Sobbing Through September

Our darling little angel is being a little bit of a, um, challenge.

We hope she's teething.  She cries for no reason, demands to be held and then pushes me away (she still on the mom-only train, poor dad).  She is unreasonably (to us) upset about the simplest things and is just not herself in general.  The tears and crying has got to stop!  She goes to bed really easily, so maybe it's a growth spurt, too?  We don't know, but we're hoping that it doesn't last too much longer.

In other great news, she is such a big kid!  She talks and communicates and repeats almost any word we say.  She'll just come out and say, "apple" and point to one and demand to eat it.  It's crazy!  She's even stringing a few words together: "Hi, Joe", "I see".

She dances like a mad-woman when there is music on.  She has started the most adorable waddle walk where she sways back and forth dramatically with her whole body.

She is absolutely in love with Fiona and Joe (although Joe is still less than thrilled with her) and will chase them around and give them hugs.  She's sleeping great again, back to bed around 7pm and then up between 6:30-7:30 (more often on the earlier side than not).

And, her baby is still the love of her life.  She'll chant "Baby! Baby!" in the car, when she wakes up, in the grocery store, anywhere.  She drags her around the house, wraps her up, unwraps her, feeds her, and demands that she sits at the dinner table with us.  She's overprotective and shrieks if any other child comes close to her baby whether she's holding her or not.

Zoë and her beloved baby.

A few weeks ago Zoë couldn't put a puzzle together to save her life.  My parents laughed at how impatient I was while they watched the two of us over a Facetime session.  I couldn't believe she could do all of these amazing things and yet a puzzle was so difficult for her.  It was like she was blindfolded, she wouldn't match shapes or colors and it would drive me up the wall.  About a week and a half ago it just clicked and one day she could do it!  I was so proud of her and now she's a puzzle pro.  :)

Now a puzzle master!

This month has been busy with the start up of school again.  Chris went to Ambler, Alaska for a week to visit Connor, which was a fun new adventure.  Zoë went to the Puyallup Fair twice and, despite our wanting to shove every delicious fair food into her face possible, she just wasn't that into eating, though she did love the animals.

We're heading into fall with lots of fun ahead of us with Halloween, Thanksgiving, and Zoë's second Christmas!!!

Zoë loves getting eggs from the chickens with Baba!

End of Summer

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It's been a busy month and I feel super guilty for not writing an update.  Zoë's going to have a gap in her baby book!  :)

This summer has been the cling-to-mom-all-the-time summer and it's been a bit rough in that regard.  I feel so badly for Chris because there are times when it can be Mom and Only Mom to help her calm down or hold her or...just be.

The biggest news is that a few weeks ago Zoë had another swallow study and she is not doing any better in that department.  The occupational therapist says it's definitely a timing issue (she just doesn't know how to swallow thin liquids and the timing of her epiglottis closing sucks) but we don't know if it's a timing and structural issue.  Typically, if it's only a timing issue, kids will get better at swallowing and this issue will resolve on its own.  Unfortunately, Zoë's not getting any better at swallowing.  Because Zoë was born so early she may have a cleft in her throat which means that no matter how fast her epiglottis closes there may still be a gap where liquid can go down into her lungs.  The tricky thing is that usually if it's a structural issue, it doesn't matter how much thickener you add and the kid will still have trouble with some of it penetrating into the lungs.  What we've seen consistently is that once we get to "nectar thick", Zoë doesn't have any penetration...so, she's kind of an enigma.  We will be referred to an ENT at Children's Hospital where they'll probably tell us she needs a scope and will have to be put under anesthesia to do it because of her age (too young to be able to explain it to her and too old for her not to be able to fight it).  Once scoped, if they find that it's a structural issue as suspected, they can put in a kind of dissolvable goo that will add structure to the back of her throat and allow her to learn to swallow properly.  The therapist said that usually, but the time it dissolves, kids can deal with the structural difference and do just fine.  Sometimes they go right back to their old swallowing habits at which point she'd need another surgery to add more permanent structure to her throat.

This, of course, terrifies me.  I keep picturing my tiny little baby on a huge surgical table.  It's definitely a new hurdle and one I was hoping we wouldn't have to jump.  But, it's here and this will make her better.  I keep telling myself that this is NOTHING compared to the health problems we could be dealing with right now and that helps a little bit.

Trip to Orkila.  Future Goody Glacier in the house!

