Here Comes A New Shelmet

This Memorial Day we made our way up to my parent's house for some burgers and hot dogs and a good deal of pool sitting. Both of my brothers and their pregnant wives we in attendance, so it was nice to see the whole family all together. Any day now Zoe should have a new cousin. Cheryl was out shopping and just couldn't help herself. She bought Zoe an itsy bitsy, teeny weeny yellow polka dot bikini that... you guessed it... she wore for the first time that day. I'll let the pictures say the rest. After hanging out in the pool, we went inside to dry off. Joe Pop wanted a picture showing off where Zoe gets her pretty eye color from, so he made sure he put his best face on. You can find all of these, and more, in Zoe's set on Flickr. Be sure to check out her 2 month picture with updated stats!

It feels like Summer has come early as the temperature has steadily climbed over the past couple of weeks. That hasn't bothered Zoe, as she still just like to relax on her changing table regularly. This time in her homemade Crabby Business onesie. Unlike my daughter, I do not do so well in the heat. The other day it got so hot that I needed to take a nap on the couch. Zoe decided to join me. On Saturday we went out to brunch with Lane and Lauren in Northern Liberties. Zoe was very good as she slept through the entire meal. Afterwards, we all went over to Fortune's house to sit outside and enjoy the nice (hot) weather. Zoe got to hang out with Lane, Lauren and Carly, along with everyone else. As time went on, she just passed out in the middle of everyone. She's always the life of the party. Needless to say when we got home, the air conditioners were installed immediately. Everyone has been much happier, and cooler, ever since.

10 weeks ago today Zoe was born. It's hard to believe that so much time has gone by already. Thinking about it, how it has been a while, but not really that long, it seems like a blur, but as I sit here working on her baby book, trying to decide which of daddy's memories to share, things are coming back. Like how the first movie Zoe and I watched together was Die Hard, which may have been highly inappropriate, but it was edited for TV and she slept though most of it. Then there was the time I was changing her in the hospital with the assistance of Becky (Aunt Viento) and Zoe pooped on me for the first time. Ahhh, memories. Anyway, this past Sunday we went into New Hope to meet Orly and Anton. It seemed like a great idea at the time; however, it quickly dawned on us that on Sunday, New Hope is a crowded place and probably not the best place to bring a newborn. Regardless, we still had a great time. Zoe got to sit with her dad in the shade as well as droll profusely all over ...

As I sit here typing this there is less than an hour left of alone time with Zoe before her and I will head out to meet Cheryl for the walk back home. This week has been great. Zoe has definitely gotten much bigger and better at doing things. For example, for the past two days I have been carrying her around in her Baby Bjorn and he seems to really enjoy it. I know this because she has passed out in it every time. My best friend flew in on Wednesday night from Seattle to hang out with Zoe and me for the week. On Thursday, after just meeting her for the first time, he gave her a bottle and burped her. Then, today, both John and George stopped by for breakfast. It was a very nice visit. John has a daughter named Annabelle who is 9 months old and George's son is due to be born in July. We make quite a trio of fathers. Since Cheryl has been working all week, and I wanted to make sure that she could see her daughter and I were getting along just fine, I took a number of pictures...

Yesterday was Mother's Day, and even though I didn't get any pictures while we were out, I had taken some the night before. Also, on Saturday morning I took a number of pictures of Zoe just lying in our bed. You can see a few of them here, but all of them are in Zoe's set on Flickr. So today marks the first day in a two week stretch where Zoe and I will be home alone while Cheryl goes back to work. Since I got to be the boss (kind of) today, at the very least I was able to dress our daughter for the day's activities. We had a great time hanging out on her changing table while I read her a couple of books. She seemed to like Where the Wild Things Are more than Olivia, but probably only because the pictures are larger. After that, she was sort of awake, kind of napping and ate a little bit while I had a virtual book club meeting with a couple of friends. She really seemed to like looking at George and his beard on the computer. He got a couple of smiles out of...

So today was Mother's Day, which was Cheryl's first. She only asked for two things: 1) To sleep in. 2) Breakfast. She got up early to bring Zoe to bed, but after that I did my best to keep Zoe comfortable so we could both rest. Once she was hungry, I got up and made us both banana and chocolate chip pancakes. All in all, a good start to the day. After that, we packed up the family and made our way down to Penns Landing to take a look around the Art Star Craft Bazaar . There were a ton of vendors with all sorts of great prints, shirts, nick nacks and everything in between. The weather was great and Zoe was very cooperative as she slept the entire time, including lunch at the Khyber Pass Pub and the trip home. The day before we took Zoe to her first roller derby bout. She seemed to be fine for a little while, but I guess all the noise got to her so we decided to leave. Before we went home we took a walk around the new fields that the University of Pennsylvania put up rig...

I heard from a colleague last week that just north of Penns Landing the city had opened up Race Street Pier. It is a really nice two level pier with a number of benches, some stadium style seating near the water and a little grassy area that will be perfect for a future picnic. Since the weather was really nice on Sunday, we decided to take a trip down there and check it out. We didn't stick around long, but we had a great time. Don't forget, you can check out Zoe's set on Flickr to see these and all other pictures. As I count down the days until Zoe and I get to spend two weeks at home, and we get constant phone calls from mom to make sure we're all right, I'm really looking forward to Cheryl's first Mother's Day. She said all she needs is a simple breakfast and to sleep in. I'll work with Zoe and see if we can't make it a little more special.

So last Saturday, April 28th, we had decided to head up to Fishtown for Shad Fest. Before we went out, Zoe was happy to just lay in my lap, so I took a few pictures. Afterwards, we had a lovely breakfast prepared lovingly by Cheryl. The weather was a bit cold, but at least it didn't rain. There were some vendors, live music and a lot of good friends. Sadly, Zoe slept through the whole thing and we didn't get any pictures. On Tuesday I took the day off from work and the three of us went down to the Franklin Institute. I'm not sure that Zoe got much out of the trip, but we had a good time while we were there. After we left the institute, we walked down the the art museum and back to enjoy the excellent weather. Finally, as everyone knows, today was Free Comic Book Day. With that, I made sure to bring Zoe to our favorite, local comic shop to take part. I needed to make sure everyone knew she was excited, so I put on her Wonder Woman bib. She's my little supe...