And this happy little fellow is the gouger...

Well, our family date was a success. The babies all behaved wonderfully as we enjoyed our BBQ. I think our parents group will be getting together again soon before the holiday season begins. One thing that we did learn about Zoa on Friday is that she does not play nicely with the other babies. She goes straight for the eyes and tries to gouge them out. One of the other mother's actually scooped up her baby to protect it after Zoa had gone for the eyes. This seems to be a dubious start for lady Zoa. Hopefully, as she gets older, she will not alienate all her potential friends by being overly aggressive.

Other big baby news is that Zoa has started eating solids (see photo). She is almost 6 months old and has begun "chewing" while we eat and trying to grab food out of our hands, so we figured she is ready. So, she started with a little rice cereal yesterday. She was definitely eager to eat either the cereal or the spoon it was served on. Yesterday, she ate it a little bit more vigorously than today, but we will try later tonight too.

We also had time for some fall family fun this weekend. Our yard is full of trees which have now all dropped their leaves, so we had plenty of yard work to do. Zoa sat in her chair and napped in a beautiful one-piece sweater and hat (see photo) that my mom knitted her while Brian and I worked. Today, the raking and bagging of leaves continued, and we are still not done. I think that some will have to wait for next weekend. Zoa is taking a rare nap, so I need to take advantage and finish getting some stuff done. More later in the week.