goodbye, emma

Our beloved cat and family member, Emma, passed away in our arms this afternoon.

Emma joined our family seven and a half years ago after she was left during the night at the animal shelter. Once we met her she instantly became our baby and gave us immeasurable love and joy. We always said she was our firstborn. We couldn’t have asked for a better big sister cat for Zuzu.

Some of you know that especially over the past few months Emma had numerous medical complications. Then in early November she was diagnosed with diabetes and subsequently stopped eating. She amazed us with her strength and although we will feel an enormous hole in our little family, we are glad she is now at peace.

We will always remember when Emma would:

• snuggle under the covers with Ty on chilly mornings
• lick Jenn's hair during the night
• faithfully sleep with us every night
• nap in cuddle caves around the house
• lay in the windowsills in the summer
• perk up when she saw squirrels and birds outside
• get a sudden burst of energy playing with a toy mouse
• bat food and twist ties around the kitchen floor like a hockey player
• nestle under the Christmas tree every year
• cuddle up with us when we felt sad -- somehow she always knew when we needed some extra love
• be amazingly patient while Zuzu touched her, played with her food, or splashed in her water dish
  

Emma, may your blanket keep you warm outside where you’ll always be near the birds and the squirrels and never far from our sight. – love, jenn, ty & zuzu

christmas could be different...

for the last several years, we've been wanting to create a christmas experience for ourselves (and now for our little zuzu) that focuses more on jesus - and his coming to earth to show us what he and the rest of the trinity is all about - and less on buying and receiving. honestly... it's not easy and we've made very little progress.

this christmas, however, we're needing to seriously cut back - due to a number of unexpected expenses over the last year or so - which actually ends up helping us to step closer to our goal of spending less time and money buying and more time enjoying the true spirit of the season with our family, friends, and community.

this year, jenn and i rented and watched "what would jesus buy," a documentary that takes an entertaining look at the current consumeristic condition of christmas in america and encourages us to envision what christmas was like "before all the shopping began." if you really think about it, i'm betting that people weren't feeling an emptiness, a void, that could only be filled by material goods. imagine the activities that might have been happening in place of the craziness and busyness of shopping, the buying, and the getting.

recently, i discovered the following video on a couple of friends' blogs and it really struck me as something which captures the hopes i've had growing inside of me, more and more, year after year, christmas after christmas. it's an idea worth spreading, so i thought i'd pass it on.

an ordinary photograph...

this may look like your average everyday snapshot, but in fact, if you examine it closely, it tells you quite a few things about our little zuzu these days:


1. hats. if you haven't heard already, zuzu likes hats. green hats, cowgirl hats, baseball hats - all kinds of hats. now, zuzu is an outside-of-the-box thinker, so hats can be anything that will sit on your head. if a "hat" has straps or an elastic waistband, it's an added bonus.

2. pants. zuzu doesn't want to wear pants. zuzu wants to wear pants. it's up to her. she likes saying "pants," which usually comes out as "panths." she enjoys taking her pants off (see previous post). this has actually been a little helpful for us when getting her ready for bedtime. i've recently realized that we won't have to do everything for her forever (though, i don't mind). special note: a pair of pants can also be worn as a hat.

3. shoes. zuzu likes shoes. she's liked them from a very young age. she seems to have dozens of pairs - each appropriate for its own occasion. she gets that from her momma, i think.

4. fridge letters. zuzu loves playing with the extra large letters on the refrigerator door. her favorite thing to do is to pull them off of the fridge and onto the floor. in october, she enjoyed putting them into her pumpkin basket, one by one. zuzu is getting pretty good at repeating the names of the letters when we say them to her.

5. fridge pictures. zuzu loves looking at the pictures that we've placed on the refrigerator door. there are pictures of her aunts and uncles, her cousins (even a dog cousin), herself, mommy, and daddy. old pictures. new pictures. we thought putting them inside plastic sleeves or in magnetic frames would protect them from her curious hands, should she decide to take them down. well, she decided to take them down - and has greatly enjoyed shuffling through them on the kitchen floor.

