Zacation

Tori and I are on a zacation: a vacation from Zadie! We went to San Diego this weekend and had to come back a little early for a friend's wedding, but we left Zadie with her grandparents. They'll bring her back on Wednesday, but that means we have approximately 80 hours that will be Zadie-free. Last night we stayed out late at our friend's wedding and this morning we SLEPT IN! It was pretty nice, I must say.

But, of course, we do miss our little Zadie Zoo and we'll be very excited to see her again on Wednesday. I know that she's having a great time with her grandparents and she is totally obssessed with their swimming pool. Zadie calmly waved goodbye to us as we drove away -- she was in her grandma's arms and couldn't care less to see us go!

I included this photo because it's evidence of a very strange phenomenon. Zadie is a typical 15-month-old in that she is extremely busy and she doesn't like to stop and cuddle very much. Unless she hurts herself, it's very rare for her to want to be held very long at all. But this is all out the window with Grandma Denise. She holds onto my mom and rests her head on our chest for literally 45 minutes at a time. It's the weirdest thing! She does it when she first sees her, but she also does it when my mom goes to get her from a nap and at several points throughout the day. Of course, my mom eats it up and feels no guilt whatsoever about parading this affection in front of us!

Hopefully Zadie will be willing to return home to us. Between Grandma Denise and Granddaddy Hal, we're in trouble. Granddaddy Hal takes her swimming and sings her songs and lets her pretend to drive his car (when it's parked, of course!).

Zadie in Grandma Linda's Garden

We like to give Linda projects when she comes to visit us. I'm not really sure how much she appreciates this since she'd really like to spend all her time biking and rollerskating along the ocean. Still, she's a very good sport and she always comes through -- even if it's usually crammed at the end of her trip when she's finally got all her play time in.

During her January visit, Tori gave her mom the mission of re-doing the garden in our front yard. I'm the kind of person who just accepts things as they are and doesn't really see the need to change them (especially when it comes to household matters); Tori is the exact opposite and is always looking to revamp a room or, in this case, a garden.

Anyway, this is far too much background on these photos -- the point is that we'd like to thank Linda for creating a beautiful garden for us! Now that it's spring and the flowers are blooming even I can definitely notice a huge improvement. Zadie was really excited about these photos because usually we don't let her go into the garden (she likes to try and pull stuff up or trample flowers).

p.s. Thank you to Sidney for the adorable dress (even though she happens to be wearing jeans under it this time).

15 month checkup

Zadie had her 15-month checkup last week and she’s defying the odds. It amazes me how much she continues to grow despite very stubbornly refusing to eat much of anything besides fruit. This child goes bonkers for all fruits, but particularly loves apples and berries. It’s very challenging to convince her to eat anything else and we do worry about her getting any protein. Tori tries every trick in the book to sneak some protein in (berries mixed w/chicken?), but Zadie always outsmarts us. The doctor said to just let it be and not to fight her too much. I guess it could be worse and she could refuse to eat anything but junk food.

Anyway, Zadie leapt up on all the growth charts. She weighed 23 lbs and 13 oz, which is the 70th percentile (up from the 50th percentile last time around). She measured 32 inches, which is the 90th percentile, and her head circumference was 19 inches (that must be centimeters, not inches, right?). Her head circumference is now in the 100th percentile, so the poor child definitely has my genes in that department.

Finally a video!

My sister told me that Zadie's cousins have been anxiously waiting for us to post a video, so here's one I have from about a month ago. Zadie is walking really well now (better than in this video) and you'll also notice that her hair is really growing. Tori is really good at putting it in pigtails that actually stay, but since I don't do it as well Zadie always manages to pull the rubber bands out when I do her hair.

So I finally got my new laptop! And my mom gave me her old webcam so tonight we Skyped with Kim's family and my mom (she's up there visiting). Zadie is a bit confused about the people on the computer screen, but she enjoys it.