Picture Post

Zander's valentines for school:


I think he did a great job coloring and writing. I helped him for the first 10 kids or so. Then one morning I was going to work but Zander was sick so Doug was home with him. Zander sat at his table with the list of kids names and did the last 8 - all on his own! He crossed their names off and remembered everyone. We were so proud of him! Then he wrote names and decorated the envelopes.


Zander still raves about Rainforest Cafe even though I think the food is yuck. Thankfully we had ate before hitting up AZ Mills mall on Thursday.

I wanted to send some cute pics of Zander to Doug's grandparents in Indiana with the Valentine's card Zan sent them. They bought the dino boy this shirt and he loves it.



My very pregnant SIL Lindsey at their baby shower party. I should have got more pics. Zander was hugging her belly and kissed it. She's due March 3rd!


food: LoLo's Chicken and Waffles!

mine was sans chicken, of course.

Doug's had chicken and grits. I'm not a fan of grits but theirs were darn good! And we both liked the tea, half sweet and half regular, still pretty sweet though.


Zander still loves his Raggedy Ann doll.

Zan's bugs

an ant, lady bug, butterfly, caterpillar and centipede.


Still rocking the drums! In fact, today Doug gave Zander a new(from his spare drum stuff) pedal for his bass drum and a china cymbal. Zan was stoked.


Zander and Hex get serious.


Zander and Doug think it's hilarious to do this. It's Shel Silverstein from the back of The Giving Tree. A rather scary pic for a kids book. :-)


Working on some puzzles.


Every few weeks I get out a spelling word list for 1st grade(because I haven't found one for kindergarten) and quiz Zander on his ability for spelling words just from me reading them. He's doing really well! This night I was actually blown away at how well he wrote RAN and MET.


He loves to make his letters into little characters.


Done for the night. So he also wrote YES, HIT, PEN, POP (and added a y for Poppy) and a few others and decorated them.

He did these on his own:

Car


Dog


Cat. This one blows me away!

And these -
I saw the picture and realized he had drawn his drumset:


The Phoenix Zoo



The Little People farm is really cute!


Hatching out of an egg.


Big horse, little horse.






Zan did that on his own.


The stingrays are so cool! I'm glad Zander wasn't afraid to touch them this year. He was afraid to feed them though, it is a little weird to have them suck the fish out of your hand.

Oh yeah, around the house:
New bookshelf in Zander's room

These were taken before Clamsy, he hangs out on the top shelf now. I moved almost all of Zander's books in here which is great. Before they were split between the playroom and my room. He doesn't really read in the playroom and they were getting all over the place in my room, so it's nice to have them all organized. All the Dr. Suess and PD Eastman are on one shelf. The Little Golden's are together. The small board books are together. The phonics and early readers are in the basket. There's just room for everything! I left a few that are seasonal and we don't read as much in the playroom though.

And the playroom shelves have changed a bit, we got rid of some baby toys



Life is good.

Welcome to our family, Clamsy!

So a few weeks ago Doug and Zander went into Petsmart to look for a scooper for backyard duties. They looked at fish and Zander decided right then and there that he needed a fish and was very disappointed when he wasn't getting one that night. So we told him to plan out everything he needed to get the fish. We thought we'd need a shelf to put the fish on, since we already have a dog and a cat. Here's his list:

(He doesn't normally write like that, with backward letters. My only thinking is that it was because I was dictating how to spell the words and he was in a hurry.)

And then a few days later Doug took him back to Petsmart where they decided on this pretty beta fish. He's purple with white, red and blue colors. Zander named him "The American Flag Fish" and then decided on Clamsy for short.


We put him on the shelf in Zan's room. Vinnie, the dog, has growled and noticed the fish twice. So we just keep the door shut when we aren't home. Hex, our cat, hasn't noticed at all. And he sleeps with Zander most of the time.


We are enjoying Clamsy and Zander is enjoying having a pet of his very own. He did try to talk us into a snake, we declined. :-)

Zander's first book

Zander has been home 2 days sick with an ear infection. Earlier this week we started working with "Hooked on Phonics". He's doing great with his beginning reading and phonics. I've also been wanting to work with his ideas so while we were home we created this book.

This took about an hour to do but we had a blast. I wrote what Zander said with very little prompting.

I started with 3 sheets of paper folded and stapled. But you could easily do 2 pages and have 6 pages to work with.





Zander first wanted to title his book "Michelle and Mom" and I asked if he was sure because I was mom. So then he decided on "Michelle and Zander".


This is funny because Doug does the grocery shopping. Oh maybe Zander and I are at Target, I shop there. :-)



This is my favorite. POWER NAPS! haha

I love this one. We haven't been to the Phoenix Zoo since the summer and he remembered to draw the bridge and the swan at the entrance.

He's pretty accurate with his Valle Luna description!

Paradise Bakery!

He described this as the dark room where the prehistoric sea monsters were fighting. I'm not sure where the bee fits but it's cute.

Chimpanzee!? Doh I spelled that wrong. Oh well.



I have terrible hand writing. But other than that I LOVE THIS. It's so US.

Train Park and more

Zander's art from school. He tends to write "&hearts Mom Dad" on his school work.


Bear hibernating project from school.


Couch yoga.


Christmas Tree Zander did at school.


Train Park 1/2/09

I think Zander thought Shrek was funny.


Zander and Jacey






Mickey, Jacey, Zander






And on the Morrison side - Cousins 1/1/09

Marli, Zander, Madi

New Years Eve - First Dental Cleaning!

We had Zander's first cleaning at the dentist at 4 pm on New Years Eve. He has great teeth. You may notice he has one front top tooth that is discolored. A few weeks ago Zander and Doug were playing and Zan hit his gum on the coffee table and it started bleeding. A few days later I noticed the tooth changing colors. The dentist says it's just a wait and see for now. It may get better or it could come out sooner. The x-rays don't show the roots as being dissolved or the next tooth close. But the x-rays did show his bottom front teeth getting really close. They said he could be losing those any time now! The staff was actually amazed Zander was only 4. They said he was a big boy and he was very good for his examinations and cleaning.


After his cleaning.

Zander chose vampire teeth as his prize from the treasure box at the dentist.