I can’t believe I’ve let this blog turn into something I only update once a month, but that is what it is now I guess. So here are your updates:
Zoe: The girl is amazing. She’s hilarious, caring, and sooo into getting her fair share of attention! Once a week or so we let her stay up late and her, Zak, and I watch a movie, play games, or just chill. A few weeks ago we took her to her first movie in the movie theater, Up. It was an adorable movie and Zoe was literally taken aback by the size of the screen and the loud volume. She was also thoroughly impressed by the automatic soap and paper towel dispensers in the restrooms.
Zoe is a girl of summer. She would spend all day, everyday outside if possible. We eat most meals in the backyard and she begs to ride bikes to a park or go to a pool or splash pad constantly. I was once worried about her being social with other kids her age, but that worry is completely gone. She loves her darling friends more than anything and gets giddy about the talk of a play dates. Imaginative play is so much cooler when four or five friends are on the same page.
As fun and cool as Zoe is, she still is quirky. A while back she had gotten into the horrendous habit of waking up way too early in the morning, like 6 or 6:30. I couldn’t handle it. So, I took the advice of a dear friend, and we went to Target and bought a nice big digital clock. We covered the minute digits with a paper, exposing only the hour number. We taught her what a seven looks like and told her she couldn’t get up until she sees a seven on her clock. Lo and behold it has worked like a charm. Now, every single morning at exactly 7:00 on the dot, Zoe screams, “My clock says seven!!!!” On the dot. Every morning. At nap time we shift the paper over a digit exposing two numbers. At exactly 3:30 every afternoon, she screams, “My clocks says two threes!!!!” I guess we can say we’re teaching her time, but in reality we just wanted a few more minutes of sleep and rest time ourselves!
Ellie: Ellie is fabulous. There aren’t many ways to describe her in one word, but fabulous does it. She’s nearly larger than life in all she does, she’s loud, she’s kind of crazy, she’s super cuddly, she’s funny, she’s so caring, she’s fearless, she’s eccentric. All in all, she’s fabulous.
The biggest change in her over the past few weeks is she’s talking all the time now. Zak and I guess that she has a vocabulary of over 75 words. She has even started putting two words together making a more complete thought. It is pure fun to see such an explosion of language.
She just had her 18 month appointment and for the first well visit, she is doing great! She is still slightly anemic, but we expect she’ll overcome it in the next 6 weeks or so. She is in the 75th percentile for weight and 90th for height. We were told by her wonderful doctor that it would be a good idea to get one of those kid leashes for her. She is just a runner and a dasher and, as the doctor put it, we will all be more relaxed knowing she is safe. The doctor also gave us some discipline ideas for us to help Ellie communicate her frustrations without hitting, pinching, throwing, etc.
She too loves being outside and has countless bumps, bruises, and scrapes to show for it. Ellie has mastered every obstacle on the swingset, including the rope ladder and climbing wall.
Zak: Zak is loving and enjoying summer. He wishes summer was 12 months long.
Me: It’s a baking frenzy! The farmers’ market is going extremely well and we’re having just a blast building this little business. I bake all day Thursday and Friday and sell on Saturdays. I’m looking for another local market to do next year on Sundays, it is just that much fun!! We keep dreaming of the perfect little cafe/bakery/coffee shop we’re going to open someday, but for right now we couldn’t be happier with the way things are going!
A few more things:
Congratulations to Michael and Sara on their engagement! We all could not be any happier that Sara is joining the family and the kids can finally call her Aunt Sara!
Also congratulations to Dave and Lindsay and Nic and Val on the births of Benjamin Daniel and Porter Lars.
Happy birthday Mom!
And happy anniversary Zak. It’s been a fun, crazy seven years!! Thanks for being a pretty cool (yet undeniably dorky) husband! I love you!
