Our little Zach Attack

Zach may be little but he packs a lot of punch! He turns 8 in just a little over 2 months and we are so excited for him.

Zach is doing great in 2nd grade. His teacher is Mrs. Gross, she is an older teacher and is just great for him. At first she seemed a little intimidating, not quite as friendly, warm and outgoing as his 1st grade teacher Mrs. Feagin, but she is very sweet and great for Zach. I have been making sure he does his 20 minutes of reading every night and it has really helped. Zach has the hardest time falling asleep at night. He can't calm down his brain or body. After Connor and Gavin fall asleep I have been letting him read. He started really liking Captain Underwear Pants which was great because it made him start to actually like to read and it wasn't so much of a chore anymore! Sometimes he would read for 30+ minutes without knowing, so I was so proud and happy for him. A few weeks late I got a note from his teacher that he had jumped up not one but TWO reading levels, and for Zach that is huge. I was proud, his teacher was thrilled and Zach was so proud of himself! Since he has finished the book I have had a hard time getting him interested in another book and over Christmas break he hasn't wanted to read at all. Hopefully I can find a book for him to really enjoy and he can continue to excel in reading! He is doing great in math as well. He doe.s very well in school-never gets in trouble and his teachers seem to love him. He doesn't want to disappoint his teachers and does want to do well.

He finally actually has an opinion about his looks now. He no longer wants his hair shaved-Ive always liked it either way and always let it be his choice. The rule was either shaved or he has to let me style it everyday if he grows it out. In the past, as much as he HATES haircuts he just wanted it shaved so we didn't ever have to fix it. Well this year, he has decided it is worth having to get it fixed everyday. He thinks he looks "bald" when we shave it and the last time we did he was embarrassed to go to school, he thought people would think he looked funny. I felt bad for him, but he is pretty confident and was fine by the next day. His hair grows fast anyway. It looks cute long and styled-but is so dark I could cry! : (.  He hates jeans and always prefers to wear sport pants and sweats every chance he gets. He loves t-shirts and hates button ups. He has a plethora of shoes but will ONLY wear his blue and orange tennis shoes they are just about to small. He says he can run fastest in those. He doesn't complain when I dress him for school, and I let him wear "comfy" pants to school once a week. As soon as he gets home he usually changes into comfortable shorts or pants or PJS. He would live in Pjs if I let him.

Zach is obsessed with money. He wants to sale things all the time. He is always trying to find things to sale and is always asking who he can sale things too. He is a saver. He loves to save his money and has a hard time spending it even if he really wants something. We are trying to teach him a good work ethis and how to work hard to earn money-but it isn't an easy thing to learn-or for me to teach anyway-but I hope that eventually it will be ingrained in him.

Zach is still the same boy-loves the outdoors, loves bike riding, scootering, skate boarding with dad and really would like some roller blades to try to learn how to do those next. He always wants to play outside but usually only in the front. I definitely miss the days that he would play in the back yard for hours on end-but i am afraid those are in the past. He still loves animals and bugs. He got an awesome aunt farm for Christmas and loves it. He loves reading and learning all about animals and insects and anything living! He still would love to watch a documentary on animals over watching cartoons. He also still loves to collect things.I find rocks all over the house and in the carpet all the time. He loves fossils on rocks. He loves shells and clams and crystals. He still loves his shark teeth he got 2 years ago and takes them out of his shadow box and they are not fun to find by stepping on them! Booger!

Zach's newest interest is Pokemon. Pokemon has gotten really big. They have trading cards and a boy on the boys would give his cards to Zach and some of the other cards. Zach loved it. He decided to spend some of his money to get more cards and asked for 1000 cards for Christmas. He said that that is the #1 thing that he wanted for Christmas. He now has over 300 cards and a lime green binder they are organized it. He likes to take them to friends houses and tries to sneak them to school to trade with friends. They have to sneak it so they don't get caught trading. They used to love to do it on the bus but got a new bus driver that wont let them get them out of their back packs so that bummed them out-but they try to sneak it there too. He has made up all different games with his cards and begs us to play with him often.

Zach is still Zach. He is stubborn, so stubborn. He does everything his way on his time frame. He rarely can follow a direction and if he does it takes a few times to ask him  before he does it. If we say one things he says another. If we do one thing, he does the opposite. He struggles with needing attention. I feel like we give him a fair amount but will strive to give him more this year. he struggles with telling the truth and stealing (from his family members, not stores). He isn't trust worthy right now but will hopefully earn our trust back. He still throws tantrums like no other. When he doesn't get his way he is not a happy camper. We are definitely trying to work on that. Tyler and Zach's relationship is rocky. It's either one extreme or the other with no in between. Zach test the boundaries with everything. He will always do that one thing one more time, every time. We hope to work on lots of these behaviors this year and be able to uncover the sweet good boy he is.

Zach has SO much energy and I don't know that there is anything that wares him out. He is my energizer bunny-he just keeps going and going and going. He didnt want to do soccer this season, but I am hoping to find something sporty he wants to do to sign him up for to try to help get some of that energy out. He is and always has been a super fast runner. He is awesome at monkey bars-he is quite the monkey himself. He really wants to do an obstacle course and I think he could really win or be close-he is really good at those kind of things. We signed him up for one and he was soo excited-counting down the days-only to end up being really sick the day of the race. He was pretty disapointed, but we hope to find another one to sign him up for.

Zach is really a good big brother. He has the hardest job in the house. It is tough to be the oldest. He never gets time to himself. He rarely gets time with us to himself. He can't do so many things he would love to do because his little brothers ruin it or break it (games or whatever it may be). He actually probably has the most patience in teh house and we should give him more credit for that. he builds a tower out of blocks they know it down. he draws a picture they tear it up, he leaves something-anything-out the next minute it's broke. I am trying to teach him responsibility and organizational skills through these times, and hopefully eventually he will be able to remember to take care of his stuff by always putting it away where his brothers can't get to it. His temper has gotten worse-understandably so-but we will continue to work on that-although tyler and myself need to be better example of that. He helps his brothers, but at times is jealous of them. It is hard to give Gavin or Connor a compliment because Zach takes it as a personal dis on himself. I try to explain that it's impressive for them because they are younger but for Zach he already accomplished that (whatever it maybe) when he was thier age too. We try to make sure we over compliment him, but he still thinks its a competition.

While he is a good brother, this last year he has struggled more in the department than ever before. I think it is just because he has always loved the baby stage and now there are no more babies. Gavin is bossy and a bully and that is hard. Connor worships Zach's feet, but at the same time has a completely different personality than Zach that totallly clashes with Zach. Zach still manipulates like crazy, but in some way I can understand why he does it with the little boys. Connor and Zach fight all day long and I mean fight-with words and stones! They kick, punch, scratch and Gavin bites! They both wrestle on the ground till they are both too hurt to go on anymore. These days they rarely play together happily, but when they do it is so nice. It last maybe an hour-maybe a few times a week. Hopefully they will be best friends in the future, it is just a hard time right now.

Zach weighs:     and is       tall. He is still pretty small for his stage-but i don't think it bothers him and since he has a big personality I think he will always be able to stand up for himself! We sure love our Zach!