Update--long over due

Seems we have been just monstrous at keeping up with Zoë's site. Not by intention, I assure you. Things are just hectic; Zoë runs all over the place now yammering all the time, begging for help to get on the couch then climbing off in three seconds. She's up to over 20 words now, learning a new one quite frequently. When she learns a new word, she forgets about 19 for a few weeks,but hey, it is progress :)

We have 4 new teeth as of today...I think they are molars. She tried to show them off to me, then proceeded to try and bite me.


We've implemented the naughty stool, and use it. Needless to say, while not perfect, she understands what that stool means and she knows she doesn't want us to resort to it. She is terrified to get off of it when in trouble. That is amusing...I mean, all we would do if she got off is put her back on it. :)

She'll be 15 months the end of this month. We are close to starting her on being potty trained. She'll clutch at herself moments before she goes so she understands something is happening. That ought to be fun. We have also been discussing moving her to a toddler bed soon. She has expressed interest in a big girl bed, so I don't think that we'd have issues, but who knows.

At the end of this month, we may run into a problem...I have to have surgery and that means I can't hold her. So, things may be rocky.

She doesn't like change....as you will see. This was an amusing night. :)We steam cleaned the carpet and well, she flipped. :)

Any ways, I call adieu for tonight. Days are long, evenings short, nights brief.




As always, click the pics for a larger view...

Zoë is Walking!

Two days after her birthday, Zoë officially started zipping around as a true bipedal. Of course this just means that she can get into more trouble and even quicker than before. Here's a quick video demonstrating her new found skill.

Zoë's Kitchen

Howdy folks.

Sorry we've been so slack on updating the last couple of months. There have been deaths in the family, double pneumonia, massive allergy issues, the list just goes on and on.

Sadly, due to the overwhelming number of things going on at once, Zoë has not officially had her first birthday party, though we're looking to schedule it soon.

All that being said, we certainly didn't let her birthday go unnoticed. She got lots of new clothes and toys, including an awesome little kitchen playset from my mother.

It's kind of like a Transformer for little girls. It's both a kitchen a table. Zoë absolutely loves it and runs to it as soon as she gets home. (In fact, the day she first got it she caught sight of it from the front door and started squealing and clapping with joy.)

Of course having a little table means that we've started teaching her how to properly sit and eat her meals. She's doing quite well with it, though she still hasn't quite worked out the intricacies of spoon usage yet.

Zoë took her first steps just two days after her birthday. She's not walking full time yet, but the majority of her time now is spent traipsing back and forth across the apartment.

Hopefully we'll get back on schedule with updating. Until next time, here are some new photos of her.

As always, click on the picture to see a larger copy.

Long Time, No See

Howdy folks.

Yeah, yeah, I know there's been a bit of a gap since the last update. Life has been its typical crazy and hectic self.

As Zoë's first birthday rolled around we found ourselves in a home of sickness. Zoë has an ear infection and a respiratory infection. Mom has double pneumonia. Dad has severe allergy issues and an ear infection.

Unfortunately, due to all of this we have had to delay Zoë's official birthday celebration for another week or two.

But, Monday, 3/29 was Zoë's birthday. And on 3/31 she walked for the first time.

We will have video of her walking coming up very shortly. (The camera was out of juice last night.)

Zoë is also babbling like mad right now and has figured out a few words. Her favorites are kitty, dog, uh-oh, mama, dada, yeah, no, and thank you.

In the meantime, here are some shots we had taken for her first birthday.

As always, click the picture for a larger view.

Post-Halloween Roundup

Well, Halloween was yesterday and as you can see from the above photo, Zoë got to play a little bit of dress up. We took her up to Clarkesville for their big Halloween in the square event. Unfortunately it was raining and quite cold, but we braved the elements nonetheless and showed Zoë off. Zoë enjoyed all the attention she got from the complete strangers as well as seeing all the others in their goofy outfits.

We ran across our friend Clint, who owns Pets Gone Wild and took the time to get some pics of Zoë with some rather large snakes. They had a whole host of them available up there.

Zoë spent a good portion of the evening tucked away in Grandma Toni's shirt. You can't really tell from the pictures but she spent the majority of that time licking Toni's zipper.

After the event we went to dinner with Toni, Lisa, Danny, and Darcy. A good time was had by all.

We also went and had professional pictures taken of Zoë yesterday (though not in costume). We should have some of those back within the next 2 weeks.

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.