Zadie's Three-Year Check-up

Since I also use this as the kids' official baby book, I wanted to report that Zadie had her three-year checkup and is 37 inches tall (80th percentile) and weighs 35 lbs (50th percentile). She's very healthy and developmentally doing great. As most people know, one of her most impressive talents is her ability to do complex puzzles, which she most definitely didn't get from my gene pool! She's actually quite mechanical and really enjoys putting things together.

Charlie Keeps Getting Cuter

Let's face it, newborns don't have a lot of personality. So, though we love sweet Charlie dearly, it has been a welcome change that in the past month or so he has become way more interactive. It's not like winning the lottery to get him to smile anymore -- it's actually a very regular occurrence.

Of course we didn't manage to catch a full-blown smile on camera, but these two photos will give you a feel for how Charlie is looking these days and there's the tail end of a smile in the bottom photo. He is a sweet and chubby little guy!

Birthday Junk Food Extravaganza

On her way to a very special birthday treat!

Check out that spread of items! Her plate says "Happy Birthday Zadie" written in chocolate.

It even came with cotton candy! Zadie looks like she's starting to slow down at this point.

Zadie is very fortunate to have Sidney to take her on little excursions. They've gone on little day trips to the pumpkin patch, a carnival, and Hello Kitty's 50th birthday party. This past weekend Sidney wanted to do something belated for Zadie's birthday, so she booked reservations at a swanky hotel in Beverly Hills and ordered Zadie some famous menu item called "Junk Food Extravaganza" or something like that. It's supposed to serve four, but apparently Zadie plowed through it mostly on her own.

When they got home I asked if Zadie was super excited about it and Sidney and Tori both said it was more like she was really focused and serious about her mission to shovel it all in as fast as she could.

Now that's a pretty special birthday treat. If anyone wants to take me there for my birthday, I'm available!

Zadie Turns Three!

Grandma Linda and a very happy Zadie enjoying her cake.

Tori, Zadie, and Steven right after Zadie blew out her candles.

Sidney made this amazing seven-layer rainbow cake for our rainbow family. Thanks, Sid!

Lots of friends squeezed into one tiny home!

Tori and her sister lead the kiddos in parachute games.

I'm rather late with this post, but Zadie had a fun birthday weekend last weekend. Grandma Linda, Aunt Katie, cousin Gavin, and my parents all came in for guest appearances. On Saturday we had a bunch of our own friends, some of whom happen to have children, and somehow managed to fit 22 adults and 5 kids into our teensy house. Tori was quite creative in arranging the couches so that the kids watched a movie in one corner (with little bags of popcorn and a piece of licorice) and the adults chatted it up, ate, and tried to ignore their children. Then we put the kids to bed, rearranged the couches, and watched a copy of "The Fighter" that our friend loaned us. It was a fun night and good to have people over.

The next day Aunt Susie hosted a family party with Tori's side of the family and my parents, which was also very nice. Zadie shares a birthday with Aunt Susie's son Steven, so they did a joint birthday cake (see photo).

Zadie hauled in some good presents, including several bathing suits for the swim class she's taking (she didn't have any that fit her anymore), pajamas, a Dr. Seuss wocket, a baby high chair from Linda, and a bunch of clothes from my mom. Since we always figure other people give our kids enough presents, we don't tend to by them anything. I think Tori picked up a pair of tights at a consignment store for her that are too big and she insists on wearing anyway.