…long about a Saturday night. Zoe has always loved the water, but these days she can’t get enough. Check out her last bath!

Q

Zoe has come a long way since her very first, very messy bite of solid food. She’s a fairly neat eater these days, but she does have the occasional messy meal – like last night’s.

-M

Zoe’s great-uncle Al passed away this morning, and we’re all remembering and missing him. Our thoughts go out to Aunt Joanne, Aimee, little Tanner (pictured below with his grandpa) and the rest of the family.

-M

When we need to get a few things done around the house – and worry about her crawling away on us – we sometimes put Zoe in her Pack-and-Play. She seems to like it; she usually sits with her toys and talks to herself while we get our work done. She spent some time in there yesterday, but she certainly wasn’t sitting. The first thing she did was pull herself up to a standing position, where she stayed for quite awhile.

Our little girl – she’s really growing up!

-M

Zoe has now taken 6 round trips and been on 18 different airplanes and she isn’t even 10 months yet. She is very close to her first free ticket and Premier status! She really IS the frequent flier…

Q

Feb:
SFO – ORD – 1840 miles
ORD – MSN – 108 miles
MSN – ORD – 108 miles
ORD – SFO – 1840 miles

April:
SFO – IAD – 2410 miles
IAD – SFO – 2410 miles

May:
SFO – STL – 1730 miles
STL – MSN – 307 miles
MSN – MKE – 74 miles
MKE – SFO – 1840 miles

July:
SFO – PHX – 650 miles
PHX – SFO – 650 miles

August:
SFO – STL – 1730 miles
STL – MSN – 307 miles
MSN – ORD – 108 miles
ORD – SFO – 1840 miles

Sept:
SFO – IAD – 2410 miles
IAD – SFO – 2410 miles

Total: 22,772 miles

Our recent trip was Zoe’s sixth jaunt out of the state, and our last plane ride marked her 18th one. Although I fret before each ride (Will she be uncomfortable? Will she cry a lot? Will everyone on the plane hate us?), we’ve been pretty lucky with our air travel. We’ve had a few unpleasant moments, of course – but all in all, things have gone smoothly and we’ve picked up lots of good traveling tips.

Someone once told me that friendly flight attendants can make all the difference in the world when traveling with children – and I couldn’t agree more! We’ve had flight attendants give Zoe little toys and free food, and others have let me hog the back of the plane to rock Zoe (even though other passengers weren’t allowed to linger there). And on this last trip, we even had a mini-babysitter of sorts: the flight attendant scooped up Zoe in the middle of the flight and told us, “I’m going to take her up to first-class!” She then marched up to the front the plane and walked a very surprised Zoe up and down the aisle with her. As we were deboarding, a man sitting behind us said he had never seen such a popular baby on a flight! We couldn’t help but smile.

Here’s a pic of Zoe on the flight – and one with her new flight-attendant friend.

-M

We just got back from our trip to Maryland, and Zoe had a great time. During her busy visit she celebrated Rosh Hashanah with the family, played around with Cousins Zavi and Lexi, met new friends at her Sunday brunch, and spent lots of bonding time with Safta, PopPop, GG-ma, Aunt Wendy, and “Grandma” Dorothy. Zoe can’t wait to visit again!

-M

Just hanging out on the plane:

Assisting Safta and PopPop on the computer:

Learning about animals from Cousin Zavi:

Playing with Aunt Wendy:

Kicking around with Dad:

Enjoying an evening on the swing with Dorothy and GG-ma:

Bringing in the New Year with a blow of the shofar:

Learning how it’s done from Cousin Lexi:

Saying good-bye to Safta:

No post! The three of us are now back from our trip to Maryland, and we have lots to catch everyone up on – and lots of pictures to post. Since it’s late and we’re exhausted, I’ll just say: We had a very fun, very busy time with family and friends, and Zoe was an absolute angel on both plane rides. (She’s a real travel pro by now!) We’ll post more tomorrow, but here’s a little taste of our time there. (Thanks to Zoe’s support, the Washington Nationals won Sat. night’s game.)

-M

It’s a common thing these days: I catch a glimpse of Zoe and find myself thinking, ‘Who are you?’ and ‘Where did my little baby go?’ Although she’s only 21 pounds and not yet a year old (small by most people’s standards), she seems so big – and old – to me. I don’t even think of her as a baby anymore; she’s more of a little girl. She’s constantly moving around, exploring, trying out new things… Every day she amazes me with a new skill, a new ability, a new side of her personality that she seemingly picked up in her sleep.

People warned me that kids grow up fast, but I really didn’t expect this dizzying pace.

Watching someone grow before your eyes is an amazing experience – and also a slightly terrifying one. Just when you feel like you’ve figured out a certain age, or perfected a certain parenting technique, your kid moves on to the next phase – leaving you in the proverbial dust.

The other day, I found myself holding a sobbing, teething little girl – not sure what to do to make things better – and I commented to Q that I was feeling a bit weary about the future. I feel like an expert at this point in caring for *babies*, I told him, but I’m fairly clueless about little girls! What if I can’t keep up?

In calmer, happier moments, of course, I know that all will be fine and we’ll figure out everything. Yet… I wouldn’t mind if things slowed down just a bit. After all, I miss my little baby.

-M

After mastering the drumbs, Zoe tries a new musical instrument…

Jon Q

After writing my previous post, it occurred to me that Zoe has changed quite a bit since the last time we took Redskins-inspired photos of her. I sorted through old pictures and couldn’t help but smile when I came across this one from last December, when she was just two weeks old. Quite a difference, huh??

-M

Everyone here is ready for the first Sunday NFL games of the season. The TV is on, the fantasy-football rosters are set, and Zoe is decked out in her Redskins garb. (Who knew the Redskins changed their colors to pink and white??)

Happy Football Sunday, everyone!

-M

Teething is taking its toll on Zoe, as mentioned below – but she’s still been having her fair share of fun these past few days. Here are some more recent pics.

-M

Helping with laundry

Er, helping with laundry?

Climbing around

Hanging with the guys

A lot has happened in Zoe’s little world since we last wrote. The most exciting development: she graduated from crawling to kneeling and even pulling herself up to a standing position. She did a bit of standing in her crib this morning, and we just had to snap a picture to share.

In less fun news, Zoe is in full-strength teething mode – and I have fairly strong sentiments about the process. It stinks! Zoe was feverish earlier in the week and has woken up – crying and moaning – around 2 AM the last few days. (Poor thing!) Her PopPop was in town for a quick visit – which always makes her feel better – but she still hasn’t quite been herself this week. Here’s hoping that the teeth will pop out and stop bothering her soon!

-M

As mentioned above, the three of us had a fun, relaxing weekend in Santa Cruz and Monterey. The aquarium was a definite highlight; Zoe saw for the first time jellyfish, sharks and penguins – and even got to touch a few ocean critters. (She also spent quite a bit of time trying to grab the fish as they swam by in tanks. I don’t think it registered that there was glass between her and the fish!) I can’t wait to go back when she’s a little older and even *more* excited about everything there.

We (of course) took tons of pictures at the aquarium and back at our hotel, and here are a few of our faves.

-M