New Year's Eve. 2017.

To celebrate the new year, I made sushi.
It looked so easy when Alton Brown does it- but it's not. My sushi was a little sad.
But hey, new year. new hopes. new cooking adventure. maybe I will master sushi one day.
We did a countdown around 10 because midnight is just not an hour I see a lot of (unless the baby wakes me up).
I wore my shiny gold pants & ignored that I am so very sick.
We had a good night, sparkling grape juice & time with the sillest baby girl.
Happy New Year!

krohn conservatory.

We try to spend some time in Cincinnati every few months. We love to stay at the Marriot (& this time they had newly renovated rooms- sweet!) We had a giant bed and shared a giant pizza for dinner :) The next morning we slept in and Zara was being so sweet. I love this photo of her with her Papa::

 We spent some time at Krohn Conservatory in Eden Park- one of my favorite places in Cincinnati. I used to visit this greenhouse, the art museum and study in the sun sometimes. It is so much better to visit now with my family! They had a line out the door, which was very surprising because we usually never wait in line on Tuesdays. There was a special holiday display, so even with the line- it was even better. There is a massive train display that we loved. Z loved walking around and the independence that gives her..and we love the freak outs when we pick her up. ha. It really was such a fun time! I love my people::

Christmas Time!

Z and I had hot cocoa and cookies at Scarlet's Bakery on Christmas Eve (& brought some to Jonas at work). I found a new dress from one of my favorite boutiques and then we took a nap together. We made the house sparkle. & had such a fun dinner with the sister missionaries from church. We have a Raclette grill which is such a great way to eat. I had it several times when I lived in Germany. You chop up a bunch of fresh veggies, meat and Raclette cheese. It takes a long time for everyone to eat because you create your own dish and wait for it to cook, but that is why it is so awesome! We sang and laughed on our joyous Christmas Eve!
We open gifts Christmas Eve- Jonas gave me the most thoughtful gifts and I loved giving Zara her books we picked out.
I also shared this quote, but wanted to again because reading about the story, The Mansion, really put me in the Christmas spirit::

what is it that counts here?” ::: “Only that which is truly given. … Only that good which is done for the love of doing it. Only those plans in which the welfare of others is the master thought. Only those labors in which the sacrifice is greater than the reward. Only those gifts in which the giver forgets himself.”

On Christmas day we went to church and sang lots of Christmas hymns! It was the foggiest Christmas day I can remember, but it was beautiful to drive through to see our family. Zara had a blast visiting everyone (and their dogs) and opening gifts. When we drove home, we continued a tradition we started last year- to talk about what Christmas means to us.

This is a hard time for Jonas to be away from Germany. I love him for his sacrifice of living in the U.S. We are lucky to have him.

a special night out.

The weather was so strange on our date night. The rain poured the ENTIRE night and we were drenched. It even became a thunderstorm.  It was so much fun though- we took Zara out to eat with us for Indian food. She wasn't very interested but she LOVED her first  mango lassi. I don't blame her. I think we are even going back for more this week :) 

Z couldn't come with us to see The Weepies, of course. 

& that made it possible for me (and everyone else, ha) to focus on a lovely concert.

They are SO great live & they tell funny stories. 

Jonas and I do not have the same taste in music, but we both love The Weepies. 

Their music takes me to this perfect place that I wish life was like all the time.

no stress. no rush.

simple. peaceful.

enjoyment of the little things

& the beautiful people and world we have.

a place where being imperfect is ok.

& you realize that it is wonderful and special and a privilege to be alive!

Z's Twelfth Month!

Happy One Year to Zara Mouse !!
We made it through with our little cutie
& she is something else.
It may have been hard, but we loved this year.
She is like a parade- leaves such a mess, but she's so fun! (regina, anyone?)

Zara saw Dr. Hawley for her well visit. She HATED laying down to be examined like she never has before. oh my word. & when they gave her shots, she screamed like the world was ending.
It's time for her to stop having a bottle and only use sippy cups.
& she can have whole milk now.
She weighs 22 pounds (in the 80th percentile for weight. whoa.)
& she is 29.5 inches tall.
Wearing mostly 6-12 month clothes. Some smaller sizes & some larger sizes work too.
Size 4 diapers.