6. catalogs & magazines. zuzu really likes to browse through the various catalogs and magazines we receive. for a while, we had a nice stack behind the corner chair in the living room. behind the chair became her secret spot for relaxing and flipping through pages of pictures of other children - some wearing hats, others playing with water toys. another related activity involves tearing pages out of these publications and scattering them around the living room.

7. fridge access. zuzu has learned that she can open the refrigerator door anytime she wants. even if she's flat out refused to drink her milk or water at mealtime, she'll head straight for the fridge handle within 5 minutes of getting out of her high-chair when she's done eating and grab the leftover beverage to sip at her leisure. sometimes she'll even sit on the bottom ledge of the open fridge and say, "chair!" though this could also be classified as "out-of-the-box thinking," it may be time for a fridge lock.

kitchen counter tricks

zuzu's home with a fever today, so i thought i'd take advantage of some time during her morning nap to show you what she has been up to lately.

this is what i found her doing in our kitchen the other day...



look out, christmas tree!

clothes just get in the way

Right this minute, Zuzu is running around the house wearing 1) a fleece top, 2) an orange baseball cap backwards (she put it on that way), and 3) a diaper. Anything important missing?

Zuzu has mastered taking off her pants. She tugs at the waistband, steps out of each leg, leaves them in a heap on the floor and says "Uhhhh oh!" as if it was all a big accident. That's the same thing she said when I found her in her crib this morning and asked, "What happend to your jammies?" (also victim of her stripping antics). Just moments ago this bare-legged girl climbed up on the couch by herself (picture the effort involved in mountain climbing), rolled over next to me and said, "Mommy, I funny."

I love her.

2009 costume preview

zuzu had so much fun this halloween that she decided to get a jump start on next year by testing out a new costume idea. as you'll see, she was kind of hoping to keep it a secret - hence, she was a bit evasive - but i was able to get you a sneak peek.



she wouldn't let me in on the specifics, but i'm thinking...
1. bee keeper
2. bank robber
3. hollywood mosquito wrangler

what do you think?

(by the way - zuzu's "mask" was a zippered laundry bag for delicate items.  zuzu also tried out some of the "delicate items" as masks, too, but i thought maybe jenn would appreciate it if i didn't post those images!)

Texas Toast

No, she’s not a sandwich. Look closer. Texas toast, get it? Cute enough to nibble and homemade to boot.

Tata had her annual costume parade and early trick-or-treating around her neighborhood (somehow she and Tato got all the kids in costume, up and down the street with no one crying and Zuzu managed to keep her hat and boots on). We caught up with them late in the day. Adorable, huh?

Then we were off to Hy-Vee’s Halloween activities. We declined the candy, but Zuzu did get a balloon:

…a free picture, and a pumpkin cookie. When half the cookie fell in the floor by the meat department, Zuzu had a meltdown (despite the fact that the other half of the cookie was stuffed in her mouth – keep in mind, she doesn’t get sweets very often), so we wound up giving her the cookie back. You’ve got to pick your battles. One more stop by the frozen foods so she could get her picture with her costume’s namesake:

…then we headed home to visit some of the neighbors. The night ended with Zuzu ripping into a sucker, which she ate while standing frozen for five minutes at the Steele’s doorstep. This was quite a feat for a 19-month old wearing a cowboy hat and two large pieces of bread. She must’ve known we would take it away if she tried to walk with it in her mouth. She also saw two dogs, got licked by one bigger than her, and cheerily patted the Grim Reaper down the street. A good Halloween.

summer update

We’re back online after an extended hiatus without internet! We received many laments about Zuzu’s blog absence, and all we can say is life has been, well, busy. We’ll catch you up on our happenings in another post, but for the moment we’ll share a few of our favorite pictures from the past months.

During the time that has passed since her first birthday, Zuzu has blossomed -- goodbye baby, hello toddler. Zuzu's first haircut was in May. Don't let her smile fool you -- despite eating an arrowroot biscuit while sitting on Jenn's lap at our friend Jen’s salon, Zuzu knew something was suspicious the minute the vinyl cape was draped over her shoulders. We spared you the squirmy "during" pictures and just shared the end result:

One of our "must do" traditions is going to Arts Fest every June. We spent a steamy Saturday downtown inspired by creations, listened to music, took a break for an Indian lunch buffet (another one of our traditions), looked at more art and then lapped up melting gelato. Zuzu carried her rubber duckie around all afternoon. If anyone finds a rubber duckie in the Ped Mall, please call. That weekend she’d started to become confident in her ability to walk and was thrilled to hold onto a pinky as she strolled in the summer breeze.

