Zack-Four to Five

2003 will not be remembered for having a great start.  After all, the year 2003 began as I drove home from the hospital in the pouring rain...leaving C.J. behind (with his father) in the PICU at Halifax Medical Center in Daytona Beach.  On New Years Day we watched football games in intensive care as he was receiving a blood transfusion...the direct result of a tonsillectomy gone bad!


By the end of the month my mother would also be hospitalized with sepsis from an untreated urinary tract infection that leaked into her bloodstream.
  
But Zack's birthday was a shining spot in the month of January. He got Thomas the Tank Engine gifts, including a conductor hat and vest.

He seriously loved his Thomas and could play alone for hours with it.

He also had to bring a train or two along when we would go to Disney.  I didn't mind because it kept him busy and quiet while we waited in lines.

And to spend a few dollars to keep him busy for hours was often a good trade-off for me.  He got a little spoiled

Our Day Care enrollment usually went down quite a bit over the summer and despite the fact that most of the employees were taking 2 week vacations, the owners were still looking for people willing to shorten their hours...ME!!!  That summer I switched my work hours to 9-4...mostly so that we could stay up later and sleep in a little.  


I took a 2 week vacation in July and the boys and I spent a few days at Disney.  I found a ridiculously cheap motel for like $40.00 a night on HWY 192. 

We had a great time and some of my favorite pictures of the boys are from that trip - it's not often that you could catch Jon smiling at Disney.

All wearing their karate shirts

I forgot to mention that Zack began karate at the same place the boys went to.  The normal start age was 4 but they let siblings start a little earlier so he actually started a couple months before he turned 4...the same time the older two earned their black belts.

After returning from our vacation Zack had an ear infection.  He never had an awful lot but he had enough...and he could run ridiculously high fevers with them.  Later, we would find out that his hearing was significantly compromised and that he needed to get tubes.


As the school year began again, Zack thankfully did not have to change rooms or teachers at schools.  He really loved his teacher and so did I.

Christmas was not great that year as all three kids were sick either before, during, or after the 25th.  Jon was probably the worst and I spent most of Christmas day at the ER with him while they tried to re-hydrate him.  It was awful.


We had another party at school and spent Zack's 5th birthday at EPCOT center but I haven't gotten around to scanning those pictures yet so...TBC