pit stop

The last Sunday of every June, Ty’s family has a reunion and picnic. It’s a summer tradition held at Les and Wendee’s home, complete with noodles made from an old family recipe. Every year we look forward to taking walks through the gardens, getting inspired by Wendee’s artwork, seeing the fish in the pond, and playing games outside.

We hadn’t driven too far from home when we heard the sound of Zuzu in the back seat devouring her hands. Wanting to prevent a total meltdown, we pulled off in a parking lot to give Zuzu a good feeding before continuing the trip. This was a perfect idea so the drive could be free of crying, and I got Zuzu’s belly all filled up until it was so full she had to make a contribution to her diaper. Those darn diapers certainly don’t have an “explosion-free protection” guarantee on the label for a reason. And why we dressed her in an all-white cotton sundress and bloomers I have no idea, because it wasn’t a smart one. Yes, there’s nothing like trying to change a squirming baby in a parked car on one’s lap when everything (including part of my lap) is covered in you-know-what. Of course we discovered her diaper bag to be out of plastic baggies, so while I tried to prevent the mess from spreading, Ty rummaged around in the trunk until he found a 40-gallon garbage bag which, in retrospect, seems quite fitting of the degree of messiness that was initially found on mother and baby.

We never did make it to the picnic and I think we’ll be eating chilled tomato and mozzarella salad for the next four nights. Oh well, at least once we got the worst of it cleaned up Zuzu seemed pretty content, as the picture above shows.

zuzu swings!

enjoy a slice of zuzu as she wakes up from a nap in her swing. her cute little grunts and squeaks are what have led us to refer to her as our "baby elephant" at times.

hopefully this will make up for my lack of posting lately!

father's day

Zuzu and I were blessed to honor Ty on Sunday – his first Father’s Day. Especially being the first Father’s Day, we considered this to be kind of a big deal since he’ll only celebrate the first one once. The preceding week, we sing-songedly reminded him daily that his special day was around the corner and as soon as midnight Sunday rolled around I started saying “Happy Father’s Day!”. In the morning, Zuzu greeted her daddy with a card that she “made” (at Margarita’s house) which was propped in the corner of her crib for Ty to discover.

After church, Ty came home to find 21 little notes hidden throughout the house describing why we love him as a father – things like “You are always willing to change diapers in the middle of the night” or “You read books to Zuzu in utero”. After he found the first few he began to get the idea there were more hidden throughout the house so he started hunting around, opening drawers, peeking in the fridge, etc. to find them. They were everywhere from inside a clean diaper, underneath Zuzu in her crib, on the underside of the toilet seat, on top of the forks in the silverware drawer, folded inside clean underwear – you get the idea. Later he opened cards and I know he loved all his Father’s Day cards because they each made him teary. Sometime this week Zuzu and Ty will make a stepping stone with Zuzu’s tiny handprint and Ty’s big handprint in cement to commemorate his first Father’s Day (it was way too hot and humid to do it on the actual day).

Perhaps the most touching part of Father’s Day was late on Sunday night, when Ty turned to me in the kitchen and reflected on a moment with Zuzu he’d never forget – special time that just the two of them shared, quietly and tearfully, just an hour after Zuzu was born when they were all alone together. We love you, Ty -- you are a gift to us!

prototype

since becoming a parent, i've marveled at all of the modern conveniences and gadgets that have been developed over the years to make the act of parenting and caring for your little one just a bit easier. the baby monitor, the diaper genie, velcro on diapers - i mean, come on... that's genius! i hate to think of having to pin or button or even snap little zuzu's diaper around her little squirming body.

anyway, seeing how zuzu's thirst for her mommy's milk has steadily increased over the weeks (see previous post, item 2), i've come up with a new idea that could change the way we think about feeding babies - forever!
ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, and babies... i present to you...

...the one-gallon baby bottle!

complete with convenient carrying handle.
i can see the infomercial already!

