Zadie Gets in Touch with Her Roots

Zadie spent this past weekend in Leakey, Texas at the K family reunion. It was her first trip to her long-lost homeland (Texas). She was the youngest of approximately 60 or so Ks in attendance.

I think she liked Texas because she was in a very good mood all weekend. Everyone was so impressed with what a calm and happy baby she is, but I think part of the secret was that she was outside all day with a nice breeze blowing in her face. That's always when she's happiest -- I think she gets that from her Mama T. And it's a good thing she likes the outdoors so much because if she didn't, Tori might take her back to the hospital!

These are two photos taken by my sister, Kim. I love the outfit Zadie is wearing (a gift from cousin Amy). And I also wanted to put one in of Zadie's twin cousins, Sophie and Izzy, so here they are with Grandma.

Zadie Tries Her First Food!

After six months of breast milk, tonight we gave Zadie her first try at solid foods. Tori made some zucchini with the food mill and we put Zadie in the high chair for the first time. Other kids have to use those fancy new high chairs that are all germ-free, but Zadie gets her very own vintage, 1950s high chair full of 50 years of germs. We bought it about four years in Texas and have been waiting for a little baby to appear in our lives and put it to use.

So check out the video of Tori feeding Zadie -- so far she's not a big fan of Tori's cooking!

Mama T and Baby Z

This is a classic photo of Tori and Zadie. Tori has a special talent for making Zadie smile and she goes all out with weird voices, silly songs, and crazy faces to get a good smile. In this particular case, she was singing the Don Dinker song. How does that go? I'll ask Tori again when she gets home, but I know that's a favorite of my mom's, too.

Anyway, this is just one of the many special things that Mama T and Baby Z do together. Here's a list of their most common bonding moments:

• Tori watering the grass early in the morning with Zadie on her hip and in her pajamas.
• Tori bathing Zadie in the bathroom sink (Tori doesn't believe in those special baby bathtubs!).
• Tori cooking with Zadie in the Moby wrap (especially when I was in grad school and was doing my school work).
• Tori and Zadie lying on a blanket in our front yard.
• Tori taking Zadie to the beach and sitting under our big striped umbrella in the sand.
• Tori holding Zadie cheek to cheek and bouncing her to sleep at night.

I wish I could have photos or videos of all of those moments, but I'm pretty happy to have this one.

Family Photo

Today we got a CD in the mail from a photographer named Renee Jacobs who very graciously sent us all the photos she took on our 2nd wedding day, June 17th. We think this is a nice family photo -- thanks for saving us a trip to the Sears photo studio, Renee!

This past weekend we went to Visalia to Tori's dad's house and had a very fun time. As is typical of Tori's family, it was a super duper active weekend! We floated down the river, rode the zip line into the river, slid down the mega slip-and-slide, and played ping pong (I continued my dominance) and croquet. Zadie didn't get to take part in those activities, but she did get to jump on the trampoline -- or at least bounce along while Mama T tried to make sure her head didn't get too jiggled. Hopefully one of her family members will send me a picture of that.

Lucy's Big Vacay

My dear friend Jenna and her 7-month-old daughter, Lucy, came for a visit this past week. Check out how adorable Lucy is! Zadie is very jealous of her long eyelashes because the poor kid got stuck with my short, stubby eyelashes.

Speaking of which, today we were looking at some newborn photos of Zadie and we were really, really surprised. She really didn't look that cute. So now we're wondering if the pictures lie and she really WAS cute like we remembered or if, in fact, she looked like most crinkly newborns and really wasn't all that cute! But I do remember that when we used to take photos of her I was never satisfied with them because I didn't feel they captured how adorable she was -- so maybe the issue was just that the camera couldn't capture her cuteness!

Our Smiling Baby

I was looking through our blog today and realized that we don't really have a photo of Zadie smiling. So I'm posting this photo of a cute Zadie grin. She's a very smiley and happy baby, so we certainly need to represent that here!

We just returned from a staff retreat on Catalina Island. My mom came with us as our babysitter, which was a big help.

Zadie, you are such a good little baby. We take you pretty much everywhere and you politely sit through long dinners and multiple forms of transportation with nary a peep. I hope this pleasant disposition stays with you all your life!