And for your viewing pleasure...

It's gonna be a hit...I swear! Twinkle Twinkle by Jam-master Z. She only got a little distracted by the Electric Company. :)

The Sweetest Thing...

Every day, as I'm leaving for work, I say "goodbye Zoe, I love you" and wait for her to say "goodbye, momma, goodbye. I youuuuuuu". She's never said the three words, "I love you"....

Until this morning. :)

I love you, Stinky Butt. More than anything this world has to offer. Thank you for making my day.

And the results are....

29lbs and 35 inches. Who knew my daughter would *finally* be proportional?!? She's in the 77th percentile for both, and the dr is happy with that!

Don't know what her head circumference is...probably about the size of Jupiter though! :P

Challenge time...

Zoe has her 2 year appointment at the pediatrician's office tomorrow. Any bets on what she'll weigh in at, or get measured at???

Just as a frame of reference, at 18 months, she measured in at 25.2lbs and 31.5 inches. I do remember saying that I thought she was actually a little longer since she had been squirming around so much laying down on the table (really, WHY do they need to still do that when she CAN stand still???).

Noah's bringing Z in...One of us will update tomorrow. So, get your bids in the comments. Winner gets the best prize ever....glory in getting the closest guess. Isn't that the BEST?? :)

What does Zoe do during the day??

Zoe colors, reads, dances, sings, RUNS, cooks in her "chicken" (kitchen), stacks boxes (thanks Auntie Jill, she LOVES those things!), races her cars, pretends to go 'nuh-nights', takes care of her babies, plays her piano, plays her xylophone, asks us to "wasths dis" 240294820348203 times a day, takes things out of their containers, puts them back into containers, eats snacks, drinks her milk, juice, and water, loves her bunny, plays with her busy box, insists on the ready game with Momma, pets and loves on Peanut, dances in Momma's shoes, imitates everyone, blames things on Santa (no, really, she does), and gives snuggles, hugs, and kisses on request.

She will also likes to throw, causes some minor headaches, and even more occasionally has a timeout. She fights her naps by throwing *everything* but blankie out of her crib and onto the floor.

Today we did all of that. Yes, I'm exhausted. But I love every minute of it. Do I really need to go back to work on Monday?

We didn't need grapes today...

but we got Zoe to eat *some* chicken that wasn't in the form of a nugget tonight. She first looked at it and said "no" (which is Zoe for "you ain't getting me to touch that with a ten foot pole!"). But, we all sat down with our meal, and Zoe picked up her fork, like we did, and she gave it a taste...and another, and then declared "mmm, it's good!" She then ate a few more bites. She refused the cooked peas (no surprise, she only likes them frozen!). She had some more chicken, some bread, went back to the chicken for a couple of small bites, and then said, "no, thank you" (yes, she really did say all three words, my polite little thing) and handed Noah her plate. When she does this, we won't be able to get more food into her from said plate. Then she had some frozen peas and was a happy camper!

What was the meal? Nothing fancy, and something I was SURE Zoe wouldn't eat. I had put two chicken breasts in the crock pot with condensed cream of chicken soup, let it go and shredded it. Noah and I had it on crusty french bread, but Zoe had it on a plate with the other pieces separate. (and yes, the meal was QUITE good, especially for a snowy winter day like today!)

Go ZOE!

This bribery thing is working...

Um, yeah. We bribed Zoe with grapes to eat her chicken nuggets last night", and her hot dog today.

Are they the most nutritious foods? No, but the nuggets were "all natural, the hotdog low fat. This is big progress...this means we've been able to get her to eat protein and eat *new* foods. She's been eating the chicken nuggets for awhile, and hotdogs at daycare for awhile, but never for us. This gives us hope that we might be able to try a Krabby Patty (from Sponge Bob...it's a hamburger!), maybe grilled chicken, ham, pork, maybe?? Heck, different veggies would be nice too!

The grape worked again! Who would have thought this?!?

Birthday Girl!

Opening gifts ON her birthday from Mommy and Daddy...If you look closely, you can see Dora's hair in her arm. She's looking at a bag of food for her "chicken" (kitchen, if you remember!).

This is at Amazement Playcenter. We were in a tiny room, but we made the most of it!! Zoe didn't want to eat her pizza, but it looks like all the other kids liked it!

Zoe blowing out her candle on her cupcakes...at this point, the kid helping us hadn't realized we had a whole CAKE. Whoops! Zoe started crying when people sang to her, but she got over it quickly.

This is about as interested with the gifts as Zoe got. I swear, she DOES like what people brought. I think she was just a bit overwhelmed.

My friend Kathryn with her daughter Victoria...

Handsome Jacob! He loved the cars!

Adorable Morgan....what a great kid!

Cousin Alina..coming all the way from Syracuse!

My friend Christie's middle daughter, Abby.

and her older sister Gracie....

Sweet, sweet Sophie from daycare. She is that cute in person!

Showing off her birthday outfit before leaving for Amazement...what a beautiful ballerina!

The infamous Dora cake...yes, I made that by myself!

