Zadie's First Birthday Party

Zadie got a birthday cupcake and loved everyone singing "Happy Birthday" to her.

All was well until she tried to play with the flame on the candle. Ouch!

But it was nothing that couldn't be healed with a yummy cupcake with chocolate frosting. This was really Zadie's first ever time to eat sweets and everyone cheered her on. She ate with relish and got the chocolate frosting over everything, including her pink tutu.

Grandma Linda really felt adamantly that Zadie needed a first birthday party. She helped us arrange the whole shebang and here she is with Zadie before we pummeled the pinata.

Surprise! My parents surprised us all by driving up from San Diego to catch the very end of your first birthday party. Guess they decided they couldn't miss out on the fun.
About 25 people joined us at the park today to celebrate Zadie's birth exactly one year ago. Of course, it's hard to imagine it was that long ago. Whew. Zadie wore the pink tutu that my mom made her and then, after she got chocolate frosting all over that, she slipped into this pretty dress that cousin Cheryl made for her. Everyone had fun and we played croquet, smashball, and bashed in a pinata. Thank you to everyone for attending and for Grandma Linda for putting this together.

Ode to the Rogers/Wilson Side

As we approach the one-year mark and I will soon be printing this blog out so that it can become Zadie's first year baby book, I've been teasing Grandma Linda that she needs to take more photos of her and Zadie. Despite the fact that she lives in Washington, Grandma Linda comes for long visits of about a month or so and spends her days taking Zadie on bike rides along the beach, checking out all the finds at the swap meet, getting a Jamba Juice in Manhattan Beach, and teaching her new songs and tricks. But, through all of this, we somehow have very little to document that all this happened. Maybe it's because Linda moves so fast that we can't slow her down for a photo. In any case, we definitely want Zadie to look at this book and know that her Grandma Linda was an important part of her first year of life. And the same goes for Aunt Susie and Uncle Hank. Uncle Hank, in fact, has taken wonderful care of Zadie and is her personal "manny."

Here's some photos from their trip to the Santa Monica farmer's market today.

The Croup

Zadie is sick again. This time she's got the croup. Not sure if you're supposed to say croup or THE croup. I told Tori that it sounds like some affliction you'd catch in East Texas in the 1950s. She said she thought it sounded like an STD. It started with wheezing, a dry cough, and a little bark that sounded kind of like a seal. Now it's kind of more like a cold with a runny nose and the whole nine yards. The rubber snot sucker thingie has been hard at work. I generally avoid snot sucking and leave it to Tori, but even I have gotten into the act this time around.

Zadie is asleep now and Tori is in our bedroom reading a Shel Silverstein book. I can hear her chuckling every once in a while. Zadie, I hope you'll enjoy his books as much as I did when I was a kid. "The Giving Tree" is still one of the saddest books I've ever read.

Photos By Kimmy

Kim took some wonderful photos this weekend and I thought I would just post these two of Granddaddy Hal and Grandma Denise. But there are so many other great ones and you can view them all here. Thank you, Kim, for taking these. We want to hire you!!

San Francisco Photos

Here's the three cousins in matching piggy pajamas. Zadie stayed at Kim's house for two nights while we were in SF and had a great time playing with her cousins.

And here's me and Tori headed out for a night on the town while my parents babysat. We went dancing and had a great time!

Charlotte (Nika's daughter) graciously allowed Zadie to take a bath in her bathtub. She wasn't so gracious about sharing those bath toys, though! How cute are these two?

Tori made us walk all the way up Lombard Street (the curviest street in the world). It's like climbing up a mountain or something. Did I mention I was carrying Zadie and it was a really hot day?

This was an amazingly beautiful day. We walked from the Powell station, through Chinatown, and into the park in North Beach. This is at Columbus Park in North Beach.

Weekend in SF

Tomorrow is Tori's birthday, so she wanted to come to San Francisco for the weekend and do all of her favorite San Francisco activities. We're staying at Nika's place right now and my parents are staying with Kim and watching Zadie for us for two nights. We really do miss her, but it's also been great to sleep in.

We had a little brunch party yesterday and Kim and Eric, the twins, and my parents came into the city. Kim took some great photos and posted them on her blog. Thanks for taking these special photos, Kim!

When I get home I'll post some photos of Zadie and Charlotte, Nika's daughter. It's been so fun to see them play together!

