We have been in Rochester, Minnesota a year! I can't believe it- we have another year to go and then we are outta here! I am excited about that but I also think when our last year is up I'm going to be sad about leaving new friends that I have made here. We are still not sure where we are going to end up but hopefully in the next couple months we will have a better idea. Anil had his first interview in the Twin Cities today. He will probably have a couple more up there then we will do a couple in Idaho. I am soo ready to settle down somewhere, buy a house, and just have us be done with school/training. Anil and I have been together 6 years and during those years one of us have always been in school/training.

This week poor Zahra has been a teething monster. She is getting 3 teethers all at once. The past couple days she has had a runny nose and a fever. Luckily, her sleeping has been unaffected from her teething but you can just tell she is miserable. She hasn't been eating 'food' very good at all but has been eating everything else. Let's see yesterday she ate: grass, dandelion, woodchips, dirt from my plant. I put on my fb status that I think she is suffering from pica- hehe. The thing is that she just doesn't taste it..she actually eats it and will continue to until I stop her. Last night I was upstairs and Anil was kinda watching her. So I kept looking down from our balcony to make sure she was okay. Well I was looking over at her and she was shoveling dirt into her mouth from our one plant that she can get to. I had to run downstairs to stop her...I might have to put the plant out of her reach for a while until she is out of this stage.

Today was 'our' Amy's last day with Zahra. I feel so incredibly sad about this. Amy has been with us for 7 months and is seriously the best nanny EVER! I already feel sorry for our next nanny...when she was over a few weeks ago- I found myself saying...and Amy does this...Amy does that.... BUT there still maybe a possibility of Amy coming back- fingers crossed for us but for her sake I hope she can do her internship which is best for her career.

Zahra & Amy

I've been meaning to document Z's schedule on here so I can remember when she was doing what.
So anyway we are on a 4 hour schedule right now- and we have been on this schedule for almost 5 months. This is what our typical day looks like:

8am: wake up time
milk & breakfast
20-30 min of independent pak n play time
playtime with Mommy

9:30-Noon: Naptime

Noon: Wake Up
milk, and lunch
playtime

2pm-4pm: Naptime

4pm: Wake up
milk & dinner
playtime

8pm: Milk, bedtime stories & prayer
Sleep 12 hours

We have been doing the sleep, eat, wake schedule (babywise) with Zahra since she was born. It has been the best thing I could have ever done with her. I absolutely love it! It wasn't always easy but it definitely paid off. Zahra has always slept in her crib and I have always laid her down while she is still awake since the night she came home from the hospital. She first slept thru the night at 7 weeks and by 9 weeks she was consistently sleeping thru every night. Since then she has had 5 bad nights. Those have been when she was sick with H1N1 and when she got her first tooth. I get so many comments on how she is such a happy content little one- I really believe it is because of babywise!

May is here!!

Summer is almost here although it may not feel like it here in MN this week- I know its right around the corner and that makes me very very happy!

Happy Birthday Jonah & Micah!! We had a fun celebrating with them.

9 Months Old!!

I'm a little worried about Zahra's little tongue. I would say its hanging out about 75% of the time she is awake. Now that she has teeth I'm afraid she going to bite it bad one of these times.

Zahra has her eye on something in the toy box...

going for it...

I have found her many times with her leaning on this with her feet straight up. It is so funny!

Once again the tongue...

I got this xylophone for Z at a rummage sale for .25 cents! She absolutely loves it- by far her new favorite toy. She played with it for an hour straight here! When it was time to take a nap I picked her up and left the toy- Wow was she upset.

Best .25 cents I ever spent!

Happy Mothers Day to me :)

Well it is my 1st official Mother's Day today!! I had to work all weekend- 7am to 7pm- but Zahra came to see me at work- which was a huge treat. On Saturday Amy (our Nanny) was watching Z while we were working, she had Z make me pictures with these finger paints she bought her. One had a poem on it with Z's little hand print (see pic). It was the sweetest thing ever!! This week sometime Anil is going to take me to get my Mother's Day gift..hmm not sure what I'm going to get yet, have a few things in mind.

Happy Mothers Day to our Moms! 

We truly appreciate everything you have done and sacrificed for us. We love you very much!

