Daddy's 33rd Birthday

So Aaron turned the big 3-3 and we celebrated with a big steak dinner at home before heading out to a concert. Debbie brought over a feast and I managed to grill the steaks without cremating them. They were delicious. I was going to make a red velvet cake but I couldn't resist the chance to buy an ice cream cake in the shape of a race car. Makes sense to me.

No birthday cake would be complete without re-lighting candles.

Zoe thought Daddy needed help opening some of his presents.
Thanks Baby Girl!!

Love to kiss and squeeze the Zo-zo!

Putting on the Ritz with Aunty Steph!

Guess who we got to see for just one evening? Aunty Stephanie from Pacifica. She was in town just two days for a conference and was nice enough to spend her limited time with us. Zoe, Stephanie and I enjoyed a beautiful walk by the river before Aaron met us in the hotel restaurant for a delicious dinner. It was so wonderful to catch up with her and hear about her exciting plans to visit Pakistan in November. Such a globetrotter.


Zoe made sure to drool all over everything in Aunty Steph's hotel room, but she is so nice she didn't mind at all. We don't know when we will see her next, but we hope it is soon. Thanks for hanging with us!

Celebrating with Will and Alice

We had such a good time celebrating the marriage of our good friends, Will Smith and Alice Stevenson. They invited us to a rooftop party in Manhattan. It was also special because Zoe got to meet her friend Sadie for the first time since she was born in May. The Livaks moved to Chicago in March and made the trip to NYC to celebrate with us all. What a treat! You can tell everyone was having an amazing time.

Zoe made great use of the carpet at the reception to push herself up to sitting for the first time.

Hugs from Natacha


Daddy better watch his drink.
This wasn't the only glass to be molested by Zoe's tongue that night.


Hi Sadie! You sure are cute!!

The Livaks

Janet and Barbara

We look forward to seeing everyone again soon. Maybe a fall brunch at our place. We'll see.

Stoop Sale

What a successful stoop sale! I love the purge and it was a gorgeous day. We started out at around 8:30 in the morning and things were booming right away. We had such a rush that by around 1pm, there really wasn't much left. GOOD!

Though it was a beautiful day, we did have to say goodbye to our cousin Lindsay, who left to take a great job in Minneapolis. Hurry back to us cousin Linds! We love you!!

Look at all the junk, I mean goodies.

Nana Debbie came to sell some of her "goodies" too. She deemed it a success when she made the money to cover the tolls from NJ. Thanks for coming!

Such a Big Girl

So sorry to have waited so long to post. Life sure comes in waves. Of course a lot has happened since the last posting. Hmmm... where to start. Zoe love solid food, especially Mum-mum crackers and fruit. She is still working on her crawling skills. We need to get a rug to help her out. She now has 4 teeth, 2 top and 2 bottom.

She has figured out how to hold onto things to stay standing and depending on her position, she can pull herself up to standing. I guess this is just the beginning of the end for us, but you can't help but be happy for her. With every bit of control she is able to have over her body, she can truly exercise her exploring skills.

Yay for me! I'm standing!

I don't know how I got up here.

The perfect teether

I totally know how I got up here.

She likes to MOVE IT, MOVE IT!!!

Boy, do we have a different baby or what!? So I thought there was a drastic change at 4 months old but that was nothing compared to the last week. In a matter of days, Zoe has taken a real interest in solid food, really gotten control over body movements and is sleeping through the night. I'm sure a ton of this is connected but I don't care too much how it all works. It's awesome and we are having so much fun. Just take a look!

Zoe really does prefer standing...

...well, most of the time.

All of this was happening on the same day (if the same clothes didn't give that away) so it was pretty exciting and was quite the event in the Deetz household.

She has put in a lot of tummy time over the last few months and I think it has paid off. Enjoy your reward, little one. We sure are!!!

Hanging with Daddy! (and a little with Mommy)

Aaron and I have been fortunate enough to have a pretty good schedule worked out where we both get a lot of time with Zoe. She has very easily integrated herself into most of our activities, especially Daddy's extracurricular interests. Good for you, baby girl!

Daddy's been brushing up on his old NES skills and Zoe is doing her best to help out. Wouldn't want that pesky cord to get in the way. Better take care of that.

Zoe and I were hanging out in Daddy's studio and Zoe got thirsty. Check it out:



Of course, she didn't drink it but it was funny anyway. So many cute growly noises!

She has really started to learn to play and entertain herself. Don't get me wrong! She still prefers we give her our undivided attention, but she seems to be a lot more content when that is not possible. She is doing a lot of giggling and is producing many different sounds these days. I hope to catch more of them on video and of course you will be the next to hear them.

Lions and Tigers and Grizzly Bear, OH MY!

