I AM 11 months old Today and Megan is here!

Here is Megan & Zara at the pool today. Megan is Matt's youngest sister and she is visiting for a couple of nights! Tomorrow, we are taking the train down to the Mall for the Folklife Festival!!! Then off to Gymboree gym class; should be fun!

12 days til the cottage in Wales!

we'll be there soon!
Hi Mommy! are you coming to bed too?
making sure our passports are ready! Don't worry Daddy's is all ready too!

we just got a call from Chrissy and Devonte, sorry to say they were not able to make the trip this week to see us and Zara afterall. I told her not to worry, she really felt dissapointed, but we understood. She must be really in need of rest after travelling back from Cuba and her 6months aways from Te, too.

Straight from the good babysitting book

For those of you who need help, here is a video clip from Jocelyn's highly acclaimed "Caring for baby" training video! So pay close attention to such courageous parenting skills....Watch and learn! LOL

We saw a double rainbow!

outside in the sun shower in front of our home

if you ask... "Zara, how big are you?" she always does her "sooo big" gesture

Zara at the pool today, 11 months old!!!!

Yesterday we weighed her and she is 16lbs; or so our digital scale said! I thought she'd be at least two pounds heavier esp. since at her 9 month visit she was 15lbs 4oz! Plus she feels heavier to me-- evidently i have just become increasingly weaker....oh help!

This morning we went to Gymboree music class and then off to the pool in the late evening! Apparently, we have proven ourselves to be just "ladies of leisure".

If you watch the video above at the pool .. try your best to ignor my voice...i sound like a crazy lady! LOL

hahaha xoxoxox j

At Granny Zarr's house

Lots of flowers in granny's Garden... Zara has just learned how to sniff this week; not sure if she actually is smelling things but she certainly enjoys putting her nose onto everything!

We have been going to Granny's daily since Mommy is making/or shall we admit- attempting- to sew a dress for Zara & Mommy in matching Indonesian Batik fabric. For those paying close attention .. yes I KNOW....its been two weeks and counting.. and still no unveiling of the finished products yet!

Daddy's favorite pics!

tired out from beach livin'

snaps from Long Island!!!

Here are the tiskas; after sammy baseball game we went for icecream! Zara was loving Rich as you can see here!

on the steps at their home...Waiting for the Big kids to come home from school each day!
A little beach time before catching the plane home
sammy with Zara after a very yummy italian dinner

Zara loves Oreo cookies thanks to Jen!

We had a fabulous visit with Jen (my Clark University roommate) at her home in Hampton Bays, NY! She has three gorgeous kids, Rowan - in video above, and Sammy and Richard. Jen was feeding the creme of the oreo to Zara; so now no one can make fun of me when i give her icecream! Jen set up a fantastic vacation for us, we stayed in her mother's beach house nearby and she even gave us a truck to drive! What a host! It was so nice all being together and Zara really loved studying all her kiddies and i really think will be crawling soon because of all the action!

Zara's special talent! "playing catch"

Zara playing some new form of catch with Megan!? no idea how she does it! Megan, Tommy and grandma Rock came down to DC and we hit the zoo together!

Zara in the Hamptons visiting the TISKA'S!

here she is flying at the beach

and landing on her parachute poolside at the tiska's, more to come.....

The Rocks at the ZOO!

Here is a shot of Zara, having missed her mouth with a goldfish she was eating, she ended up wearing it! It stuck to her newly sunblock-lathered shoulder! It was too funny so caught it on my cel!
Grandma Rock, Megan, Tommy and Mary Rose and i all took the metro to the Zoo; it was a very hot day. Zara loves her Uncle Tommy- as you can see! We took some video of the zoo, but i still need to upload; needless to say it was quite an adventure and even though it was nearly 90 out, we managed exceedingly well!
Then we went for Paella on the deck at Granny and Grandpa Zarr's! I think we were all beat up.. but... It was a great day and a perfect finish!

At the local icecream shoppe...there is a fun fountain perfect for kids to play in-- so we did!

June 11th 2008, one month til we fly to ENGLAND!

Family Rock all on some form of bike down our street!

Here is Zara at breakfast with me and Mary Rose, since she is very picky, we are often trying lots of new tastes and textures to try out! This mornng we tried out watermelon- not as popular as yogurt but a pretty good option, me thinks! Check her out!

Mary Rose leaves tomorrow, but not before her sister: Megan, brother: Tommy and her Mom come down for the day to go to the National ZOO and see the cathedral! Its going to be a great day!

Zara's day with Mary Rose on the National Mall

except Zara was asleep and missed all the action!

Mary Rose in DC taking Zara to the pool!

After a hard day of swimming, we find that Zara likes to kick back, curl up on her own and read a nice book on the deck.

swimming and playin' with Grandma Rock!

We visited the Rock Family in Hagerstown for Tommy's high school grad Party! Grandma Rock put on quite a feast! We enjoyed ourselves immensely!

Then Mary Rose returned to DC with us to re- live our memories from almost 11 months ago; when she came to DC to help bring Zara home from Kansas!

Here is Grandma Rock with Zara in their beautiful garden!

A lovely day with Zara! hit 90 degrees!

Here I am, at the end of each day on a bike ride with my baby! She loves it and gets to chat with neighbors too!
This morning we went to music class at Gymboree and then stopped into Trader Joe's (an organic market) for "supplies"!
We napped, well she did.... and i did laundry and other fun things; then at four pm rushed off to the pool to play with all her friends! Alicia and Carolyn were there as well as all the kiddies!!! Here is Alicia's ( and Andrew's) daughter, Aranel, pushing Zara about!
Granny Zarr came over too and Zara showed off her kicking skills in the water! She REALLY loves it & looks as though she knows how to swim already!

Biker Baby

Here she is on her first turn, not so sure.. but she warms up on her second pass!

... ( sorry so many videos- but they are only 6 secs long!)

Zara's quick flix

Beautiful weekend in DC

Here we are at the Glen Echo Park Folk Festival, we walked over from Granny and Grandpa's house!

Zara the biker!

After a long laborious search on the internet and comparing and wondering and measuring and stressing...
i finally settle on buying this "I-bert" bike baby carrier. Having never seen one in person before i was worried about what possible things would not be right with it; but it works like a dream!

Matt put it on my bike in seconds-he's so good like that! And Zara pounced in for a quickie test drive around the block. (Yes, i know the helmut needs some adjusting, but we couldn't resist one little ride right away!)


Exhilarated after her ride!

First Day of JUNE! Soccer Sunday!

Zara rode with me on the scooter to my soccer game... naaa just teasing, she drove with Matt! We tied, but it felt like a win- since the opposing squad were all in college and i think each player on my whole team is at least 35!!! well; that is an exageration- but since i'm almost 40; it feels like it!

This Winnie the Pooh cool new ride for Zara was given to her by MISSY! As evident, zara is infatuated with it and rocks on it when it play music! Missy is my girlfriend from highschool and for those who don't know is in the middle of the amazing journey to adopt her daughter from Ethiopia! Her blog is incredible and we JUST can't wait to welcome her Daughter (or daughters!!!) to her forever home! this is missy's blog:

http://ethiopianchronicles.blogspot.com