39 weeks

Last week's picture

Not everyone's ready for the baby...

Well, we're a week away from brother's due date and there's absolutely no news as to whether or not he's on his way anytime soon.  Chris thinks he'll be here on his due date (the 4th) OR on the 1st as a hilARious joke and I swear he's going to not come before the 9th.  Either way, we're ready.  Hospital bags are completely packed, bedroom is ready, the "getting to the hospital and Zoë to grandparent's house" plan is in place; he just needs to get here!  I really want to finish out this last week at school before spring break, though, to have some good closure to that chapter for now.  The closer I get to my last day at school the more sad I get (and yet, I'm TOTALLY ready to be done for now...but ask me again in the fall when all of my coworkers are going back to school).

Zoë's been sick this weekend (again), so we've been dealing with a lot of clinginess and emotional outbursts.  I'm so glad summer's almost here and that hopefully the long bouts of sickness are almost over.  She has become such a helper.  She loves to help put away laundry, is a good helper when cleaning up, and likes to monitor Fiona when she goes outside to go potty.  She has also started going potty on her own, enjoys turning on the bathroom light by herself and even can get up to the toilet by herself using the stool.  It's pretty great!  Both Chris and I are dreading pulling the diapers back out again for the new baby.  :(

We're still going to gymnastics regularly and Zoë loves it.  She sings the songs from class at home all the time and yells, "Beasties!  Home!" at the top of her lungs in the car randomly which is, admittedly, jarring.  We are so impressed with The Little Gym and would recommend it to anybody.  Zoë loves her teacher, Emily, and will try things for her that we would never do just for us.  :)  We ask her who she's going to see every Saturday and she says, without fail, "Emeee" with a big grin on her face. 

Zoë's first attempt at the bars (nearly three months later!) with encouragement from Miss Emily.

Tonight we dyed Easter Eggs, which Zoë had a great time with.  Here are a few pics of our activities lately, hopefully with our next blog post we'll have more news of our baby boy!

Patiently waiting for the tablets to dissolve completely.

Not as gentle of a drop as would have been preferred.

Putting stickers on the eggs.

Finished products

Help smiling from Dad

"Climbing" outside

Dad was in charge of the trip to the grocery store last week...this is what Z wore.

Counting Down Until Baby

Baby's first sand castle!

Chris turned 30 last month and we had a party for him at Magoos (his favorite bar and place to hang out).  He has been mourning the end of his 20s for some odd reason and really dreading turning 30.  I keep telling him how great they are!  I bought a house AND had a baby (two!) in my 30s...how bad could they possibly be?  He is so incredible.  I love watching him with Zoë and all of the time and hard work he puts into our house and our family is admirable.  I think I especially appreciate him now since I feel like the largest lump on the planet growing this baby and not wanting to do ANYTHING when I get home from school every day.

The third trimester is WAY more exhausting than I was ready for.  I've felt like the most lazy person in the world, felt like I can't get enough done by the time this little boy gets here, and know that by the time he gets here I won't get anything done AND it won't really matter at that point, anyway.  :)  Chris has worked so hard on getting both of the kids' rooms done and finished so I could decorate.  With help from Dedo and Grandma again (thank goodness) they've gotten Zoë's new room completely made over (hardwood floors, paint, new trim) and the baby's room re-painted (a glorious orange color) and the furniture for Zoë's room is almost done so Chris can stain it and we can get her old dresser back into the nursery and prepped for baby boy.

It's going to be so weird to bring a baby home from the hospital this time!  Not only because we've already got a walking running, talking, fussing, tantruming toddler on our hands, but because last time around we didn't get to take her home right away and our life revolved around trips to the NICU.  In retrospect, I think those trips were pretty easy (yes, emotionally exhausting, but we weren't ultimately responsible for her care and I could heal from my surgeries without taking care of a baby 24-7).  We're in for a wild, exciting ride and, ready or not, it's going to start in about 3 weeks!

We went to Ocean Shores for the weekend a few weeks ago and had a great time!  The weather was gorgeous (still chilly) and Zoë was fascinated by the water and sand and kites and horses.  :)  It was a fun little getaway just the three of us one last time before baby brother comes.

