First year mark!

So much has happened all at once. Zoë turned one on Wed.. September 5th 7:58am CST.

We had her party the Saturday before. Lots of neighbors came and friends from work. She was spoiled as usual with lovely gifts such as: a cat that looks like mischief from Betty and Bob Long; her buddy (the grand-daughter of the neighbor that is moving next month) played with her all day and gave her a book where you find the dog on every page; Julie, James and their 5mo. old gave her a book on the park where you slide and turn everything.. she's starting to get the hang of it; Tiffany, George and 13 month old Panos gave her wooden stacking rings, and a duck security blanket; Rachel (and Sven) spoiled her as usual with toys like My Little Sea Ponies book and 3 dolls, 3 (or 4?) cat like rubber duckies, a ninja rubber ducky, a pirate rubber ducky, and the pirate's mate rubber ducky, as well as a cat with magnets for sticking to the fridge; Isabel (her adopted grandma/auntie from work) gave her the cutest bath robe with flower petals that go around the face.. she wore it like a cape (with it pulled over her eyes) and walked around.. I have video.. I laughed quite hard; Pam, Mike and the boys from across the street gave her the book "Each Peach Pear Plum";

More Zoë tid-bits: last week her new thing in the morning is to pull up her shirt and rub and look at it in the mirrors.. so cute.

last night: we usually dip our fingers in drinks (like beer) when she begs to have some... she will now motion that she wants to try something by pointing her finger and then sticking it in her mouth; last night, we had constructed our "monkey nest" of bing bags and were cuddling with her in the middle, and she pulled up her dad's shirt, stuck her finger in his belly button and then to her mouth.. that was so, so funny (sounds weird, but it was so cute).

we've had two days of the Nanny: Vicky from Venezuela.. we love, love, love her and are trying to persuade her to stick around (but I think she has a better offer for higher pay and more hours) ... hard to compete. The typical crying happens, which hurts me greatly, but Vicky says she recovers okay.. Vicky is really good at distracting her and plays with her all day. The first day was kind of rough, I had to leave while she was sleeping.. I told Vicky to call me when she woke... she did and Zoe was crying so hard.. I biked home, by the time I got here.. Vicky had distracted her and she was mostly okay.. we spent 20 minutes with her on my chest, snuggly, and then she started playing with Vicky again.. I worked downstairs and they went and played upstairs for 1 hour.

The next day went better.. Vicky got her down for a nap, a little crying when I left, and after her nap, but mostly she loves Vicky and will go back to her for play and cuddles (even when I'm around).