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!!