Our little girl is accomplishing amazing new things, but that's nothing new.  She transitioned to her big girl bed beautifully (really, it couldn't have gone any better).  She LOVES it and doesn't think of the crib as hers any more.  Our only issue has been nap-time lately.  During mid-winter break she napped 2 out of 9 days.  :(  And just when I want to take a nap more than ever, of course.  Her favorite nap-time trick is to poop in her diaper (still has those on during naps and bedtime) and then yell for whomever is home and then hand us the diaper when we open up the door.  This, of course, has led to many, many deep cleanings of her room after multiple similar capers.   Oh, and the last three to four nights have been hour long bedtime marathons ranging from yelling for the potty (HOW does one decide whether or not to let her go potty...wouldn't want to discourage her from going?!), for milk, for her nails to be cut (no lie) and more.  We're still in the early stages of figuring out what the hell we're going to do about this new parenting conundrum...stay tuned.






On a not-so-fun note, Zoë's tantrums are getting a bit more, uh, colorful.  She is definitely strong-willed, sometimes.  I still consider her a pretty darn easy two-year-old, but she's more insistent these days and her new favorite phrase is "hold on" when she's busy doing something and won't do what we ask her to do right away.  It's pretty hilarious but trying when we need to get out of the house.  We've learned that timing is everything (as in...triple the amount of time it takes to get anywhere...).





















We had a wonderful tea party thrown by two of our favorite moms and their boys a few weeks ago to celebrate the new baby.  It was so much fun and Zoë and I were spoiled rotten.  The table was beautiful, the food was yummy, and the company was the best.  The baby group I joined when Zoë was born has been the best thing that has helped to support me in my new journey into motherhood and I love getting together with them and their kids and watching them all grow up together.

Writing letters in the sand.  Teaching moment?  Don't mind if I do...

Dad and Zoë flying our new Olaf kite.  Lots of wind!

Our favorite phrases she says over and over again are:  "Loot" (look), "Hold on", and "OK" (it's adorable the way she puts the inflection into it...she's becoming such a little person).  Also, one of her favorite books now is "Hello, Butch" about how Butch Cougar walks around the WSU campus and people yell "Hello, Butch!" in his general direction.  She LOVES to read it and yell the line, but when she says it, it doesn't sound exactly right if you get my drift.  It's going to be a Seaman Family Video Classic someday, for sure.

23 more days until D-Day...getting so close!

Happy 2nd Birthday Zoë Maxine!

Our little girl is 2!  I can't believe it.  It's really hard to imagine that two years have gone by in what seems like a blink of an eye.  She is an amazing little girl and I'm so thankful for all of the joy she's brought to our family.  We are so very thankful that with her rough start she is a healthy, growing, glowing little girl and perfect in every way (except for that pesky swallowing issue...). 

 

I'm TWO!

We had her 2nd birthday party on Saturday and were surrounded by lots of family and friends.  It was a rainbow theme and I had a great time decorating and Chris did a good job of following directions and doing whatever I asked him to do.  :)  

CHEESE!

Zoë's recent accomplishments:
She can jump with two feet off the ground, she can go potty in the toilet 80% of the time.

She can name all of her friends from preschool and outside of school.

She eats like a horse, seriously.  She eats anything and everything and while she's motivated by a good treat, she doesn't whine and beg for them over good food.

She loves to chase ANYONE who will play with her around the kitchen in laps, over and over and over again.

She's a crazy dancer, bouncer, mover.  She goes through crazy bouts of hyperactivity that can only be attributed to her toddler-hood.

She also is LOUD.  Chris said the other day, "when did she become so noisy?!" When we couldn't have a simple conversation across the dinner table.  Even her Teta said a similar thing on the phone the other day.  She mumbles and screeches and just is generally talking all the time.

She can now climb onto the couch and dinner table bench which is thrilling to not have to lift her up whenever she wants it.

She loves to play make believe and it's impressive the things she'll try to accomplish with her baby and other stuffed friends.  She held baby up against the wall today so she could "go potty", and kept checking in with her every 5 minutes so she could go again.  She loves to cook with her kitchen and play food and absolutely LOVES to have tea parties with whomever will play with her.

Tea party with Daddy and Uncle Drew.

Time for a cupcake.  

YUM!

Endearments:

When Zoë wants you to come with her or follow her, she slaps her thigh and says "come, come",  just like we do to get Fiona to come and follow us.  It's adorable.

