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".