In more fun news, we went camping on Orcas Island a couple of weeks ago and had so much fun!  It took us forever to get up to the island (of course, ferries), but we were well prepared for the rain the first night and any bouts of hunger (I WAY overpacked snacks).  We were not prepared for the inconsolable wailing from Zoë at 1 in the morning the first night.  Chris took her into the car and slept with her, uncomfortably, for the rest of the night, bless him.  She did much better the second night.  :)  We went and visited Orkila, which was fun to walk around and share with Chris and picture Zoë there in 8 short years.  We had delicious pizza in Eastsound, walked around the shops, and had marshmallows around the fire (we were lucky to have because the first night there was a burn ban) the second night.  Lots of fun and we're totally ready for the next trip (and mom even has an excel spreadsheet for packing now).

Zoë is talking (gibberish) non-stop now, with a few intelligible words thrown in every once and a while.  She consistently says 'please' (reminders are needed 50% of the time) and has uttered a 'thank you' every now and then.  She has peed in the potty many times!  Yesterday she even asked to go potty and then WENT!  We aren't doing any formal training, yet, but figure once winter break rolls around we'll commit to the naked three day training period and have her trained before she's 2 (of course, I'm sure she'll have other ideas...).

Having a chat with Mom.

Throwing rocks with Dad.

Looking out the window on the ferry.

She's still obsessed with her baby doll AND any babies she sees when we're out and about.  She actually calls most small children 'baby' and sometimes I have to remind her that the one she is referring to is actually older than her!  There is a small baby at daycare that she took a great interest in last week when she went for a day...I'm sure it's going to drive Lesley nuts how obsessed she is.  :)  Dropping her off at daycare last week wasn't nearly as traumatic as it was last year.  I know she has so much fun there, is so well taken care of, and probably enjoyed her busy day way more with all of the kids there than she does alone with me.  I am just sad because I don't get any more time to play.  :(

Beautiful, beautiful girl.

She insists that I come play with her sometimes, which is heart-melting.  She'll demand that I stand up and do "Ring Around the Rosie" with her and then twirl and twirl and twirl.

SUMMER! Week 3, 4, 5

Ahhhhh, I got way behind!  Here's a quick rundown of what we've been doing...then I'll do an update about Zoë's progress from the doctor last week and our recent adventures in pacifier-less sleep.

Summer Day 15: S'mores with Dad

Saturday brought along another BBQ at home with lots of fun people.  Zoë, as always, enjoyed the s'mores.  She went to bed at 10:00.  I'm blaming the Fourth of July...but we found out throughout this week that it wasn't just a one-night thing.  She's had a terrible time sleeping this week.  Not sure if it's teeth, or the heat, or just a sleep regression.  But it's been miserable.  She cried for an hour in her crib on Monday night and it broke my heart.  Trying to get her on a schedule before we go to Cleveland on Thursday was the plan...but she's been protesting the plan.  As usual.

Summer Day 16: Celebrating Grandpa's birthday.

Sunday was Grandpa's birthday, so Grandma and Grandpa came over for a BBQ, which was wonderful!  I say it often and mean it: Zoë's very lucky to have four grandparents in her life on a regular basis who loves her to pieces.  And I'm lucky to watch them love her, too!  The corn was a big hit as usual, and Zoë even devoured her own cob this time (she actually made a pretty big dent in it, suprisingly enough).

Summer Day 17: Zoë says, "I can't believe 6th graders have such a hard time with lockers.  I can do two at once!"

On Monday Zoë and I took a trip to McKnight to pick up mom's keys and ended up doing a few hours worth of work moving boxes into her new classroom.  Zoë was a champ, but all good things must come to an end.  In the early evening, we met the Nelson family at the Angle Lake Spray Park (which we have never been to).  Zoë was so tentative with the water and did one good lap around with one of the older daycare kiddos before she became super clingy and refused to go back in.  I just wanted to have her splash around and have fun!

Summer Day 18: Mom had a productive day with her grizzled PLC while Zoë played with Grandma and Grandpa

Tuesday meant I spent the day at school working with my new amazing PLC (woo hoo!) and Zoë got to spend the day at Grandma and Grandpa's house in Tacoma.  She LOVED the sprinkler (which is a good step in the right direction since it was just yesterday that she hated the water).

Summer Day 19: Tickle Toon Typhoon concert...but someone was more interested in playing in the water.

Wednesday brought a really fun event: the Tickle Toon Typhoon concert at Kent Station.  I honestly don't remember them from childhood (give me Tim Noah and Raffi and I can sing you a bunch of songs!), but apparently they've been around forever.  My parents were very excited to go so we met them (and Zoë's boyfriend, Ethan with his parents) for lunch at Panera and then the concert.  I would say that Zoë listened to about two songs of the hour long concert and spent the rest of the time playing in the splash park with Dedo.  I was thrilled to see her run through the water since the week before when we took her to play she wouldn't spend more than two minutes running through it.  Suffice it to say, she's hooked on splash parks, now, and I'm excited to take her to more of them throughout the rest of the summer.

