Christmas 2010

The Juliano-Zibel family had a great, quiet, cozy Christmas weekend at home. On Christmas Eve, we took Benjamin to see the train exhibit at the U.S. Botanic Gardens before having some friends over for dinner. On Christmas Day, Benjamin spent the day opening presents and making coffee in his new kitchen. His parents did a little cooking in the real kitchen for our neighbors who came over for dinner with Benjamin's little (girl)friend, Lizzie. See pics below.

Christmas 2010

A Weekend of Firsts

Benjamin had quite a weekend to celebrate his first year of life!

On Friday (his actual birthday) we celebrated, just the three of us, by going to the park after school and then having dinner at the brand new Ted's Bulletin restaurant.

Saturday morning Benjamin had his first cup of real milk without any complaint (fingers crossed that drinking milk sans bottle continues to be easy).

Later on Saturday, we had a BBQ with some of Benjamin's little friends, but mostly with our grown up friends that we hadn't seen in awhile. A good time was had by all - including two other firsts: Benjamin's first hot dog (Hebrew National All Beef) and his first piece of cake (with the slight exception of a bite from Ezra's birthday cake last week).

Pictures from the weekend are below with a few more likely to come after our Mothers Day spent at Nats Park. We're also hoping to post a video of Benj with his cake.

B's First Birthday (& Weekend Festivities)

Big Boy!

So Benjamin's teacher, Ms. Helena, kept telling us that she sits him at the table at school, rather than in a highchair, to eat his meals (the little babies use the highchairs!), and we were skeptical. So, she caught it on film (well, digitally, but you get the idea). The picture is below.




Benjamin also met his little cousin, TJ, this past weekend in NY. He's pretty cute, and we hope to post pictures of the two boys together soon (we actually went somewhere without our own camera, so we need to get our hands on the pics!).

Bagels, Bread, and Beef!

Below are some pictures from the last 2 weeks.

Benjamin has discovered bagels, Dan made a gorgeous loaf of bread (challah), and just tonight, Benj tried beef. The (not so) little one is trying his hardest to eat any and all "table" food - whatever he can do with his 2 3/4 teeth (in addition to the bottom 2 - has about 1/2 of his top left and 1/4 of his top right coming through). He's now tried chicken, beef, and cheese, and is all about bread and yogurt too.

Last week we had his 9 month check up - his rate of growth is slowing (21 lbs. 4 oz., "just" the 50th percentile), while his height continues to mystify us (30 inches tall - nearly half way to Chrissie's height - which is the 90th percentile).

Finally, in the pictures below, you'll also see Benjamin finger painting this afternoon with Dan.

Enjoy!

Misc. Late Feb

Thanksgiving Weekend

The Benj-man doesn't eat turkey yet so his first Thanksgiving involved a lot of turkey bibs, cute outfits, and attention from his grandparents, aunts, and various others. It also included his first Long Island Rail Road (LIRR) ride into NYC to see his (and Dan's) first Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade. We didn't see a lot of the parade, but SpongeBob SquarePants was a big hit ;)

Thanksgiving 2009

One Tooth is for Babies

But TWO teeth are for big boys! Just minutes after Chrissie told Dan "I think he's cutting another tooth," Dan saw it while getting Benj ready for bed (yes, Dan has now found both teeth, but Chrissie's not jealous, not at all!). Also on the bottom, also in the middle. Guess the first tooth was just lonely.

Zibel Boy Cuts a Tooth!

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact: Chrissie or Dan

(November 18, 2009, Washington, D.C.) - Benjamin woke up with his first tooth today! His parents, Dan and Chrissie, report that the tooth cut through the gums at some point between 7:30 pm on November 17th and 6:30 am on November 18th. Given the boy woke up with a start at 11:30 pm last evening and 12:30 am this morning (going back to sleep on his own, much to his parents glee), they further suspect that the tooth officially came in in the vicinity of those times. The boy is doing fine without tylenol, though is not so in to showing the tooth, so pictures will follow at some point.

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UPDATE: Dan has confirmed the location of the tooth - bottom left (our right) middle tooth.

A New Seat!

As Benji has become quite the foodie of late (bananas, carrots, sweet potatoes, squash, & peas) -- we knew we had to up the ante on his eating arrangement. Luckily, we were ready to go with Benji's new highchair. He's quite the fan!

Benji tries the high chair!

Dinner Time

Benji has become quite the little eater!

Dinner Time! from Dan Zibel on Vimeo.

Apples!

On Sunday, we ventured out to Markham, Virginia to go apple picking at Stribling Orchard. It was a beautiful fall day. The pictures speak for themselves.

There's also one shot at the end to show you all how well Benji boy is sitting these days. In other news, he's now enjoying oatmeal, sweet potatoes, squash, bananas, and this weekend's new edition - carrots. Some green veggies will follow before introducing more fruit (despite the influx of apples in our house!).

Link to pics:

Apple Picking

Long Overdue Pics

Below is an album of assorted pictures from the last couple of weeks. There are a couple from Benjamin's first taste of cereal 3 weeks ago, some from his first taste of sweet potato, and then finally, from this weekend, spent with Grammy Carol and Grandpa Jack. Enjoy!

September Pics of Benjamin

We've Been Remiss

We're sorry - we've left our adoring fans (ok, really, Benji's adoring fans) hanging with little to no information or pictures. We promise that we will share some new pics soon (truth be told, we haven't really taken any recently...), but we did want to update you on the little guy's progress.