This weekend marks the official end to the Pool Parties at the East River Park. Grizzly Bear was the band to close the end of a wonderful summer full of lots of awesome free music. It was a total pain getting into the park but well worth it when you consider the fantastic weather and the Asia Dogs (hot dogs with Asian-inspired toppings: super delicious).

Cousin Lindsay was able to break away from her slave-employing internship to join in the fun.

Zoe's new hat (so cheap, you wouldn't believe me if I told you)

Emma brought her daddy, Jason, to the park. She is feeling much better after another virus. POOR EMMA!

Zoe loved hanging out with all her peeps this summer and hopes that everyone can join her again next summer. Pretty please? PEACE OUT, SUMMERTIME!!!

Gigglestick

What in the world is going on in that little head of hers? The most random things can make a baby laugh and I guess this video goes to show it. We were doing a little cleaning up in the bedroom and Zoe was hanging in the Jumperoo. Debbie had a new trash bag in her hand and when she gave it a shake to open it up, Zoe went nuts. Check it out!



This reminds me of an old YouTube video of a baby who was laughing hysterically at paper being torn. Go figure. You babies are hilarious. Keep 'em coming.

GIRL TALK!

Now that Celebrate Brooklyn's season has come to a close, we can focus our full attention on the Pool Parties at the East River Park in Williamsburg. We've been attending the concert on Sundays for a while now but I had no idea how awesome the show was going to be for this week. How to describe Girl Talk... Well my lame attempt would be to say that the artist takes lots of pop tracks and samples them into one amazing set of tracks meant to be played continuously. He turned the park into one huge dance party!

Just chillin' and waiting for the fun to begin.

I guess she is ready for her close-up!

The skyline was looking ominous but nobody thought to leave. We were all having a blast.


When the sprinkling started, it was time for everyone to get hosed down. Why not? You weren't going to stay dry anyway.

It's not a dance party without large inflatable objects

Zoe didn't mind the sprinkling. She just used my "hooter hider" to keep dry!

There are only a few of these concerts left (maybe just one) and we are hoping to take advantage and squeeze every last drop out of this summer.

Random Zoe Fun

Zoe doesn't have to be out on the town to have a good time. She knows how to ham it up at home too. Children are natural explorers and Zoe is no exception. Everything gets a thorough examination, especially in her mouth. It's great to see her reaching for everything and wanting to be involved in whatever you are doing at the moment.

Nana Debbie was taking the laundry off the clothesline and guess who wanted to help?

Candace and Jason were nice enough to pass on Emma's Jumperoo. Zoe is diggin' it.

Zoe is such a BED HOG!

It's August and what does that mean?... A whole lot more naked time!

It's awesome that the city pools are all free but the bummer is that you can't take in any cameras but I got this shot of Zoe before we went to the pool. Thanks Nana Donna! The suit fit perfect for the whole summer.

I'm really excited to see what she does next. We are still working with solid food and she seems to want to skip the crawling and go straight to standing. There's no keeping this little girl down. She is quite strong and curious.

DINOSAURS in Central Park!

Okay, so we're nuts about free music. We hadn't made it to Summer Stage all season so we decided to go see the Walkmen and Dinosaur Jr. It was brutally humid and the site where they set up the stage allowed for absolutely no cross breeze. We ended up with decent seats and stuck it in the stagnant air.

We took a nice walk down the park after the show and made our way home.

Hanging with the ANIMALS in the park!

So we were lucky enough to have tickets to the last concert at Prospect Park. We had been listening to Animal Collective's new album for a awhile but we had no idea what was in store for us. A picture would have done no good to describe the scene. Neon everything, including floating jelly fish-looking things and digitized animal photos on giants screens. Well, I'm not doing a good job describing it either but it was awesome. The music was incredible and we all had such a good time. We were able to get another ticket for cousin Lindsay to come along.



Zoe just keeps getting funnier and funnier. She bounced back so quickly from her accident and she seems to be trusting her environment a little more now. She is so easy going and makes it a breeze to get out and enjoy the city. Thanks BABY!

Zoe's First Baseball Game

Aaron scored us tickets to the Mets game. They were playing the SF Giants and we were ready to endure the glares of surrounding fans as we cheered for the Giants. But it turns out we didn't have much to cheer about, seeing that nobody ever made it past 2nd base the entire game. Oh well! We had a great time and even got to chow down on burgers and shakes from the Shake Shack. Mmmm...

It's a really nice stadium. Just big enough to have that MLB experience but small enough to make all the seats good.

The fantastic view looking out from the stadium. Yes, my friends, that IS a scrap yard. If this was Pac Bell Park, this would be where all the kayakers hang out.

The field, post-game.

Zoe had a lot of excitement and by the end of the eighth inning, she was pooped. It was a great night. Maybe we'll go back.