December This N That

Obligatory picture of baby Toriana in the snow ... minus the appropriate clothing, we had a very short introduction followed by a warm-up session in the house. Toriana isn't too enamoured with the snow or with cold-weather clothing. Neither is her mother! Some pics and videos for those who are snow-bound and bored! Or for Nana and Papa who are anxiously hoping the Seattle weather cooperates so that Toriana can come and visit soon... Jonathan turns ONE!!! What fancy cakes he has to celebrate the occasion, thanks to his mama and his grandma from Romania! Gordon lights the candles under Emily's close supervision.The Longs built a great snowman who was even sporting a Husky hat. Ok, so here is a video to show Toriana's trademark scowl ... and then one from the birthday party that was almost snowed out - we're so glad we were able to go - being stuck at home gives us cabin fever! Merry Christmas and Happy New Year, all!

Toriana turns 11 months

"Santa, I already have 2 front teeth ... how about some hair?!"

So yesterday the little missy checked in at 21.2# and 29.5" long - the result of a very active month! She is such a fun little explorer, although still via crawling and cruising rather than walking. That'll come soon enough! She loves to sit in the floor and "read" books - sometimes for 15 minutes at a time ... woohoo, let's hear it for lengthening attention spans!

"Nana" came from VA for a week and we all enjoyed that very much ... although the week disappeared well before all of my projects got completed. Toriana loved playing with Nana ... and with the new Laugh and Learn that Nana got for her (thanks for the heads up, Beth B - it's great!)

It was fun to go to Lisa's shower on Saturday - a cozy home, good company, and some cute kids for Toriana to enjoy ... but the trek home was rather horrid with blinding snow and wind ... I learned again about trust. Toriana slept peacefully in the back, the whole way. Another adult would've been peering out the front window, gasping at times, making judgements about me because of the cars I was passing or the cars passing me, wondering if we should pull off and give up, etc. A contrast from trust, indeed, and a good spiritual parallel.

Toriana's NEW COUSIN arrived on Sunday night in the midst of a Pacific NW storm ... Jakob Scott Zosel, weighing in at 6#6oz and 19.5" long ... we sure look forward to meeting him although it's hard to say just when that will be.

Twas indeed a Happy Thanksgiving in Portland!

Toriana was an only child - all 8 cousins were elsewhere this year - doubt that will happen again! Above, feasting on Thursday afternoon. Below, with grandparents and great grandparents at their hotel... Aunt Mary was also there to help spoil us all! With Aunt Kristin and cousin "Dilbert"!!
Sunday after meeting as we say farewell to this family of two for the last time! We look forward to meeting our nephew next time!
Toriana had already tried turkey, so her new food this holiday was persimmon! She beat me to it by about 30 years, but as is true of nearly all food she encounters, she was happy to eat as much as we offered! We'll be back in a few weeks for a 11 month check-in. Happy December!

Here's a little clip for Nana and Papa

Toriana turns 10 months!

Another month, another inch, another pound ... and 2 more teeth!

And a hometown Husky team that still hasn't gotten a win, a month later. Not that Toriana cares, but some other local Zosel fans have watched many a fruitless game this season ... the optimistic word around here is that WSU may be worse despite their W-L record, so there's hope for an Apple Cup victory!?

Toriana is motoring all over the place ... crawling across the floor to the diaper pail, standing up, pounding on it, sitting down to crawl across to the toy chest, standing up to pound on it and pull everything off the top, sitting down, crawling across to the bookcase ... you get the point! No tower is safe - from across the room, she'll zoom over and knock it down every time! (BTW, I highly recommend the Parents Counting Pals block set from Target for those of you shopping for young babies, 6 mos. and up!) She hasn't starting saying specific words, but she sings, squeals and jabbers all the time. We've lowered our expectations and decided to settle for something like "dada" or "mama" rather than "blueberries" ... (see previous post!)
Here's Toriana shopping for her upcoming birthday present ... !?

Too much happening to keep up with!

Happy Halloween!

Happy Fall Feasting!

So, the blog is getting further behind day by day thanks to my attempt to triple-task rather than just double tasking ... it was Shutterfly and blogging ... and then I gave in and started a Facebook account too. So I am declaring it to be 3rd fiddle to the first 2, but we'll see how it goes.

We had a fantastic trip to CA although I'm not sure we'll do another Friday to Sunday flight anytime soon - lots of hassle for such a short time, when there's a young'un involved! Thanks to all of you down there who loaned equipment, shuttled us around, etc! We enjoyed a warm sunny excursion to the Oakland Zoo and then a nice day of special mtgs on Sunday.

