"but she has teeth!"

I came downstairs this morning after getting ready to find Zoe playing on the floor and Grey running around. I went to get Zoe dressed and noticed she was chewing on something in her little fist. I opened her hand to find a pretzel stick that was pretty soggy. Zippy comes in at that point and I show him what Zoe had found. He immediately turned to Grey and asked him if he gave it to her. He said "yes, daddy" like he was proud of himself. When we reminded him he is NOT suppose to give her food and that she cant eat he looked confused and said, "but she has teeth?!!" I love two year old logic :)

Zoe: Five Months

Dear Zoe:

You were in Missouri for your actual five month birthday. We spent the night with Grandpa O and Granny Jo before heading over to Grandma Georgi and Gigi's house. When you woke up that morning as your normal cheery self, you did not have any teeth. We spent the day visiting people before heading back to take a nap. When you woke up from your nap with Grandma Georgi, you had your TWO front bottom teeth!! That must have been a good nap :)

I am hoping the teeth are the reason why your sleeping habits have completely gone crazy. You slept early on from 8-4, then would eat and go back to sleep until 8 am.  Now we do good if you sleep from 8 pm to midnight...then you wake up every two hours after that.  Occasionally, you don't want to go back to sleep and would rather just practice all your new rolling skills along with one of your favorite new skills, scream talking.  It is a really cute noise but could you save it for in between the hours of 8 am and 8 pm?  Please? :) Luckily, your smile charms your daddy and he will get up with you even if it is 5:30 am. He really is the best!

You are getting better at sitting up, you can sit for a few seconds before tumbling over or folding forward in half. You like to laugh when you sit up and you try to sit up all the time now. You will squirm and squirm and squirm on our laps until we put you in a sitting position....then smile and squeal with happiness. Those squeals and belly laughs are the best!

It won't be long before you start crawling. You still roll every where but you have started going all the way up on your arms...then you will go head down and get on your tiptoes...you just can't seem to get your front end and back end to work together! I am hoping we have some more time but you are one determined little girl.

You have started sitting with us at the table. If you see all of us there, you will start complaining until we have you join us. You like to watch us eat and love it when I give you a spoon to practice with. Your sweet brother has only tried to help you once get it into your mouth. Luckily, we were right there and pulled it out of the back of your throat before you ended up puking all over :) He is such a big help!


I still can't get over how fast you are growing up. Can't wait to celebrate your 1/2 birthday next month!!

Love,
Momma

Another fun filled weekend with the DeShazer's! I am working 30 hours a week now that I am back so I get to have a three day weekend EVERY weekend. I am LOVING it :) Our weekend was filled with fun visits from old friends and local adventures.

Thursday night, Stephanie arrived to stay for a couple of nights. It started with making brownies...and ended with a parade!

 Caught red handed...Steph tried to convince me they weren't licking the beater....

 

 Friday, we headed out to Armstrong Woods for a little hike with the kids. We originally planned to spend the day at the beach but we thought it would be too cold.

 Grey still fit comfortably in the ergo :)

 We stopped at Goat Rock on the way to the Boat House in Bodega Bay for lunch and it was actually a fantastic day at the beach. The water was almost Caribbean sea blue...absolutely breathtaking!

 Soaking in some warmth

 Andrew came to play too while Michelle had to work Friday night. Grey and he made masks for the parade Grey was going to be in on Saturday. A scary ball faced monster!!

 The only picture of Grey holding onto his mask...which was the first of many homework assignments, I am sure!

 The parade was for Cotati's Kids' Day Festival and the parade theme was Bedtime Stories. We walked with the preschool which had sent out an email letting us know the theme and suggested we all dress in jammies. Zippy, Steph, and I were the only adults dress in our pjs!

 Meeting Lobo, the SSU mascot

 Grey's preschool float "There's a Monster Under My Bed"

 The parade ended close to where Michelle, Andrew, and Grammie were sitting so we joined them to watch the rest of the parade. The boys are pointing to Andrew's balloon that was going "up in the sky."

 Waiting in line for the big slide...so cute holding hands :)

 up, up, up we go!!

 Stephanie left shortly after the parade and Sunday we headed to Six Flags Marine World for Zippy's company picnic. We met up with the Parish family and Reint. Grey loved going on all the rides and Zoe was a trooper even though she was not too happy to have to be held the entire time and not be able to go on rides herself!

