Copyright 2003-2004 Steve Hoffman Steve's Weblog http://www.hofftech.netFri, 26 Feb 2010 09:58:00 EST We are all packed for our trip. Zack is so excited that he gets to ride on an airplane tomorrow, and, of course, watch his movies! He wants to watch Jungle Book and Monsters, Inc. After being burned on a trip to Vermont not long after Zack was born, we learned from our mistake and packed enough of Steve's snowboarding stuff in our carry on so that if our luggage gets lost he can just rent a board and go. This trip should be so much fun!! Now, we are just hoping that they get all the runways cleared in Philly so that the flight my family is on takes off on time and they don't get stuck in the airport for a long time. I know that I say this a lot but Zack surprised me again tonight. We were on our way home and he was talking to himself. Out of the blue he says "the big one is called a quarter Mommy." I said, "Yes it is. What is the baby one called?" Without any hesistation he tell me "A dime Mommy!". So, pushing my luck I ask him what the middle one is called. Again, he resonds without hesistation, "A nickle! Just like the piggy bank." Whenever we have silver change we let Zack learn to save money and put it into his piggy bank. We would discuss what all the coins are called as we put each one in but he never had any real interest in tellng me what they were. Before bed time Steve had some change that he let him save. As Steve held up each coin Zack told him what each one is called. He stumbled a little on the nickle but knew right away which ones were dimes and quarters. http://www.hofftech.net/main/707 Fri, 26 Feb 2010 09:58:00 EST Today was quite a day for Zack. It was his first day wearing a tie to "work". Ok, let me take a step back and tell the story. Steve was getting dressed this morning when Zack said that he wanted to wear a tie. He asked me to pick him up so I did and we waited for Daddy to come pick out the "perfect tie" for Zack. He repeated this continuously until Steve picked out one of his ties (the oldest one I think) and put it on Zack. The knot came to the middle of his chest and the bottom of the tie came below his knees. It didn't matter to him though as he was so very proud of himself. Zack would not take the tie off when it was time to leave for school so I let him wear it figuring that I'd take it off of him once we got to school. At school, I took off his coat and he said to Miss Lisa "I wearing my perfect tie". I washed his hands and took the tie off but he turned to look at me and started crying like I just slapped him so I put the tie back on him. From what I was told tonight he wore it until one of the other kids pulled at it and then they took it off of him. He put it back on when I picked him up and wore it until I changed him for bed. Steve had to work late tonight so we called to tell Daddy night night just before bed time. I heard Daddy ask Zack if he was wearing his tie. Zack responds "I wear my perfect tie. I wear my tie just like Daddy." It was so cute! I already had the feeling that I was going to have a mini-Steve before much longer but I think that this proves it. When I was talking to Miss Lisa this morning she told me more about the peas from yesterday. Evidently after Miss Dawn noticed Zack giving his peas to Cale, Lisa moved them farther apart so that they would each eat their own food. She was across the room watching them out of the corner of her eye when she sees Zack take a pea and put it on the table half-way between he and Cale - in the perfect position for Cale to get it. She turns around and gives Zack the look that says "are you supposed to be doing that?" He sees the look so he reaches his hand out, covers up the pea, and slowly slides it back to his plate. As he knew exactly what he was doing Lisa told me that he was being sneaky - which of course he picked up on and started saying "I neaky, I neaky". I told him that it wasn't nice to be sneaky but I have the feeling we will be having that conversation more than once as he grows up. http://www.hofftech.net/main/706 Thu, 25 Feb 2010 10:12:00 EST As Zack and I were leaving day care today, Miss Dawn stopped us to tell me this story. She went into Zack's classroom toward the end of lunch and hears him say "You're welcome Cale". His teachers were busy with other kids as Zack was still eating so she paused to see what he was doing. She sees Cale holding out his spoon and Zack counting his peas onto Cale's spoon and then Cale eating them. After Cale would take a bite, Zack would tell him "You're welcome Cale". I guess he may take after his Daddy after all and not eat his vegetables! When I went in to get Zack out of his crib this morning I was greeted with "I went tubing down hill and sat by fire" instead of my normal "good morning Mommy". I guess our