Sunday, October 15, 2006

Dear Zachary,

You put yourself to sleep last night, which was really cute. You were very tired. You fell asleep on the couch and hardly moved an inch. I carried you to your bed and put you into your pajamas and said goodnight. I stayed awake for a few more hours often checking up on you. You’ve been coughing all weekend and have had a bad runny nose. You’ve been sick with a little cold and have been a little grumpier because of it. Which is ok. Being sick isn’t that much fun and often times you just don’t want to do anything but whine about it.

I heard you at about 6 in the morning. You were all teary eyed and were holding your blanket and looked like you just saw a ghost. I ran over to you and asked you what was wrong. You looked at me with your big eyes and told me that you saw scary spiders. I checked around your bed, and then realized that you had a nightmare about spiders, which I can understand because they are scary and I have nightmares about them all the time. I picked you up and gave you a big hug and you held onto me like it was the end of the world. We talked for a while and you seemed to calm down, and so I took you to your bed again and layed you down. I asked you if you wanted to go to sleep and you said yes. I gave you your blanket again and you rolled over and went to sleep.

All day Saturday we hung out with your Grandma and Grandpa at their house. We were supposed to walk around downtown with your uncle Ben and his new girlfriend Rachael but we didn’t get around to it. So we sat around and ate some breakfast sandwiches and played with Riley and Keisha for a while. Not to long Grandma and Grandpa came home from shopping. They were going to do some work in the yard and winterize the house and install some heat trace along the roof. So we all went outside and started working. You followed Grandma around with your little plastic red shovel I gave you for your birthday, and a bucket, and helped pull up some weeds and turned over some of the dirt. Of course you made a lot of quick breaks to the sandbox and rode your bike around the backyard path, but most of the time you were trying to help any which way you could. I helped Grandpa on the roof install the new heat trace which will melt the snow and ice on the roof when it comes, so it doesn’t get backed up and ruin the roofing. As I was up there working, you would yell up at me “Daddy! Daddy!” until I responded to you! Then you would say, “Look!” and throw your airplane up in the air, and giggle your head off. It was really cute and you seemed pretty excited about me being on the roof and up so high. Good thing you don’t really understand what happens when you fall down a long ways.

A house a few blocks down to the south of Grandma’s house caught on fire, and we could see the black smoke and smell the burning of it. You looked at me and I asked you if it stunk, and you said “uh huh! Stinks!” Nodding your head away the whole time. You made sure I was aware of every single siren that started heading towards the burning house. From the firemen and the fire truck to the fast cars that were going “way over there” to the house on fire. You’d get all excited and freeze in whatever position you were in for a few seconds, then scream at me “Daddy, daddy! Hear it!! Hear it!!”

Later on you kept trying to climb the ladder where Grandpa and I were working, which was cute but scary. You would get mad when I’d pull you down or we’d tell you to get off. You must have felt like we didn’t want you there, or that you were in the way, which wasn’t the case. We just don’t want you to get hurt. You would help us by handing us tools and such even if we didn’t need it. You are always a good little helper and always want to be there right in the action. Sometimes it’s scary though. Grandpa and I also had to change out a power outlet and I guess you were watching the whole time. When we were done and were cleaning up, you tried to “work” on the same outlet, screwdriver in hand. I made you about poop your pants by yelling at you to get away from it. You looked at me and slowly went into cry mode. You walked up to me with your eyes shooting tears out everywhere and your arms open up wide. I told you it was ok and that I wasn’t mad at you and that I didn’t mean to scare you. You calmed down and quickly went on to something else. You helped us pick up the rest of our garbage and tools and put them all away. My cousins Jess and Eric were at the house helping fix the roof and gutter so that the water and snow would go down the drains right and not get backed up or freeze up in the winter. You had fun running around with Jess’s wife, Pam, and playing hide-and-go seek with her. She is carrying a little baby in her stomach right now and it’s due to be born in December near Christmas time. That will be nice because also in the same time is another baby that’s due to be born by my other cousin, Brittany. That means you’ll have two more kids you can play with at the family parties and such we always have!

While playing outside in the front yard where everyone else was, you noticed that Grandpa had started getting out his lawn mower. That set you off to a sprint to the backyard. I ran behind you to see what you were doing, scared of leaving you alone, especially in the back yard with all the rocks. You ran and grabbed your bubble lawn mower and quickly started running back to the front with it. You made a mad dash over to where Grandpa was and waited for him to get ready, and once he started the lawn mower up, you followed him wherever he went no more than 3 feet behind him. Every turn that Grandpa made, you made as well. Every blade of grass he went over, you tried your best to run over as well. But apparently once you got the hang of the path and such, Grandpa wasn’t moving fast enough and you passed him up and continued on at your own speed. I think you even caught up to him again but moved on even still. Of course, your Grandma and I thought this was the cutest thing ever, so we quickly grabbed our cameras and were following you around trying to take the best possible shot. It was really cute because sometimes you’d walk right next to Grandpa, and those were the shots we were trying to take.

Later on that night, Ben and Rachael came back home, Brad and Shelley came over, and Kyle and his girlfriend Sara were there, and we all made tin foil dinners. They are Gods greatest gifts to food and I’m sure by the time you are reading this, you know what they are and love them! Again as always you were so excited about helping and just being a part of what was going on. You sat on the bar stool and watched carefully as we prepared all the food and wrapped it all up in the tin foil. You got really excited and ran nearly out of breath when I asked you to go help me start the fire in the fireplace outside. You helped me throw wood in there and watched it light up and start burning. We got all our food ready and cooked it all and sat down to start eating. You didn’t seem to thrilled to eat the potatoes, hamburger meat, carrots etc that were all part of each tin foil dinner. But Grandma helped you find some food that you would eat and you sat at the bar stool kicking your feet the whole time we were sitting down to dinner.

As we all ate and cleaned up, we sat down and started a game of scrabble. Of course you wanted to play, so you sat next to me on the ground and tried to put the letters on the scrabble board. You were so focused on it and so serious, it was cute.

Brad and Shelley bought a little ginger bread house thing that came with frosting, candy, and all the things you’d need to make a Halloween themed ginger bread house! You got all excited about it and wanted to put it together the second you saw it. You had everyone pass you from person to person so you could get the best angles to put the candy decorations on the house. You loved it and were giggling the whole time. Once it was done, you just stood there and stared at it, then looked at me as if to say “Daddy! There’s candy on there, can I have some?” We all ate a little bit of the candy ginger bread house but left most of it still in tact and continued on back to some scrabble. Grandma got out a duck puzzle and you played with that for at least an hour. You’d put it together, then tip it over and start putting it together again, getting just as excited each time you finished it as the first time! Each time you’d yell out to me and have me come and look! You’re such a smart boy and encourage me to find the fun and excitement again that is a part of every little thing in life.

Love always,

Daddy!