My future is so bright, I gotta wear shades

For some (inexpensive) variety this summer, we're going to attempt to visit different Austin parks on the weekends. This past weekend we tried out the new Lake Park at Mueller. Not much shade factor, as all of the trees are still saplings, but they've got some awesome playground equipment.

We're looking forward to trying
more of it out in a couple of years.

And for the outing, we of course had to get Zoe her first pair of shades.
Isn't she just so stylish?

If you squint your eyes, you can sort of pretend
the plant in the background is hair...

Bananas and Brown Rice

Zoe's been branching out on her food choices lately. Yesterday was bananas and brown rice. Which sounds absolutely disgusting to me, especially since I'm not the banana fan. BUT - it's delicious! I figured out why, though - cinnamon. I think cinnamon is my all-time favorite spice. You can add it to a lot of stuff to make it taste better. And cinnamon and chocolate? Total melt-in-your-mouth goodness.

Also, we've discovered what most parents discover, I think. The best toys are the cheap ones. As in, the not-meant-to-be-a-toy ones. She can spend 20 minutes (that's an eternity in baby-time) just going back and forth between this stool (started as nursing foot stool, on to baby play-thing/chair, then it'll be a bathroom step-stool - when in a small house, you've got to get miles out of these things! turn it upside down and it even holds other toys) and that box of diapers. Add in a plastic drinking cup or a wooden spoon and she's further enthralled.

As you can see, though I was trying to capture that simple play-time in this video, Zoe was intent on capturing the camera.

Meanwhile, on top of the box you can see a purple rattle thing - that is courtesy of my new favorite parent-support place, Family Connections (yes, they sanitize them, just like at daycare). Valerie clued me in to this one. We just don't have the space for all these books and toys, nor does it make sense to buy them, especially when there is a non-profit which lets you check out all sorts of stuff for free only five minutes from our house! The library card is a $5 donation! They even seemed shocked when I was ready to pay it. The collection of toys, books, audios, puppets, etc etc is wonderful. They have free story time and parenting classes. What an amazing resource. So, do they have these in other towns, or is it just cause we live in Austin, all hippie-like? And it's not like this place is dead - it was packed when I went there. We even ran into someone else we knew.

Finally, I've got to share this Onion article which Kyle forwarded to me. Yes, I like living in Austin. More and more I think it's the only place in Texas for me.

Practicing standing

This was last week. It's amazing what a difference a week can make, as pulling up is totally old hat to her now.

And yes, my voice is still hoarse. It now sounds better than it did in this video, but still not totally there. I can't sing along in the car to the radio. And while that makes Kyle happy, some evenings on the way home from work, it sure would be nice to be able to do so.

The Amazing Duo of Kyle and Zoe

They've been practicing lately.
I think they're almost ready for a record deal.

protect your dogs and cats

Lola is in for trouble - Zoe has definitely discovered how to move, and fast. She made several laps around the family room this evening, terrorizing everything in sight. Kyle and I are realizing how many things we are really going to have to move up and out of the way and replace with more baby friendly items. So, from Thursday, she mastered crawling, has perfected pulling up, is cruising along furniture, and has a tiny tooth. Just barely broken through, but boy is that a sharp tooth. Thankfully she's only bitten my collar bone so far, and nothing else.

Some random pics:

cousins at Omi's house on Mother's Day

Zoe, Fletcher, Quinn
now that they're all moving around it's getting a bit harder for that photo shoot

Zoe & Dad enjoy a beer together

Zoe and Mom can't believe it

Movers and Shakers

Zoe's definitely working on the moving forward bit. Backwards and sideways she's got down. Ms. Kimya said the other day she backed herself all the way up under the rocking chair, but was perfectly happy as there was a toy underneath that she was trying to get at anyways.
So, here are a couple videos of her progress; I think they're taken about 4 days apart. And yes, we bait our child with a remote control. It seems to work better than any toy.

growing up

Zoe looks different today.
Can't say how, but she's definitely different.
Looks more like a toddler or something.
I asked where my baby went, and Kyle said that
Zoe will remind me at about 5am tomorrow morning.

Adventures

We've had quite the bit of adventures lately:

playing with kites in the park
(hard to get the shot below - Zoe kept reaching for the black box)

dancing
(this is a long video - even Zoe gets bored toward the end -
but we had to stick out the song!)


eating frozen yogurt
(notice I put sunscreen on Zoe, but totally forgot myself)

growing vegetables
we ate the zucchini below a few short days later
but we're still waiting on the tomatoes and tomatillos


made baby food from the carrots from our farm basket
(from Tecolote)


put together a new composter
(Kyle's birthday present from his family)
this one requires a sort of key to get in -
beat that you pesky squirrels!

watching Zoe pull-up
(not regularly yet, but she's working on it)

And our first emergency room visit - we didn't bother to bring the camera for that one.

No worries, we're all mending now. Zoe was having some difficulty breathing, because she apparently has croup. We went through screaming during a steroid shot, a screaming session of a nebulizer treatment, several screaming sessions of x-rays (holding her down is the worst thing I've had to do to my own child), and eventually got home at 3:30am or so. Her temperature has been gone for a while, though the coughing and hoarseness are still hanging around. I feel so bad for the poor kid. Whenever she coughs, she looks at me as if asking why I don't just stop this misery already? I certainly wish I could.