Land of Zack

Some cool things have been happening in the land of Zack.

Yesterday was Scout Sunday which means some of the scouts in his Pack attend the church services of the church that allows us use of their facilities. Well Zack had a speaking roll in the services and much to my amazement he did exactly what he was supposed to do and did it very well. Proud of my little man.

Tonight we went to a local a.m. radio station for a tour with the scouts and he was asking questions, was amazed by some of the things the equipment could do and got to speak on air very briefly with the other scouts. He had a blast doing that. One the way home we turned that station on the radio and he about jumped out of the seat when he recognized the dj's voice.

Today was also report card day, he brought home an awesome report card! For that he was rewarded with a trip to his favorite frozen yogurt place.

Next month is the spring concert at school and his grade is performing that night. The music teacher sent home a paper asking if anyone wanted to be considered for certain rolls that would be included in the concert, Zackary asked if he could be one of the few to have a special roll but he did request to have a none speaking part, well he was told today he did get a roll. He was pretty excited about that. So I can not wait to see that!

I am pretty darn proud of my little man, he was once a shy hide behind mommy kid and would not talk to anyone he did not already know. Now he is making a name for himself and becoming more and more confident in the things he does. Love him.

The ketchup tragedy

This morning Zack ran into my room upset. He was eating breakfast an ran out of ketchup. Anyone who knows my child knows he can not eat without having ketchup. It is a world ending tragedy to run out of ketchup. I am quite surprised the earth did not just crumble at that very moment. It is amazing that he was able to function and still speak, I thought for sure he would shrivel up into a ball or start twitching from withdrawls!

He insisted we go to the grocery store and get more. I told him next time I go to the store we would get some and it was at that point that he started telling me that we needed milk and bread too. I figured we had a good learning experience here so I told him he needed to go get a piece of paper and make a grocery list. Then we would go to the store. SHH don't tell but I was just being lazy and did not want to do it.

A few minutes later he came into the room with a list.
milk
ketchup
bread
c syrup (chocolate syrup)
L meat (lunch meat)
cake
ice cream
cheese
w cream (whipped cream)
s syrup (strawberry syrup)
and lots of candy.

After I finished laughing we had a discussion about wants and needs and things we were really going to buy.

When we did get to the store, it was his job to make sure we got 'the essentials' off his list and anything else that I added to it.  Needless to say we forgot the lunch meat but did remember the ketchup. I put one bottle in the cart but he was insistent on buying two bottles. "Mom we have to buy two so we do not run out again". Yes he goes through more than a bottle a week and normally when it is on sale I stock up but somehow I missed paying attention to the stock.

Even though this turned into an learning experience I am still thinking of contacting the ketchup companies and asking if I could just buy a 55 gallon drum! Then maybe just maybe I would be able to go a month maybe two without buying any.

Do it with feeling.

Even though Zack reads every day once in a while he will ask Kris or I to read to him before bed. So tonight he ran to get a Pokemon graphic novel and asked Kris to read it. He knows I do not get into comic books and do not like reading them so he figured he would sucker Kris into it.

Kris starts reading and gets several pages into the book. Zack interrupts him mid sentence and says "Dad could you read with feeling?" I could not help it, I started laughing. Kris tried to say that he was reading with feeling but Zack pretty much let him know he was not.

I just thought it was hilarious and would never have expected him to ask such a thing.

Reverse Psychology

I am in some very serious trouble with this kid of mine. By that I mean all my parenting skills are going to have to change because he is just to stinking smart!

Last weekend Zack was playing outside with some of the neighborhood kids, then when all but one went home Zack asked if they could come in and play video games. I agreed and let him know it was only for a while because it was getting late.

They were playing for a bit and then I heard C say he did not want to play video games anymore but wanted to watch TV. They argued a bit over it and then Zack gave in and they turned on the TV. C wanted to watch something that Zack deems "a girl show" and they argued over that. At that point I said it was time for C to go home.

Once we walked C home and came back, Zack was getting ready for his shower and we had a talk about compromising with friends and most especially compromising with guests we have in our home. I asked him if he understood compromising and he gave me an example so I knows he gets it. THEN he said something I never expected. Nope not in a million years did I ever expect my 6 year old to look me in the eye and say "But Mom I could have used reverse psychology on him." After staring at him in shock for what seemed like forever, I asked him if he knew what reverse psychology was. At first he said "no, not really" then he responded with "OK Mom, really I do know what it means BUT it is a little bit mean." I needed to get his version in order to know what I was up against so I asked him to explain it to me. Darn if he wasn't spot on!! He proceeded to tell me how you tell someone one thing when you want them to do something else. Aww Crud, I knew in that moment my parenting skills needed to change, this kid was on to me and I was done for!

He then gave me an example just to make sure I understood what he was saying. "Well Mom, it is like this... if I want to play video games and C doesn't want to, then I can say 'okay if your not brave enough to play this then we can do something else' and then he will want to play."

I know I wanted a smart kid but gee at 6 years old I would never have thought he would grasp the concept of things like this.

Letter to Mother Nature

January 18, 2013

Dear Mother Nature;

You do not have children, Do you? I think not because you really dropped the ball!

How can you allow your little minions (also known as weather men/women) to continuously appear on television taunting these little creatures (also known as children) with grand illusions of inches upon inches of fluffy white stuff. Fluffy cold white stuff that is perfect for throwing at other people and not getting grounded for doing so. Fluffy cold white stuff that is slick enough for these little creatures to slide down mountain sides on a piece of plastic and have their out of shape parents drag their not so tiny little arses back up said mountain side. Fluffy cold white stuff that can be shaped into almost anything, no need to stick with building a frosty that wont talk to you like he does in the cartoon.

Your little minions made my little creature believe that when he was forced to go to bed at the normal bedtime that he would wake up to all the fluffy cold white stuff that he could ever possibly want to play in. Little creature was lead to believe that when he woke up everything in sight would be covered and he would be able to stay outside playing in this fluffy cold white stuff for hours upon hours and not coming in until the nasal drip that appears when one little creature gets so cold has permanently frozen to his face and must be chiseled off!

Seriously Mother Nature how could you allow the heavens to open up and drop nearly 3 inches of snow in our yard in just a few hours with more still coming when I went to bed, only to turn around and melt most of it and turn the rest into ice before the little creature had awoken this morning?  Do you not have a heart? Do you understand the situation this puts me in? Are you trying to punish me for something I may or may not have done? Work with me here lady... I beg you to work with me on this one!

From,
the little creatures mother