Z Sees a PANDA!!!!

Panda Hawk Spots Potential Next Meal. 

Z is only eating bananas now, (see below) and maybe an avocado, but she is already looking at some delicious bamboo eating animals. 

Z's Poppa shows her a Polar Bear 

Overall, Z did an amazing job of being an interested participant in her first zoo trip. We are long time patrons of San Diego Zoo and are excited to share our love of animals with her! She made it through the entire zoo, what a trooper! Her cousin Heather carried her and felt the burn.

We all came back from the zoo slightly less than fresh, so we scrubbed our zoo keeper down and put her off to bed with her new stuffed Panda, a gift from her cousin Heather. We have named him Chow Yun Fat and Z adores him!

Easleys LOVE to EAT!

Z is eating and making faces we have never seen her make! We are pretty sure she likes bananas more than avocado, but it is obvious she likes eating like a big girl!

Here are 5 faces Z had never made before she met her banana!

Play Time!

Z shows us how she sits up!

We took Z to the playground early in the morning so she could get some fresh air in the long shadows!

Z had fun her first time sitting alone in the playground. She's ready to take on the other kids! 

B & Z Easley try out the slide! Z is looking forward to future play dates where she can show off her new skills!

Z says, "Au revoir, hope to see you soon!"

A Milestone A Minute

AMERICA'S BEST DANCE CREW MEET AMERICA'S SWEETEST BABY
Z throwing down her crunk stylings. She be living the hip-hop lifestyle. 

We took Z to meet her first celebrities!
Many of you know that we are HUGE fans of America's Best Dance Crew, the best show MTV has put out in years. Our favorite this year were local heroes, POREOTICS, who beat down all of their competition and were chosen by popular vote to be America's Best Dance Crew. A huge honor!

These guys are true artists and talented athletes! Their dancing style is totally unique and a great reflection on our neighborhood. We will always be fans! 
We found out about this and stopped in a part of Irvine we usually just drive by. We drove past the hospital where Z was born and reminisced about the greatest day ever. 

Z is doing digit here and is already poppin' and lockin'.

What a treat it was. The crew were blown away with Z's style and moves! They wanted to adopt her, of course. Sorry fellas, She's ALL OURS! We had the best time! Z sported her iPho shirt, sunglasses and dinosaur baby legs.








Below is a video of the crew, I think you will see why we LOVE POREOTICS!

Z has decided to SIT ON HER OWN!

There's more of this in our second video below! 

It is a huge deal, one of the biggie milestones and the last we were really waiting for to start feeding her food! She uses two fingers to pick things up, can't be contained when diaper changing, army crawls, can go up on all fours, does the airplane and push ups, every minute it is a new milestone!

It is hard to believe that Kitty Hawk will be 6 months old in just a few days! Where has the time gone?!? We are getting her used to the idea of sitting up to eat by practicing in her new high chair.

Each of these milestones are bittersweet. Of course we are thrilled about her rapid development, but we are always aware that these precious days are ticking away. She will be crawling very soon and we are spending all of her nap times getting the apartment baby-ready!  

Happy Times!

To see us out, here is Ben getting Z in the mood for nighty night with a little game of peek-a-boo. Buenas Noches!

Here is a silly video we made of some stills. Z cries so rarely that we had to document it and her bottom two teeth can be seen when she is wailing. It is our belief that she is even more beautiful when angry. It is obvious that she will always get her way:

Oh, and one more, for those who love her and are too far away to visit:

Rocking Out

An interesting observation about babies is that they have no reference for what things are worth, what is popular with the masses, or what will be valuable to their learning.  Given their choice of items, they will pick based upon a criteria grown people just wouldn't comprehend.  Here's an example:

This playtoy jungle apparatus has all sorts of toys, animals, music, lights, and a mirror.  But to little Z with her strange brilliance, the best part of the whole thing seems to be the TAGS. Since discovering that things have tags under them, she has been sure to check under everything, and found tags in places we didn't even know they existed. She likes them better because they are hiding. Things are not always as they appear, if you dig deeper, you might find sunken treasure or a hidden gem! A good lesson!

I am helping, just a little.

Another new discovery this week is TOES! Z found her toes while getting a diaper change and so it began. All day she grabbed them, tried to get them in her mouth,and succeeded a couple of times. 

MMMM Crocodile Sushi. 

TEETHING. Now that we have two lower chompers, we are waiting for the top two to poke through. We can see them pressing on her little gums. She had some misery this week, these seem to bother her much more than the first two. She had one rough night where she just couldn't get comfortable for a few hours. Sweet baby that she is, she didn't really cry, just chewed, drooled and sighed. She has discovered her new love of frozen washcloths and bibs, vibrating corn on the cob and anything else she can rub on her gums.

We are doing our best to take in Z's changes, to notice them and not let them slip into a blur. We have waited a long time to start a family and who knows if we will get this chance again. Right now, we are savoring every minute. Heard of helicopter parenting? Try Hover Craft, Huey Helicopter Parenting. Poor Z! We will try to back off at some point, but right now we just can't get enough of her love!