While Zuzu is a consistent cuddler and loves to be held by one of us, she has become quite busy in her play time at home -- walking a loop between the kitchen, dining and living rooms and sometimes wandering down the hallway only to return with a loose sock or a stray shoe held excitedly above her head, babbling and spontaneously giggling. It's so fabulous to watch her explore. Below was one of those quiet moments in the midst of play time that lasted just long enough for me to grab the camera:

Walking became official in June. Zuzu walks on her tiptoes so much that she wore holes her birthday shoes. Sometimes she has blisters on her toes, but doesn't seem to notice them at all. She is just thrilled to be prancing around on her own. After going barefoot most of the summer, she fell in love with a pair of Crocs from cousin Ella.

Jazz Fest fell on a hot, humid weekend but Zuzu still seemed happy to be out and about. I think we wound up running into people and talking more than sitting still and taking in the music, but even a brief time on the lawn in front of the Old Capitol among the crowd was fun. With a summer full of long work weeks we were hungry for any time together as a threesome.

Zuzu is saying more new words than we can keep track of. We last counted in June and she was at about 30 words at that time, so I really can’t guess how many she’s saying now. Our favorites include hearing her say "broccoli" and "Amen!". Now she's starting to pair words together a little bit – “Bye bye agua” (in the tub), “What is that?”, “Hi Daddy”, etc. A few weeks ago she started singing “yeah, yeah, yeah!” along to a U2 song. And books, which she loves to read over and over, keep her busy and repeating lots of words.

sweet dreamer

zuzu's fever hasn't affected her attitude or behavior much, but it has made her a bit sleepier these past couple of days. when naptime rolls around and it's my job to put her down, i often try to enjoy the perks of such a task by letting her fall asleep on my chest while we sit in the rocker. with her fever, zuzu's level of sweetness has been equally elevated to a higher level - her warmth and soft sighs against me are like smelling chocolate-chip cookies fresh out of the oven... so sweet!

this afternoon, zuzu was so zonked that when i eventually put her in her crib, she slept in the position in which she landed - arms and legs tucked into a big self-hug.

i caught a bit of this sweetness on tape and put in some music from plumb along with it. it seemed to fit so perfectly.

enjoy this, another slice of zuzu.

keep it simple...

once again, it's been a while since we've posted. we're trying to figure out ways to keep the blog-flow going and have a theory that a "keep it simple" approach may be the way for us to go in this season. post a picture or a bit of video, a couple of sentences, and you're set! as we all know, even just a drop of little zuzu in our life will keep us happy for some time.

this week, tata has been on vacation, so on monday and tuesday my mom (grandma) watched zuzu during the day. yesterday, i took over and began three days of "daddy-duty." unfortunately zuzu developed a fever on tuesday night/wednesday morning, which meant my plans of grand adventures (you know - like hot-air balloon riding, roller-coasting, and, say... mall-walking) had to be put on hold till a later date. today during lunch, i decided to entertain zuzu with a little comedy to lift her spirits. and i kept it simple... the ol' hiccup routine. works every time.

zuzu's first birthday

well, it’s been over two weeks since zuzu celebrated day three-hundred sixty-five and people are starting to talk. here’s the (long overdue) scoop on the celebrations that took place in honor of her very first birthday.

did someone say emergency?

This week we had two emergencies. First, on Easter Sunday instead of celebrating the stone being rolled from the tomb, Ty rolled his own seven millimeter kidney stone, not too shabby as kidney stone sizes go. We spent the evening at the emergency room while Ty writhed around while his little surprise friend traveled out of his kidney, until he got some welcome pain killers in an IV (here's Ty giving the thumbs up after the meds kicked in). Zuzu was a real trooper and made Ty's experience more bearable as some of the ER staff fawned over Zuzu since she's been talked up big time in the ER by her honorary Auntie Katie who works there (here we are waiting with Ty). The stone has yet to be apprehended but we're sure it will be a memorable event for Ty when it does, ahem, appear.

