Days 65, 66, 67, 68, 69

I consiously let the plans for the last 2 weeks go a bit out of control. I'd been letting the calendar fill up on both the personal and professional side, knowing I had the support of Babcia to help, and that this time of year just does get crazy.

I worked every day, again, consiously letting important meetings slip on the calendar...but I didn't work full days every day. Just coming and going to important end of the year reviews. I took a lot of time for my friends (had 2 evenings with my girlfriends during that time!), took the whole family to see Sara's play "Awaited" (along with the Claytons), went to see Zak's first Christmas play (too cute! he saw me in the audience, but didn't wave, just looked straight at us and told me afterward he saw me), and hosted the Higdon Christmas party. All of this meant things were a bit chaotic, but much of it I could do with Zak, and of course it's just kind of standard for this time of year. For anyone who knows me well, you know I'm a list person...and so at this time of year, I just end up having lists upon lists of things to do. I don't feel the last 2.5 weeks were bad in terms of time spent between work and home, I just feel like I was going at hyper speed in both, and can only sustain that for so long...and now I'm on vacation, so I made it through, and am now enjoying two dedicated weeks with the family.

All of my end of the year work meetings went really well. I had a personal review with the president I support, and then an org review with my vice-president. Both went better than I could have hoped for, and so its making it easy for me to turn off now that I'm on vacation.

One of my lists of course has been some of the cute things Zak has done over the past 2.5 weeks. He's so clearly hitting a next stage, I'm so happy I'm having time to notice.

First, he woke up one morning, and went to the window to check the weather. He announced: "The sky is clear, the sun is coming up, and it's partly cloudly." Ok. That same day, we were building walls out of the cardboard bricks he has. I don't know why, but I got a bit of a mean streak in me, and as he was building, I karate chopped the wall down. He said "Nooo, Mommy! I was still building it! You go over and sit on those steps until you say you are sorry!" :-) I said I was sorry right away to avoid having to sit on the time out step.

Grandpa bought him a new set of tools for Christmas. We've been working (finally finished) a small home improvement project of installing some new french doors. Zak took his hammer, hammered every nail in the threshold. After each hammering session, he took his level and checked if it was ok. Sometimes he nailed some more, sometimes he went on to the next nail. At the end, he stood back and said "Finally. This project is done!" Cracked me up! I've been saying it quite a bit because we thought that project was only going to take a week and it ended up taking several. I guess he's heard me.

The other thing I've noticed he's started to parrot from me...I don't have a lot of patience, especially for things that are supposed to be easy and turn out to be heard. For example, I needed to get one last email out to feel comfortable stopping for the day. I hit send from my iPad...and wouldn't you know my mailbox was full so i couldn't send. As usual, I say something like "Oh Come On!!!!" Zak was trying to put together the airplane Grandma bought him, and the screw wasn't going in right. He said "Soemthing's wrong. Com ON!!!" Cracking me up...I actually got one on video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9No6lO3QqMg

We had another incident with him wanting a drink in the middle of the night. This time, he asked for milk. I gave him water. He told me no, water makes him sick and he'd have juice. I gave him water again. Again he insisted that water makes him sick. Finally he took it and went back to sleep. I wonder how many negotiations we'll have on this topic before he gives up :-)

Zak has also been insisting that the bed in his room is too small. It's a single bed. I actually asked Kuba, do you think it's too small? Should we buy him a bigger bed? He looked at me like I was crazy (and he's right)...I think most kids sleep in a single bed. But one night, as he was insisting again that his bed was too small, I had an idea...together Kuba, Zak and I put the two single mattresses next to each other on the floor, effectively making one big bed. He LOVED it. The next day, Grandma and Grandpa were over, and he explained to them that now he has a big bed too, like Mommy, Tato and Babcia. He said he needed this bed, because he doesn't sleep in Mommy's bed anymore. He truly does love it and has slept every night since there with "less" hassle :-)

And now we are on day 2 of our vacation in Florida. It's going to be such a different vacation because Zak is so much more aware. We had a great dinner on the beach our first night here. The waitress explained their house wines to me, and I said "Uhh, I think I'll try the Pinot." Zak then immediately said "Uhh, I think I'll try the chocolate milk." She confirmed the order and I was so proud of him :-)

We did have an incident where Zak was melting down as we were trying to check out the fitness center. He didn't want to go in, and was throwing a fit. He wanted to be outside at the pool. Eventually I took him back to the car (we weren't ready for the pool yet, we were just trying to get our bearings) and told him I was very disappointed in him. He started to cry. A few minutes later, I told him I love him a lot, I was just disappointed, and I asked if he knew I loved him. He nodded his head yes. I asked if he needed anything, like water or something to eat...he shook his head no. Within 5 minutes he was asleep. I was glad he said he knew I loved him.

I'll leave you with two last things he did in this first day and a half...he loves that we have one wall of our condo that basically folds completely back opening the wall to the lanai. He keeps investigating the tracks and such. Yesterday, he said it looks like the track is broken right here, and pointed. Kuba told him, no it's not broken, that's a screw to hold it in place. Zak said, "No Tato, that's not a screw, that's a nail. It's a nail holding it in place." Kuba was shocked. I guess Zakie knows best.

Last night we had been out all day and came back to the condo for dinner. It was already 8:30...and I asked Zak if he'd like a hot dog for dinner. He answered "Of course I'd LOVE a hot dog." Wow, ok, that was an energetic response that I hadn't heard about a hot dog before :-) I then asked if he'd like some hot chocolate too. He said "Of course, he'd LOVE some hot chocolate." That was easy :-)

So I'll close for now. sorry I let the last 2.5 weeks get away from me, but in general, the balance is still feeling good. Struggling on either side from time to time, but overall, just enjoying everything right now. Zak just climbed into bed between Kuba and I...and grabbed my hand before falling to sleep :-) This is definitely a high period in my life.