Zoe's First Birthday

Everyone knows the biggest bummer is to have your birthday be on a weekday. What ends up happening is that all the fun and friends are on the weekend. Well, in our house, it just makes for the Birth Week (three days before and three days after your birthday). Actually, we are still celebrating our little one-year-old wonder.

My mom flew in on the 17th to visit for 10 days. It was really great having her here for Zoe's big day. In a lot of ways, it was like coming full circle, being that she was here the same time last year for Zoe's birth (I guess that was really Zoe's big day). Mom arrived late and we all crashed, looking forward to greeting Zoe on her birthday.


Zoe was up bright and semi-early to greet Nana. I'm always amazed at how quickly Zoe warms up to her, like hardly any time has passed. We wasted no time opening some goodies.

She got the cutest card from Great Grandma and Grandpa Deetz.
So fun to get mail.

We had a busy day ahead of us. We started with a birthday breakfast at our neighborhood diner up the street. Zoe had french toast. Yummy! Then we headed back home to take off for errand- running. COSTCO! Gotta get those party goodies. Besides, where else can you get a hot dog and soda for a buck-fiddy? We rushed home to dropped Zoe and Nana at home because we still had to go pick up Dad at work and meet up with his friend, Ann Marie, who made a special cake just for Zoe (pictures featured in party blog to come).

We got home late and had a nice Costco chicken dinner and then it was bath time. After the bath, Zoe opened her present from our goof friends, the Livaks, who sent her a gift all the way from Chicago.

She getting good at this unwrapping thing!


Thanks for the awesome camera guys!

After the crazy day, it was time to hit the sack. Grammy Mary and Uncle Gabe were flying in late tonight and we needed to rest up for their short visit. They made it in safe and sound and we couldn't wait to get up and play with them the next morning.

Grammy Mary brought some goodies with her and even went on a great adventure to retrieve gifts from Great Grandma Pat.

Fun books from GG Pat

We spent the rest of the day running around for last minute things. It felt good to be finished and ready to party.

Noodles, Noodles, Noodles!

The adventures in eating never cease. Zoe loves any kind of pasta and most any fruit. So far, the only thing she has completely rejected was asparagus and I didn't cook that. I am hoping she is ready to pick up her own spoon and fork soon. I always feel like I am double-fisting it at every meal. Soon enough I'm sure.

Growing Growing Gone

Before Zoe was born and we were filling our registry with useful things, I thought I would pick the car seat that she could use for as long as possible. The one we chose goes up to 30 lbs and Zoe is well below that mark now. But alas, long babies do not fit into these car seats and we quickly realized our investment had expired (Sorry Grammy and Grampy).

Lucky for us, Target had a great sale on the next stage of car seats and Nana Debbie got two of them: one for our car and one for hers. Zoe thoroughly inspected both seats. Check it out!

That's almost a thumb's up. We'll take it!

Me likey this a-one too.

Of course, she really only liked them when they were sitting in the living room. As soon as we put it in the car and she rode in it for the first time on Sunday, well, let's just say she turned into a big whiney butt. I hope she gets used to it or we may never get in the car again. Just kidding... maybe.

Zoe Meets Heera

Our really good friends Mumtaj and Ryan had a baby girl in May. They live in Baltimore and we never got the chance to make it down so when the opportunity to visit them in New Jersey presented itself, we jumped at the chance to see them. It was a short drive from Debbie's place and the weather held out for us to make the trip the day after Christmas.

Mumtaj's uncle was sweet enough to open his home to a big crowd of hungry people and fed us a delicious brunch. We stuffed our faces and laughed at the babies and each other. It was so wonderful the see Heera thriving, especially after a rough entrance in the world. She is so spunky and we look forward to keeping up with her adventures. Here's to hoping the next visit won't be so far off.

Christmas Bath

There is no better way to end the perfect day than with a bath and there is no better place than in the kitchen sink.

She absolutely loves the sprayer.
Something about those little droplets of water tickling her little fingers.

Christmas Day: Part 3

With all the presents unwrapped and the meat in the oven, we took a walk down to Debbie's new digs. She rented a house just a few blocks from her current place and was excited to show us her new home.

There's no better time to make a snowman than on Christmas Day.
There was plenty of snow to do it.

No gloves so I wrapped my hands with wash cloths :)


SUCCESS!


The new place



Zoe is checkin' out the back porch. All clear.



This has been a very exciting day. I need to lie down.

We had a wonderful Christmas and want to thank everyone for being a part of making it all so special. We love you and hope to see you all soon.

Christmas Day: Part 2

We were hoping that Zoe would be as excited about bikes as Aaron and me but we had no idea how much she would take to the two-wheeled happy wagon. IT WAS ALL ABOUT THE BIKE!!! Very satisfying considering how worked up we both got when shopping for her first bicycle.

She already has great form and posture. What a natural!



Okay, so I'm stuck. Who's gonna push me?


Guess she feels experienced enough to carry things around for the ride.



Look Ma, one foot!



No way! No kisses for you!

Okay, maybe some snuggling.

Needless to say, we are all having a lot of fun.

Christmas Day: Part 1

Ah, Christmas Day. All the shopping and wrapping comes to an end in a blazing paper blizzard. Okay, so Zoe's not that crazed yet. We did go overboard of course but that was to be expected. It was her first Christmas and we will never forget it. In accordance with the gluttony of gifts you are about to see, I had to break this post up into three parts. Forgive us but that is just the way it has to be to cover all the Christmas fun.

I told you we went OVERBOARD!

Go ahead, baby girl...

You got a lot of unwrapping to do.

Ah... nothing like a crackling fire on Christmas morning


No, it's just the annual Yule Log for the city slickers

We even had to overdo the stocking stuffers with lollipops the size of her head

An awesome gift from Nanny Kellie

Thanks for the cool hat Nan D. Look how cute I am.

I love my Glo Worm

Frida Kahlo huh? I like her flowers but...

why didn't anyone lend her some treezers?

GIANT LEGOS!

Time to take a break with Dad

Christmas Eve

So we started off the holidays right by taking it easy with Zoe in the morning before heading off to New Jersey to spend Christmas with Debbie. We hadn't been careful with the gifts and left them wrapped in Aaron's studio. Zoe grabbed one and started opening it up. Might as well start now with all the other presents Santa had for her.







When we got to Nana's house, it didn't take long to get into trouble. There were clementines on a fruit rack in the kitchen. Zoe bit one through the skin, dropped it and chomped another. In all I think we had 4 casualties.

She got to open a present from Joe

Let's figure out how this works


COOL! A book that reads and sings to me!


Who needs toys when there's cardboard tubes?

We were soon to discover that although we got Zoe some really great stuff, she was happy to play with wrapping paper, tissue and bows.