:)

recent events

Life has been so busy over the past two weeks that we haven’t updated as regularly about the little things going on with Zuzu and finding our way through parenthood. Here’s the shorthand of some recent events:

1. Jenn got halfway through Zuzu’s bath on the kitchen counter before realizing the plug was off the baby tub. There was baby bathwater everywhere and all were glad it was an otherwise “accident free” bath.
2. Zuzu guzzled 7 ½ ounces in one feeding at Margarita’s. In ONE feeding. That’s like half a daytime’s worth of milk for her.
3. She continues to be super cute. I know we’re biased, but we think she should be diagnosed as an EAB (Exceptionally Adorable Baby).
4. Note to self: a parent should always carry the phone number of their childcare provider with them at all times, because if they don’t and their car happens to break down at a major intersection at 5:15 p.m. in 90 degree heat when one’s child needs to be picked up by 5:30, and then traffic backs up and the flustered parent accidentally pops the trunk instead of the hood and the trunk latch malfunctions and won’t close, not having that phone number leads to great panic.
5. Tomorrow is Father’s Day. Zuzu will be letting her daddy know in some creative ways how much she loves him. More on that later.

a place to snooze

Something big happened at our house last night: Zuzu, who has slept each night in a bassinet next to our bed, slept in her CRIB in her own room! The time finally came to take the big step since her bassinet isn’t as roomy these days (see previous post) and her crib -- with cute polka-dot sheets, stimulating mobile, bumper made by Mommy, and froggy and duck friends attached to the rail -- just cried out to be slept in. Of course, this next step was not taken without a bit of sadness over the fading of her “teensy tiny baby” phase. Zuzu looked so sweet and peaceful this morning in her crib that we had to take a picture of our little sleepyhead.

everything is shrinking

We've noticed lately when we put Zuzu in her bassinet that her legs and arms quite easily hit the padded sides. If she's active or flailing her limbs at all, we hear a thwonk! thwonk! noise coming from within. Then we see the whole bassinet rumbling from side to side almost like we'd expect it to if there was a small, hyper animal in it bouncing around, such as a squirrel or a family of chipmunks. Hmm, her bassinet seems to be shrinking.

Her baby tub has the same problem. Somehow the warm water from her bath must've caused the fabric bath sling she sits in to shrink, because her arms can dangle out the sides and her toes perch at the edge of the tub.

Everything around her seems to be shrinking -- her bouncer seat, car seat, even Emma the cat -- everything except Zuzu. Yes, our Zuzu is growing. She's stretched about three and a half inches since birth and she now weighs more than Emma. What happened to our newborn?! She's doing so much these days -- "talking" to us, the lamp, or anything that catches her eye; swatting at the dangly giraffes on her bouncy seat; holding her head up without tiring... growing, growing, growing.

how cute is this?

I mean really, isn’t she smashingly adorable???

in the swing of things

Well, we made it through the first week: back to work for Jenn and to Margarita’s house for Zuzu. It was a loooong week, thus the delinquency in blogging last week! Even though we have entered a new season in our lives, I’m really sad to be ending such a wonderful time at home with our little girl. But Zuzu and Margarita got along like peas in a pod, and we are blessed to know that she is receiving excellent, loving care during the week. We are all settling into our new routine, but as we adjust by the time the evening hits we are wiped out. This picture is how I found Ty and Zuzu cuddled the other night – Ty had fallen asleep while putting Zuzu down to bed.

back to work

Tomorrow is my first day back to work and Zuzu’s first day at childcare. We’ve tried to not be too sad about the transition but our hearts are heavy – especially mine. It has been such a gift to spend the past nine weeks with Zuzu and to know that one or both of us have been with her at all times, except for the day when she went to visit her childcare provider for a few hours (our practice time).

It’s less than nine hours away.

I miss her already. A lot.

new cousin

Yesterday Zuzu met her newest cousin in Cedar Rapids, born Wednesday night. Ty & I are an uncle and auntie again! Her baby boy cousin weighed just a few ounces more than Zuzu did at birth, but it was remarkable to compare the two in person and get an idea of just how much Zuzu has grown already!