, Zack has been going to bed late and getting up early (a couple of times at 5 in the morning!). If we've left his door open, he comes running into our room and says 'wake up time!' while we sleepily try to explain that the sun hasn't even come up. Of course, that isn't very effective when the sun actually comes up at 6am and Zack yells "the sun! I see the sun!" One morning he came in with the duck whistle, walked all the way around to Andy's side of the bed and then blew it as loud as he could QUACK! There are also mornings where we have left his door closed, so after playing for a few minutes in his room, he'll knock on his door and call for us to let him out. And, of course, we often let him in our bed in the mistaken assumption that we might convince him to go back to sleep (never happens). One morning he jumped on me and after saying 'don't jump on Mommy' I realized I needed to give him something TO do - this is called re-direction and the daycare has taught us to use it. So without a better idea I say "go jump on Daddy, Zack." ;-)

More to come as we recall them...

red popsickle

red popsickle, originally uploaded by Drumbone.

Working Together

I dropped off Zack at school today and needed to bring along a new pack of diapers. Zack got out of the car and immediately saw his friend Justin getting out of the car too. After they gave each other a hug, Zack wanted to carry the pack of diapers. But Justin was a step ahead of him and opened up the gate for Zack and then once inside the building, Justin put the security card on the pad to unlock the door and then he opened the door for Zack. All Justin's dad and I had to do was walk behind them and chuckle at how two boys who aren't even 2.5 yet can work together and complete this task. I guess I don't need to walk Zack into school anymore...

Traps, the boy wonder

They say Buddy Rich started at age 2 also...

My mommy

We were in Tahoe for a few days with Grandma and Grandpa Grant and my mom was trying to explain to Zack that she was my mom - or mommy's mom. Zack looked puzzled and said slightly defensively:
"My mommy is my mommy. My mommy is nice. She is my friend."
Let's hope that's still true when he's 16.