Amazing Mommy and Daddy with such PERSONALITY

"How old are you, Zoe?"

"Can you see me, Mommy?"

An apple just Zoe's size...Now that she has teeth, she really likes them.

With yogurt ALL over...

Smiley...right after a bath

"Zoe, show Mommy your teeth."

Zoe is amazing Mommy and Daddy every moment we spend with her. She knows how to hold up one finger, after only showing her once! We'll have to practice more, so she will do it for others, but boy she is so proud of herself when she does something new. Peek-a-Boo is so fun with Zoe now...it's not just Peek-a-Boo, she actually plays Hide-and-Seek. 10 teeth are showing now...4 up top, 4 on the bottom, and 2 top molars. Teething is not giving her a break, but it hasn't stopped her from having such a personality that is contagious. She loves to read, especially her ABC book. She says some of her ABC's, knows most of her body parts (eyes, nose, ears, mouth, teeth, hair, elbows, hands, fingers, feet, toes, and she is just getting the hang of leg, knee, and arm), and loves to play chase. Recently she asked for my keys and shortly after she was blowing my whistle. The horn on the car and the whistle are her two favorite sounds right now. When she wakes from a nap, she has come up with her own little routine...she throws her silky into her crib, then points to her CD player and says, "Off". Once we turn the music off, she points at the door, signaling it's time to go into the living room. Her baby is one of her favorite toys right now and Daddy taught her how to burp her baby. She is so funny, she rocks the baby, says, "Shshshsh", and does a burping sound. We follow it, by saying, "Excuse you, Baby!" and she gets the biggest kick out of that.

Zoe and Maddie (Grandma's Dog)

Zoe reading to Maddie

Kissing Zoe


"Okay Maddie, back to reading." Maddie was thinking...You've got to be kidding me!

Hmmmm...What happen to Maddie?

Zoe and Maddie enjoy one another's company most of the time. Well...Maddie puts up with Zoe most of the time. She's such a good sport. Grandma took some pictures of Zoe hanging out with Maddie. Zoe read to Maddie until she finally decided to just ditch Zoe.

David's Birthday Party

The shirt says it all...(got that shopping in Solvang)

David, the little boy across the street, recently turned 13 and he loves to skateboard, so his birthday was at Rob Dyrdek's Safe Spot, Skate Spot in LA. I went with Wendy and Zoe came along too. She got to play in the park and color on the park bench while David and his friends skated.

Pigtails and More!

Pigtails

Giving Baby a kiss...

Zoe's first lunch box (bag)

Zoe's hair is now long enough for pigtails! I am so excited because I love them! I found rubberbands that Zoe can't pull out most of the time. She looks so grown up with them, Daddy said to take them out because it made her look like a big girl :(. First signs of a toddler, instead of our little precious BABY.

Holy cow! We bought her her first lunch box (well...bag). It was too cute to pass up and she loves it. It has become part of the routine leaving in the morning and when we pick her up from the sitter, she gets it and holds it all the way to the car.

Camping in August

Zoe loves cottage cheese!

Zoe's first frozen banana (without chocolate)...great for teething!

Playing in the water...

Oooooo...water.

Family photo by the waterfall

Okay, okay, okay! I have not blogged in a while...LONG while. Sorry! It has been a VERY busy month and Zoe is definitely one thing that made it so busy. We wouldn't change it for the world!

Before we went back to school we planned a camping trip to Convict Lake. Unfortunately, on the way there, Shaun and our neighbors, got in a pretty serious accident and their big truck and trailer were pretty messed up. The truck was able to be fixed, but the trailer was totaled. So much for that trip!

Instead we went to Buelton (Solvang). We were supposed to go camping for five days, but we only went to Buelton for 2 nights, August 12th-14th. Zoe saw the ostrich farm, minature horses farm, the mission in Solvang, hiked to a waterfall, went shopping :), and was able to go swimming at the campground. Not to mention, play at the park. She loves swings and wasn't too sure about the slides, but I have no doubt that she'll learn to love them. When she went swimming this time, she actually surprised us because she put her face in the water without us prompting her to. Yikes! It scared me a bit (she seemed a bit shocked too), but we just cheered and she giggled and tried it again. She is such a great camper, but doesn't like to sleep much during the day, for fear she will miss some of the action. At night we had a group of individuals who must not camp very often because they definitely did not know the camping courtesy rules (quiet time at 10). 1 am, we woke to groups of people laughing sooooooo loud. Groups meaning 20-30 people!!! I found myself marching over to their area and explaining (not so nicely) that it was 1 am and I had a baby sleeping. I told them if they woke her, they were going to take care of her. As I finished, a man said, "Chill out." I lost it and reminded them of the time. Let's just say, we were able to sleep after that :). Don't mess with mommies!

It was a good time and a nice getaway before the school year. Right before we left, we heard that we got our jobs back, so that was a nice relief. Since then, it has been non-stop.

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".