Summer Day 20: Red eye to Cleveland

At 10:30pm we boarded a plane for a four hour ride to Cleveland.  Zoë finally fell asleep two hours into the trip in Chris' arms (thank goodness for him...he is a trooper for being able to relax while still holding a twenty pound toddler in his arms) and then was a champ the next day, too.

Summer Day 21: Made it to Cleveland!

We stayed at my Teta and Uncle Larry's house about an hour outside of Cleveland and had a great time!  My parents and Angela made the trip, too, and we had lots of good family time, including seeing my Baba a couple of times.  She was even convinced to come out to Teta's house and we got tons of good family pictures.

This one might need to be photoshopped.  We have an amazing one of Baba smiling but Chris isn't in it...

Four generations!

Zoë and her lovely Teta

My Teta was so excited when Zoë finally let her hold her!

Summer Day 22: Family reunion!  Lots of Tetas and Babas in attendance.

Summer Day 23: Winery Tours

 Teta and Uncle Larry live out in wine country and are within a few minute's drive from several great wineries  We had fun and Uncle Skip, Michelle, and their two girls joined us, too!

It's all in the family, apparently.  And obviously Chris hasn't been affected yet.  

Summer Day 24: Two Tetas and a baby (and a date day at Cedar Point).

Chris and I snuck away on our last full day in Ohio to go to Cedar Point!  We arrived there before the park officially opened, and rode 18 roller coasters by 4:30pm.  We were very proud of ourselves and had a lot of fun!  We'd never done an amusement park together, so doing 'firsts' is still fun for us.

Summer Day 25: Last day in Cleveland and now on to Minneapolis!

 On our way out of town we stopped by Baba's place again to spend a few last minutes with her.  I'm so thankful we went and that I got to see her after all of her medical issues this past 8 months.  She was pretty smitten with Zoë, too.  :)

While Chris headed straight home, Zoë and I boarded a plan on our own to go visit the Nuckleys in Minneapolis.  We were lucky because the plane wasn't full, so Zoë had her own chair.  She was super wiggly and didn't nap at all on this day, but she ended up being a model citizen, once again.

Summer Day 26: First juice box, time with auntie Nicole, (and Uncle David) and new pal Stella.  Perfect summer day.

 On our second day in Minneapolis Nicole and David took us to a fun BBQ outside where Zoë enjoyed her first juice box ever (seriously, she sucked it down...didn't even set it down until it was gone).  She is enamored by Stella and I think the feeling is pretty mutual.

Summer Day 27: Lots of fun playing outside today!

Summer Day 28: Playdough glee!

 My favorite part about visiting Nicole is that no matter how long it's been since we've seen each other it is oh-so-easy to fall back into our friendship and talks.  Chris LOVES (sarcasm) it, too, because I always end up having phone conversations like, "Nicole has a new craft room with really cool furniture that I think I need.  Nicole has a membership at the Y and with the childcare there it really makes sense for us to have a membership.  Nicole and David and Stella do music lessons on Saturdays together and the same company does music lessons in Seattle."  Etc., etc., etc.

Summer Day 29: I sure do love this little girl.  BBQ fun. 

Summer Day 30: Thingamabobs?  I've got twenty.

I swear I did not force her to do this.  It was completely spontaneous at dinner time and hilarious.

Summer Day 31: Silly in the bathtub. 

Summer Day 32: Love seeing old friends.

 My friend Carlie and her son Max (a month older than Zoë) were in town from Colorado this week and I'm so thankful we got to go spend a couple of hours with them.  It's fun to be a mom at the same time as a good friend and see how cute the kiddos are side by side.

Summer Day 33: Playing dress up on a really rainy day.

Summer Day 34: 18 month drs appointment followed by a treat for shots and then
a fun crafty playdate with one of our favorites.

Zoë's 18 month appointment went so well and she BARELY shed a tear with her shot, I was shocked.  She started to cry, looked up at me, and then stopped.  So, she got a birthday cake pop (let's be honest, she was going to get one anyway).  And then we went and did some crafting with one of her boyfriends to make her second stepping stone.  It's now super fun to see them side-by-side in the garden and see just how much she's grown in a year!  I can't wait until we have a garden full (ok, I totally can...please don't grow up little girl!).

Summer Day 35: Day one of the no-pacifier project means baby girl is fighting bedtime.  Bigtime.

 More on this later.  Suffice it to say, this has been a ROUGH week.

Summer Day 36: Uncle Connor's going away party.