The second emergency was Wednesday morning when our smoke detectors went off. Zuzu sat patiently in her excersaucer while I tried to silence the alarm, which didn't work, so I took out the battery and tried to pull the detector (which was still going off) out of the wall, but it was wired in. Beep! beep! beep! beep! beep! Zuzu's smoke detector was going off too. We finally got them quieted, only to have one go off ten minutes later. And then again. And again. And again. And again, and again, and again. And then again with a new battery in another room. The fire department said to call 911 "just in case". So after calling 911 and explaining that we didn't appear to be in imminent danger, and then the neighbors (so they didn't worry), not one but two fire trucks with sirens pulled up as well as the fire department command van. Sheesh. By then Zuzu was at Tata's so we didn't have her all worked up over the commotion. All was fine and somehow just a weird coincidence of events and a recommendation from the firefighters to replace our smoke alarms.

who took the last square?

Zuzu really likes going to the bathroom -- as in she likes going into the room and exploring. First, it was the cabinet doors under the sink that caught her attention...so much fun to open and close them. Then they came in handy to hold onto while she pulled herself up. Next, she discovered the bathtub and toilet -- more things she could grab and try to stand. Last week she noticed the toilet paper roll and did what most little ones do when they see it: yank, yank, yank and play.

Then she fled the scene.

laundry service

Ahh, I like to help sort through the clean laundry.

I'm sure no one will mind if I throw it on the floor, right?Hmm, let's stick a few surprises in the laundry basket...
like a granola bar.

zuzu plays a video game!

zuzu has really been enjoying her ability to pull herself up and stand. last week, we had paused a DVD we were watching during dinner (a special - and rare - "feel-better" treat for a sick jenn) when zuzu noticed the moving screen saver graphic and took advantage of the opportunity to practice her hand-eye coordination skills.



she cracks us up!

exploration

zuzu's been seeking out many opportunities for learning and discovery lately. here's a recent experiment she conducted with her hands.



notice how she checks to make sure that the coast is clear - and that an upset emma isn't lurking around the corner - before leaving the scene of the cri- uh, er... experiment? i told her that since it's emma's bowls she's playing with, any spare fingers found there are fair game for nibblin'. actually, the more zuzu has been moving around, the more emma seems to recognize who the boss of the house really is.

super daddy

This week Ty won the parenting award for pulling double-duty at home by taking care of Zuzu himself and taking care of me while I was sick – even having Zuzu accompany him at an evening shoot. Today things were a little more back to normal at home and Zuzu finally got to play with both her daddy and her mommy.

This morning after breakfast she discovered the sliding glass doors and the great big window they create (I have a feeling we’ll have fingerprints on the doors for a long time to come). Zuzu also discovered the vent deflector, which will probably never stay in place again.

photo op

Ty came home the other day from picking up groceries and announced he made an appointment for Zuzu’s first studio portrait (given the fact that we take a gazillion pictures of her and we both prefer candids anyway, getting a studio portrait taken seems more like a rite of passage than a hope of getting a good picture – but Ty reassured me we’ll just do it and get it over with and don’t have to buy anything).

I asked Ty where he booked it – thinking I'd recognize the name of a good area photographer – but Ty said he really didn’t know who would be taking it. Hmm, not a good sign. When I wondered where he signed up for this, I didn’t expect to hear the response, “at a stand outside of Hy-Vee” (which translated to: “by the shopping cart corral, my dear. Only it didn’t seem so shady until I came home and started to tell you about it”). But wait, it gets funnier. Guess where the picture will be taken? In the Hy-Vee cafeteria. I hope this fly-by-night operation will put up a backdrop, but if we see even one kernel of creamed corn that flies out of the mouth of a patron eating their lunch while Zuzu gets her picture taken, and it shows up in the picture, I’m asking for a full refund of our ten dollars.

