Zoe is now a two-time winner on plane trips! This week she took a trip to Washington, DC and had a ball. She did a lot in her five days – met lots of new friends and relatives (including her great-grandmother), was the guest of honor at her baby-naming ceremony, celebrated her first Passover, and saw the cherry blossoms. We thought a pictorial history would be fun:

Nothing like chillin in business class on a long flight –

Common, Georgetown! Watching basketball on Grandpop’s new TV is fun –

A little bonding time with Safta –

Meeting GG-ma (i.e. Great Grandma) for the first time –

Who’s that at the head of the table? Zoe gets to meet the rest of the Browdys –

Zoe meets her third grandma, Dorothy –

Zoe’s all dressed up for her baby-naming ceremony –

At the baby-naming ceremony. Doesn’t she look cute –

Post-naming photo op –

Maybe someday Zoe will get to go to the Alvin Browdy School. (That’s her grandfather – one of the grandparents she’s named after.)

After a big day, it’s always nice to get hugs from Mom –

At night, she got to celebrate her first Passover. Here she is with Grandpops –

Taking in the beautiful spring weather –

Checking out the cherry blossoms in downtown DC –

Hanging with Uncle Gil –

Helping Dad lead the second Passover seder –

OK, who won the Nats game last night? Zoe checks the stats with Grandpops on the last day of her trip –

Finally, Zoe says her good-byes. Here she is snuggling with Dorothy –

Jon Q

We all fly back tonight from DC, but I thought I would give everyone a little taste of the pictures to come. Here are 2 cute ones from the other day. Next post in San Francisco…

Jon Q

We haven’t posted in several days (this is the longest we’ve ever gone without posting, actually!) – and I thought people might wonder why. We’re on a little vacation – in Maryland, with Zoe’s grandparents. We’ve been visiting friends and celebrating Passover, and we’ve been a little too busy to post. We’re coming home soon, though, and we’ll post pictures and updates in a few days.

-M

As Michelle mentioned yesterday, Zoe is in a pretty good routine. At 7am, I run into her room to either wake her up or find her laying there staring up as if she was waiting for me. I usually get a huge smile and a big stretch before picking her up. Next we change her and get on some new clothes. After a 20-min. breakfast, I get her back and it is play time. We usually read and talk and play on the computer for about an hour before mommy needs to go. I put her in her car seat and they rush out the door to drop her off at Elena’s before Michelle’s long drive to Stanford each morning (well, 3 days a week…) Below are some fun shots of our mornings together.

Jon Q

Playing with toys:

Playing on mat:

Reading:

Playing peek-a-boo:

Zoe has always been a good sleeper, so I started to slightly panic last week when her sleep pattern abruptly changed. She suddenly wasn’t interested in being bounced or sung to sleep at  night, and she started to wake up in the middle of the night and cry – something she hadn’t done since she was quite small. It was also taking her up to an hour to get back to sleep after a crying episode, when it used to take her closer to 5 or 10 minutes.

Q and I got our heads together and determined that we needed to be better about keeping her on a schedule. Maintaining her morning and afternoon naps hadn’t been a problem, but we hadn’t been very consistent about bedtime. We decided that we would establish a bedtime ritual; we would feed and read to her at 8 PM every night, with a goal of getting her to sleep (or, at least in her crib) by 8:30 PM. We also decided to be better at letting her cry a bit – with the hope that she would learn to self sooth. (I hate letting her cry, but I know it’s something that has to be done – at least for a few minutes.)

We kicked off the new schedule last Friday night, and I’m happy to report that things have gone swimmingly. She woke up and fussed a bit the first two nights, but ever since she has slept right on through until 7 AM – when we wake her up. Q and I have gotten around 8 hours of sleep every night this week, and I can’t tell you how refreshed that makes us feel!