Uncle Connor is moving to Alaska to teach middle and high school students in just two short weeks.  We went to his going away party on Saturday and had a wonderful time.  Their family has such nice friends that it makes parties like these very fun to go to.  And, of course, it's always nice to have a little hip-hugger (Z) that's extra cute.

Physical Therapy Graduate!

Summer Day 8: Saturday BBQs begin

We love having people over to our house and are so thankful that lots of you are willing to come to us.  :)  Our Saturday Summer BBQs have begun and we had the Rondestvedt family and Heather over last weekend.  We had delicious hot dogs, salad, and chips and several yummy dips.  And, of course, s'mores.  Karah also brought her newest s'mores bar find and it.was.amazing.  Zoë enjoyed sitting on the new bench Dad made for her.

Summer Day 9: Brunch with Baba and Dedo to celebrate Baba's birthday!

On Sunday we went to Anthony's to celebrate my mom's birthday with brunch.  She was a champ and made it all the way up the stairs on her new knee (I'm so proud of my mom...she's a tough nut).  I do think that the french toast was calling her name at the top for extra motivation, though.  Zoë did a pretty good job until the very end of breakfast and then started to get a little antsy, but we made it.

Summer Day 10: Playdate with her boyfriends

Sadly, we only got an hour in of play since I had to go to the dentist, but that was long enough to get some cute pictures.  I'm thankful every time I see or talk to one of my mommy group friends and when Zoë gets a chance to play with some of her boyfriends (there are just so many!).

Summer Day 11: Teriyaki, an epic nap, and playing with ribbons with Dedo.  Boom!

We went out to Enumclaw to keep my mom company on Tuesday and were pleasantly surprised to find Dedo there, too (he originally had jury duty, but an exploded well pump helped to delay his civic duty for a while).  Zoë had teriyaki for the first time and it was a hit.  She ate half of my plate, I swear.  My parents were adorable watching her eat and I enjoyed watching them as much as they enjoyed watching her.  :)  After her nap she had a good time playing with ribbons with Dedo and throwing them down on the ground while yelling, "BOOM!".  

Summer Day 12: Our little physical therapy graduate!

The best part of this week, by far, has been our physical and occupational therapy appointment with Zoë's therapists, Lauren and Amy.  Honestly, I look forward to these appointments immensely because they're generally really positive.  I'm not sure how I'd feel if our little girl was struggling, so take this with a grain of salt.

Zoë is performing at the 18-21 month range for physical abilities (that's a month to four months ahead, for all of those who need me to do the math for them).  What?!  Her fine and gross motor skills are awesome (gross is more at the 18 month mark, her fine motor skills are the gifted ones).  It was so much fun to watch her put pegs into holes and try to find legos under clear blocks and color and...well, it's just fun.  Lauren told us that she's all caught up and doesn't need to see her anymore.  That's both :) and :(.  We get such great tips from both of them each time we see them and feel like we're the best parents in the world (we know we're not, but it's nice to hear every three months from a team of professionals).

As far as her occupational therapy goes, she's hitting the correct milestones (minus two: naming three body parts--she can do two--and identifying the activities seen in pictures, which are things that Amy told us she probably just can't do because of lack of experience, not because she can't actually do them) and would have graduated occupational therapy EXCEPT for her blasted swallowing.   She'll have another swallow study here within the next few weeks and hopefully we'll have gotten past any need for the thickener we still put into the liquids she drinks.  And, if the swallow study is clear, we'll have one more follow up with Amy in October.  If not...well...we'll cross that bridge when we get there.  Amy and the other Amy (the one that does the studies) are baffled as to why she's still struggling with the swallowing when she's doing fine everywhere else developmentally, so Z's a bit of an anomaly.  We'll see...

Summer Day 13: Little Tourist

On Thursday we had a busy day going to see Kari and Becky and Jett for some late afternoon snacks (tried some mozzarella sticks for the first time...she was a huge fan) at the Ram in Tacoma and then went and visited Chris' friend Ryan and his daughter Grace for dinner.  We had a great time and glad to make the trip (despite some horrific holiday traffic) down to have an evening with fun friends.

Summer Day 14: Happy Fourth of July!

Happy Fourth of July!  We had a fun BBQ over at the Nelson Family's house (Zoë felt right at home) and then walked down to the Des Moines waterfront to see the spectacular fireworks show that went on at about 10:15pm.  We were skeptical about how long she would make it before she crashed but she actually stayed awake the entire time and was mesmerized by the fireworks.  The walk back home was a bit rough, she insisted on being carried and wouldn't sit in her stroller, but other than that we had a great time!

Fireworks!