8

The birthdays just keep rolling in at our house! This past Saturday Zachary turned 8. To celebrate we headed to Sea World for the day. Zachary loves animals and all the kids have grown up at Sea World. It seemed fitting to spend his special day there. As one of his gifts we made reservations for Dine with Shamu (very excited they had a kids eat free promotion!)and he opened that gift in the morning. He was so excited! The day was perfect and very relaxed. We only saw one show all day and wandered about the rest. Zachary really wanted to go on Atlantis which we rarely ever go on so that took awhile for the boys to wait through the line. They also spent a good amount of time in the play area. It was fun watching Alexis play in the little kids area and remember how each of our boys have played in there as babies.

Before Dine with Shamu we spent time in the under water viewing area of the killer whales. Zachary and Tyler especially love this area and trying to get the whales to interact with them. We were all excited when it was finally time to go up and find our table for dinner. They had a good buffet with a lot of different choices. Of all things Zachary was super happy they had hot dogs! There were pastas and fish and lot's of yummy fruit! The waiter's all gathered together and sang to Zachary to which was a really special way to end or time there!

We had told Zachary that he could pick out something for his special day. True to form he just couldn't make up his mind and we had told him no more stuffed friends since there is almost no room left for HIM in his bed! While walking by the guys that draw caricature, Craig suggested getting that done for him. We stopped to check it out and Zachary decided that would be fun. It turned out to be a great idea! It was so fun watching him get drawn and he was the perfect little model staying still and smiling. The results were so awesome and we couldn't have been happier with how good his picture came out! That really added a special element to the day and we headed out afterwards feeling happy!

Over the years Zachary has grown and changed so much. He went through a tough stage of extreme stubborn-ness! Craig and I talk about how it's hard to remember him being that difficult. For the most part he is a sweet, easy going kid. Since he was tiny though I always knew there was a lot going on in that little head of his and it's still the same today. He loves to be right and for that matter, usually is! He is very articulate, artsy, smart, kind, considerate, funny, charming, silly, and still has that stubborn streak! His love of drawing still continues and he can often be found at the craft table putting together his latest book. His books have now grown to include full pages of writing as well. And his reading! He has just taken off as a little avid reader!! We are so proud that while in second grade he is reading books at a 5th-6th grade level! As a lover of reading myself, this makes me so pleased!

We are also so proud of how well he is doing in school! His teacher, Mrs Jones, has really taken the time to single him out, challenge him and really make him feel special. She was telling us last night at their Open House that if they do an assignment where it's pick on yellow and one red, she makes him do 2 of each instead. Or when they did an art project where you have to draw the opposite side of a plate animal, she picked the hardest one for him to do. Or when she could only pick 2 students to try a new computer learning program out at home, she chose him. All of these things just make us proud parents and even more, we are excited to see him doing so well!

I love that he likes to make us all laugh and he can often be found saying, "I was born to be funny!" He likes to talk in silly voices and loves watching and listening to himself. He will record his voice and listen to it over and over or if there is a funny mirror somewhere he can be found dancing in front of that for long periods of time! He is very aware of things going on around him and often figures out "surprises" before he's supposed to! I love how caring and big his heart is. Once when his sister fell down some of our stairs he came running to see how she was and was genuinely sobbing for her. Last night she got away from us for a minute at Disneyland and he was so shook up! After he realized we had her safe and sound Craig saw him nealing beside her and whispering to her not to get lost again because he was so worried about her. Such a sweetie!

I love to see our little Zoo Bear developing and growing into such a caring little man! Thank you God for blessing us with this sweet soul!