Day 311: Family Toothbrushes

I finally got Zaria her own toothbrush and toothpaste to add to the family brush holder. She's been using a brush that came in the baby medical kit, but it's gotten pretty chewed up. She's the lucky one to get an orange toothbrush with Elmo on it, currently her favorite character. I mention Sesame Street and she excitedly repeats: "Elmo, Elmo." Sometimes she also mentions Zoe.

Day 285: Birthday FNG and Potty time

Zaria wanted to sit on the potty today and started pulling magazines to read while she sat (apparently she's noticed that we do this). I thought it was especially amusing that she wanted to read a Marriage Today magazine.
Sort of last minute, we hosted Friday Night Group at our house and had some cake for Jamin's birthday, which is tomorrow. It was a nice small group, perfect for our limited space, and we even worked in a game of Bocce ball. It's hard to see in the above photo, but I arranged the candles into the number 32. The wax was melting pretty well by the time Jamin held the cake, so he had to blow the candles out quickly.

Day 284: Socks

She's been able to pull her socks off for some time now, but today she was quite determined to try putting them on by herself, as well. Our frustrated toddler stage may have officially begun. Zaria wants to do things herself, but is still learning how. I try to wait until she wants my help, and I'm learning patience when she doesn't accept help or she has a small tantrum.

Day 261: Errands by the railroad

Jamin needed me to submit some paperwork for him this morning, so Zaria got a little practice on stairs again. The office we had to go to was on the second floor with no elevator. The doc says I need to try not to lift her or anything else over 20 lbs, but it is really hard not to lift a 17-month-old. She does pretty well with climbing most things, but it takes so much more time and she doesn't always want to cooperate, as you can imagine. Jamin's also heading out of state today, so I'll be on my own with her until at least tomorrow night.

Day 251: Reading

Zaria loves it when we read her stories. Recently, she's started pointing at things in the pictures and trying to say some of the words, which is really fun. Not everything sounds quite right, but she tries to say strawberry, sock, elephant, animal, turtle, bunny, mouse, and orange. Even better, she's started to say "thank you" when we give her things and sometimes pauses with her hands folded before we eat, waiting for us to pray. I am amazed by this little girl.

Day 217: Climbing

This little blue chair has been a little big for Zaria still, but today she managed to use her piano to help her climb up onto it. It's exciting to watch this new ability, but how much more baby-proofing are we going to need to do soon?

Day 210: Sweeping

With no prompting from me at all, Zaria decided to grab the broom from the utility closet (which she's not usually allowed in) and start walking around the kitchen sweeping. Of course, this was a little difficult since she didn't want to put down the bear and there's the obvious size problem of this broom, but it's fun to see her wanting to help out!

Day 192: Exploring outside

It was time to get outside! A lot of snow has melted, so I let Zaria walk around and enjoy the great outdoors of our driveway. She picked up a few rocks to admire and hand to me. Yes, she licked a couple of them, too. She is definitely enjoying the freedom of walking.

Day 181: Walking and visiting

Arms usually out, Zaria is getting more and more confident walking around. It means she can get into more things, but so far hasn't gotten into any trouble. We also had a visit from Jamin's folks this evening. They came over and played Boggle with us and enjoyed some Pannekoeken that I attempted for the first time. (I tried it first to make sure it wasn't too much of an experiment-- it was pretty good, but not quite as fluffy as the real thing.) Marla enjoyed the family of Squiggles in the book she's looking at. I think Zaria will enjoy that one when she gets a little older and can appreciate some of the humor.

Day 177: Parachute

We had fun with a parachute at the baby storytime today, and we saw some familiar faces! Little Asher and Nathalee, whom Zaria knows from the FBC nursery, both came today randomly. Neither one is actually signed up for this storytime and neither one has ever been there before, so it was a fun surprise. Zaria was very active today and wanted to walk around the circle more than she wanted to sit and read. She is really enjoying her new skill and the perspective it gives her.

Day 173: Minnesota history

We checked out a library pass to see the Minnesota History Center, so we enjoyed going today as a family, complete with picnic lunch. So of course it was a gorgeous day with all sorts of great views around St. Paul . . . and I forgot my camera again. I took a few shots with my camera phone, including the one below of Jamin looking at the historical MN license plates within the transportation portion of the museum. Interesting reading some of the blurbs on our transportation history when there's an important transportation bill being voted on next week. Surprisingly, Jamin is for an increase in fuel tax to improve transportation even though his paycheck is viciously gouged to pay for his truck's fuel.

Zaria really enjoyed walking around the museum, especially behind the little red wagon in the house of talking walls. She's really gaining confidence, but was wanting a guiding hand still at this point in a new environment. She also managed to nap a while in her stroller, so we were able to stay for quite a while longer than we'd expected. Yay!

Day 154: Snow day

I decided to see if Zaria would still fit in her bouncer play gym, and she does, though she is getting a little big for it. It's supposed to snow about 2-6 inches today, so I opened the curtains up wide for us to look out at it while she played. It looked so cold out, I put tights on Zaria after taking this picture.

Day 147: Climbing and skettios

Zaria is now climbing onto the couch. I guess it was only a matter of time after the stairs. She's even gotten up without the aid of this box while I was in the office on the other side of the couch. I'm still not sure how she did that.
We also had spaghettios for lunch today from a bowl. At least I think we were supposed to be eating them from a bowl. It may be a while before she's really ready for the extra utensils, but I'm trying to break her in. I was also very glad she was wearing orange today already. (=