Zola 2.0 - A Birthday

We celebrated Zola's second birthday party last night. Things started a little ominously when I went in to get her out of the crib, and she pointed to the cup I was holding and said, "Mines!"

Uh-oh.

But aside from a little grabbiness at the beginning of the party, she was quite generous in her sharing--as generous as a two-year-old ever gets. By the end, she stopped trying to strip Gus of his balloon.

Great turnout! As for the smaller attendees: Zola, Vera, Skye, Lillian, Gus, Jacob. Baba, Di, and Neal were all there, which was nice. Also Dietrich and Sharon, Skye's papa Scott, Amy & Alexei, September, Mike & Acadia, Robbie & Kate.

This morning we went to Lincoln Park, and it was a bit like Sesame Street: lots of people on their front stoops waving and saying "good morning." One older gentleman introduced us to his dog, and cut an orange flower for Zola. We put it in her hair, bid "Adieu," and headed to the playground.

Missing Mama

Zola's started her Fall/Winter swim class in Rockville.  Today we woke up at 6:50am to get out to Rockville by 8:30, so that she could make the 9am class.  Ouch.

Getting up that early kind of sucks, but Zola does love her some swimming.  And--come to think of it--waking her up is one of my favorite things.  Love to walk in and sing to her a little bit, and have her give me a sleepy smile.

Susie's been in Milwaukee the last two nights, and won't be home til Thursday night (Zola's birthday).  I miss her.

Return to posting...

Haven't posted in a long time, but I really need a restart.  Zola's going to be turning two on Thursday.  Watching her grow up has been amazing.  The strangest thing is just how *capable* she is.  This is the first young child I've spent any time with, and had always thought that kids under two years were essentially "babies."   Because most two-year-olds are a little shy around strangers, I had no idea they actually had personalities.

But Zola is by turns serious, funny, kind...  just amazing.

We were reading a book about "Caring for your Baby" last night, that she had picked out of her bookshelf, between "Green Eggs & Ham" and "Corduroy".  As we flipped through the text-heavy pages looking for pictures, we came across a picture of a mother playing with a reclining baby's toes.

I said, "Look, the mama's tickling the baby!" and Zola started laughing.   Then she said, "Xoxo tickles Papa!" and gave me a hug and started tickling me.  We both collapsed into a laughing pile on the floor.

There's no way to write about things like that without making it sound trivial, but it's such moments that make this whole baby business not "worthwhile", but something I can't imagine having missed.