Playdate at Teena and Jonas's

We had such a blast playing with our pals at Teena and Jonas's. Zev is always so happy to see his friends.

I love my new MacBook!

Here's a video of Zev I took with my MacBook this morning.

Happy New Year, Kung Hei Fat Cho

Kung Hei Fat Cho: Congratulations and Be Prosperous! Today we celebrated Chinese New Year at Himmel Park Library. There were children displaying a dragon, Chinese calligraphers illustrating people's names, face painting and other festivities. Zev enjoyed watching all of the excitement and meeting Cecilia for the first time. Cecilia has been a wonderful mentor to me as a teacher. She is a sincerely kind and generous person who I always enjoy getting together with, so today was a treat for me as well. When we came home, Zev ate peas and pears and tried a sippy cup with water for the first time! He has to suck the water out of the sippy since it has a valve that controls the flow and he learned pretty quickly how to do it. Zev hasn't even had a bottle yet so I was impressed. 

I've just attempted adding a short video of Zev. I was trying to start a conversation with him but he was too mesmerized by the computer to talk. I'll have to use the video camera instead in the future. 

In other Zev news, we recently purchased an Exersaucer on Craigslist. As you can see, he loves it!

He also loves his peas:

laughing with daddy

and he's just an all around happy guy!

Banana yummy!

I just realized that most of my posts' titles end in exclamation points. Normally that would annoy me except that it is so emblematic of life with Zev! There I go again! Okay, I'll try to reserve them for the really momentous occasions, like this one: today Zev ate mashed banana!
Jeff held him on his lap while I pureed a little piece and fed it to him on my index finger. He took every bit of it down and wanted more. After four little fingerfulls we stopped even though he looked like he could've kept eating. We'll keep with bananas for four days to he if he has any allergies and then onto the next food. What will it be? Probably steamed, pureed apples, since it's currently in second place in the poll. Well, see for yourself how adorable Zev looks with banana on his face. Now he's full and napping happily in his crib.

Peppers and toes taste oh so good!

Today mom and I gave Zev a big piece of yellow bell pepper to hold while we were having some lunch. He put it in his mouth and we thought "what's the harm?" We didn't expect him to latch onto it like it was the best thing since breastmilk, but he did! So, I guess you could say his first food was yellow bell pepper. He only sucked the juices out of it but still... After awhile I tried taking it out of his hand but he held on tight and put it back into his mouth! What a cutie. He loves his veggies already! Tonight we might try giving him some mashed banana, since the bell pepper worked out so well. Also today, Zev sucked on his big toe for the first time! I walked into the bathroom while Jeff was changing his diaper and grabbed the camera while melting over his cuteness.

Babbles and Scooches!

Over the past few days we've seen Zev go from ahh, ehh, eee, a-goo, and a few muhmuhmuhs to blaabaablaabaabaablaablaa! He looks very serious as he extrapolates on life in his own words.
This has been a week of milestones. Besides babbling, Zev is scooching and can make a 90 degree turn all by himself! He inches himself forward and around toward the toy he wants. Usually he goes for the chimes on his play mat.

Playin' in the Band

It used to be that while I showered I could put Zev in the crib and there he would happily coo at the mobile animals. Alas, the boy has grown and the urge to roll has overcome him.
Instead of letting him get frustrated with nothing to look at while I get dressed, I put his favorite little guitar in the crib with him. He's learned how to press the buttons all on his own!
The guitar has three songs; my favorite is the country tang one. If any parent has a fussy baby, please give them this guitar! It has saved us from having to leave a restaurant on more than one occasion. Thank you Cindy and Kenny! Although I originally thought it was falsely gratifying (if I press a simple button I can play guitar)...well...I don't care! The simple fact is that this guitar INSTANTLY causes Zev to cease crying in any given situation. I'm actually fond of the tunes it plays too! Not those annoying wannabe classical pieces. The sound is pretty decent. I get to brush my hair and put on deoderant. Now that's good for everyone.