Growing up WAY TOO FAST!!!

Zoe is growing up way too fast! While we were in Montana it seemed like she had a language explosion and is trying to say anything we say. I had some time to think about what she is up to these days and it is just about everything. We think that she has hit the "Terrible Twos" at 15 and a half months. Yikes!
We pretty much have said farewell to baby food and hello to whatever Mommy and Daddy are eating. Surprisingly, she likes slightly spicy food and everything has to have flavor now. We alternate snacks because she gets tired of the same old, same old. She likes the Earth's Best apple cinnamon graham cracker sticks, whole grain goldfish, Annie's cheesey bunnies, Annie's graham bunnies, whole peaches, string cheese, and watermelon. She tried grapes and they were a no go. We will keep on trying the grapes and hopefully we will find a good, sweet batch that she will gobble up. For breakfast, she will sometimes eat fried eggs, bagels are a favorite, fruit occasionally (watermelon, banana, cantalope, peaches, and pears), cottage cheese, or oatmeal. Lunches/Dinners vary, but she loves turkey, chicken most of the time, pasta, hamburger meat, broccoli, peas, corn, green beans, and anything with cheese on it.
Sleeping is fantastic!!! She has never given us any problems with sleep. (I am crossing my fingers that it continues that way) She was going down for two naps a day, one at 9:30 ish and the other at 2:30 ish and would sleep for about 3 hours total. Now...we are trying out one nap a day. She has done it for two days now, so we will see how it goes. The plan is to feed her lunch around 11:30-12 and put her down right after. It has worked so far. The only alteration that needs to be made is a little earlier bedtime. Shaun and I have been letting her stay up a little later, but school is approaching and we don't want to have to wake her up every morning to go to the sitter. She likes to sleep about 12 hours at night, so we are going to have to work out a new schedule for dinner and our walks.
Holy cow is she moving around now. She is so cute because her run is not much of a run, but her arms tend to swing faster, as if they propel her. Chasing her is so fun now and sometimes she will even chase us. She loves to dance still and will do the movements to Itsy Bitsy Spider and Ring Around the Rosie. It is so neat to see how much she is learning these days. I tried to teach her how to hop with two feet, and she bends her knees and pops up, lifting only one leg. It's awesome! She will catch on very soon, I'm sure. We are very lucky because she has not gotten climbing down yet. Coloring is a new thing and we got her a set of the markers that only color on the special pads of paper. While we were in Montana, she colored a little, but really liked putting the markers away. She put all the markers in going the same direction...if one was not correct, she would turn it around. I was blown away. Not only did she do it once, but twice! Eating with utencils is still a work in progress, but she sure does like acting like a big girl using them.
Chit Chatting is her favorite thing to do right now. She tries to repeat anything we ask her to say and is beginning to connect two words as a sentence. A lot of her talking is still jibberish, but she is saying more words clearer everyday. She still signs please, thank you, milk, more, all done, and eat. The words that she says out loud (these are the ones I can remember) are Mama, Dada, Papa, Gama (Grandma), Gampa (Grandpa), wawa (water), weeeeee, cheese, peepee, nana, shoes, Jeff, peach, wow, cool, ball, bye, hi, baby, Nona,and side (outside). She understands yes and no and nods when we ask her questions. She points to a lot more objects in books when we ask her to find them and it is so neat to see her scanning the whole page searching for what we asked for. Shaun and I cannot believe that we have a toddler now, time has just flown by!

Yellowstone

While we were in Montana, we took Zoe to Yellowstone National Park, for her first trip to a National Park (and Mommy's first time to Yellowstone). We went with Shaun's cousins, Amy, Jeff, and their son, Kyler. It was a great trip. Zoe was lucky to have Kyler to entertain her in the car and she got to see the paint pots and Old Faithful. We had some lunch at the cafe near Old Faithful and yummy Mountain Berry ice cream for dessert. We saw some elk and a bison. Zoe was really intrigued by the paint pots and gysers because they are water. She would point and say "oooooooo".

Family Reunion in Big Sky, MT

The Blumfield Bunch

I love this pic because you can see Shaun and Zoe in the reflection...

Doesn't it look like this is staged?

Ooooooo...flowers!

Zoe went to her first Albertini Reunion (Shaun's side of the family) in Big Sky, Montana. She really enjoyed watching the river splash over the water, she picked a few flowers, saw some horses, and went on the swing they had at the ranch. It rained almost everyday at some point and Zoe loved watching the rain. One day we stayed out on the deck of Shaun's cousins, Amy and Jeff's porch, and she wanted to go play in the rain. We stayed in a duplex cabin with Papa, Yai Yai, and Uncle Todd. Zoe slept in our room with us and Uncle Todd and one morning she woke up and instead of saying Mama or Dada, she said "cool, cool, cool". We try not to move in the morning because Zoe will stand up and not go back to sleep, but that morning it was very hard not to crack up.

Second Trip to Montana

Zoe went on her second airplane trip to Montana to see all of Daddy's relatives. We stayed with Shaun's Aunt Linda. As we were getting ready to go, in the airport, Zoe was so interested in the planes and just took in the whole atmosphere. She flew pretty well, but the poor thing didn't understand that she had to suck on her paci, so her ears wouldn't hurt so bad on the descent (both ways). On the way up to Montana, she had a great time playing in the back of the plane with Shaun and on the way home, she sat on our laps so nicely and watched her favorite DVD (the only TV that she really watches and it stays at Grandma and Grandpa's house). She had fun with Tasia and Kyler too and was ablel to visit with Nona and Great Papa. I think in a week she picked up so much vocabulary, it is unbelievable! She is getting so big!!!

Meeting Khloe

Khloe pushing Zoe around...weeeee!

At JC Penney...getting the girls' pictures taken.

Kisses

The whole gang...Shaun, Erica, Zoe, Todd, Papa, Yia Yia, Khloe, Meghan, and Kris

Zoe was able to meet her cousin, Khloe, at her first birthday party. She had her party in California, so all of the family in Cali could meet her. Zoe is about 3 and a half months older. They were able to play with each other two days while they were here.

Swimming in a Pool for the First Time

First time in a pool...Zoe HATED the floaty.

"Here we go!"

Warming up to the pool...take two!

Splash, splash, splash!

Take three!

Blowing bubbles...

Zoe loves water and would splash and play with water all day long, if we let her. We have been meaning to take Zoe swimming for awhile now and we finally got her in a pool on July 17th. She went swimming at Papa and Yia Yia's house, but wasn't a fan of it right a way. I think she likes to have he feet on the ground, so she feels like she will have some control. Since then, she went swimming two more times, once at Uncle Greg and Auntie Heather's house and again at . It is getting better each time, she is slow to warm, but spends a little more time in the water each time. The last time she went in a pool, she even tried blowing bubbles!