And we’ll post the picture online – of course. Wallet-sized prints, anyone?

jailbird

Yesterday Zuzu figured out how to pull herself from sitting into a standing position in her crib. Not only does this mean we can walk into her room now and find her standing there looking like a jailbird, holding onto the railing and occasionally sticking out her hand -- which cracks us up, predictably she does not know how to get herself back down onto her bottom. Sunday afternoon by 4:45 p.m. after having her boomerang into a tearful standing position each time we put her in her crib, we gave up on trying to get her to sleep and figured we'd all be happier if she was a sleepyhead, free to crawl around the house, rather than being a crying kiddo trapped in her crib. Thankfully by her evening bedtime she was either so tired that she didn't care anymore about standing in her crib or just plain forgot, because as soon as she hit the mattress she snuggled onto her belly and fell asleep.

sweets for the sweetie

Saturday was a BIG day for Zuzu. At least it was in my book. Her life will now be forever changed.

Our little, sweet, innocent Zuzu had sugar for the first time. No, not the wonderful "nature's own" sugars found in fruit, but the real kind (yes, gasp, I know!). And not ONLY did she have sugar for the first time, but she had chocolate too (yes, feel free to gasp again). And she liked it.

Okay, so truthfully it was Ama's super healthy fat free yogurt chocolate mousse, but it still counts on our list of (previously) forbidden foods. We threw caution to the wind and let her indulge after being chided that I'd likely give my child a bran muffin on her first birthday instead of a piece of cake (hmm, Christy, the bran muffin isn't a bad idea, you know). ;)

be my valentine

Happy Valentine's Day, my sweet Zuzu!

Today, Zuzu wore a big heart on the front of her shirt; all week she's been wearing red or hearts in honor of her first Valentine's Day. Her first homemade Valentine was given to Tata this morning (okay, we confess -- we made it, not Zuzu); however, while at Tata's she made us a Valentine gift that she actually painted.

Today Ty came to my work bearing lunch and a heart-shaped dessert, and then filled in for me so I could participate in the school secret Valentine partner reveal. Needless to say, both the lunch and filling in for me was really thoughtful.
"How many people got flowers at school today?" he asked me when I came home tonight.
"Three."
"Yeah," he joked, "but how many people's spouses actually showed up in person and gave them the best gift of all -- their time?"

So tonight we're all spending time together as a family -- our favorite thing to do!

dinner theatre

when zuzu hits the highchair these days, we know we're in for a real show.

answered prayer...

as i drive zuzu to tata's each morning, i've tried to keep a habit of praying with her for the day ahead of us (eyes open, of course!). usually the prayers from day to day sound pretty similar - praying for health and safety for us and for her friends at tata's daycare, thanking god for our friends and family and many other blessings we've been given, asking for a stress-reduced day (for mommy & daddy), etc. well, today i got creative and asked that "love would be evident" - mainly for zuzu's day at tata's. i guess if i start feeling like the prayer is a repeat of the previous day's, sometimes i'll just let things come out and see where they go.

now, there is typically no lack of love and care at tata's - in fact, it is abundant! but today, i prayed for it to be evident. as we pulled in to her driveway, we could see a large red heart taped to the front door, as big as could be.
upon reaching the door, on the heart we could read, in glittery gold writing, "Love is in the air..."

getting into everything

Lately it's as if Zuzu hit the fast forward button. She has taken off with her crawling speed and is getting into everything (which keeps us laughing and occasionally panicked). Yesterday she crawled over to a box of canned food for the Crisis Center which we "cleverly" (i.e. not recommended) used as a temporary barricade to prevent her from reaching the railing that's not kid-friendly. She managed to lift the cans of food out of the box by herself, not only amazing me with the strength of those little hands but undoing our meager attempt to block access to the railing. I guess we need to hurry up our plan to replace it.

Yesterday our washer broke. Zuzu just happens to be on her last clean pair of jammies so I think we may get creative with her bedtime attire later this week depending on how long we are without a washing machine. The washer gets added to our "Now Guess What Broke!" list, to which the temperature control on our oven was added a couple of days ago. The only thing we can do is laugh because everything keeps breaking and our list of things to be repaired or replaced keeps growing.

recent pics

can we really EVER get enough of this girl?!

i love my cat

Zuzu has a special relationship with ten year old Emma (our "first born"). She delights in petting her, is filled with glee when she brushes up against her, and will stop eating out of sheer happy distraction if she walks in the kitchen. Today when Zuzu started saying, "Eh-ma...Emma. EMMA!" during church we had to leave the room.