trip to the kid snow park from last weekend was on his mind all day today. He was talking to me tonight and told me this entire story: "I go tubing down hill. I crawl through house. Make a sand castle - box was red Mommy. Then we go meet Daddy for lunch. We eat cold cookie." He walked me through the entire day with very little prompting from me. He did pause between sentences but still I don't know how he remembers all that as it was almost a week ago. Maybe he has the memory of an elephant as I heard that they never forget. There are just two more work days until we leave for Colorado. Steve is so excited to go but is now coming down with some kind of head cold so is miserable with that. At least I can get him to take some medicine for it as he doesn't want to be sick next week. We are just hoping that he doesn't pass it to Zack and me. http://www.hofftech.net/main/705 Wed, 24 Feb 2010 08:50:00 EST Steve came home from his hockey game last night and he was on top of the world. Not only did his team defeat a team with a better record, but he scored two goals and had one assist!! It's too bad I didn't keep Zack up and go to the game. I think it must have been all that practice on Sunday with Zack and I that really made the difference:-) On the way home from school he had his winter coat on but it was unzipped most of the way so it kept riding up higher around his face. He also talked non-stop but then transitioned into just making noise. He would spout off a line of gobblygook and then hide his face behind his coat and laugh. When we stopped at a red light, I turned around, stuck out my tongue and made silly noises at him. Zack then hid his face behind his coat, laughed out loud, and said "Mommy you silly like Yack." We had some great family time tonight. After dinner, Steve and Zack played with play doh for a while and Steve got lots of practice making different colored horses. After, Zack and I played with his blocks and read through a stack of books. If I paused when reading several of his books, he'll fill the words in for me as we have read them so many times. I never thought he'd do this until he was older. He read his Spot book on the way home from school and said pretty close to the right words as he flipped through the pages. I don't know how he remembers all that he does. http://www.hofftech.net/main/704 Tue, 23 Feb 2010 10:00:00 EST Today was a pretty great start to the week. And began the countdown to Colorado. Zack had a good day at school. When I picked him up he told me that fire truck starts with "f". We discussed a other words that began with "f" like fire, food, friend, family, foot. He got stuck on "foot". He looked down at my foot and said "what Mommy shoe start with?" and asked the same thing of Miss Jennifer. I don't think he fully understood that we were talking about the foot inside the shoe and not the shoe. He was very serious about it though. Robbie recently sent his PSP for Zack to use. As you can play movies on it Steve has become obsessed with getting converting movies to play on it so that Zack can watch them on the plane ride. He was finally able to make it work this weekend and let Zack see Monsters, Inc. play on it tonight. He was so amazed with it. I think that it will go over quite well on the plane. Let's just hope it can occupy him for 4 hours. http://www.hofftech.net/main/703 Mon, 22 Feb 2010 09:42:00 EST It was a gorgeous day today! We left VA mid-morning and had an uneventful trip home. We didn't turn on a DVD for Zack so he talked/sang to us the entire way home. I got some video of it that I'll try and post soon. He started off singing Old MacDonald and went through several animals. He is such a sweet little boy it amazes me! We got home right at nap time so after Zack woke up we went outside to play as it was 60 degrees and sunny. We didn't even need to have jackets on. First Zack rode on the fire truck and his bicycle. Next, we played hockey in the driveway. We all took turns shooting the pucks at the net. We had one almost accident when Steve took a shot just as Zack walked across the driveway. The puck did not touch Zack but since it whizzed right by his hair it made Steve and I both stop in our tracks. I think I yelled "Stephen" so for a long time after that each time he went to walk across the driveway he'd yell "Stephen". He is such a turkey. Last, we kicked the soccer ball around and spun circles in the grass. If this was a preview of the summer to come we are going to have so much fun playing outside this year. http://www.hofftech.net/main/702 Sun, 21 Feb 2010 09:31:00 EST We were up and out of the house a little before 6 AM. We tried to get Zack to go back to sleep and planned on getting breakfast when we hit Oxford, about 45 minutes away. However, we had a slight detour on the way there. We were