The card this year...

We will upload pictures from the celebrations soon...I think the camera is still in the garage with a lot of the gifts. :)

And we heard him exclaim...

as he drove out of sight...

MERRY CHRISTMAS TO ALL AND TO ALL A GOODNIGHT!!

Zoe had a *wonderful* Christmas, and pictures will be posted very soon.

Merry kiss-miss

Zoe wants to wish everyone a MERRY CHRISTMAS! We've been trying to get it on video, but while she'll say it when we ask...she WONT do it when the video camera is out...stinker! :)

From our family to yours, we wish you a very MERRY Christmas. We hope that Santa is good to you. :) According to Norad, Santa is currently at Port Blair, Andaman Islands in the Pacific. This is at 10pm EST. We hope you all get to bed at a good time if you want Santa to come!

Goodnight, sleep tight, and good Christmas wishes to all, to all a good night.

fashion plate....

Don't you wish you had her style?!? C'mon...I know you do!

Santa Baby...

Zoe anxiously awaiting Santa....

Santa is here! Zoe is looking for toys to share with him (isn't it usually the other way around??) and Jacob is a little unsure. This is about as close as he got *willingly*.

Jacob's impression of a monkey...this is what happens when you try to bring him closer to the big man in red. He was trying to get around to his mommy's back!

Both kids on Santa's lap!! Zoe was fine with it...Jacob? He couldn't WAIT to get off..

Zoe was telling Santa all the things she wanted..

Giving Santa a hug as Jacob looks on, warily.

Zoe got a present from Santa!

With a little help from Mommy, opening up her gift--crayons and a coloring book (how DID he know!?!?)

Here we go again with Jacob...He's a little unsure, but going with it.

Bye, Santa! We'll see you next year!! Thanks for stopping by!

Yesterday, we all met at Grampie and Grammie C's house for lunch and a visit with Santa. They gave him the heads up, and he was able to take a few minutes out of his busy day to come and say hi to Zoe and Jacob. As you can see, it went well! Zoe was cool with it, and Jacob, while there were no tears, wasn't really into the big man. Zoe kept trying to share her toys with Santa, and even took him for a walk around the house.

After, we had lunch from Subway and then lots of playing and running around. Zoe and Jacob looooove each other so much. They were chasing each other, rolling around on the floor together, and telling each other secrets. They also gave each other hugs and kisses...

Thanks for a fun time!

Oh, there's video too...we just have to edit before posting!

A Message From Santa to Zoe...

Santa's message to Zoe

Gaga helped him out, but check this out! How cool that he sent this special message to Zoe!!

Entering another contest...

http://www.mycharmingkids.net/2009/12/power-of-two.html

Wouldn't THIS be a wonderful thing!?? I *think* I was talking to Uncle G about Lightroom at Thanksgiving (was that right?)....what a cool thing it'd be to WIN :)

Photography people..This is great, eh?! :)

Poor Unfortunate Soul...

My dear, sweet child. That's what I do. It's what I live for.

Repented, seen the light, and made a switch to this

But on the whole I've been a saint to those poor unfortunate souls...

Zoe has taken joy in her chocolate Advent calendar. Every day, she gets a piece of "choc-lit". She takes it out...puts it in her mouth, takes it out of her mouth, holds it in her hand for a bit, puts it in her mouth, takes it out, then finally puts it in and finishes it. The poor unfortunate soul in this case? I wouldn't say it was Zoe! :)

lyrics from The Little Mermaid, Poor Unfortunate Souls

Oh Christmas Tree...oh Christmas Tree...

Zoe trying to put the beaded garland on the tree...

Still workin' it.

This is where Zoe wanted to take the beads OFF and put them on herself. My little girl loooves her beaded necklaces and thought this was the same thing!

Looking at the "pitty tee" with Daddy (and she's not showing pity, it's pretty in Zoe-speak)

And the finished product. Zoe tried to help with a couple of ornaments, but she really didn't get it....she wanted to get them on and take them off. But you can see the house in the lower right of the tree. Zoe put that one plus a couple others RIGHTTHERE. :)

O Christmas tree, o Christmas tree....Your branches green delight us..

Patriots Place

While I'm home sick, again, I'm going to take this time to update the blog.

Saturday, we suprised Grampa C..who sometimes go by Papa, PopPop or Grampie. We're still trying to figure out what Zoe is going to keep for him. :)

Anyway, we surprised him with a trip to Patriots Place. His birthday was way back at the end of October, but due to illnesses, baby showers, parties, holidays, and other commitments, we weren't able to celebrate until now! I forgot to bring the camera in, but as soon as Grammie uploads pics and sends them, I can post some.

Grampie had a ball at Patriots Place. Zoe loved running around and spending time with everyone...she even fed Cousin Jacob her cake (he loved being fed, and with it being cake? Double bonus!).

Then and now...

crazy, huh? I can't wait to see what this holiday brings for Zoe...

HP Touchsmart Giveaway

I'd LOVE to win http://mckgiveaways.blogspot.com/2009/12/hp-touchsmart-giveaway.html this...wouldn't it make a great Christmas gift?

