Here Comes A New Shelmet

With our membership to the local pool, we do our best to get there as much as time and weather will allow. Zoe loves swimming around by herself in her puddle jumper, kicking around the water. She is not a huge fan of getting her face wet, so when she jumps in to the pool someone has to catch her; however, she is a fan of being thrown in to the air. Here are some pictures of our recent swims. We will definitely keep taking pictures as the summer rolls on. I will do my best to add them all to the Swimming Pictures album on Flickr, so be sure to check that for new shots until the pool closes.

A princess always has to look her best. For Zoe, this meant wearing all of her finery. As a base, she was wearing her Hello Kitty dress. This is a shirt with short, ruffled sleeves, the word CUTE on the top and a hot pink tulle skirt on the bottom. On her feet she is wearing her translucent purple Ariel princess high heels. Around her neck are two plastic bead necklaces, one pink, one purple, as well as a pair of blue and pink plastic binoculars. On her head she is wearing a headband of golden hair, as well as a blue pointed tiara with Elsa featured prominently in the center. In this outfit she stands at the top of the rear staircase of our home asking in her sad voice for me to carry her. Scooping her up in my right arm I explain as we descend that until she is too big or my back finally gives out, I will always carry her. When I place her feet on the kitchen floor with a loud plastic clack I ask her if she will carry me once she is big enough. "Of course!" she replies

This weekend was Mermaid Parade. We don't have many annual events that we go to, but so far this is one of them that we all look forward to. Cheryl and I took Friday off so we could head up to New York the night before, this way it's easier to get to the parade in the morning. The day before we went to Brooklyn Bridge Park, which we went to last year. There are a lot of great places to play and it a really great place to spend the day. Here are some shots of what we did there. There are a couple of areas with sand. One has a couple of fountains while the other has some slides and things to climb on. There is another area that is full of swings, none of which Zoe would go on. Then another area is filled with water that spays, shoots and flows all over the place. In short, there is a lot to do in a small space. After most of the play we walked along the piers to get some dinner. Along the way there were additional playgrounds, some rocks to climb on, some art to look at a

This weekend we had the Millers over for dinner and to hang out. Zoe and G4 stayed at home with the moms while George and I took Jake to the Philadelphia Art Museum to take a look at the arms and armor along with some of the art. When we got back, Zoe and G4 were swimming and having a great time. Cheryl was able to take a few pictures. After the swim I made a couple of pizzas. I was hoping that seeing G4 eat some Zoe would eat some herself, but no such luck. Before they left, we took a few group shots in the house. It was a lot of fun. We can't wait to hang out again. Thanks for a fun Sunday afternoon.

When Zoe went to bed Sunday night, it was early. She hadn't napped that day and sometime between 6:30pm and 6:45pm she passed out on the downstairs couch laying against me. I carried her up to bed assuming that she would be up early for Cheryl, but would otherwise be fine. At 12:45am I sprang out of bed to Zoe's cries of Daddy. She only got out two of them before I was in her room. She was very upset. She told me that there was a lizard on her wall. Trying to make sense of this, I asked her what happened. She pointed to the piggy bank on her dresser and said that it had turned in to a lizard and was climbing on the wall and it scared her. I stayed with her for fifteen minutes or so, long enough for her to pass out in my lap, and then I put her back in her crib. Around 4:15am she called out again, this time much less urgent. She really just wanted to sit with me and eventually asked for a bottle, which I told her she couldn't have because it was the middle of the night.

This morning I took Zoe out for a bike riding adventure so that Cheryl could process all of the strawberries her and Zoe picked in to delicious jam. We didn't leave too early and on the way we stopped by my office to get all of the pennies out of my desk. On the way there Zoe was yawning and saying that she was so sleepy, so she laid down on a couple of sweatshirts for a fraction of a second and then was ready to go. After locking up the bike just outside the museum, we decided to go in rather than feed the geese right away to cool off for a bit. Once we checked in, I let Zoe lead the way. She walked up the stairs to the main, front entrance and it was so crazy to see her clacking up all those stairs one step at a time that I took some video of her going up the next set. She then wanted to sing Twinkle Twinkle on her "stage" which I also recorded. You can see that here. More and more I find myself amazed by the connections her mind makes to different things. Take f