Now that we have a membership (and it’s free to get in), we spend a lot of time at the zoo. Yesterday, we met up with a few friends and spent a good four (!) hours petting and watching animals, climbing little statues and marching around. And Zoe got a real treat at the end of the day, when she held hands with her little friend, Henry. (So cute!)

-M

My cousin and his partner came to town this weekend and decided to get married. We were excited to be invited to the ceremony, especially since it meant three firsts for Zoe: first time meeting Randy, first time attending a wedding, and first time hanging out at City Hall.

Here are the post-ceremony pics at City Hall and at one of our favorite places to get a cocktail in the Castro. Congrats, Randy and Jon!

-M

Two of my favorite activities, as frequent visitors here know, are eating out and shopping. Though Zoe makes both activities a bit more challenging, we do get out and about with her fairly often. Last Sun. was a good example: we played games and shared pizza with her during dinner; then we did some shopping (for her, of course) while she made a new friend at Old Navy. I just had to share the pictures here.

-M

I’ve had a very long, abnormally stressful work week. Picking up Zoe in the afternoon was something to look forward to, and it was especially therapeutic yesterday. When I arrived at Elena’s, she ran up to me (which she always does) and treated to me to several kisses and neck hugs (which she doesn’t always do). Then, one of her little friends, an older girl, came up to me and said with a big smile, “Zoe loves her mommy.” I can’t say that my stress completely melted away, but it came pretty close! And I couldn’t help but feel that the two of them sensed what kind of day I had just had – and knew it was Mommy, not Baby, who needed some TLC!

A very sweet moment, indeed.

-M

Well, Zoe had quite the Sunday as she was invited over to her friend Henry’s birthday party. The party was in a gym and Zoe got to try the balance beam and trampoline, and especially loved the floor exercises. Perhaps the Olympics are in her future?

Jon Q

Warming up by doing some flips into the foam:

A few stretches before her floor routine:

Our 2024 Olympian:

Several months ago, I struggled a bit with Zoe’s foray into toddlerhood. She was no longer the mellow, quiet baby who took lots of naps, and I found myself both emotionally and physically exhausted from trying to keep up with this active little girl. By this point, I’m used to Zoe the Toddler – which is a good thing, considering how much more active she gets each month!

These days, Zoe’s always running – never walking – around. She loves to sprint from room to room, often yelling “Daddy!” or “Mommy!” (or “Shell,” which we’ll get to in a bit) or pushing one of her baby dolls in their stroller. She also likes grabbing someone’s hand (usually her dad’s) and walking with that person through the house or demanding that they dance to “Ring Around the Rosie” with her.

She sings a lot and recently started doing (or trying to do) the ABCs on her own. (So far, she’s perfected only the “EFG” part.) She’s also starting to understand her numbers; one day when I was counting out loud and said “one,” she said back to me, “two” – and she has said “two” and “three” several times since. She says other new words and phrases (like “I love you!”) on a fairly regular basis; at last count, she could say five dozen words or so. As has been the case for several months now, she repeats a lot of what she hears me and Q; after hearing Q refer to me as “Shell,” she recently started saying “Shell!” (pronounced like “She-yell”) when calling for me. I prefer “Mommy,” of course, but Q thinks it’s hilarious when she says it.

Other firsts this past month: she learned to get up and down chairs and couches on her own. She started scribbling on her own – though she prefers pens to crayons. And she can now build towers and stack her little stacking dishes in the right order, without assistance.

In terms of playtime, she loves making (and knocking down) her towers of blocks and stacking dishes, cuddling with and kissing her baby dolls and stuffed dogs, and also playing make-believe. She often pretends to mix food in her little dishes and then feed me or Q or one of her “babies.” And she loves watching her little goldfish swim around and eat. One of the cutest things she does these days is walk up to their tank in her room and say “hi, fishies” (sometimes with a wave).

Though she’s often doing terribly sweet things like this, life with Zoe isn’t all rosey. She can be surly, and her answer to a lot of questions these days is “no” – pronounced like “nyo.” (Very typical exchanges: “Zoe, can you give Mommy a kissie?” “No!” “Zoe, do you want Mommy to read a book to you?” “No!”) She is especially quick to reject assistance; when I ask if she needs help (getting up or down for a chair, for example) she says “no” right away. I get it, I get it – she likes to do things herself!

As mentioned the other day, Zoe is still not exactly Ms. Cuddles. But she does find the occasion (usually in the morning) to snuggle up beside me or Q and give us a kiss or two. And though she might not always show her affection in a physical way, she almost always wants us near her. If either Q or I leave the room in which she’s in, she’s sure to yell after us and sometimes cry if we don’t return right away. And just this morning, when I got up with her and Q was still sleeping, she looked at me with a quivering lip and said, “where’s Daddy?” (He’s “night-night,” I told her, before assuring her that she’d see him soon.)

