Merry Christmas

We had such a nice Christmas for Zoë's first!  We started a new tradition of only traveling to one set of grandparents during the two day stint and hosting the other family at our house.  It was great!  The Seamans came over on Christmas Eve, Chris made a roast goose ("Doesn't that sound Christmas-ey?"-Chris), and we had a great day together.

Chris and his goose.

Vicki making my favorite...cubed yams.  Yum!

Uncle Connor is so funny!

Grandpa and Uncle Connor

Zoë enjoyed the ribbon.

A lot.

Christmas Eve Dinner

Probably Zoë's favorite gift this year, My Pal Violet, from Joselyn (and Lesley and Ipo!).  We programmed her to say Zoë's name.  The glee on her face when we opened that package was perfect.

After Zoë went to bed (we read The Grinch!), Santa laid out the presents.  Chris and I opened the gifts we gave to each other and we started the Christmas tradition of a friendly game of RISK (we had to play twice because I lost so quickly the first one...).

Christmas morning started early (6:45!).  Someone must have known Santa had been here!  Zoë opened her presents and we ate madelines that Chris made.  Yum!  Many of the presents Zoë got from us this year were from a consignment sale, which I'm pretty proud of.  I made sure to wipe everything down well, but they're in great shape and we didn't have to pay full price.  Nice.

Mom was really excited about the jingle bell instrument.

 On Christmas day we went to the Kolczynski house in the afternoon.  It was a fun afternoon playing and eating and opening stockings and presents.  Zoë didn't nap well but did really well (except at dinner time, of course).

Loves playing with Dedo.

Christmas dinner

Checking out her new cell phone from Teta and Uncle Jed.

Jerseys around this Christmas!

We are so lucky to be surrounded by such amazing family!  How fun to be able to see EVERYONE for Zoë's first Christmas.  We hope you enjoyed your holiday with your family!

Eleven Months!

Ah!  Eleven months and Christmastime.

On the move!

I mean, on the run!

What a great month!  We've got a mover on our hands.  She does not. sit. still.  She wants to pull herself up on everything (including Fiona, Mom, Dad, and the toilet, ewwwww).  Other tricks include a semi-wave that she uses at random times (it's not assigned to hello or goodbye yet), pulling herself up in her crib and crying when she doesn't want to nap, making a bee-line for the dog's water dish, and she is a constant talker.  It's incoherent, of course, but it's like she's having a mini conversation with herself at all times.  She's finally crawling on her hands and knees the majority of the time instead of the army crawl she's been doing for two months and she LOVES to walk when someone's holding her hands.  She can cruise around holding onto the furniture, too.

Her favorite foods of the month include eggs, cheese, chips (I mean, who doesn't LOVE chips?), yogurt, and satsumas.  She is doing far less gagging on food and can make a good amount of the food actually in her mouth and leave it there.

The last couple of days she's become pretty clingy and a bit more fussy for her normal temperament.  Maybe she's getting some more teeth?  We can't feel anything, but I'm hoping that's the reason for her out-of-sorts behavior the last couple of days.  One of the other reasons she's a bit off is because TETA AND UNCLE JED ARE HERE!!!  Naps?  Who needs 'em?  On their first day in town yesterday she napped for a total of 30 minutes all day.  Sheesh.

We're so glad to have them in town and spend time with us and Zoë.  She's such a lucky girl to have a Teta like Angela and I have.  :)

Zoë warmed up to Uncle Jed right away

Zzzzzzzzz with Teta

The next few days are crazy busy, but I'm looking forward to all of the festivities.  Tomorrow is the Seahawks game where my Dad is going to be recognized for earning the Heroes in the Classroom award, Monday is breakfast with Chris' grandma and family, and then Christmas Eve and Christmas are big family days.  I'm looking forward to hosting the Seaman family on Christmas Eve for our first hosting job on a holiday.  Chris is REALLY excited for the Christmas goose we are making for the occasion (I've never had goose, have you?!).  Christmas day will bring our trip to the Kolczynski family house later in the afternoon.  It's important to us that we have some of our own little family time in the evening on Christmas Eve and Christmas Morning, so this new tradition of hosting one day and only traveling to one house on the other will be nice.

More pictures to come from Zoë's first Christmas later this week!  Merry Christmas to all of you.  :)  We hope you enjoy a week full of family, good food, and lots of tradition (that's my favorite!).

The Changing Table Olympics, and Other Fun Games

Zoë is no longer sitting still.  No, really, not at all.  She moves everywhere!  She crawls wherever she has access to in the house, squirms on the changing table making it impossible to change her diaper let along get her into any clothes.  We've taken to giving her a toy while she's being changed to hopefully distract her for the 30 seconds we need to get the job done.  She's learned how to pull herself up on the couch from her tummy to a standing position.  She's only fallen backwards and bonked her head once, but I'm sure this is going to happen more and more.  She has no fear, really.  She's gotten a lot more clingy, too, especially when she's tired, though she has also been reluctant to leave daycare when either of us go to pick her up.  I thought that wasn't supposed to happen until she was older and wanting to stay to play, but apparently I was mistaken.

Her new favorite thing is to shake everything she comes across to see if it makes any noise.  She's got a fun jingle bell toy in her stocking that we're dying to give her but "it's a Christmas present!", so it has to wait.  I think there may be some other musical instruments in her future for Christmas, so she'll LOVE exploring those.

We've been keeping up with the holiday traditions we've been keeping for the past few years and adding a few more.  Zoë saw Santa without any tears and after standing in line for only an hour.  We asked the photographer what we should do with her and she said, "Just back her up to Santa so she can't see him, set her on his lap and back away so she doesn't even know he's there".  And it worked!
























We went and got a Christmas tree, decorated the house, and have done some baking to make baskets for our neighbors.  Stockings were purchased that match like a good family's should.  Zoë is even drinking from a bottle with Santa on it.  :)

Tonight we went to Snowflake Lane in Bellevue.  Zoë slept for 14 (!) hours last night, so we were a little nervous about how today was going to go anyway, but adding in a drum show with loud music and crowds just at her bedtime and we thought we would be playing with fire.  We bundled her up for the 27 degree weather and she watched the show wide-eyed but with no tears.  Next year it'll be more fun, but I'm glad we went because I love the show!  If that doesn't put someone in the holiday spirit, I'm not sure what would.

All bundled up!

Chris has been working non stop on the playroom down in the basement (with his deadline of the beginning of January so I can furnish and decorate it by Zoë's birthday party).  So far he has ripped up all of the carpet, knocked out a wall to gain us some floor space, installed can lights, put up the drywall, mudded and taped, and now textured the walls to prepare them for painting.  Now, all that will be left is painting and installing the floor (and the trim, and fixing the door that the thieves kicked in a couple of months ago, etc.).  I'm sure he's looking forward to the job being done, he's working so hard all of the time.  I'm looking forward to the toys and supplies being contained in one place in the house.  :)

In addition to participating in all of the holiday fun, I've been doing more planning for Zoë's birthday party.  I can't wait!  It's going to be so much fun and we're looking forward to spending time with our friends (because, let's be honest, this party is more for us than for her!).

Birthday party invitation photo shoot.

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.  :)