Pretty pix, fun vid

A few pix and vids of Zoe lately. Lest I lose them to the ever-growing archive, I thought I'd bring 'em out for show.


Enjoy :)

Blanket Fun



Toy Basket

Grandma

Zoe has had a great week hanging with her Grandma Lani. Lani arrived with her mom, Grandma Leona, on Sunday to crash with us and to give Zoe a break from daycare (well, that wasn't the reason, but it was a great side effect!). Zoe's hesitation with Grandma Lani swiftly disappeared. She knew who that was at our door on Sunday and spent the next few days making sure Grandma knew that she was interested in her returning visitor.

Some pix from the reunion:



We'll miss you, Lani!

Itsy bitsy spider

So, taking a break from packing and letting Dave catch a break by taking a shower, I was hanging with bug while she was hitting her groove with her toys. I don't recall what prompted it, but I began to sing 'Itsy Bitsy Spider' to her as she was patting her palms against the sliding door (wanting out, despite the SNOW, I'm sure). She stopped mid-strike, gave me a sideways glance and swiftly crawled over to her shelf of books. From it she plucked her book "The Itsy Bitsy Spider" from which I've sung to her its new take on the old favorite. Utterly inspired (I swear that I'd only sung that book to her maybe 3-4 random times over the past YEAR), I broke right into the finger-dance that goes with the song. Zoe, ever my little mirror lately, immediately started doing the same - a bit like this:





AWESOME.

15 mo check-up

Zoe had her 15 month check-up this afternoon.

Vital stats:

Length: 31" (yes, that's tall - 80th%ile)
Weight: 22lbs 8oz (50%ile)
Head: 48cm (90%ile!!)

And, because she knew today was a milestone kind of day, she commemorated it by eating off her fork at dinner time:



No, she didn't stab the pieces herself, but we were impressed she knew which end to get in her mouth and managed to get it there ;) And, subsequent forkfuls (undocumented because I, too, was eating) were actually held by the handle!

Go bug!

15 months old

Grandmas Lani and Leona came to town today with our niece and nephew, so Zoe marked her 15 month milestone by going to the zoo and catching up with the Alonzo side of her family.

I think she knew it was going to be an exciting day because although she was acting awfully sleepy, she wouldn't give it up for a morning nap before we headed out. We thought we were in for a rough time of it when we got there....

but thankfully sleepy Zoe gave way to zonky Zoe.



After about an or so of strolling and snoozing, she woke in time to see the tamarinds (the adorably cute miniature primates with lion-mane-like hair). It took a bit of coaxing, but we finally convinced her that the sights and sounds were worth staying awake for.



She loved the toucans and the turtles but what she loved most of all were the sight and sounds of her big cousins, Hannah and Cameron.



Such a good baby. She never really fussed at all, even though we knew she was exhausted and on high all day long.

We've been thanking her a lot for that lately. Life's been a bit less than routine since we found our new house and put this old one on the market. Bug's been really quite resilient in the face of interrupted routines, streams of new strangers and stressed-out folks. The coming weeks promise to hold more of the same since she'll have more visitors (uncle Greg's in town this week and Grandmas Lani & Leona return towards the end of the month) and more moving-related activities and people coming through. I guess it's good to keep her flexible?

Thankfully, my folks will be taking Zoe on 5/2 so that we can make the most of the moving hours and leave Zoe out of the thick of the fray.

I should catch you up on few things I feel shouldn't be forgotten in these hectic weeks. Our girl has *really* been experimenting more and more on the walking front (sorry, again no pix as the moments are just too exciting to miss for running to grab the camera). She's no longer just thinking about crossing open spaces, she's trying it. SO CUTE. Man, it's so cute.

Zoe's also been working on some of her fine motor skills: attempting to 'put on her socks' and place puzzle pieces where they belong, and channeling her mom's childhood climbing skills.



And she's been lots more creative in her sound-making, mimicking more and more of the words she hears us say. The other day she was saying "cheese" and today it was "Oscar". I love to hear her voice saying more word-like noises! And I know it will still be some time until she really starts using her words, really, but I can already sense some of the communication-fueled frustration falling away (for her and us both!). She *loves* it when we understand her and I know that means she'll only try to be understood with 'words' more and more.

Apologies for the recent posting drought...and I have to warn you that more may follow in the next few weeks...but I promise we'll always be back sooner or later. And thanks to everyone for all the well-wishing for the speedy sale of our house - it obviously worked the right magic ;)

Some recent cuteness:


Every girl should look in the mirror naked and think "Hey, I look great!


Hangin' with Grandma Lani


Tearing it up at Nana & Peperé's house while the house was on for show

Shameless gloating

Shameless plug

We're on the market, as of 12:40 today. So, I'm making my shameless plug to help get the house SOLD!

We *love* this house and wouldn't leave if we didn't feel we had to (need another bath and another bedroom). We've put so much into it I feel like we've given birth to TWO babies in the past 4 years :)

Click here for the listing - and share, share, share!