The Zaremba Family: Got A Lot of Questions and Big Ideas

Each day with kids is an adventure, you never know what you'll discover around the next corner. You can go to a place you've been a million times and your child will find something new to ask about. McKenzie has a lot of questions and big ideas and she's not afraid to talk about them.

Matt and I have made a point of being very honest and real with the kids so they aren't unnecessarily afraid of things or feel like they can't wonder about things. I do admit to telling McKenzie one small lie recently. There was a spider on the bathtub wall when the kids were in the tub so I didn't have a lot of options for getting rid of this spider. Normally I would pick him up in a paper towel and tell McKenzie I put him outside. This time I had no other option of getting rid of the spider besides the toilet I tossed him in with the toilet paper I picked him up with. McKenzie asked where he went and I said that I had put him outside by flushing him down the toilet. She immediately smiled a big smile and said "into the ocean like Nemo?" My reply was "yes, exactly like Nemo honey." I suppose she'll forgive me someday when she figures it out.

Recently my parents had one of their friends in Chelan pass away and McKenzie heard me talking to Grandma C on the phone and asked me "why die...?" "who die...?" and a whole assortment of questions on this topic. I explained that Grandma's friend was older and had gotten really sick and that his body had something broken in it and could work anymore. Over the next few days there was a lot more discussion about the topic but the most interesting one was at Aunt Kacey's house. McKenzie had thrown something and was in time out. Usually when she gets put in time out she yells that she has to go potty, she's going to be sick over and over. Last week she made a giant leap from sick to yelling "I'm going to die.... I'm going to die...". It's so interesting to me that I can follow her logic of how she comes up with the things she says and it is perfectly logical given the context she has but is so illogical with reality. Needless to say Aunt Kacey was very surprised by Kenzie that day.

While McKenzie is exploring her world more verbally these days Ben is still really into the physical exploring. He amazes me daily with the lengths he will go to reach new heights, be it stacking multiple items, balancing on a ball or something with wheels, you name it he's tried it. When he gets his mind set on something he goes for it. Here he is at North Creek Park and he was determine to make it across those steps on his own.

Here are some recent pictures of our trip to a Log Boom Park, in Kenmore, where Matt and I both remember feeding ducks as kids. Here is McKenzie showing the ducks her overhand tossing skills making sure all the ducks got a snack.