Z has been paying more attention to books. I love when she brings one to me so she can sit in my lap to read::

Her favorite place to sit and play::

She can demolish an apple. & she HATES when I peel it. I mean, she freaks out. & when I don't peel it, she spits out every little bit of the skin. apples man::

SLEEP:
Zara goes to bed SO late. I am a little embarrassed, so I won't tell you when ;)
Before bed, she does this silly thing where she seems so ready to fall asleep. I take her all the way up to her room and she starts crying so we try again later.  If she is not in daycare and takes one long nap in the middle of the day. Sometimes she breaks it up into two naps.
On daycare days, she wakes up at about 7-7:30 and has a nap there from 12-2 and then an hour nap with me around 4pm.
She wakes us up a few times at night because she lost her paci or needs her blanket. Usually, she wakes up between 4am and 6am for a little bit of milk. I wish this would stop.

EAT::

Zara is an excellent eater. That's really nothing new. We offer her 3 meals/day and snacks. Of course, a lot of times she just plays with her food. She has favorites, such as: toast, toast with avocado, eggs, string cheese, Trader Joe's dried fruit bars and their mini quiches, quesadilla, rice, beans, yogurt, yogurt drops, french fries, baguette, grapes, apples, bananas, blueberries, noodles with pesto or butter or tomato sauce, crackers. & this is bad, but she will not let me have one piece of chocolate from my advent calendar. Time to hide them.
She had the last of the breast milk and this month we supplemented with formula quite a bit. Now, she is allowed to have whole milk instead but we will still keep some formula on hand for a couple more weeks before bedtime. 

Don't put hats on me::

Don't look at me. haha.::

How much longer will I be able to take her out to eat? I hope I always can because it is one of my favorite things to do::

We bought one of these puppies & did not even work. We exchanged the broken dog but the new one fell apart so fast. Now we turn it on sometimes and laugh about how creepy it is.

She holds my hand in the car::

She loves to splash::

We adore the rare times she falls asleep on us::

I am going to make her like kale::

 She hasn't quite mastered the straw. She always sucks up too much water::

NEW:

-Zara can walk! She started to walk earlier in the month but she is doing so well now. She almost has a run going.

-She still loves her paci!

-My favorite change is her understanding what we are saying or asking. I noticed she really picked up a lot more this month. We can ask her to bring specific toys or books to us and she will go into another room and find it and bring it to us. 

 - She has found her pointer finger and loves to point at what she wants or needs or something she finds interesting.

-Z still loves her music- and to sing and dance. Dancing is mostly waving her hands around or bouncing or a head bop. She even goes into this head banging thing.

- She clicks her tongue for dogs and pats her leg or a chair for the cat.

- Z always tries to put her paci in our mouth. It is one of our little games now. She will even try to give it to the cat.

- Z has been congested and sick on and off all month. She had an ear infection about 4 weeks ago but now is constantly congested. We started using a humidifier every night and it has helped so much. Unfortunately, we have to wipe her nose all the time. She has a major problem with that!

- She will hold our hand while she walks. Melt. My. Heart.

-Sometimes she leans against a wall and bangs her head. why oh why?

-Words: Mama, Papa, Mil (for milk) and Hello.

- She shakes her head back and forth and she loves it when we laugh at that!

-The Buddha belly she gets.. it freaks me out!

-She can play all by herself for a while. Sometimes she doesn't even want me to play with her. She can be fine doing her own thing. & then sometimes it's "mom, if you aren't holding me, even if you go to the bathroom, I will scream my head off." yikes.

-Z likes to facetime Papa. So cute.

-Z can fake cry like a champ. 

The reason Mama is scared to put the mirror up::

This is not the best photo of it, but she was doing her funny, scrunched face. It is a hilarious::

Jonas is so happy not to have to hold her up anymore for these photos. I am glad that I won't do these updates anymore- they take forever (still updates, just not this amount of detail)::

Happy 1st Birthday to our favorite girl!

We love you so.