I keep this blog with the help of my husband. It chronicals our adventures, whether its living in the far north, parenthood, keeping up with our small city homestead or just trying to make a tasty meal.
On Sunday Zelda got her first taste of meat. It was a nice piece of steak. Here's the play by play:
Zelda watching her steak cook.
First big bites.
A little uncertain of the new texture.
Ready for more, this time with a little cinnamon sprinkled on top.
Post meal beefy bliss!
Dear Zelda,
You are now five months old. And wow, it seems cliched, but it was like only yesterday we were waiting for your arrival. Time is flying by and these past couple of months you have really come into your own. With each new discovery, your papa and I are more in love and can't imagine life without you.
Everyone comments on how alert you are and how busy you are. Most notably, you started eating solid foods and you LOVE them. Your papa and I smile as we watch you eat and the enthusiam you have for food. We are thrilled as food is a very important part of our lives too.
You've tried lots of fruits and veggies and seem to like them all. You can handle soft chunky food without problems. Last night I gave you your first dairy, some greek yogurt, and you couldn't get enough.
Although a little early, we let you try a little orange the other night. You really like it, but at this point it was only a taste. Tonight we'll be trying a little bit of steak with some sweet potatoes. It should be a tasty dinner, one I'm sure you'll love.
In addition to food, you love to have fun! You are so interactive with your toys and everyone around you. You love to smile, squeal at the top of your lungs and jabber at us with such earnest, telling us all kinds of stories that make you laugh.
You kick your legs so fast that we're sure you'll be fast once you start toddling around. The puppies won't know what to do once you're mobile. You love it when papa throws you into the air or hangs you upside down. You know how to get all your toys to your mouth to really explore them. You've started sitting up and using a walker toy which lets you stand and play. You've even managed to "walk" some, mostly backwards. Yesterday it seems you discovered your feet. It's fun watching you decide how to get to them and decide whether or not you can get them in your mouth. It's endless entertainment for both you and mama. No matter what new experience we give you, you seem to like them all. This is a really fun time not only for you, but for papa and I as well.
You're also getting so big that you can go into stores and look around from the driver's seat - aka cart seat. You really enjoy that. You also like to be outward facing in your carrier so you don't miss a thing when we're on a walk or skiing.
Whew, there's been so much change and there's so much more to come. The next couple of months will be filled with lots of discovery and travel (Portland, Dallas & Denver). You'll get to go on your first bike ride next week, complete with a new helmet. You've always been such a good traveller that papa and I are trying to take you everywhere we can.
We are looking forward to the months and the adventures ahead with you, little z.
Love always,
mama and papa
but Zelda's first roll over on her own nonetheless.
Here is a set of photos I took of Zelda having some play time with the puppies.
Lately she seemed bored with her chair that we usually put her in to play. She wants to sit up and interact more with her toys so we pulled out the stand up toy center our friends gave to us before Zelda was even here. She LOVES this thing. Right now her favorite toy is the ball she can bat about and make spin, but she does check out the other toys and will engage with them when we swivel her around in the seat.
Also I think she likes to be able to bounce on her feet and kick them while she's playing. After a few minutes standing to play the other night she unfurled her toes and seemed to enjoy scrunching them back and forth on the rug in her room.
PS - Bear with me as I'm trying to take better pictures with Zach's camera instead of just relying on the iPhone for the blog. I'm still learning how to use it. Its so fancy. Of course, I take hundres of pictures of Zelda on my phone and its always with me so there will still be some of those photos. Plus I can blog directly from my phone, which comes in handy especially when we're travelling.
Zelda has been pulling her head and shoulders forward (pictured above, but hard to catch with a photo) trying to sit up in her chair, so we gave it a try.
She can sit up for about 15 seconds by herself with some bobbing and weaving of her head (hence the blurry pictures, well that and doing the snapping one handed to have the other free to catch her).
I managed to get a short video of her sitting on the bed this afternoon.
I think she'll have this sitting up thing down in no time, which will give us lots of time to work on rolling over and crawling.
Waiting to take the first bite.
The first bite.
The food really did end up inside her mouth.
"Gimme that spoon!" ~ Zelda
Yesterday we decided to give solid food a go. Zelda has been eyeing the food we eat and watching us closely for a couple of weeks now. I think all that close studying paid off. We decided to start her off with some homemade avocado baby food. Basically, an avocado smashed up with a little formula until silky smooth. She really seemed to like it and by the end was trying to control the spoon. I think we'll try sweet potatoes next.
Zelda and I had Auntie Karen over yesterday to make gingerbread houses. The night before I baked the house pieces wanting them to taste good as we plan to dismantle them on Sunday for dessert when Karen and her family are over for Christmas dinner.
As you can see Zelda was in her festive head attire looking cute and ready to decorate.
My house, unfortunately, didn't make it. After some initial excitement that the peices were all together, it collapsed. As Karen commented, it looked like the cabin just south of Girdwood that nature is slowly reclaiming.
Karen's gingerbread house fared better. And as of this morning, it was still standing!! Each of us, including Zach who returned from some final shopping, added some decorations to the lone standing house. I focused on the yard since I'm leary of the structural integrity.
The house will be a great centerpiece for dinner. I think next year I may buy the pre-assembled houses to ensure that they'll stand and stick to eating my gingerbread through cookies, which we made too with the leftover dough. Either way this was a great way to kick off a new Christmas tradition for our family.
We hope that you had a wonderful Thanksgiving holiday, whether you're in the US or located further afield. Here are pictures from our first Thanksgiving with Zelda.
Zelda awake and smiling and ready for turkey.
Cranberrys with apples in the works.
Zach peeling garlic for potatoes.
The snow on the deck.
The cutest Thanksgiving turkey ever!
And her tail feathers.
Hanging out after we arrived back home from an awesome meal.
Out skiing as a family to burn some of those calories.
Zelda's post ski snooze.
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