Zachers

As I watch Zachary scurrying around each day, I imagine that a brain-reading ticker would look something like this: "What would happen if I took apart the toilet? I'm going to make a lily pad pond out of milk and cucumber slices! How old are those batteries? How does this mixer work? I need some flour. I'm going to make that grasshopper a house. What do narwhals eat?" I have no doubt that this is how his mind works. He sometimes asks eight or more unrelated questions before I've answered one!

Zachary's unyielding curiosity and precocious determination allow him to follow through on projects that last hours or even several days. Recently he said to me, "Okay, okay, let's stop this talking. Let's get to work!" And he has gotten to work every day this summer.

One day he took the wagon down the street to a construction site and rescued a few loads full of lumber from the dumpster. 

 

Then he recruited me and his brothers to execute the design he'd planned--a clubhouse for the back porch:

There are little benches inside, too.  

Once while I was up folding laundry he made German pancakes for dinner--completely unassisted! They were actually really good.

Later I saw him get out the cookbook and begin to make chocolate chip cookies. His brother was standing next to him, so he asked, "Can you get Maxey?" Then, reconsidering, he said, "Well, actually I think I can handle him here. I don't want him to be sad." So I left them both there and went and did something else. Zachary made the entire recipe with Max assisting. Eric helped them bake them later and they were great!

He's used a battery tester to test dozens of batteries in the house. He replaces them, if needed, handily unscrewing and screwing flat plates in seconds. 

He likes to plant the seeds he finds in fruit. Once he came home from a friend's house with a Ziploc full of apple seeds from his snack that he wanted to plant. ("They're Pink Lady," he whispered. "They taste like candy but they're healthy!")

One day he was a pirate and asked me to burn a map so that it would look older. When I turned on the gas stove to brown it, he got out the fire extinguisher and stood by!

I wish that I'd taken a picture of his friend David, a four-foot-tall fellow that he made out of yellow copy paper. He took David on a bike ride to the park and played all sorts of games with him!

For a few weeks he's been trying to earn $30 to get a Lego set. He keeps his money in $1 piles on a table that he calls his "private property." When he earns money for a chore, he adds the amount to a paper chart that he created. One of his enterprising ideas was to sell all the Band-Aids in our house. When I asked what we would use for bandages, he showed me his invention, the grass and tape bandage. Noticing my hesitation, he urged, "I'm helping you out Mom! I'm saving you money!"

He let me have the real deal, though, when I dropped a heavy car part on my toe:

When he saw that I was hurt, he scooted inside and grabbed a Band-Aid and then applied it perfectly. "Well, I'm glad that's over," he said. "Well, I guess the pain part's not over. Sorry." Then he sighed and ran off to his next project.

Every day is a delightful surprise. Oh Zachy! Let's hope your school teacher has some energy to burn.