Zahra is 7 months old today!

Zahra's favorite toy to stand up and play with-she loves standing and holding onto it so much we can't get her to sit down to play with it...she locks her legs and gets all stiff.

Not crawling yet but getting close.

Wow! 7 months ago my baby girl was born! Where does time go? We had a wonderful day playing with the Luckinbills and Susie then we enjoyed a nice walk outside.

Jonah and Z playing together....Nora had fun reading Zahra's books and riding the horse. She was so cute with her little voice talking so much. What a sweetie she is!!

My silly girl! I was cleaning up for the evening when I turned around and saw Zahra laughing and enjoying the simple things in life.

Can't wait for this fellowship to be over!!
Anil is back in the Medical ICU (aka: working 80 hrs/week) so tonight he got home at 8pm- ran upstairs quick to say goodnight to Z- I had just put her down. Now he won't be home for another 30+ hours because he does in house call every 4th day. So in the last 2 1/2 days he has seen Z for 30 seconds. I think we might go and try to visit him in the hospital Saturday for lunch- we miss him!

March 1st..ahh

We are so excited that March is here! Here we are going for a walk in Z's wagon. She had so much fun sitting up in it and looking all around...especially at the trees!

January & February...getting caught up on the year!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Celebrating the New Year with some of our dearest friends; The Youngs, Brands, Anna, and Beka.

The highlight of the night was shooting off fireworks in our backyard. We didn't know what each firework exactly did and the first one that Anna shot off looked harmless well it ended up shooting 50 feet in the air!

Zahra learned how to sit up a week shy of 5 months. What a whole new world for her!

Zahra trying her first bite of 'real' food. We introduced rice cereal on Christmas which she liked okay but sweet potatoes put a huge smile on her face. Probably to this day her favorite food.

My beautiful baby girl is growing so fast!

Not much to do in Minnesota in January except our favorite thing: hang out with friends!!

Zahra & Lily (3months)

Zahra & Audrey (8months)

Zahra, Brayden (6 months), & Loretta (9months)

Zahra, Jonah, & Micah (7 months)

Zahra's first trip to Racine

Grandpa Patel & Cousin Akhil

Cousin Mishali

Zahra did okay on here first road trip. We left Friday evening during her awake time which was our main mistake. She was happy in her car seat for the first hour but toward an hour and a half she wanted out! So after about 25 minutes of crying we made it to the Dells and stopped to eat. By the time we finished it was Zahra's bedtime so she slept the rest of the way. We had planned to leave Sunday during the day but after Friday evenings incident we decided to leave Saturday night at Zahra's bedtime and that worked out much better- she slept the entire drive!

Trying out the mesh feeder with banana's- Z loves it!

Zahra's & Audrey's first time swimming. They did really good. No crying and we even dunked them a couple times. I can really tell that Zahra is going to love water.

Oma's visit!
So Z's Oma (my Mom) was here for a week at the end of Jan.

Bedtime stories with Oma

We have a very consistent routine for bedtime...one of which includes 3 stories: B is for Bear, 365 day bible stories, and At the Zoo. We get these books out and she gets a huge smile on her face.
Zahra was sick for most of Oma's visit...she had a high fever for 3 nights...2 of those night she was up from midnight to 2am... that is a very bad night for us. Usually Z sleeps from She didn't have any other symptoms. A week later she got her first tooth...concidence- Mayo Clinic would say so.

Starting to feel like herself again. Swimming at the Y with Oma.

Zahra is a such a good sleeper and travelor in the car. Sleeping with Sophie the giraffe- her favorite toy to chew on- after dropping Oma off at the airport.

Just when you thought she couldn't get any cuter!
SHE DOES!!

6 Months old!

Feeling a bit under the weather here....popped a tooth the day before and working on another one that day!

Zahra's 6 month photo shoot

Since Zahra was a couple weeks old she has always loved to rub her hair and suck her 2 fingers

So sweet!

Zahra and Loretta had a sleepover on Z's half birthday.

look really closely...she's got 2 teeth!

She got on all fours with Dads help... a couple weeks later I watched her do it herself. Before we know it she will be crawling all over the place. I had Anil put up a baby gate already!

Hanging out at home!

Zahra got her ears pierced!!!!!

I was really nervous about inflicting pain on my baby girl for cute little ears...but luckily she did so good! She whimpered for maybe 15 seconds after each ear and since then (knock on wood) we haven't had any problems with them. Granted I thoroughly clean them four times a day :)