She's extremely concerned with everyone having something when she has it (treats, for example), and will go through the list after we hand her one and say, "Mommy?  Daddy?  Me?  Fowo?  Joe?" to make sure everyone has it.  Although, on the other hand, if she doesn't want to share her snack, she'll point and tell us, "own" (get your own), which is just as endearing.

She also loves to give treats in the morning to Fiona and Joe when she and Daddy are leaving the house.

She's extremely affectionate and a great hug and kiss giver.  I love her snuggles when we sit on the couch to watch a movie.

Tackling and body slamming are a few of her favorite things to do in the living room, and enjoys tackling someone (BOOM!), pulling them back up again, and then repeating the process.

Counting in the grocery store "1, 2, 3 GO!" so I then push her really fast down whatever aisle we're in is also a favorite.

We signed up for a gymnastics class once a week at The Little Gym and are so surprised and pleased with how well she's done.  Being the clingy girl she is with new people and new situations, we figured she would not leave our side to do any of the activities during class, but within 10 minutes she was off on her own with us trailing behind her.  I can't wait each week for a new class and I know she's going to learn how to do some amazing things!

First day of "'nastics"

Zoë and Grandpa

Enjoying opening presents.

New gymnastics gear from Teta and Uncle Jed.

She loves the bag as much as she loves the gift.  :)

Things that drive us bonkers:

She can't identify her colors.  I'm really not sure how such a smart girl in lots of other ways can't accomplish this, but she is SO inconsistent and *most* everything is still considered "geen".

She's regressed in falling asleep.  Every single night she cries when we put her down or yells, "Mooooooooommy!  Daaaaaaaaaaaaddy!" for a good 10-20 minutes.  We've tried different bedtimes to no avail.  It makes me nervous to be trying her new big girl bed soon and that that might not go as smoothly as we thought it would...

She is REALLY excited about her new room, though, and loves to play on her new mattress.  We're going to get my childhood frame from my parents to put it on, though, as making the bed is going to be difficult for me throughout the next few months.  :)

Happy happy family.

Birthday girl stats.

We love, love, love her and can't wait to see what this next year holds for our family and our growing girl!

Christmas 2014 (a little belated)

We had a fabulous Christmas with both families this year.  It was wonderful to have Connor back home during his break and Jed and Angela came up for a little over a week, too.  Zoë knew all of their names (something I was extremely happy about since we had been practicing) as soon as they walked in the door.

Loves her Daddy

We made sugar cookies, played with some boyfriends, and had a great holiday overall.  

Really excited about her big girl undies.

Our biggest project was spending a week potty training.  We started the second Sunday of winter break, made Zoë a chart, and began by taking her to the potty every 30 minutes.  After the first day, she would refuse to go when the timer went off, so we decided just to ask her ALL. THE. TIME.  The first few days were ok, a few accidents every day, which was to be expected.  I'm not sure what I was thinking, but I kind of expected her to be potty trained by the end of the three day intensive, stay-at-home potty training window.  Well, she wasn't.  The reminding her every 20 minutes is EXHAUSTING.  She earned a lot of stickers, but definitely needed the reminding and had an accident or two every day regardless of the reminding.  She'd start to pee and then immediately yell "potty", but it would be too late.  Her most endearing quality during this training period is that she wants to line all of her Daniel Tiger figures up on the bathtub to watch her go potty.  This is also super frustrating because it takes FOREVER to make sure that they're all lined up properly and she'll throw a hissy fit if they're not perfect.  :)

We're doing MUCH better now with the potty training.  At daycare she still wears a diaper for most of the day, but it's dry usually, and as soon as she wakes up from her nap she's back in her undies again.  This weekend she's done a much better job of asking to go potty when she has to go and doesn't always have to be prompted to go.  If she's busy playing she can't always be convinced to leave her toys to go, but usually that just means there's an entourage in the bathroom with her.  Still a few accidents every once and a while, but it's looking up.

We're going to be transitioning her into her big girl bed in her new big girl room in a few weeks, but have to wait until her new room is a little more finished to do that.  I can't believe how big she's getting!

Making sugar cookies with Uncle Jed and Teta. 

Santa brought her a new dress up box with lots of fun new dress up clothes!  She insisted on putting as many on as possible at one time.

Zoë slept with some of her Christmas presents she loved them so much...

Playdate with the boyfriends!

Noon Year's Eve at the Covington Library.