Memory Lane

Zadie's first birthday is quickly approaching and I'm feeling a bit reflective about how much she has changed in this last year. I started this blog when Zadie was about three and a half months old, so I never really posted any early baby photos. I plan on turning the first year of this blog into a baby book for Zadie through a service Kim told me about called Blog2Print, so I want to add a few photos from the early days.

The top photo is one that I really like because it's great of Tori and I love that Zadie is just completely asleep throughout the photo shoot. It's funny to think of how newborns can just sleep under any conditions.

The next photo is one with Grandma Linda when Zadie was only one week old. You can get a glimpse of her very calm nature in this photo (Zadie's, not Grandma Linda's!).

The next photo was taken at about two months, so you can really see much more of Zadie in this one. I think she looks beautiful. Her eyes look blue here -- I think this is right about when they started to change color. They were hazel for a few months, but right now they are light brown and I think that's what it is going to be for life. I love her brown eyes!

The final photo isn't very flattering of me, but I like the scene. This was taken when Zadie was three months old and when she was still sleeping in her co-sleeper (like a playpen that raises up to the level of our bed so that we can reach over and grab her from bed). We loved our co-sleeper because we got to sleep "with" Zadie, but we never had to worry about smushing her. Zadie is wrapped up in one of Tori's famous swaddles. I could do a decent swaddle, but Tori's were always works of art and Zadie couldn't get out of them. I also like this photo because it shows us taking a nap in the middle of the day and it reminds me of how exhausted I was during this period of being in grad school, having a newborn, and working full-time. It's so odd that I was sleeping on my back and with my hands like that -- I never sleep on my back and I must have been really zonked to be able to sleep like that. I'm really glad those days are over!

Drive-by (the good kind)

Last Saturday my parents decided to come for a drive-by, or at least that's what they called it. They had been on vacation in Texas for the past two weeks and weren't able to spend the night, but they missed Zadie and wanted to see her. So they arrived at noon and left at about 5pm.

Zadie was in a good mood and happy to see both of them. We walked over to the park and took these photos. We're really lucky to live in a neighborhood with lots of parks, schools, shops, and a library. Zadie's Uncle Hank often takes her to this playground to play with the other kids (we don't want her to become a spoiled only child!).

Grandma Linda has been in town since Christmastime and I need to get some photos of her and Zadie. It's hard though because she is frequently riding her bike or rollerskating -- Zadie gets to go, too -- so it's just harder to slow down and get the camera out.

Sick

Zadie is almost one year old and she has never really been sick. We've been so fortunate. But a few days ago she caught a stomach virus and started vomiting. It was so awful. She vomited every 30 minutes or so from about 5:30pm to 11pm. Even after she fell asleep, she would wake up and dry heave in bed and I would put my hand on her back and her whole little body would be retching.

I know how much I hate being sick, so I can't imagine what it would be like to be that sick for the first time. When she was vomiting she would just look at us with this pathetic, confused look and of course there was nothing we could do to help. Thankfully she ended up sleeping through the night and was fine the next morning, but I hope she doesn't get that sick again for a very long time.

I just read Anne Lamott's book "Operating Instructions" and I highly recommend it. It's about her first year as a mother and it's hilarious and brutally honest. Thank you to Ms. Sobel for giving it to me.

Rogers Sing-a-long

Zadie spent her first Christmas with the Rogers family at my parents' house in Julian (thank you, Mom and Dad, for letting us use your home!). We had 23 people crammed into their house and we had a great time. Well, I think maybe Zadie had a bit of culture shock because this was her first full-on Rogers family experience and she wasn't quite prepared for the noise level. She's used to being an only child and living in a quiet, peaceful environment, but over Christmas there were tons of kids screaming and lots of cousins and other relatives who wanted to hold her. She's always been good about going to other people, but she must have gotten too frazzled and she didn't do so hot. But towards the end she got better and she's just going to have to get used to it -- she'll be having another sibling sometime soonish!

After Julian, Zach's family (5 kids worth) came to Manhattan Beach for the week and stayed with Aunt Susie. They came over for dinner last night (minus nephew Aaron, who had just gone home to San Diego). Here's a video clip of Zadie hanging out with the Zach Rogers family and loving their singing. One of my favorite things about spending time with the Rogers family is getting to sing so many fun camp songs. "I Am A Conductor" is my personal favorite, although sadly that one is not featured in this clip. Check out Zadie laughing -- I wanted to zoom in on her, but thought that would be too Zadie-absorbed!