Storytime!

Grammie is such a good storyteller, even Poppa Mike is enthralled.


















Zadie snuggles with Poppa Mike.












Nolan gets the giggles when Poppa counts his piggies.

Firsts, Tidbits, Updates - It's Blogeriffic!

Zadie has a tooth!


Here's me trying to point it out.










Here's her trying to point it out.














Here's her saying enough with the paparazzi already!!


















I guess in an attempt to include Nolan in Zadie time, we often talk about what he liked/did when he was a baby, too. Yesterday, he opened a book to a random page and said:

"When I was a little guy, I used to love this page."

Anyhoo, yesterday I came home and Dadsie told me that Nolan can write his own name. Here it is. He starts with the 'N' in the middle of the page so each letter gets progressively smaller as he runs out of room. (He wrote it a second time underneath.) What next? Texting me???

Need I say more?

Warning: Proud Parent Post

Nolan wrote the word "Mom"! Without prompting! With a marker! On a pad of paper! Right in front of our eyes!


Here he is matching up his toucan and parrot figures with the pages of same said birds. One of his favorite things to do with this book is to decide whether or not the kinds of animals can be spelled in the tub (we have one of each letter in the set.) E.g.: "parrot" no; "toucan" yes. Yesterday, on the "puffin" page, he said:
"Can't spell puffin in the tub - just like giraffe: two f's."
Seriously, people. And don't get me started (bragging) on his knowledge of dromedary vs. bactrian camels or that elephants live in Africa *and* India.

Holiday Hodge-Podge

In no special (or necessarily matching the photo nor chronologically accurate for that matter) order:

* opening gifts at Grammie's

* frosting birthday cake for Dadsie (post the licking of the beaters...first things first, people)

* trimming the tree

* family photo-op at Poppa's

* I told you she could stand!

* Zadie opening her first Christmas present

* Zadie spitting up on Uncle Dave's Raiders blanket - not staged just straight from the heart!

* Nolan opening - and enjoying each one as it comes - presents

What a whirlwind of fun!

Zadie is five months old!

I am hurrying to post this so we don't have back-to-back monthly updates: I give you five-month-old Zadie!



She can:

sit up for a while
roll over front to back no prob
stand with balancing help on one arm
smack her lips while watching you eat
look at books for minutes at a time
jingle her dangling turtle *on purpose* to make the sound she likes
melt your heart when she breaks into a smile.

All this and more...it's bonus picture time!

They're baaaaaaaaack!

Happy 2008! We have had a busy month on Bella Vista and blogging, as you've noticed, did not make the cut. Neither did Christmas cards!!





(Now you know you weren't personally left out - no one received one. And let me tell you, while the photo shoot was not exactly a train wreck, it also wasn't smooth sailing - mixed metaphors, anyone?)












A million years ago (okay, three weeks) we went to Arizona to see Grandmom and Grandad and fun was had by all. Both of them did us the favor of owning New Balance brand shoes which have that big "N" on them. Because he has his own way of looking at the world, and despite the fact that his own name starts with "N", Nolan refers to them as "Z shoes." As in, "That man/woman/kiddo is wearing Z shoes!" pointing to passersby who might be wondering what he's commenting on. Well, we "kicked" off the new year with a pair of his very own! But I digress...back to Arizona...There were trips to playgrounds, the train park and the zoo; coloring with markers and reading books; eating pancakes with blueberries and devouring many, many tangerines. Zadie did a lot of hanging out in the living room amongst it all, enjoying the chaos and the beautiful Christmas tree. Too soon it was over and back home we came. Can't wait till next time!









Auntie Sue hosted her Gingerbread House decorating party. Now, Nolan may know his alphabet and his numbers; he can even read some words and we all know how talented he his at remembering things (are you wondering if there is a point, or if I am just bragging? me too!) but he decorated his house in two sittings and then finally, finally looked at all those bowls of candy and I could almost see that gear in his brain fall into place as he reached out and put a peep-style-squishy, sugar-coated, blindingly green christmas-tree-shaped candy in his mouth and start chewing. It wasn't unlike the Grinch realizing that Christmas might be more than just the trimmings and trappings. He ate more off his house in the following days until it was too hard and stale to even break off a bite.

Speaking of breaks, I'll take a breather for today - up next:
Zadie's first Christmas and turning 5 months old!
Cousins, cousins and more cousins!
Ringing in the new year (spoiler alert - we were all asleep by 9:45 pm)