"Poppy"

This past Saturday, we were down in the playroom rockin' the toys before heading out to the park when Zoe sauntered up to Dave and I and waved her little fisted thumb before us. This is our all-purpose sign for poop/diaper/change/potty. She then proceeded to step away to...well, to poop!

Dave and I were so surprised and excited we were cheering and giving each other high-fives. So cool. Now, she's used the sign before, but mostly when prompted by us. And she's used it when there was no poop to be seen. So this was major.

And, in an effort to familiarize her with the process, we've also been very recently bringing her poops to the toilet to flushed. She's shown pretty good interest with it all.

So, I picked up a training potty! Or rather, 'poppy' ;)

We're in the introductory stages, and eventually we'll move it into the bathroom to start introducing what it's really used for. But for now, I'll gladly take this!:



Some other recent sweet moments:


Enjoying some quiet time alone. This girl reads more than I do lately!


Sweet time with Buddha. And Buddha in the wake... :)

Uncle Greg came to town

Much belated here on the posting front, but it bears mentioning that my big brother, Greg, came to stay with us while in town to plug in with his employer, Adobe. (Greg has the envious set-up of telecommuting from his lovely home in ME, and traveling out to Seattle ~ 4 times per year to check in with his group...and family! All that and Seattle wages on a ME lifestyle. Not bad!)

Anyhoo, since Greg was in town just prior to Father's Day, we decided to host the whole fam in a Dad celebration. Dave, inspired by my mom's offer to bring an Asian chicken noodle salad (yum), whipped up some pretty great Chinese dishes. Never knew I like oxtail!

Zoe loved having Greg around and was really quite the flirt with him. I swear she got more excited to see him coming through the door at night than she did to see us! No fair! ;)



Uncle Greg showed her how to slap some mean high- and low- fives and was a great facilitator for Z's book reading. I think he was having vicarious visits with his boys, Nick and Tim, who were back home, braving the sweltering heat.



Thanks for crashing with us, Greg - you're welcome back any and every time!

Haircut and Happy Father's Day

It was a full and lovely weekend here at the St. Alonzo's.

Saturday morning, we decided that it was time to snip Zoe's blossoming mullet in the bud, so we headed to the local salon for her first official haircut.

After a few moments of skepticism about the strange woman with the scissors and squirt bottle, she did beautifully.


I figured she'd either do really well or not be game for it at all, but she pulled through like a champ. She may not be the boldest baby, but she really does hold strong in new and strange situations. My girl!

Dave spent much of the weekend cooking up a storm. Soup for me to freeze/take to work, a giant vat of yummy red sauce, lasagna and the best pork chops, ever! He didn't even stop on Father's Day when we were set to head to our favorite Shoreline diner for breakfast. He made individual dutch babies, instead. Fine by me!

He did manage to catch a bit of golf on TV and get in some snuggle time with his baby girl:



While Daddy was 'golfing' and cooking, Zo and I caught a bit of the RARE SUNSHINE (so rare, it's been a record-setting CHILLY season as our pal, Danika noted on her blog). I got in a few runs and Z and I got in some good walks.

Here she is, post walk, in the backyard, searching for flowers among the weeds :)



Zoe's getting more and more sure on her feet, but every now and then still takes a stumble. Check out this year's first skinned knee:



(Ok, barely visible here, but you try taking a close-up of a knee on a 17-month old explorer!)

Zoë at the Rodeo

Zoë at home with Dad = Rodeo days!

At 2:02, she gets bucked off, but gets back on to finish strong! Give that girl a gold belt buckle!

"Mama" and "Daddy No!"

I think Zoe's in a bit of a language explosion currently. She's doing lots and lots more mimicking of various words and then actually re-using them in context. The latest, cutest, addition to her lexicon is "Papple", with the requisite sign, for apple. I just love the sound of Ps from her little mouth.

And I *love* the sound of "Mama". It seems that after months of 'Dada' being the parental word of choice Zoe has a revived love of 'Mama'. Heart-melting sweetness.

And finally, I'm pretty positive that she demonstrated her first strung-together words on Saturday: "Daddy, no!"

Unfortunately, the word choice could be better, but alas, I'm thrilled that our girl is making language strides. Maybe some day soon we'll get a better idea of what's going on inside her head ;)

Random Daddy pix picks:

Helping with the laundry.







Shaking out the pants



Morning banana time with Daddy

New shoes

New skills behoove new 'toys'.

Zoe's new shoes arrived today. What a treat that was for us both! I love new shoes and give myself too few opportunities to enjoy them (hold your tongue, Dave!), so I'm enjoying them vicariously through Zoe ;)

She was very interested in how these new shoes went on differently from all the little Robeez moccasins she's worn her entire life (can you imagine?) and was *very* cute stomping around in them today:



But, these new shoes were obviously WAY too cool to just be worn on the feet. Their velcro straps WAY too enticing to not pull. Their soft leather WAY too smooth to not fondle. Thus:



She then proceeded to march around the playroom HOLDING her new shoes.



Sigh. Argh. Now, I had my own (embarrassing) shoe issues as a child (mom - hold your tongue!), so it's just desserts, I know, for me to have a child with the same thing. But gah! We bought those shoes for WEARING!!

Eventually, though, she spent about as much time working on putting her shoes back on as she did taking them off and carrying them.



And I'm happy to report that I had to remove her shoes when changing her into her PJs this evening. Phew. ;)

Videos

We have been busy taking videos, but not having time/energy to post them. She sure has changed a lot in the last few weeks we have been here.

Learning the stairs.



Showing her body parts.




Spoooooon!!!!!




Showing some new ... 'personality'.




Rocking Chair




Working on her walking.




Horseplay.