A Thanksgiving (and beyond) Gallery of Firsts

Not a first, just pretty darn cute.

Also not a first, but cute. 

Look at those two teeth!

First tubby in the big girl tub.

First Thanksgiving!

Zoë and Grandma

Thanksgiving Dress

The Seaman Family

First swing with Dedo!

Thanksgiving dress with vest.

Kolczynski Family

First Thanksgiving Dinner

First horsey ride (loved it, balanced like a champ!)

First bubble bath

First bubble bath beard

First Christmas Light Decor in Bedroom 

First Christmas jammies!!!

Adorable baby girl (and husband)

Ten Months!

Zoë's new favorite sound is 'da da da'.  In fact, she's become quite the regular talker.  While crawling around, while scooping cheerios up on her high chair tray, while laying on the changing table.  'Da da da' the whole time.  It's pretty adorable and I feel like she's initiating a conversation with me!

10 months already!

Block towers are her favorite!

First day with play dough

Sunday we played with play dough.  Well, Zoë tried to eat it for about 20 minutes and I tried to keep it out of her mouth for 20 minutes.  I think as she gets a little older it'll be more intriguing for her.  I made a home-made play dough recipe that's made with rice cereal and since we have A TON of that I figured it was a good one to try.  It was super easy and fun and I will definitely make it again.

She's eating like a champ, sometimes three times a day.  Aaaaaand she got a second tooth last weekend.  We've now added yogurt, applesauce, and some cheerios to a regular day.  My favorite new development is that she'll share cheerios with us!  She'll hold her hand up and smile a great big smile when we suck it out of her fingers.  Ah!  So cute!  Her OT and PT at Children's Therapy tell us to keep trying new foods, but we tried sweet potato fries tonight and she gagged on a small piece and threw up.  Three times.  It was really soft but apparently not soft enough?  We're just waiting for this developmental milestone to click with her because the gagging and vomiting after eating small pieces of anything is tiresome (though she's just fine with Cheerios, of course).

Apple!

On that note, both of the amazing women that saw her yesterday at Children's Therapy said that Zoë is doing just great.  In fact, the physical therapist said she wished she could get Zoë's movements on video camera because they are just so perfect; gracefully moving from her tummy to her side and twisting back and forth.  So that's great.  :)  She said that the going from the tummy to a sitting position and full fledged crawling on hands and knees will come.

Get that glass, Zoë!

Zoë also loves to drink out of glasses.  Any kind (except a sippy cup!).  The therapists told us to get her a sippy cup that doesn't have a spill proof lid (they said it was a parent convenience) because it'll teach her to drink out of a cup faster than one that she has to actually suck out of (like a bottle) since that's the end goal, anyway.  So, I guess I'll be shopping this weekend for a new cup.  :)

Facetime with Baba and Dedo

Her sleeping has been better, too.  She still wakes up in the middle of the night once but we go in, reset the pacifier, and she falls back to sleep instead of insisting that she come to bed with us.  We're getting much more sleep, for sure.

The holidays are going to be so much fun, we have lots of fun things planned (pictures with Santa, snowflake lane in Bellevue, Zoolights, family time, yay!) and lots of picture opportunities, too.  :)

Tooth!

We have a tooth!  We were at a friend's house on Friday when I rudely halted the conversation we were having by shrieking, "She's got a tooth!" after doing my daily feel around Zoë's gums for one.  So exciting!  It was so sharp and I didn't end up seeing it until Saturday, but it's definitely there.  I'm both thrilled and sad that her gummy baby smile is changing.  She was oh-so-cranky on Sunday through about Tuesday mid-day and we were really having a hard time with our new fussy girl.  I thought babies were supposed to have a hard time BEFORE the tooth broke through the gums?  Hmmm...an anomaly as always.

Also, Zoë is definitely close to officially crawling.  She gets up on her knees and rocks back and forth often and there are no boundaries for where she goes now.  And she's quick!  We're working on getting a gate for the stairs, and we have to cover the outlets and do other baby proofing tasks within the next few days.  Crazy!

I've had a lot more of the moments lately, vacillating between feeling so excited for the newest milestone and sad that she's growing so fast.  I just can't believe that we're so close to her first birthday and she's hitting so many big milestones.

Her favorite position, hanging out on her side.  Chris calls it her "Jane Fonda".

And, to swing in the opposite direction, Zoë hasn't been sleeping very well for the past two months.  Since about mid-September, she's been waking up once or twice in the middle of the night and needing some middle-of-the-night consoling.  Until very recently (about the last week and a half), we were able to put her pacifier back in her mouth and she'd go back to sleep.  Now, she won't take the pacifier and swats it out of our hands.  She'll cry until we pick her up.  We can sit with her in the glider until she falls asleep again, but the moment we set her back in her crib she's awake and crying.  If we bring her in to sleep with us she falls fast asleep until morning.  So frustrating!  We thought at first it was related to all of the new growing she's doing, but we are pretty sure we're being played now.  We can add even more evidence to the fact she's learned how to play us.  She's now crying and fussing if we leave her for too long playing by herself.  The minute we pick her up she's fine.  :)  It's been quite a frustrating week, but we're sure glad we get lots of smiles still in between the fussing and not sleeping.  She's still a pretty cute little girl!  At least the crying and fussing is accompanied by the arms up gesture she makes when we come to pick her up.  I love that!

Having fun with mashed potatoes

One more week until her 10 month birthday, I can't believe it.

Officially counting down until Christmas

The red cups came out at Starbucks on November 1st and I am officially on a Christmas countdown.  Christmastime is always my favorite time of the year, but I know this year is going to be so much more amazing and special because it's Zoë's first!  We even sent Teta and Uncle Jed a special Kolczynski Family Tradition- the paper chain countdown.  We're excited they're coming for Christmas!  It will be the first time Uncle Jed will meet her and she's so much different since Teta was here in April.

We've been having fun with our new camera, and Zoë's been having fun with blocks.  She's doing a fierce army crawl and has gotten up on her knees a few times while on her tummy, but hasn't traveled anywhere on them yet.