:)

How sharp is this thing?? Ohhhh...I might leave Mac and go back to PC for this beauty. Can you imagine!?!?

cuh-lass-y.

Welcome to the family!

Brody Francis
Originally uploaded by dRfruitLOOP

Zoe, Amy, and Noah would like to welcome Zoe's new cousin, Brody Francis! He arrived last night at 7:41pm and weighed in at 6 lbs!

We are happy to announce that Brody, his mommy, and his daddy are all doing well. Zoe is looking forward to teaching him all her tricks!

Welcome to the family, Brody!

18...

teeth and counting. We may have found the culprit for those early early mornings. Who knows. Maybe I'm reaching. I was able to finally get in and feel around with my finger (and no biting from the Z-monster). Her 2-year molars are in on the bottom....no signs of them on the top.

Oh please let me be wrong in that those were the reason she was up so freakin' early...ohpleaseohpleaseohpleaseohpleaseohpleasepleasepleaseprettyplease.

Sharing..

"Milk, boon"
"Eat, boon"

Zoe's been into sharing her food/drink with her friends....

Case in point: we got her a balloon at Trader Joe's today. She was having a snack when we got back, and wanted to share with the balloon (doesn't *everyone*?). She also likes to share her milk with her babies, Mickey Mouse, Elmo, Curious George on tv, Peanut, or us.

I love that she loves to share! I just wish it wasn't a gooey, half-chewed goldfish cracker!

Watch this, Momma!

Zoe's turning into quite the ham and anything and everything is worth yelling "Watch this!" Here she's showing Amy how to best eat a frozen blueberry.

Sing...sing a song.

There are SO many cute singing quotes I wanted to try, but there's only so much space in the title. Ah well. :)

Zoe woke us up at 6:30 this morning (I'm home sick, so I got to sleep in) singing. :) that hasn't happened in SO long. Apparently, she was singing while she was hard at work....throwing all her toys OUT of her crib. Ah, Zoe, you can't play with them once they're out, silly girl!

Maybe this is where THIS quote comes in handy?? Bob Dylan once said, "Come mothers and fathers throughout the land, and don't criticize what you can't understand." Maybe it's just one of those things that we don't understand that Zoe likes to do.

Fun Photos

Walking the catwalk...


Rockin' and readin'


"teeeeezzzth" (that's "cheese" in Zoe-speak)


"watth dis daddy" (she figured out she could lean back on her arms, and was thrilled to show us!)


Look how long her hair's gotten!


Doesn't *everyone* feed their baby sitting on the floor, in front of the fridge???


just chilling on the floor...looking so sweet!


"Peanut kitheth!!" (kisses)

Target Travels and other things...

Today, like many days, we made our way to Target...

And, like many of our visits, we pass the diaper section. Zoe looks at it and says, "baby!! baby poopy!" ha!

She has become *that* kid who can't go by the thing she loves without getting hysterical--the dollies. I think Santa may be bringing her some baby things. I mean, that's what he's told us, anyway. ;)

For those who haven't been in the know, we've been suffering, since the time change and croup debacle, very VERY early wake up times. How early you might ask? As early as 3am, but the norm had been between 3:30-4:30. That was about 2 weeks of VERY early wake up times. Noah's been the saint to get up with her most of the time, but you all know how it is. You get up when they do, you don't sleep all that well, you hear the squeals of delight while they're playing, or the screams of a tantrum when they don't get their way...no one was getting a lot of sleep.

Anyway, she was up for the DAY. There was no compromising with Zoe. She was NOT going to go back down, no matter how we begged, coerced, bribed, or promised beautiful babies (dollies, FYI!). She was ready. And, within minutes of getting downstairs, she'd be RUNNING around the table. *yawn* We went through a lot of coffee during that time. ;)

Well, we're happy to report that Sunday, Zoe got up at 6:30am, and then this past morning, 6:10. We'll TAKE it. Much more like normal around here.

We can tell it had a definite positive effect on Zoe's behavior. We were watching Curious George today, and towards the end, she got up, insisted I got up too ("Dance, momma") and we danced. Zoe bounced and ran around in circles, and wouldn't even stop when her Daddy walked through the door a few minutes later. At one point, we were all three dancing together....FUN!

Please join us in a cheer for Zoe to SLEEP tomorrow morning!! GOOOOOOOO Zoe!

Happy Turkey Day!

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone! Zoe had a great time with the B side of the family...here she is learning to yo-yo from Great Uncle Brad.

Pushing a plastic box around (this provided hours of fun throughout the weekend!)...

Again....

And, using the box to bathe Mickey Mouse...

And a pretty picture of our beautiful 21 1/2 month old.

One of the funniest parts of the weekend was Zoe interacting with Miley, Gaga and Papa's newest kitten. Zoe had an old cell phone and was calling people all weekend (did you get your call? I know I did! :) ) . At one point, she opened up the phone and handed it to Miley, saying, "Call Peanut". She did it again and said "Peanut call." VERY cute.