This afternoon I sat Zuzu on the floor and watched her scramble after her four-legged friend, who was on her way to eat. I knew what was coming, but decided not to stop it: the shiny food bowls are very, very intriguing and the feel of cat food on little fingers a new texture to explore. Thankfully Emma was a very good sport.

ten months

Zuzu is ten months old today. Only two months until her first birthday -- it's hard to believe! Last night we saw Zuzu side by side with a little six week old baby, and in comparison Zuzu looked so big. When she was a newborn we'd look at other people's kids and think they were mammoth -- but now we're on the flip side.

This week Tata started hinting around that Zuzu's hair is getting long in the front. Ty and I are both on the same page that we're not ready for that first haircut (she really doesn't need a trim yet) but things like haircuts still seem pretty big girl-ish. More like the kind of thing she'll do after age one, along with her first dental exam or getting her first tattoo.

Zuzu surprised us last night by opening one of the entertainment center cabinet doors. Tonight she did it again, and then made a beeline for the extension cord under the secretary in the dining room, furniture which I discovered has the perfect-sized opening to wedge a child's head. Hmm, how to childproof that thing...? Today she attempted to pull herself up in her pack-n-play at Tata's, a maneuver she also tried recently at home a few times using either the laundry basket or the excersaucer as leverage. We are just waiting to discover her standing in her crib holding on to the sides and unable to get back down, which we predict will happen in the middle of the night sometime, making it so much more of an adventure. We'll see!

In addition to clearly saying Emma and Momma, Zuzu has been saying Dadda a little more. She has perfect timing and says it when least expected, usually causing us ask each other what she just said. Zuzu now says Emma's name in the car when we're heading home from Tata's (does she know she'll see her?), when we walk in the door and Emma's waiting, and when Zuzu looks at a clay cat that's sitting in our living room. The clay cat now evokes lots of panting and hand-waving out of Zuzu since she gets so excited to get close to it.

Here's a picture of Ty and Zuzu dancing to Barry White last week. Who doesn't dance when they hear Barry White? Zuzu loved being dipped and whirled, and especially enjoyed watching Daddy's dance solo. Mommy enjoyed it too. ;)

yogurt, anyone?

In an effort to expand Zuzu's repertoire of mealtime fare, lately we've been introducing a variety of new foods. Anyone who has seen Zuzu attempt a new food, appear to dislike it and try again can attest that her willingness to eat what's put in front of her was not inherited whatsoever from her mother, who was labeled as "picky from birth". Thankfully so far she seems to have gotten Ty's genes for food tasting; he will eat anything and everything placed in front of him unless he's seriously ill or is served mushroom stroganoff, a big mistake from early in our marriage and the only time Jenn has ever seen him refuse a meal. Case in point: the other day we tried to feed her some plain yogurt, her introduction to sour(ish) food. The result? Hilarious. Perhaps you will find it entertaining too.

fun with every day objects

Though Zuzu received plenty of actual toys for Christmas, we still find ways to make use of things around the house to keep her entertained.

onesie model, part II

If you like the baby, or if you loved the onesies (see earlier post) then check out http://www.NoBabyNoDesigns.etsy.com to see both. Sorry, baby not for sale -- but the onesies are!

first freckle

There it is in all its glory, right in the middle of the top of her foot: Zuzu's first freckle.

At first we thought her foot was dirty. A bath didn't help the teensy spot disappear.

"Has Zuzu scratched her foot?" we asked. A couple of days later it was still there.

"Aha! Her little slippers are rubbing her feet!" we hypothesized. But even wearing only socks, the spot was still there every night when we undressed her.

Finally it is bigger than a grain of salt, so we figure it's going to hang around for a lifetime.