As for physical stuff, Zoe weighs close to 30 pounds and wears a lot of 3T (!) clothing. I think she’s getting taller, as well; both Q and I have commented lately that she looks like she’s thinning out. Her stomach isn’t quite as round as it was even a few weeks ago – but she is still, of course, a bit of a chunk.

-M

Once you live in San Francisco for awhile, you get used to the lack of warm, sunny days – even in the summer. I still miss the warmth, though, which is why I feel so happy when the thermometer spikes above 75, as it did today. In order to take full advantage of the nice weather, we slapped on some sunscreen and watermelon shorts on Zoe and headed to our local playground. Zoe ran around and worked up a sweat, and also (as always) posed for the camera. Here are a few of our shots.

-M

Perfect, purely blissful parent moments don’t happen every day, but they tend to stick with you when they do. I can’t stop thinking about yesterday morning, which actually got off to a rocky start – with Q away on business and Zoe acting unusually grumpy when she woke up. When Zoe wouldn’t stop crying, I popped in a CD of kids songs in our bedroom (I’m not going to lie: I was pretty proud of myself for that idea), and I saw some small smiles as I got ready for work. When a particularly fun song, “Here We Go Loopty-Loo,” came on, I took Zoe in my arms and started to dance – and she proceeded to laugh and then wrap her arms around my neck in a tight embrace. This is a little girl who rarely dishes out the love without being asked – and also a girl who just moments before had been crying hysterically – and it’s one of the sweetest moments we’ve shared.

-M

I was looking through our archive of last week’s trip, and I thought this video of Zoe and Tanner would be a fun one to post. As you can see, they had a pretty good time together – and they didn’t seem to mind posing and even kissing for the camera. (And I love how Zoe leans in to get her smooch, and then quickly returns to her food.)

-M

When Zoe hit her last milestone (the 18-month mark), I meant to make a post reflecting on how fast time has gone and how much our life has changed in the last year and a half. I didn’t wind up doing such a post (I was probably too tired from chasing Zoe around), but I thought I’d at least list a few small things that have changed for me. So here goes.

In my post-Zoe life (unlike my pre-Z one), I:

-never set an alarm clock (yet am up almost every day at 6:30 AM)
-think 11 PM is really, really late
-get tipsy from one cocktail (that’s what 26 months of pregnancy and nursing does to you)
-consider a long-enough shower to shave my legs a real luxury
-find myself adding “s” or “ers” (e.g. “do you want to a snackers?”, “let’s take a bathers”) to some – most? – words
-automatically say “dog” whenever I see one – whether or not Zoe is around
-am more likely to be found on the playground or at a park than at the mall or in a boutique (though, let’s not kid ourselves – I do still find some time to shop)
-don’t mind (and even kind of like) when I encounter crying kids on airplanes, in stores, etc.
-don’t know what to do with myself when I have nothing to do (a rare occasion, anyway)
-now know what all the fuss about kids is about

Grandma Vicki sent some pictures of our recent trip to Madison, and there was one I just had to share. Zoe’s little head looks so round in this picture, and I love the look on her face…

-M

With Father’s Day and the recent trip to Madison, Zoe has a lot to be happy about. Here are a few pictures of her feeling particularly happy over the past few days!

Jon Q

Nothing makes Zoe happier than a trip to IHOP:

Just happy relaxing in Daddy’s big chair:

Spend any amount of time with the three of us, and you’re likely to hear the word “daddy” maybe one or two *hundred* times. Zoe is extremely fond of her dad, and she is constantly saying his name and then running up to him, grabbing his hand, etc. I love how much she loves him, and I had to make a post in Q’s honor…

I hope you enjoy the pictures below, which are a few of my favorite Zoe/Daddy ones from the past year, and I hope all you dads out there have a great day!

-M

As mentioned below, Zoe recently got to spend some time with her cousin Tanner (who is five days her junior). A bunch of us met up at Ella’s Deli – a bit of a Madison institution – and Zoe and Tanner did a lot of chatting, eating, riding around a carousel – and even kissing. There were so many fun pictures of the two of them that I had to dedicate an entire post to their night.

-M

So, we’re back from Madison. Our trip was a little wet and a little fast, but we packed a lot in during our time there. Zoe had a lot of fun hanging out with family and friends, and she did a great job on all four plane rides. (She didn’t even mind our flight delays, unlike her mom!) We’ve got some fun pictures to post later of Zoe and her cousin Tanner; for now, here are a few of my faves from the plane and on the ground.

-M