Zoe's party at daycare...

And the cupcakes for daycare! They were very yummy!

Sorry for the jumbled pics...it's not easy to rearrange them on blogger.

Zoe had a BLAST at Amazement with her friends and family, and playing and running around. Like I said, she wasn't too interested in the gift opening, but I think she was more interested in playing. We would like to take this opportunity to THANK everyone who showed up: Grammie and Grampie C, Auntie Jill, Uncle Jason, Cousin Jacob, Gaga, Papa, Auntie Brigit and Cousin Alina, Auntie Darcy, Uncle Jeff, Cousin Brody, Gracie, Abby, and Eliza, Victoria, Sophie, and Morgan. Zoe really missed her Unka G, but he was home sick...Boo! Thank you for coming and for the generosity...we're still sorting through all the gifts!

Today, Zoe slept in (to 5:30ish) and we just played and played. We opened up gifts from Mommy and Daddy (she was MUCH more interested in it at this point), as well as Valentine's day gifts from us and others. It was a day of rest and play for little Miss Z today.

Oh, and if you want to see more of the 80 pictures taken for her birthday...head over to flickr. :)

In the land of dinner battles...

or at least struggling to get her to EAT dinner lately...we had an interesting win today in the land of Zoe....

Tonight's dinner was chicken and fries. A favorite for Zoe. But lately, she's been struggling with eating unless she's starved. Bored? Maybe...but that's besides the point. :)

Today, she wasn't real interested in her meal...she saw me eating grapes. She wanted to eat some. So, in an effort not to dissuade her from wanting to eat something so good for her, I let her have one. I did this fully expecting her to spit it out like she has every.other.time.she has had grapes.

Today, she wanted more. And more and more and more and more.

So, to get Zoe to eat chicken nuggets (to get some long lasting protein in her), we had to bribe her with grapes. Eat a chicken nugget bite for a grape.

What a weirdo.

The life of a 2 year old...

officially begins....

We were opening gifts for Zoe's birthday, Zoe, Noah, and me....and there was a little conversation that had me laughing, but Noah notsomuch.

Zoe referred to Noah as "Dad" when saying something.

Noah: "My name's Daddy, Zoe."
Zoe: "No, it's not."

I predict many many MANY more conversations like this.

Pictures later, I promise!

Two years ago....

Zoe was born...

Happy birthday to the best 2 year old a mommy could ask for. Zoe is the best thing that's ever happened to her father and me. We love her with all our hearts and we can't wait to see what tomorrow and then next year will bring. What a ride it's been these first two years. Thank you for honoring us to being your parents.

The count down is ON...

to Zoe's second birthday.

How did that happen???

In 4 days, she will be 2. Of course, she's been ACTING 2 for awhile. Our fun loving, getting up at 4am, runs thupah fass, girlie girl who likes to play with cars and trucks, choc-lit loving, bunny dragging, giver of hugs and kisses, Dora loving, Max and Ruby obsessed, blue eyed, curly haired, counting, letter reciting, color coding, question asking, laugh filled little lady is going to have a Dora birthday cake and spend the mid-day with family and friends at a local playcenter running around and raising heck. Maybe she'll eat her pizza for lunch, who knows? We timed it so that she will be worn out (hopefully?!?) for her nap.

We're working on getting Zoe to tell you how old she'll be, but it's not very easy for her. She knows she has a birthday party coming up, but that is just a time for her to have cake, in her eyes. ;)

She has a special birthday outfit to model, and I'm pulling out her birthday table cloth for everyone to sign...

Here's to two!!

Future Career Choices??

Plumber, or.....



Rock star...and YES, she was singing. What, we're not sure, but Zoe sure enjoyed it!

Your choice!

What do you think??

Like momma....

Like daughter??

The Terrible Twos are HERE!

Zoe may not officially turn two for another two weeks, but she has definitely hit that "terrible twos" stage. *sigh*

We have had multiple timeouts for throwing things and refusing to pick up things she tosses (after requests to do so). "NO!!!" and "MINE!!!" are favorite phrases around here. Zoe will scream...just because. She makes demands, doesn't like the limits sets, and is generally testing us about 4209240928340928420 times a day.

That being said, Zoe is still an amazing, lively, fun loving kid. She has started giving us kisses MUCH more readily (complete with the "smooch" sound at the end and lots of drool), gives hugs, sometimes says "cheeeeeese" for the camera, and loves to run "thupah fasth". She loves all things Dora at this point. Zoe loves Peanut, but won't hesitate to tell on her for being on the table and getting into something she shouldn't. Zoe has rediscovered her "busy box" and likes to play with the balls on the wire track on top. She loves to "cook", play with her cars, babies, and "compulers". She has found a love for Sponge Bob (and Patrick, she'll tell you), one of her stuffed bunnies (but don't dare pull the tail that makes it play a song...she freaks!), and block towers (and knocking them down). She loves coloring, drawing, and counting *everything*. I think she has started to figure out one-to-one correspondence, believe it or not!

And, she's *definitely* two.