We started Benjamin on "solids" nearly 3 weeks ago, and just this week, we are starting to make some progress. Benjamin eats rice cereal twice a day at school (the teachers think he wants to eat because he sees his friends doing so, we're not so sure) and has been experimenting with fruits and vegetables at home for dinner. Last night he ate half a banana and a cube of pureed sweet potato with no fuss. He swallowed it without the aid of a pacifier or a bottle - previously we've had to help him with the concept by giving him something to suck on.

Later this week we plan to introduce oatmeal and butternut squash.

And really, we promise to give you some pics soon!

Report from Benjamin's 4 Month Check Up

We can't believe it's been 4 months since Benji was born, but alas that's what the calendar says. He had his check up today and, well, he's grown... a bit...

He is now 25 1/2 inches long (+2 1/4 since 2 month check up) and weighs in at 15 lbs. 14 oz. Yes, you read that correctly, he weighs nearly 16 pounds and has gained 3+ lbs. over the two months (remember when he couldn't gain weight!?). He is in the 75th percentile for both height and weight, so now he's officially an overachiever (which his Daddy always knew he would be).

We also got the go ahead to start introducing solids so look for some cute (read: really messy) feeding pictures soon. Rice cereal is first on the agenda, followed by some other cereals, then veggies, and then fruits. Mom and Dad plan on figuring out how the heck to make "baby food" this weekend so that Benji can enjoy the produce we're getting from our CSA in the weeks to come.

As always, stay tuned.

Two New Skills

So Benji is getting a lot better at just "being," when not sleeping or eating (on most days, at least). Here's a little video of him on his play mat. If you watch all the way to the end you'll see what other skill he's gotten really good at too.

Out and About

Benji spent the end of last week with various grand-parental units. He took his first ride in his new wheels, visited his first new york-style pizzeria, and accompanied friends Mac and Ollie to Stanton Park (ok, really he watched them play on the see-saw, but his eyes might have been closed too...).

All this activity has left Benji a little light in the belly, but his parents have him on a rigorous feeding schedule that barely leaves them time to eat!

To see the pics of all this fun, click below:

Benji Meets the Fam and Starts to Explore the World

All Work and No Play?

Ok, so we keep listing all the stuff we're getting done around the house in preparation for the babe. It turns out we've been taking some time here and there for ourselves and our friends too!

Yesterday, Saturday, we took a quick day trip to go visit Chris, Ashley, Alanna, and Carter. We bummed around in the beautiful weather, ate some food, and then headed home. It was great to see them. The pictures below will be particular exciting for those of you who want to look at Chrissie's belly. While she is totally convinced that the camera adds MORE than 10 pounds, Dan thinks they are pretty accurate (which was a wee bit depressing to Chrissie). Click on the one photo below to link to the album in picassa.

Visiting Chris/Ash and the babes

We also need to post one special pic here, with a shout out to Ashley, for finding to the time to make Baby Z an awesome quilt. The picture does not do it justice, but there's little monkeys and bananas on it :-)





The first week in April (which yes, seems like a really long time ago) Adam, Merri, and Halsey came to visit. We spent Saturday walking around with the masses at the Cherry Blossom Festival. Then, on Sunday, Dan had a great time at the park after we had a fantabulous brunch at Matchbox. Click on the pic below to view the album.

Adam, Merri, and Halsey Visit - Cherry Blossoms Galore

Brunch for the Babe (Well, His Parents)

We had a small brunch with a few of our closest friends last weekend to celebrate the impending birth of the little guy. It was co-ed in nature, but we're pretty sure the guys had a good time anyway, and their presence assured that no "shower games" would be played. It was a good opportunity to see our friends and help the babe get some "necessities" for life outside the womb. Courtney and Grady came in from Michigan (and Travis was missed by all), so between him and the other 5 kids in our living room, we were able to see what we were in for at all different stages....

Here are some pics of the kids:

D.C. Shower - Kids

Pics of the rest of the brunch to come later in the week.

Coming soon: an update on all our house projects.

Oliver & Alanna Got Hitched!

So we spent last weekend in not-so-sunny or warm northern California. The wedding was in Santa Cruz on Sunday. We then spent Monday day/night in San Francisco, having fabulous dim sum for dinner and finally seeing the movie, Frost/Nixon - the combination of the two made for a great date night. We highly recommend the movie and the dim sum.

But I digress... we were there for Oliver and Alanna's wedding, which was a lot of fun. Most importantly, they had a blast. They also made it into the NYT's wedding announcements. See some pics below.

(2009) Oliver & Alanna's wedding weekend

Back to life, back to reality this weekend where we have made real progress on getting the babe's room in order. We have sold our futon and are zeroing in on paint colors and the like. Stay tuned for an update soon.

Beach Weekend Part II

This past weekend (and Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday), we were in New York for Carol's (Chrissie's mom) 60th birthday. We had fabulous weather for all but one day out in Southold, which as you can see from the map is on the north fork of Long Island (the tab on the map is where we stayed).


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To celebrate the big 60, we had an excellent meal at the North Fork Table and Inn. The food was out of this world, as was the dessert. Below are the pictures we took before and at dinner.







We also toured some Long Island wineries (which are not as bad as you may think) and did a nice little kayak in the marshes of Orient Beach State Park. Sorry to report we did not take any pictures in the kayak (we were in a double so it would have been hard).

That's all we got for now. Dan is off to lovely Fayetteville, NC for work next week, but I doubt he'll take any pictures!