october 22nd

Happy 12 year anniversary, Ty. We started dating on this day in 1995 and haven't stopped dating each other since. You are an amazing daddy and husband and best friend. Who knew that falling asleep while watching Babette's Feast for a philosophy class could lead to such great things?

sunday morning nap

We went away on our fall trip for two nights recently. We followed Zuzu's routine -- like clockwork. Somehow, "strange place" and "schedule" didn't fit with Zuzu's plans, so her sleep cycle got thrown off, leading to an out-of-character tired and cranky girl. On Sunday morning I was so delighted to have her successfully go down for her morning nap that I decided to take a quick video of my sweet sleeper. Here's what happened.

fall trip

it's an annual tradition. when the air begins to turn crisp and the leaves, crispy, we take a couple days off from work and head to where the foliage seems to fall in slow motion. autumn seems to be one of our busiest seasons of the year, so this trip forces us to stop for a moment and breathe in the beauty around us.

this year, jenn and i have become tour guides to our newest october traveler (zuzu), pointing out all of the places we've enjoyed visiting in the past. today, we made it to the main attraction - starved rock state park. riding in a backpack carrier, zuzu took it all in with a smile.

(click to enlarge)

emma & zuzu

Zuzu has recently taken an interest in Emma (who, even though she's a cat, is frequently reassured she will always be "our baby"). Emma often makes a good target for Zuzu to reach for when she's on the floor, and Zuzu can be seen wriggling in a variety of ways in hopes of getting a quick touch. Emma puts up with it for a little while before becomming indifferent (or annoyed). Seeing the two of them hang out on the floor together usually makes us chuckle, since they are close in size and sometimes both rock from side to side while on their backs. Notice how they both have their bellies "exposed" in this video (and Zuzu scratches hers), always a good sign of being relaxed!

newness

Zuzu has outgrown her infant carseat. Which is funny, because she’s just six months old and we thought it would last her until a year – but she’s so long that she could not wait to upgrade. After polling friends and family and scouring online reviews, we wound up on the floor in Target putting Zuzu in the display models to try them out and we drove home with two giant boxes and a lighter wallet. Now she has a new seat in daddy’s car and another for mommy’s car.

And if getting new carseats wasn’t exciting enough for one weekend, Zuzu’s first tooth broke through on Saturday night (see teething ring in picture above). She had a fabulous attitude the past few days despite teething. It had been waiting below the gums teasing us for a while, until early on Saturday we exclaimed “there IS a tooth there!” and relieved we hadn’t imagined its imminent presence. Sure enough, Sunday morning it was finally free. Now we are eager to see it grow as it pushes up and becomes more visible.

This weekend we continued to ready things for the basement waterproofing work that will be tackled around Halloween. Yesterday we hauled out the contents of our storage room, sorted and organized items into tubs, and moved things into the garage. It kind of felt like we were moving! Today Ty conquered our deck by removing boards in preparation for the new sump line going out of the house. Inside there’s still baseboard to be taken off, another closet to empty, blinds to take down, vinyl to peel up, work for an electrician…ugh. We’re not quite ready to contemplate how much work will remain once the contractor finishes... and we haven’t told Emma yet that she’ll need to be boarded while the work goes on, poor kitty. But thankfully all this is happening before Zuzu will be crawling and after it’s done the downstairs will be dry and recarpeted – hooray -- and the guest room at “Chez Jenn & Ty’s” once again open for company ;)

sweet baby

Ahhh, isn't she a sweet sleeper?

So, our baby is six months old. She is now rolling like a tumbleweed. Sitting up like a pro (okay, a little wobbly, but she's got the hang of it). I'm pretty sure a tooth is coming in on the bottom. She'll hold a glass if there's one within reach and put it up to her mouth. And she likes peas! How is she growing so fast?!

diaper magic

Now that Zuzu has added baby food to her diet, we have had some fascinating diapers. In went squash, and out came something squashy. In went carrots, out came something with carrot-like flecks. But yesterday was by far the most amazing. In went mushed sweet potatoes and out came --- SOLID SWEET POTATOES!

homecoming parade

Friday was UI’s homecoming parade, and it’s tradition for Jenn’s school to march in the parade. With Zuzu in the backpack carrier, we were part of the caravan of strollers and wagons. Jenn’s school handed out Seed Savers seed packets (instead of candy), the kids carried biodegradable earth balloons, and we all seemed to take turns carrying some kid-created “eco rules” signs. I thought it was a blast and of course something good for the baby books – Zuzu IN her first parade. We loved having friends spot us along the way and call out “Zuzu!” to get our attention and wave. She was a trooper the whole way despite the fact that the time fell during her normal nursing/dinner/bath/bed routine time. Afterwards Ty proclaimed it tradition from there forward to go to El Ranchero for dinner each year after the homecoming parade. It was a perfect evening together as a family. Ahhhh.