Cake Video

More Birthday Pictures

Let her eat cake!

Vince and I stayed up late Saturday night and decorated a teddy bear cake for Ziva. We also made cupcakes in teddy bear cupcake holders, but I didn't get any pictures of those. I've got a better picture of the "before" cake but I haven't uploaded it yet....all these pictures are from Stephanie, one of Ziva's teachers, who is a great photographer! (Thanks Steph!)

Checking it out. It took Ziva quite a while to warm up to the idea of cake. I took a video and after 4 minutes she still wasn't doing much so I stopped, and recorded more later once she got into it. (And I mean into it!)

Now we're talking! She worked at it and broke the bear's leg off!

And here she's poking his eye out. She likes to poke people's eyes too. :)

All done! Note the icing in her hair.

Party Pics

Today was Ziva's birthday party. We had originally planned a barbecue at the park, but after the freak (or not-so-freak-for-Oklahoma) snow storm on Saturday (I think we ended up with over 6 inches around here!) we moved it inside to our apartment and grilled on the balcony. It was still a great time!

Ziva opens a gift. She got two baby dolls, one a Cabbage Patch Kid and one that giggles.

We enjoyed having Gabbi, one of Ziva's school friends, and her parents come by for a little bit.

Gabbi always wears cute bows, which Ziva likes to steal :)

Ziva just had to be outside with the boys for some of the party!

Happy birthday Ziva!!

Happy Birthday Ziva!

March 27, 2008

March 27, 2009

Can you believe how much she's grown? It's amazing!

Future Soccer Star

Playground, Ziva style

This video just shows some typical play time for Ziva. She has lots of fun in her bathroom, exploring and pulling all the towels and washcloths from her little bin. Nothing extraordinary, but it's cute, and make sure you have the volume up so you can hear her talking to herself. She's been a chatterbox today!

Table Manners

We're starting to teach Ziva to use utensils on her own. That paper towel commercial that says "It takes a certain kind of strength to let them learn on their own" hit it right on the head! With very little practice, though, Ziva has figured out how to put the spoon in her mouth the right way to eat the food. Getting the food on the spoon in the first place is another story. For now, I put the spoon in the bowl and leave it there for her to pick up.

After cleaning up the prune and apples mess, I decided to feed her myself for the main course, but she didn't want the spoon from me, so I just gave her the bowl...she needs to learn how to use those too!

Yum!

And next came bathtime, to clean up after her learning experience!

Ready for bed in cute new big girl pajamas (she outgrew her footy pajamas so quickly we had to cut the feet out of one pair until we could get her some new ones!)

Getting big!

Norma took these pictures while Ziva was at their house during my parent-teacher conferences last week. Doesn't she look so grown up? (except for the toys in her mouth, of course?)

Converting to Couponism

We are making a major lifestyle change around here: I'm becoming a couponer! My friend Cherissa has been doing this for over a year now and she just launched a new blog all about it, and seeing the amazing deals that are out there has inspired me to try my hand at saving some cash this way. You can see Cherissa's blog here.

I'm still new so I've got a long way to go before I'm making the most of my coupons, but I've made a couple of good deals this week, and the latest one was at Walgreens yesterday. Here's what I got:

1 box each of Honey Nut Cheerios, Golden Grahams, and Cinnamon Toast Crunch
3 bars of Dove soap
2 Dove invisible solid deodorants
1 Dove cream oil body wash
1 box of Kleenex

The total I paid out of pocket, with tax, was $4.15. My total savings was $28.46! And my out of pocket would have been much lower if I hadn't bought the Kleenex, because I didn't really have a good deal for them, but we really needed them. So there you go! We just wanted to share this great resource in case anyone else is up for a fun challenge. I'm looking forward to the summer so I can devote more time to getting better at this!

Spring (break) cleaning

Today is the first official day of my spring break! (I love having a job that still gets spring break!) During my time off, I have set some substantial goals:

• Ziva's first birthday is in two weeks, so I need to plan her party AND do her baby scrapbook. I bought a scrapbook last summer, but haven't even touched it since then. It's one of those kits that has everything included, so hopefully that will speed the process along. Right now I'm working on sorting out pictures to decide which ones make it into the album.
• Get organized! We're thinking about downsizing to a 2/1 from a 2/2 when our lease is up in May, and that means it would be smart to clean out any accumulated junk. Our closests really need to be cleaned out, so that's first on the list. Even if we don't downsize, we could still use our closets more efficiently.

Hmm, that's about it. It doesn't look like much in bullet form, but it should keep me busy. Plus the weather is supposed to be in the 70s all week, so I'm sure Ziva and I will spend plenty of time playing outside!

Goodnight Kisses

In the past few weeks, Ziva has started giving kisses, and they are so sweet. :) They're mostly open-mouth slobbery smushes, but she's getting better at it. Lately when I'm rocking her before bed, she'll sit up suddenly, give me a kiss, then snuggle back down in my arms. It is so precious, and I try to intentionally savor those moments. Spending my days with teenagers reminds me all the time that Ziva will be a senior in high school before I know it, and things will be different for sure.

She has also taken to dragging around fabric.....anything that's handy, whether it's a blanket, towel, or laundry (clean or dirty, doesn't matter!) I'm not sure if it's the beginnings of a security blanket need, or just a little phase, but it's pretty cute.

Pneumonia

Ziva has pneumonia. We took her to the doctor Thursday aftenoon after she had to come home from school (10 minutes after I dropped her off) with a high fever, coughing, and blah-ness. After listening to her breathe, the doctor ordered a chest x-ray, which was NOT fun for either me or Ziva, but we survived, and it did show pneumonia as the doctor suspected. She also has a double ear infection, poor kid. So we stayed home yesterday, and she's been dosing up on antibiotics, Tylenol and Motrin. Considering all that, she's doing really great. Even when she's sick, she's still a pretty happy baby.

In other news, I'm expecting that after her one year check up in a few weeks, we'll be needing to upgrade to a forward facing car seat. Can anyone who's passed that stage recommend a seat you love? I can spend hours reading recommendations on-line, or trust people I know. Sounds like a no brainer. :)