It’s really hard to figure out what to get your third child for her first birthday. She’s got everything she needs, and she’s not actually going to remember if she doesn’t get anything. But I felt guilty about that and decided I need to get her something. I finally decided that she needs a little walk-behind wagon of some sort. None of my kids have ever had one. I picked out the Haba Doll Pram, when my mom told me about the 1-2-3 Grow With Me from Magic Cabin. So that’s what we got.

I am in such awe of designers who can come up with stuff like this. It’s a little walk-behind toy, and then you can reconfigure it into a ride-on toy, and then it becomes a taller shopping cart thing. So this thing will last for years. Plus, it’s very cool looking. And most amazing of all was the fact that the whole thing came in a box less than an inch thick.

Zuzu loves it. When she saw it she started flapping her arms up and down she was so excited. She mostly loves putting things into it and then peeking in to see where they went. She also likes walking behind it on her knees.

I took a little video of her using it, which ended up being a fairly good representative sample of what it’s like to be Zuzu. Basically, that she is playing happily and then Eli comes running through and steals her toy.

Things to watch for in the video:

• In the first few seconds, Zuzu’s little excited hand movement thing. It’s one of my favorite Zuzu traits; I hope I can manage to get a longer video of it one of these days.
• Eli sticking his fingers in front of the camera.
• The cuteness of Zuzu’s thigh chub plus a cloth diaper stuffed into leggings.
• The ridiculousness of my notion that I have to be some invisible filmmaker, which results in me whispering fervently to Eli, as he’s declaring that he wants to take Zuzu’s toy away.