A freckle has never looked so cute (at least to us).

onesie model

Meet Zuzu the supermodel. A local artist was looking for some babies to model onesies featuring his designs, and of course we needed no excuse to photograph our little one even more. Now that Zuzu has entered a very mobile stage, photographing her sitting up has become a challenge. Thankfully between a patient daddy, a mommy dangling ribbons off camera, quick reflexes and lots of odd noises and cheering coming from the two of us, we managed to capture some good ones. Like the onesies? Let us know, we’ll point you in the right direction to own one yourself.

chatterbox

As if crawling wasn’t enough of a milestone, in the same week Zuzu started saying “momma”. Her second word (first was “ehwa” -- translation: “emma”). Ty has been very interested in this “momma” business. Initially I thought Ty was hard of hearing since after Zuzu would say “momma” Ty would say “dadda?”. Ty was reassured when Zuzu whispered “dadda” to him in the middle of the night without witnesses around. I will attest that I have heard this too, and I think it’s rather sweet that Ty gets his name softly whispered by her like she’s telling secrets.

crawler

Zuzu is now crawling! It’s official. It’s now less of “Army crawl meets crazy rolling” and more “coordinated arms and legs”. The other morning she crawled right into the bathroom as we were getting ready for work and grabbed onto Ty’s ankle. Last night she went straight for a stack of books on the living room floor and promptly spread them all over. Everything is a temptation to her. Ty installed a baby gate at the top of the stairs, but we’re still in a predicament when it comes to how to keep Zuzu out but still leave enough space for Emma to get through on her way to her litter box. Pretty much anywhere Emma can squeeze through, Zuzu can as well. (Our railing remains a safety hazard so that Emma has some passageway – we’re still brainstorming that one!)

holiday summary

It seems that the busyness of the holiday season made us blog-impaired (actually, our internet connection was bad). So much has happened since Christmas that I actually need to look at a calendar to remind me of everything we’ve been up to!

Zuzu’s Poppa came to visit and take care of Zuzu for two days before Christmastime. Our normally good-natured girl decided those were the days to get her Christmas wish: her two front teeth. Except they wound up being one of her front teeth and one next to it on the other side. Thankfully, her other front tooth just broke through so soon she won’t be so asymmetrical. Now she’s got a total of six teeth and knows how to use them.

On the Friday night before Christmas, Andy & Rox drove through the fog and stayed with us after their flight from St. Louis to Des Moines was cancelled. Zuzu had a surprise to wake up on Saturday morning and find her uncle and aunt here!

The next day was “adventure day”. Once we got all packed, car loaded, and headed west on the interstate toward Ames, our windshield began to ice over. Just outside the Little Amana exit, all cars suddenly started braking…then the car in front of us slid into the ditch (thanks to Ty’s maneuvering we managed to not hit it)…then a semi narrowly missed rear-ending the car next to us…and then we saw a freshly-flipped car in the median…all in a matter of seconds. Clearly no one was meant to be traveling and heading back to Iowa City was not a safe option. We would end up getting a room at the Super 8 in Little Amana before all the rooms were sold out and had a “vacation” at exit 225. By vacation I mean there was no laundry to do, no phone to answer, no emails to check, no presents to wrap, and there was cable TV and a king-size bed. Who cared that our sink in the hotel didn’t have hot water? Zuzu thought sleeping in a king-sized bed was pretty cool, and decided to let us know by giving us a happy wake up call in the middle of the night. Here's a view from our hotel room window the next morning, and a glimpse at our exciting night in Little Amana.

Zuzu had a wonderful first Christmas. As expected, tissue paper scored high marks in the gift category. She now has actual toys to play with and is having a ball. The other day I sang one of the songs that a new toy plays and she looked at me, then at her musical table, and made a beeline straight for it. Below are some of the miniature canvases that Zuzu painted for her grandparents and aunts and uncles as gifts with her fingers and toes.

We returned from Ames to be greeted by ice dams…water coming in the kitchen window, through the insulation, out the light switches, dripping down into the storage room, through the soffits and who knows where we can’t see. Argh. The roofers who put our roof on last winter came out and cleared all the snow off our roof twice. Once winter is over they’ll try to solve the problem and begin repairs.

After Christmas, Zuzu's Ama and Poppa came to take care of her for a few days. We decided to take advantage of the opportunity and get both sets of her grandparents together. Actually, our parents hadn't seen each other since the day after our wedding seven and a half years ago, so it was kind of a rare thing. I think it looks like they're tearing Zuzu apart in this picture, but the theme was intended to be "sharing".