just crusing along (following the car in front of us) when we see this car pull out and turn his blue lights on. Here is how the scene plays out. Me: Is he pulling you over? Were you going that fast? Steve: Well, I'll pull over, but I was just following the car in front of us. I was only going 55. Cop: (After pulling in behind us and coming up to ask for Steve's license) Do you know why I am pulling you over? Steve: No, not really. Since you pulled me over, I'm guessing that I was speeding. Cop: How fast were you going? Steve: I was going 55. Cop: What is the speed limit here? Steve: I thought it was 55 but since we're having this converastion... Cop: The speed limit just dropped back there to 45. I also clocked you going 59. Steve: (leaning back in his seat) Wow I didn't realize I was going that fast at all. Cop: (hands the license back) Keep it goin up the road (and walks back to his car) Me: Is he writing you a ticket out. Steve: I am sure he is. I didn't realize I was going 59 in a 45. We wait a few minutes for him to come back but the next thing that happens is the lights turn off and he takes off. Steve: What? Wow! That has never happened to me before. Me: Well, I thought he said something about going up the road. Steve: I couldn't hear but thought he meant for me to wait here. And we see him immediately turn around and go after someone else. (Edit: On the way back we see that while he was pulled over in a 45mph zone he was clocked at 59 while still in a 55 zone so had he been given a ticket it probably wouldn't have stuck with a little effort.) After this we make it to Wintergreen without further incident. Steve goes off snowboarding and Zack and I go to Ridgely's Fun Park. It was very neat for kids. Zack got to go tubing on a hill not much bigger than we went sledding on as kids. I would put him in the tube, push him off, then run down the hill to get him off the track. He loved it and had would have the biggest smiles on his face all the way down. They also had lots of snow toys (we made "sand" castles) and sleighs to play with. There was this little wodden building where he could crawl through snow tunnels. Zack also loved this other ride they had where he would sit in a tube and it would be pull him in a circle. We got lots of questions from parents as to why Zack was carrying a spatula but once I explained that it is his snow shovel and we can't leave home without it, they immediately understood and thought it was a great idea! Steve was able to see Zack go down the tubing hill once. He was passing by when he saw me running down the hill. He thought something happened so he stopped to see what was going on. He laughed after he saw me pushing Zack off then chasing him down! We met Steve for lunch at the restaurant that overlooks the mountain. He had an awesome time this morning but the afternoon was a little too busy for him (too much waiting in lines for lifts) so we left about 3. Before Steve left the lodge area for his afternoon session, we put Zack on the snowboard with Steve and let him go for a little ride. He LOVED it!! They probably went all of 100 feet but Zack had smiles a mile wide. It is so wonderful to see that he loves all the sports that his Daddy does (at least so far). Zack and I finally found a seat in the lodge area and enjoyed a cookie ice cream sandwhich before playing with the play doh we brought. He was such a good little boy. We left the lodge area about 2:15 to walk down the big hill to the truck. After about 300 yards, he put his head on my shoulder and went to sleep. He slept until about 4 when we got to the hotel. We found a nice hotel in Lynchburg, VA that had an indoor pool and was reasonably priced. Zack couldn't have asked for a better day - playing in the snow all morning then swimming in the afternoon. It was very nice getting away from everything and spending some quality time together. Zack is out cold and Steve is playing on the computer, so I am going to take advantage and fall asleep while I watch the Olympics. Nighty-night. http://www.hofftech.net/main/701 Sat, 20 Feb 2010 08:59:00 EST Last night was a very rough night for Zack and I. We put him down for the night about 7:30. He went right to sleep but then fussed once or twice in his sleep but nothing major. However, about 11:00 we heard him saying, over and over, "I all done crying now Mommy". This is what he has been saying lately at school after having a temper fit so Steve thought for sure that Zack was just talking in his sleep. However, when we checked on him, he was standing up in the crib and was wide awake. We laid him back down and went to bed. It wasn't long after this that he started fussing again. I went in and we rocked for a little while until he asked me to lay him in his crib. I put him down and went back to bed. I think I checked