Just a random update to everyone

Seems I never have the ability to be on line. Between the hussle and bussle of the day, spending my limited time with Zoë and preparing for the next, by the time I get near our room I am so completely overwhelmed with tasks at hand that have yet to be completed (such as pumping for Zoë's breakfast) or worn out from completing everything prior to 11 at night. And then if I do happen upon a spare moment, it seems that is the only time Ian has one as well and why would I kick him off the net so satisfy my need for it? So, I am online anymore about as frequent as that of the dog that barks all day long in the apartment next to us. Of course I am on line at work, but I am not allowed to such sites as this, and frankly, even if I were, I have become so swamped with work anymore that I end up bringing my work laptop home more often than not just to catch up on the week's activities. Yes, I am sickeningly busy. Yet, somehow, I make moments for our pride and joy, our daughter, our light, our love. And I find the "sucking the thumb whilst eating solids" to be adorable while her dad finds it fitfully annoying. Likewise, as he finds her squeals and shrills of delight amusing and amazing, I find myself rubbing my left ear in pain as my ear drum begins the downward spiral of forever ringing from the sound.

But this has been a blessed ride, full of fun, adventure, and new discoveries. And frustrations on not only Ian and my side, but on Zoë's. As she has begun to master the art of sitting unsupported, she has had an increasing awareness of her own being and has demanded to be allowed to move about at her own free will. Yet, to crawl eludes her needs and she demands to be carried from place to place in forever fuss if left inmobile for longer than one nano second. Of course this is an exaggeration, all in all we have a very happy, healthy, loving baby. But she is getting frustrated at her inability to move, or in what I feel, her lack of interest in moving by herself.

She is, as of today, up to three solids a day. She loves food. She sees it and she starts bouncing, clucking, chirping, purring, doing anything to draw to the fact she is starving and hasn't eaten in a whole two hours. I know, I know. We are monsters. :-) But she is doing amazing awesome. She is 15 pounds, 10 ounces as of yesterday and has caught up to her peers in size. She is an average baby in the 50th percentile. She is on the small side of average, but she is average. Don't recall her length right off, but she is 55th percentile in that. Seems E and I are doing something right after all. :)

But, it being a work night and me being very tired, I post but one picture tonight that isn't a zombie. Good night to all and to all a good night. Lots of love to everyone!

Day of the Living Zoë

I'd say this picture pretty much sums up Zoë's Sunday. Today Zoë participated in her first zombie walk, an annual charity event where hundreds of people dress up like the living dead and shamble through various metropolitan areas.

Our route this year took us through Oakland Cemetery (where another organization was having a fall festival, completely oblivious to the hordes of undead that would soon lay waste to their celebrations), around a few blocks of Atlanta and culminating with a mass rampage through Atlanta Underground, a local shopping center. All said and done about 500 people showed up to take part.

Unfortunately, Zoë was not able to be made up. She's simply too young to put the various pastes and gels on her face, so she had to settle for a hand we made for her, complete with meat and viscera hanging out the back.

We spent the better part of two days getting our costumes ready. In fact, Zoë went down for her morning nap just before we started the main portion of our makeup. When it was time to get her up we went into her room in full zombie regalia. She woke up, did a double take and started quivering that lower lip, teetering on the brink of a full blown meltdown. I quickly called out "Hey, Zozo" in one of my high-pitched daddy voices and then she just started laughing.

She was absolutely the talk of the town at the event today. We decked her out in a little skeleton onesie and gave her that hand. People stopped to take pictures of her constantly. We pushed her in the stroller for the entire two to three mile duration of the walk.

The walk itself was crazy. They didn't close down the streets for traffic, so hordes of zombies would go running at cars that were stopped. It was all in good fun and nobody was actually threatened.

The highlight for myself was watching a fully grown man squeal like a girl and RUN about 15 feet from us. He had stopped to look at a zombie in front of us who happened to have creepy contact lenses in. He squealed and started back towards us so Jen started moving towards him. The man was in an absolute panic. Of course once he realized what was going on he had quite a laugh.

After the walk ended and the zombies dispersed, we stuck around to get some dinner. I left Jen and Zoë with our friends and made my way over to Dairy Queen to get a burger. There was a lady in front of me in line with a young daughter. The daughter tugged on mother's sleeve and said, "Mommy, there's a zombie behind you". The mother turned expecting to see nothing, saw me, let out a very loud "OH JESUS!" and ran a few feet away.

Zoë had an absolute blast. People were giving her attention all day long and she never once got fussy or irritable.

I'll put a few pics up here for now. There will be more coming once I get the pictures from Aunt Lara. Enjoy. As always, you can click on the picture to see a larger copy in a new tab.