-M

I’ve never been as proud of Zoe as I was yesterday morning. We had to go to the doctor to get her blood taken (again!), and she barely broke a sweat. As the doctor prepped Zoe and took out her needle, Zoe just held on to my finger and looked up at me with her big blue eyes. She didn’t even cry when the needle went in; she only cried – and for just a few seconds – at the end, when she realized what was going on. The blood-drawing thing has always been fairly awful, but Zoe handled this appointment like an old pro! (And there’s more good news: her platelet count remains nice and high!)

On a different note, now that Zoe is older and more aware of her surroundings, she’s harder to put to bed. When I put her in her crib and try to sing or talk her to sleep, she often just laughs or kicks her legs around. Check out the video, and you’ll see what I mean! (Does this look like the face of someone ready to sleep??)

-M

Zoe has hit an age where she changes a little each day – and it’s amazingly fun to watch the transformation. A lot of the developments are minor; things that perhaps only her parents would notice: like how she’s started to suck in her lower lip, how she opens her mouth REALLY wide right before she’s about to eat, how she doesn’t like being bounced to sleep as much as she used to. Some of the thing are more major: like how she (finally) grabs for and plays with her toys, how she always crams her hands (and toys) in her mouth, how she constantly smiles and laughs (like below). There are times when I wish I could push the “pause” button because everything is happening so fast… But when I remind myself that each day is better than the day before, I realize that the “play” option isn’t so bad, either.

-M

I haven’t blogged about it much, but for 2-3 times/week since the end of Jan., Zoe and I have been going to our work-out (“Stroller Strides”) at the mall. We’ve made a lot of friends, and we’ve actually had a lot of fun getting in shape. (Don’t let the “strides” in the title mislead you. We don’t just walk; these are intense work-outs!) The class, unfortunately, ends this week – so our last day will be tomorrow. It’s good timing, I guess – since I return to a 4-day/work schedule this week, but I know both of us are going to miss our 9 AM work-outs!

In other news, Zoe had a pretty mellow weekend. She did a lot of relaxing, playing and laughing – the latter which she just started to do on a regular basis. She also joined a big group of us (including Davey, who’s just a bit older than Zoe) for some dim sum this afternoon. It was *very* San Francisco of her, and she seemed to like all the food. Especially the sticky buns…

-M

Last month, I commented that Q loved the three-month stage. Turns out he loves the four-month stage, as well! The truth is that every day with Zoe is a little more fun than the day before. She’s at such a happy, fun stage: constantly smiling, laughing and ah-goo’ing. (She coos so much that I call her my little mourning dove.) She is much more interactive than ever before; she makes constant eye contact with us and responds to our comments with her baby babble. She can also do new things – like reach out and really grasp at objects (especially those attached to her little hippo mat) and roll around. She has rolled over from front-to-back a few times, but what she loves to do is roll over on her side (all the time).

Zoe has fallen into somewhat of a routine, which makes our lives easier. When she’s at daycare (which she started three weeks ago), she takes two long naps (one in the morning and one in the afternoon) and eats around 11 AM and 3 PM. She still gets about 12-14 hours of total sleep a day, and her bedtime is about 9PM-7AM. (Note: she’s had a few rough nights lately, but this has been the trend for most of the last month.) She still likes to be rocked or gently bounced to sleep, but – unlike when she was smaller – she often can put herself to sleep without assistance. And when she wakes up in the morning, she tends to chatter instead of cry – and she gives her parents the happiest smile when she sees them. Talk about heart-melting!

Physically, Zoe has also changed a lot. At 14 lbs, 11 oz and 26 inches, she’s a big girl now! She has a lot more (brown) hair, her eyelashes and eyebrows have gotten darker, and her nose has become more defined. Her eyes remain big and grey-blue; looks like I was premature in my earlier statement that they might be changing…  They’re still the same!

It really feels like Zoe is becoming more of her own little person… She’s still a baby for sure, but we are getting (fun, happy) glimpses of what little-girl Zoe is like.

-M

PS – Here is a picture of her from this morning – her 4-month birthday: