Happy Birthday, Zephyr!

| August 22, 2010

Today is our little girl Zephyr’s 12th birthday. I can’t even believe it.  In so many ways she seems like a little kitten.  I still remember the day we brought her home.

Like every year since she was one year old, I have baked her an angel food cake for her birthday.  She actually likes angel food cake, so it has become a real tradition.  This was the first year that Sam was able to come as Zephyr’s guest, so it was an extra special birthday celebration.  Sam’s present to her was that she tried to not chase Zephyr or touch her food.  It didn’t go so well, but I think Sam tried.

Here are the party pictures.

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Happy, happy birthday, Zephyr!  You have brought us more joy than we ever would have thought possible.  We are lucky to have you.  We love you, little StripeyPants!

Up, up and away!

| August 22, 2010

Since Sam started climbing stairs this weekend, we thought we’d let her try in our house to see how well she did without the carpet.  As you can see, she did great!  Of course, she needed some incentive to start moving, so Mark left his camera strap on one of the higher stairs. Sam has this crazy obsession with straps of all kinds, so off she went!

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I think this one is so cute because her hand is up so you can actually see that she is climbing.

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I was so nervous I was right behind her the whole time after she got more than a few steps up.  She gets tired and stops and tries to sit down and half the time her butt is hanging off the step.  She hasn’t quite learned yet that she could go tumbling backwards.  How to teach her that, I have no idea, but I can see that soon I am going to have to help her learn to come back down.  While we were at the shore, I helped Maddox learn, so it’s Samantha’s turn.

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This one is cute because you can see Zephyr at the bottom of the steps watching Sam (and you can also see the treasured strap).

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I can’t believe how well she climbs and how quickly she is doing it now.  A few days ago, she had no idea how to climb one stair and now she is up like a flash.  I keep thinking one day Sam is going to start walking and I will just be shocked when it happens.  I am so proud of all of her accomplishments, but at the same time, I wish she wasn’t growing up so fast.  I really enjoy getting to know her personality (and boy, she really has her own personality), but I do miss the days when she was a helpless little bundle who loved nothing more than lying in my arms staring at my face.  Now she is so excited about moving and crawling and climbing and standing that she is so wiggly it is hard to hold onto her.  But that’s ok.  I know that every new thing she accomplishes is a positive thing because it means she is healthy and strong and developing just the way she should, and there is nothing better than that.

Tyler Arboretum

| August 22, 2010

This weekend was a very busy one, but a lot of fun.  Mark’s co-worker, and our dear friend, Teresa, was here from the U.K. working and she spent the weekend with us.  One of the many places we went was the Tyler Arboretum.  It is one of our favorite places and we thought Teresa might like it.   One of our first stops was the butterfly house which Tyler has every summer.  We actually visited it earlier this summer, but since the butterfly house had just opened, there weren’t all that many to look at.  There were certainly a lot now!  They were flitting right by your face and were all over the many bushes and plants inside. Sam loved them!  She was so fascinated by these delicate little bugs.

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Some plants were just covered in butterflies.  It makes me want to plant a butterfly garden at home.

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One of the biggest things I tried to teach Sam was to look, and not touch.

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After we left the butterflies, we went to the pond.  Turtles!  This little guy came swimming right over. It was like he came to say “hi”. 🙂

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Teresa took this picture of us on the observation deck in the meadow.

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Our last stop there was the fragrant garden.  As you are encouraged to stop and feel and rub the various plants there to release their scents, we thought it was the perfect place for Samantha to explore.  Here she is checking out all the plants she could get her hands on.  She is so cute to watch doing things like this.  She loves to feel new textures and sensations, but she touches everything she explores so gently, so delicately.  She is such a sweet little girl.

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One last pic, and NOT of Tyler, that’s for sure. We also took Teresa to the pool this weekend.  I thought I’d share this one last picture of us having fun.  By the end of the weekend, Sam was quite enamored of Teresa (and her iPhone…).  I think Sam has a life-long friend across the pond. 🙂

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