Zadie Turned Five

Zadie and her moms.  This was one of many great photos my sister took of our family.  The only problem with this one is that Zadie has chocolate in her teeth (we were bribing the kids to sit still for photos!).

Zadie turned five a few weeks ago.  Like last year, her number one birthday request was to have some special time alone with her moms, sans brothers.  We ended up taking her to a totally cheesy 1960s fun center at the Redondo Beach pier, which was a major time warp.  I wish I would have taken photos to document the place, but basically it's like a miniature version of Coney Island.  I think she was pretty pleased with it.  She doesn't care much for the video games, but she likes any of the games that shoot out tickets, like skeet ball and some other silly game where you throw balls into a hole to make your horse advance while a man with poor English skills tries to play the role of the horse race announcer.  We were good mothers and let her win all six times.  She also rode the Tilt-a-Wheel a few times.

Afterwards she celebrated her birthday with Tori's family at Aunt Susie's house and, while I was at the Grand Canyon, she got her true birthday wish.  My parents took her to Chuck E. Cheese's with Sophie and Izzy.  Like McDonald's and Disneyland, Chuck E. Cheese's was one of those places we'd hoped to avoid for as long as possible, but she went to a friend's party there a few months ago and now she's hooked.  So my parents granted her wish and she had a wonderful time.  Last night when I was tucking her in to bed, apropos of nothing, she told me that her dream in life was to live at Chuck E. Cheese's with all of her family. At least it's nice that she included us in her utopian vision.

I want to share a few things about this little Zadie Zoo on the occasion of her fifth birthday.  She amazes us with her creativity, brightness, and quirky sense of humor.  My favorite moments with her are the 10 minutes before she goes to bed every night, when either Tori or I gets in bed with her to read chapter books.  After I finish reading her a chapter, we hold onto each other and spend a few minutes having deep talks.  Like about how she wants to move her whole family to Chuck E. Cheese's.  Or about what she likes most about her life.  She's typically a total pleasure to be with when she's not with her brothers.  She needs some work on the subject of how to get along as one big family, but I know that's normal.  I know what a special kid she is.