I promise to make a much more of an effort to get back into posting more often. We're preparing for Christmas, teaching Zoe about the man in the red suit (wonder what she'll think of him this year??) and what the Christmas season is all about, and spending time as a family. Who wants to be on the computer when I can spend time with THIS goofy kid?!?

Happy and Healthy...

This is a couple of weeks old, but I thought it was a nice picture. :) Zoe is happy and healthy, except for this lingering cough she has...She's getting really good at covering her mouth when she coughs (thanks to Laura!). You have to remind her, but she's good about doing it, nonetheless!

I hope everyone finds this picture much less heartbreaking than the last one. Zoe is running around, pulling us to "tase" her around the kitchen table, while she is "runnin". She will tells us to "Walshth dis" while she twirls and twirls, then pretends to fall....saying "oops" or "ooof". She has a huge grin on her face doing so. :)

Ring Around the Rosy, the Wheels on the Bus, Twinkle Twinkle, and the ABC song are favorites around here.

She also is doing this funny thing...
me: What's Zoe say?
Z: "hiiiii" (in a tone that is just goofy...it almost sounds like she has food in her mouth)
me: What's Mommy say?
Z: "hiiiii" (same way)
me: "What's Daddy say?
Z: "hiiiii" (same way)

I'll have to get it on video. It cracks us up every single time.

As we listen to the coughing...

we are pretty sure that Zoe is on the mend. We thought she was feeling better on Thursday, when she woke up with no fever. Given that the pediatrician told me that when she's fever free, she's not contagious, and she can go back to daycare, we sent her. I found out, when I picked her up, that her fever came back...so Friday she was home with me. Of course, her fever picks up, so I call the nurse line. She tells me this is just par for the course, and that if she still has a fever Sunday night/Monday morning, bring her back in. Fortunately, that didn't happen with Zoe.

Case in point? Zoe was either running around the table, going from toy to toy to toy, or throwing wicked tantrums over who knows what (very dramatic, throwing her body to the ground, kicking and screaming, no tears) over the course of the day...oh and all on a 5 minute nap in the car coming back from BJ's.

At one point, I looked at Noah and said, "Welcome to 2."

Glad she's feeling better! ;)

Ever wonder where the best place to put a pumpkin might be??

Noah was home with Zoe today because she still isn't feeling herself. During her nap, he decided to try to pick some things up and organize. Apparently, Zoe had had the same idea. :)

Do you know this sound??

Then you know what Zoe sounds like right now. Poor thing, it's quite funny. I've been giggling at her expense since I got home from work!

Zoe is NOT a fan of waiting for the doctor...

especially not a half hour.

It's croup, and the dr said that until the fever is gone, she's contagious. So we're in quarantine right now. Right now we're just following the dr's orders to make her comfortable.

Poor Z!

We are fighting some kind of illness. Yesterday, Zoe's fever got as high as 104.2 before the motrin and tylenol got to work to lower it. This morning, it was 102-103, and then the same set of meds helped bring it back down again. She's got a bad cough, a slightly runny nose, and is as irritable as we've seen her. She's also pretty listless.

Zoe's not happy about it, but she'll be heading to the dr at 2:30...

And, apparently, she's not sleeping well, either. It's just about 1pm EST, and she only fell asleep about a half hour ago...let's hope it was just a cough and not something that woke her up.

Lil Miss Smarty-pants...

strikes again.

We knew they'd been working on letters at daycare...what we didn't know is that Zoe's been taking it in (big surprise, we should expect that by now). Laura told me that Zoe spends more time identifying the pictures on the cards, so maybe that's what threw me off.

Anyway, Zoe was taking a bath and playing with these foam letters/numbers she has. She was telling me a bunch of them, totally throwing me for a loop then. So, I pulled out some ABC flashcards we were given, and Noah and I watched as she was able to identify about 2/3 of the letters without any kind of prompting. And, the ones she got wrong, she would use a letter the real one *looked* like, such as saying "Y" for "X".

She knows A, B, D, F, H, L, M, N, O, R, S, T, U, V, W, Y.

WOW!!

the many sides of Z

The diva loves Max and Ruby....the shoes match the shirt. Why bother with the pants, they only hold her back, right?

Running around outside before Auntie Darcy's baby shower.

This is what a 20 month old looks like after a night at Grammie and Papa C's (and not sleeping).

"Tank you" (she says this whenever she gives you something...in this case blueberries!)

"Heyow? Goon (good)! Bye!"

And a girl of the 21st century...she already texts like a crazy kid!!

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!!

From our monkey to you! Happy Halloween!! :)

Zoe did not go trick or treating this year, at least not around the neighborhood...she's still too little to really understand it. Instead, she had a party at daycare, a "trick or treat" (really, she just ran around the building) at Daddy's office, and then went to show off at Grammie and Papa C's house.

Oh, and if you called her a monkey, she wasn't happy. If you called her "George" (Curious George) she was all excited. seriously, I'd ask her if she wanted to get in her monkey costume, and she'd tell me, "noooooo". I then would ask her if she wanted to dress like George, and Zoe's response? "yeeeeeeees".

My little monkey! :)