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.
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. 
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.
Posts
All Comments