Our trip to California!

Zahra and I spent 5 days in sunny California. Our days were spent visting family mostly and going to the beach. Zahra did so great! The flights went very well- Zahra slept alot on the flights but was abit loud for a while on our way to CA. She was talking up a storm-screaming at times..she would get someone to look at her then give them a huge smile. She did this on the way home too- she really wanted to make people smile. It was really cute. Thank goodness we had an empty seat next to us both ways- I'm glad I didn't buy Z her own seat! Sleeping was right on track too! Eating was probably the best it has ever been- we would go out to eat and she would sit in her high chair and eat finger foods the entire time we were at the restaurant. I think she gained at least a pound!! Overall she was her normal happy self--not only was her routine abit off but she was even teething during it all. Okay I am done bragging now- I was just so proud of her- typical Mom I guess :)

I know this is picture overload but I couldn't narrow it down anymore then I did.

I love how Blake has his hands so properly placed on this picture.

We had a nice meal Saturday with everyone. Zahra went to everyone great...thankfully she hasn't gone thru stranger anxiety yet.

The Beach!

yay she's starting to get some rolls!!!

Hanging out with her Oma

Seriously the girl couldn't get enough sand!

She probably saw a seagull here- she loved watching them fly all around.

Blake is one of the most photogenic toddlers-ever! What a cutie pie!!

flying like a bird!

So we had a lot of fun at the beach. We went to Laguna first so Keziah & Em could check out some tide pools. On our walk down there I saw some dolphins. Then we went over to Hunington. Z's favorite 2 things at the beach were the seagulls and the yummy sand!

Blake being a sweetie! Zahra being crazy!!

Splish splash!!

Zahra loves her Auntie Jen!

and her Great Grandma!!

Wow is it hard to get pictures of these 2 looking at the camera!

Hmm do we have a future piano player here? She looks like a natural.

4 Generations!

Grandpa with his great grandchildren

Zahra liked listening to him sing to her

As you can see Keziah is now taller then me *sniff, sniff. Emily has a little ways to go yet! Trying to get Z to smile- she is the most ticklish person I have ever met!!

The sweetest girl in my world! I thank God everyday for her! Love you baby Z don't ever forget it!!

Hanging out with friends in Rochester!

It was a beautiful week here in Minnesota. I love this time of year- you really do appeciate nice weather so much more when your stuck indoors for 4+months because its so feakin cold out. I was off all week so we hung out with some friends here in Roch. I am very thankful that we have found some really nice people...Mayo Fellow Association has really helped connect us with other families and activities.   

Here's Will & Zahra at Oxbow Zoo. I love this picture of them looking at each other!

The bear wanted to get in the picture too. Hehe!

Zahra being goofy

Hanging out with Drew. They are just about the same age.

I managed to get a couple pictures of the girls before Zahra was outta there. I love this picture of Drew..she's such a little cutie!

Gavin and Zahra are also about the same age.  

 Z got her first hickey....it was hilarous! All of a sudden I look over and I see Gavin sucking on Z's cheek and I mean he was suctioned on there. There was a little red mark where his little mouth was- Haha!

Z is changing so fast! This week I felt like she is understanding us more and more. I love it!

Dancing...well kind of.

She know's what Dada means!

Shout out to Vero for helping me get my pictures bigger!

Weekend in the Cities!

We had a fun weekend in the cities. We grilled out with the Youngs & Clements and then had a fun game night. Zahra and Lulu had fun playing together it was the first time that they really interacted with eachother. It was so cute:

Then today we went to the zoo it was a beautiful gorgeous day out. 70 & Sunny! Kristin, Nora, Micah, and Jonah went with us. Zahra did really great!

Micah waving. Jonah out!

Zahra checking out the cows!

Happy Easter!

We unfortunately didn't get to celebrate Easter this year. Diana worked the entire weekend so Zahra and Anil hung out at home. Zahra was recovering from an illness anyway. So we did a few pictures of Z in her Easter dress the day after Easter.

8 Months Old!!

Wow this was the most challenging monthly photo shoot ever! Probably didn't help that she wasn't feeling the greatest and that she just woke up from a nap so all she wanted to do was crawl around and play, play, and play some more!

Some more crawling videos: