Daddy Daughter Weekend

So it's been a very long time since I have contributed anything at all to this blog. In fact, the last time you heard from me was the night Zeda was born. Becca has been trying to get me to write again for a while and even though I can give a lot of excuses as to why I haven't written anything since then, I think the best one is that Becca has just done such a wonderful job with keeping everybody up to date that there's been no real reason for me to try to compete (score some good husband points for that comment, I'll probably need them by the end of this entry). However, this weekend Becca is out of town with some of her girls on a trip to Nashville, so I thought this would be the perfect opportunity to come out of retirement and tell everybody about the fun weekend Zeda and I have had together without Mommy.

Becca actually left Thursday night, so Baby Z and I got a couple of nights together before the weekend started but I wanted today to be a fun day for just the two of us. After the typical morning ritual of wake, eat, play, sleep, wake, eat, Zeda and I got all our stuff together and headed out. The first stop was the recycling center! I know, not what you'd typically consider good bonding time, but it desperately needed to be done and you can see below that Z was pretty excited.

After recycling, a quick stop at Lowe's (sorry I needed some things while I was already out), and sitting in traffic forever because of stupid Farm Fest (once again sorry but living by the fairgrounds during Farm Fest is horrific) we headed to the Zoo. The Zoo was a ton of fun and Zeda really loved it. It's so funny to see her ooh and aww at the animals. She gets so excited and I know she's trying to tell me about them if I could just understand her. We basically went through the whole place. She loved the ducks, the otters, the giraffes, and especially the elephants since she can make their sound. The last picture below is toward the end of the trip when it's past her nap time. Can you tell? The first picture she has stuffed a cookie in her mouth, not tobacco like it looks like :)

When we got home Z went straight down for a nap without any problems. Another thing Becca has been asking me to do for a while is hang up Zeda's swing she got for her birthday. So while Zeda was taking her nap I finally decided to hang the swing. When she finally woke up I took her straight there (after of course grabbing her a banana) and showed her the new swing. She really liked it a lot and actually asked to get in it a second time a little later. Mommy is going to be so happy.

Now aside from hanging swings, I have also been working on some landscaping work while Z has been taking her naps. Fortunately, for me Zeda is a great helper around the yard. She had already helped me Friday when I was moving the landscaping blocks throughout the yard by taking rides in the wheelbarrow (here's where the points from earlier start getting deducted), so I figured she could help some more after her second nap of the day. She started off by cleaning her house while I was working: that's a broom in her hand in the first picture below. After a while she realized daddy was having so much fun playing in the dirt that she should come join him. And that's exactly what she did. She picked up dirt clots and threw them down on the blocks. She even grabbed the mallet I had been using to position the blocks and started beating on the new border as well. It was pretty stinking cute to watch.

Just like any good day with Daddy should end, Zeda desperately need a bath after all her hard work. She spent some quality splashing time before she got into her Halloween PJ's, got a few more of the roughly 56,000 books I've read to her this weekend (I think she may like books), and then laid down for the night. It's been a great weekend and I just love spending time with my little girl so much. I wouldn't trade this time for the world. That all being said, Becca you need to hurry home: we all miss you very much!