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| Helping Daddy make ice cream for Thanksgiving. |
November has been a busy month and I know the next month is only going to get busier! We've successfully decorated for Christmas (read: I insisted on ALL of the decorations coming out the morning after Thanksgiving and Chris spent several FREEZING hours outside today finishing the lights on the house) and had a few more hours on our hands this weekend due to our cancelled trip to the Apple Cup in Pullman. Zoë got really sick right after her surgery, of course, and spent two days snuggling on the couch with us, so we made the responsible decision of not using our tickets (which we're ok about, after watching the game last night).
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| Waiting before her surgery. |
Her surgery went great! I was a nervous wreck, but Seattle Children's knows what the heck they're doing. The doctors and nurses were so nice (I really liked the anesthesiologist) and we were in and out of the hospital within five hours (eating at Burgermaster by noon!). The surgeon didn't find anything huge wrong with her throat, but injected the magical gel that should buy her some time to figure out how to swallow within the next few months. She has a follow up swallow study in just two weeks, so we'll see for sure if it helps. We've noticed this weekend when we give her drinks from our cups that she is doing much better with the thin liquids (no coughing at all!), but are still instructed to thicken until after the swallow study (minus a few tries every once and a while for feedback for the doctor).
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| Zoê is thankful for... |
We had a wonderful Thanksgiving at Chris' parents house and my parents came too! Lots of fun grandparent time for Zoë that day although she didn't eat much (cold was coming on, already not feeling good).
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| Thanksgiving dinner with ALL of her grandparents. |
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| Our little turkey. Happy Thanksgiving! |
I can't believe Zoë is growing so fast. Every day she knows more and more words and more and more phrases. It's absolutely crazy. I'm mourning the fact that I'm losing my baby girl but in awe of her learning and growing into an amazing toddler.
Phrases we've heard come out of her mouth:
"I need this" (pointing to some socks I was folding)
"Bless you"
"Come play"
"Excuse me" (trying to get in your spot, wherever you are sitting or standing)
"Sit, sit"
"Come chase!" (followed by a rousing 50 laps around the fireplace in our house)
And favorite words:
"Fowo" (Fiona)
"Bench" (the kitchen bench)
"Cover" (when she wants her blanket covering her at bedtime or whenever)
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| Trying on mommy's wedding headband. The dress is still too big. ;) |
I know Zoë's upcoming birthday is still two months away, but we have a 2-year-old on our hands now. Her tantrums have become more frequent and much more likely to happen at the drop of a hat. We had quite the eventful start to our week when the daycare report on a Monday a few weeks ago was "Zoë tackled another child, took her to the ground, and attempted to bite her on the shoulder". While the mental picture of our feisty red-headed firstborn doing this is pretty darn funny, she has never done anything like it before and it worries me, and makes me feel guilty, of course. I know all kids go through periods where their behavior HAS to be redirected but, of course, thought we were immune to this particular parenting problem. This was definitely not a parenting hurdle Chris and I were ready to tackle and has caused me some anguish two weeks ago. Luckily, she was better behaved throughout the week (despite melting down when toys she was
previously playing with were picked up by other kids) and I'm hoping we can curtail any future tackles.
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Family pictures, taken by our generous and talented friend Karah. :)
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We are sure enjoying our little girl and are more than excited to also announce the addition of her little brother, coming in April 2015. :) Zoë has NO idea what she's in for and will probably have a hard time sharing mommy, for sure, but every once and a while when I ask her "where is your baby brother?", she'll point to my belly and then give it a gentle kiss. Awwwwwwwwww.
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| Someone doesn't want to share mommy and daddy... |
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| Go Cougs! |
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| OK, we're back to being ok about this (mostly because she;s holding baby) |
