Mumbo Jumbo

Zadie's been doing some great talking lately and I caught a little bit of it on film. Tomorrow Zadie and I are going to Texas to visit family and my mom will meet us there. The plane ride should be interesting now that she's so squirmy and wants to roll all around. Hopefully the people sitting next to me will be good sports and will find her charming!

9 Month Checkup

Zadie had her nine-month checkup today and all was well. She weighed 17 lbs, 13 oz (25th percentile), she was 28.5 inches long (75th percentile) and I can't remember how enormous her head was, but it was 91st percentile. I was a little disturbed that she had dropped to the 25th percentile in weight, but the doctor said it was completely normal and not too worry. I feel like she eats a TON and is somewhat pudgy, so I'd like to see the other 75 percent!

I also asked the doctor about why Zadie's right ear is sometimes horribly smelly, but that remains a mystery. Her ear canal is fine and normal and everything looked okay. Still, when she gets water in her ear (after swimming or sometimes after a bath), that ear smells really rank!

She Crawls (sort of)!

Our friend Sidney very kindly gave us a little video device that I used to take this video (instead of the 10 second snippets I was doing w/our digital camera). Unfortunately, I had to compress this video in order to upload it, so sorry for the grainy quality.

Yes, the big news is that Zadie is sort of crawling. You can see for yourself in this video. It's not pretty, but she's kind of pulling herself around. Maybe more of a scoot. Scary!

I kind of wish we could turn the sound off because Tori and I both sound like weirdos, but those (unfortunately) are our baby talking voices coming out. Okay, now I'm kind of embarrassed because I watched the video again and it's really not impressive. Not much of her crawling is captured here, but I'll get more on another day. Just take my word for it!

Three Years and Counting

I also wanted to be sure and write a quick note about the fact that we just got back last night from a really wonderful anniversary weekend. Tori had told me all along that she was going to surprise me for our anniversary and so on Thursday night we left in the evening and spent the first night with our friends Jim and Brittany in Santa Barbara. Then we woke up early the next morning and drove along Highway One and the coast was incredibly beautiful! We stopped for a picnic lunch at Hearst Castle -- Tori knows that one of my very favorite meals is cheese and crackers, salami, salmon, olives, grapes, etc. Then we went on a tour of Hearst Castle and it was really amazing, although Zadie slept through a large part of it. It was a great way to break up the drive, even though at this point I still had no idea where we were going.

So the big surprise was that Tori took me to the Chaminade hotel in Santa Cruz, where her friend Erin works. That was key because Erin (1) got us an amazing rate and 50% off all our food, and (2) babysat Zadie for us for TWO nights! I really love hotels and am always trying to convince Tori that we should stay in one, but we pretty much only travel to places where we don't have to pay for a hotel, so I think this was the very first time we've ever stayed in a hotel together (when we weren't on a family vacation, that is). It was really nice to have so much down time, to sleep in past 6am, etc. Tori even let me order a movie in the morning when we woke up, which is amazing since she generally only believes that movies should be watched when it's dark outside.

We did end up missing Zadie a lot -- but not enough to go get her from Erin. Thank you, Erin, for giving us such a wonderful weekend! The photos are all from our drive up along the coast.

I'm so impressed with Tori's planning and lack of cheapness. Way to go, Tori!!

Tutus, Biking, New Poses, and More!

It has been a month since I lasted posted -- ack! So much happens in the development of an 8-month-old baby in one month, so I feel terribly behind. I can't sum it all up, but here are some of the items I missed out on writing about:
(1) Tutus! Zadie and her twin cousins received some very cute blue tutu onesies from my parents about a month ago. They were such a hit that my mom decided to make her own version, but bigger and better. So check out the photos of Zadie in her beautiful pink tutu. Thank you, Mom!
(2) Biking. As an early Christmas present, my parents bought Zadie (and Tori, really!) this cool "co-pilot" bike seat and helmet. So now Tori can ride with Zadie along the strand. It's a good thing Zadie has such an enormous head because she just barely fits into the smallest helmet.
(3) Adorable New Pose. You might be anxious to know whether Zadie is crawling. Nope! But, more importantly, she has a very cute new pose that she likes to do. Check out the photo of how she rests her chin on her hands.

So these are just a few of the items I've missed blogging about. In other news, Zadie has been very on-the-go as usual, and we've been enjoying the last bit of hot weather.