on him one more time but then heard him saying "Mommy you come rock Zack again." At this point, it was 1 AM and I was so tired I could hardly see straight. I went into his room, laid him back down, gave him Mr. Monkey, his blanky, his 2 binkies, turned the turtle on for him (his music box) and went to bed. I didn't hear him again and made it until my alarm went off at 5:45. I went in and got Zack up at 6:40. He gets up but then looks at me and says "I very tired Mommy. go night night again". I'm not sure why he was up so much last night but he seemed to do OK today at school. If only Mommy could react so well to not having enough sleep. When I picked him up today his class was playing on the play ground. He was in the swing and having a gay old time. I took him out of the swing to leave but let him kick the ball one more time. He then turned around, grabbed my hand, and asked to swing again. I said that we couldn't swing anymore today because Daddy was waiting for us. He didn't like that answer and tried again. I said then that Mommy was leaving but if he wanted to swing he could stay. So, he turned and grabbed Miss Jennifer's hand and asked to swing again. What a little traitor! I guess it doesn't matter if Mommy was going to leave as long as he got to play on the swing! Well, everyone Steve was going to go snowboarding with tomorrow has backed out for one reason or another. Looking at the website, Wintergreen has a nice play area (including tubing) so I think that we are going to leave early and go up for the day. We are talking about finding a hotel on the way home that has a pool so we can take Zack swimming but we'll have to see what happens. http://www.hofftech.net/main/700 Fri, 19 Feb 2010 09:10:00 EST As soon as we got home tonight Zack asked to go upstairs and open his bag of balls. And so we did. We went up, opened the bag and let him dump them all out into his tent. He was so excited and had this huge smile on his face. The only downside was that he wanted both Mommy and Daddy to get into the tent with him to play with the balls. So far he has kept the balls in the tent. He tried throwing them out once but then Daddy kindly reminded him that the balls need to stay in the tent. As the tent does not have a bottom and Zack has already knocked it over a couple times, I am just waiting for it to happen again and the balls go rolling all over:-) Daddy did show Zack how to do a "magic trick" tonight. We took the ball bag and filled it up about half way. Daddy then told Zack to sit in the middle of the tent and close his eyes. Zack did so and Daddy dumped the balls down over his head. You should have heard Zack laugh as this was going on. He LOVED it and immediately asked for another "magic trick". Zack is getting to be such the toddler lately. He sits in the big boy chair at dinner now. Anymore, he only uses his highchair for breakfast. He drinks out of a big boy cup now and only gets a sippy cup if we are going somewhere. He is not potty trained but is slowly making his way there as he used the potty 3 times yesterday and loves to wear his pull ups. What happened to my baby boy already?? At least he still likes to snuggle with mommy, even if he only asks to do so when I am driving him to daycare or about to put him to bed. http://www.hofftech.net/main/699 Thu, 18 Feb 2010 08:56:00 EST Happy 21st Birthday Nick!!! Our friend Nick turned 21 today. We met his whole clan for dinner tonight and had a lot of fun. Zack was good the entire time even though he stayed up pretty late. Linda brought Zack's birthday present to give to him tonight also. He was so excited. He got a Cars box that reminds me of the lunchboxes we had as kids and several little animals to go in it. He also got a bag of balls for his tent. He wanted to open that bag of balls so badly but we were able to hold him off until tomorrow night. I am sure we will have to open them as soon as we get home. Steve is not so excited about the balls as he doesn't look forward to having them all over the house. I think they are great because now I don't have to buy them for Zack:) Just before we left the restaurant Mo took one of balloons and popped it so Zack could hear what it sounded like. Zack didn't like that very much and wouldn't go near the other balloon after as he thought that was going to pop too. Steve is trying to talk me and Zack into going to Wintergreen for the day on Saturday as he is meeting a co-worker there to go snowboarding there for the day. I guess we'll have to wait and see what happens. It's almost easier during the summer months because at least then we can go 20 minutes and give in to his summer obsession (wakeboarding) and not have to drive/fly 3+ hours like we do for the winter obsession (snowboarding). http://www.hofftech.net/main/698 Wed, 17 Feb 2010 09:42:00 EST