With Tristan ... good luck getting us to sit for a picture, we're outta here!! This week, it was Fri. night pumpkin carving at Brian and Sue's, then a little gathering here today, now getting the house ready for union mtg and a bday party invitation for tomorrow ... wow, no wonder I haven't updated the blog! I love the socializing that comes with dark evenings and fall/winter mindsets! And I'm glad Toriana's so much happier around people now, compared with her first few months. She had a grand time watching all of the goings on and she got fully worn out and has napped for 3 hrs now! (Uh oh for tonight ... !)

Friday night "costumes" for the Z. family

Look who else showed up!!

Saturday pumpkin decorating artists

Toriana models the adorable scarecrow outfit on loan from Piper (also worn by Jacqueline on her first Halloween) I have a bunch more photos that I'll hope to get on Shutterfly next week!

9 Months!

Tomorrow Toriana will celebrate her 9 month birthday. She had her checkup today and was proclaimed healthy, indeed she's "above average" ... on weight, height and head size that is! 20 # 14 oz (85th percentile), 28" (70th) ... no longer content to lay on her back for diaper changes (I've learned to diaper her in 4 point stance now - tricky, but necessary) ... no longer content to crawl around in her crib - because standing is SO much better. Still very happy to ride around on Mommy's left shoulder whenever she gets the chance. And thrilled to sit in Mommy or Daddy's lap to read book after book after book. She's not saying anything specific yet but we're still trying to work on having her first word be "blueberries" ... (no, we don't really expect it, but it's fun to say and makes her giggle!)

We're loving our fall weather - lots of sunny days and fun outdoors adventures including a 1/2 Marathon in Leavenworth (we walked/ran - Trev finished and Jill made it to mile marker 12 ... long story!) And, as you will see in the pictures, there was a fun visit to a pumpkin patch this past Saturday. Up next ... a garage sale, some Grandparent visitors, and a trip to CA for special meeting weekend. Fun!

Oh, did that belong to me??

FACT: babies and toddlers leave behind a "marshmallow trail" most everywhere they go! At Green Lake today, for example, there was an abandoned binkie laying in the gravel path. Then I saw a burp cloth, carefully strung across a branch in case the owner came to reclaim it. Lastly, at the end of my lap, there was an adorable two-toned itty bitty pink leather shoe sitting on the bridge wall, sadly mourning the loss of her partner! I know that we would be happy to reclaim the white sun hat that quietly jumped off of Toriana's head somewhere midway through our Mt Rainier hike last Saturday. Below you'll see her modeling said hat a few weeks back. And then, a few pictures from our marvelous hike! Thanks to Jasmine&Joe and Julie for spearheading the efforts to make this happen - and for selecting a perfect day when admission to the park was free AND the sun shone on our journey! We did the 5 mile trek around the Skyline Trail at Paradise ... a workout but worth it!

Golden Princess tour of Alaska...

Here are a few photos from our cruise ... Seattle to Juneau, Skagway, Tracy Arm Fjord, Ketchikan and Victoria ... back to Seattle. My parents, sister and aunt/uncle went as well. Lots of great scenery, too much food, and oh how nice to vacation with babysitters right next door! With so much time on the ship, Trevan and I were ready to explore away from the cruise crowd, so we found a neat out-of-the-way walk/hike in each port except Ketchikan. Toriana went along for most of them, either in Bob (stroller) or the Moby wrap. She was a good little traveler and we all enjoyed having her along. We saw a bear (yay!), some whales, an otter and quite a few eagles... oh, and thousands of salmon (wishing we had a pole, we sadly watched them swim by!)

Toriana turned 8 months with similar stats to last month (whew! nice to report that she didn't go up 2 more pounds!) She now has 4 teeth and is scooching all over the floor but not officially crawling yet. She has gotten so expressive, especially with her eyebrows and eyes - she has a great look of puzzlement and another of amusement ... so fun! Currently she's giggling because I have a cloth toy bucket on my head as I type (the things we do so that we can buy a little more time at the computer!)

Happy Fall ... I'm sad to see our very short summer disappear, but it'll be nice to cozy in and play games, drink hot cider, and eat pumpkin bread/cake/pancakes again!

Can you guess where we've been?!

And here comes summer!

What lovely summer weather we're having in Seattle now that it's September! Oh well, better late than never! My dahlias finally have a happy abundance of blooms and we may even get more than our current tally of 5 zucchinis for the season now that there's sun! At least the summer water bill was lower than usual...
Toriana's involuntarily braving the painful emergence of 2 more teeth - one has popped, the other is oh so close. We all look forward to putting this round of teething in the rear view mirror!
A few pics from our last weeks.. With blog buddies and distant cousins Marla and Jack at Clare's funeral - she went to our Sun mtg and was 100 years and 17 days older than Toriana! Brian and Kosha visited too briefly. Toriana is going to just skip the car seat and start driving. A trip to Oroville apple country included a visit to Gwyndolyn. And thanks to Jane and Sally for our Green Lake walk and visit - the girls didn't quite know how to play together yet but it was nice to chew on each other's toys at least. More pics forthcoming at Shutterfly ...