 The Orca show-the Parish family ended up sitting in the splash zone and luckily we arrived late (Grey is on Zip's shoulders here) because the splash zone was an actual SOAK zone. They were drenched along with their cameras and phones...

 Feeding a giraffe for the first time, oops, he dropped the carrot!

Zoe really wanted me to share my lemonade! She is at the age where you have to watch everything within her reach because she wants to stick it in her mouth :)

We took Reint home with us-I can't believe he is 17 now!! He was 8 when we lived in Holland with his family. He is looking into colleges and will take the SAT this year. He thinks it would be awesome to come study in the states...maybe we can convince him to be our au pair? Grey loved listened to "Curious George" music with him (Jack Johnson).

A Day at the Beach

Grandpa got this great video of Grevin at the beach...he can be so unbelievably agile at times...and then there are moments like this...

Grey's First Field Trip

On the second day of school, Grey had his first field trip! I decided to tag along and we headed back down to the Children's Discovery Museum in Sausalito. When we went last Saturday to see Curious George, it was alot of fun but really crazy busy and chaotic. This time was quieter and Grey was able to do lots of fun stuff. I can't wait to skip work again and go on the next adventure!

Giving Curious George some love

 The glittery sand table kept him occupied for almost an hour

 Sweeping?? I sometimes wonder if he is really mine...

 His next favorite thing to do besides the sand table...the construction zone!

Zoe and Grey: Comparison

People are always saying how much Grey and Zoe look alike...almost like twins. I think they look alot alike now at their current ages but not when Grey was the same age as Zoe now! Maybe it was because Grey was such a chunker!!

Grevin- 4 months

Zoe- 4 months

Grevin- 4 months

 Zoe-4 months

First Time Camping

We went camping for the very first time with the kids. We borrowed a pop up tent trailer and the jet ski's  again and headed out to Lake Sonoma for the weekend. Stephanie is back in town from teaching in Mexico City so she came up along with her sister and her 3 kids and her younger brother. We had a total of 6 kids ages 4 months, 2 yr, 4 yr, 6 yr, 8 yr, and 16 yr! It was busy and chaotic but a total blast full of lots of laughter. Zoe and Grey did amazingly well sleeping in the camper. Grey loved hanging out with the other kids around the campsite, going for walks, playing at the park in the campgrounds, hunting for lizards and bugs, and playing in the water and of course on the jet ski's. If Grey had his way, he would have spent all day every day on the jet ski's. Even when we were back at camp, he loved to play on them, pretending he was going fast! Zoe might have allergies like her dad though because her nose was constantly running and her eyes would get really watery. Poor girl was a trooper though and loved watching the kids run around, checking out the trees, putting her toes in the water, and gazing into the fire as we made s'mores.

Helping daddy get the jet ski's ready...don't ask about the ear muffs, he likes to accessorize!

 Lucas and Grey "going fast" on the jet ski's at the campsite

 Grey playing football with daddy as we unloaded the truck, he also made frien's with some college guys in the campsite next to us and got them to play too!

 Melissa and Zoe playing at the campsite (aka Melissa getting her baby fix!)

 Hanging out on the beach

 Trying to catch lizards

We only had one scary incident that turned out ok but could have been disastrous. Zippy, being the amazing guy that he is, decided to take all the kids to the bathroom Saturday morning. The campground had a broken water pipe so there was no running water, just portables like they have at big events. Zippy was carrying Zoe in the wrap and I thought it was adorable watching him with all of them so I tagged along with my camera.

See? Cute, right?

I was going to the bathroom when I heard Zoe start crying. I come out and Zippy is holding Zoe in his arms and he is looking white as a ghost. She had fallen out of the wrap as he had tried to put down a cover on the seat of the potty for one of the other kids! We are so lucky she did not fall INTO the potty and that it wasn't one of the outhouses with the huge pits!! I cringe just imagining that...luckily, she didn't fall far and stopped crying in less than a minute.  I think it will be awhile before he feels comfortable carrying her again in the carrier! Zippy felt terrible and I am sure it doesn't help that I tease him about dropping his daughter in a porta-potty every chance I get!

The kids played hard and we all had a really good time. We are looking forward to doing it again soon! Especially when we are leaving and I turn around to talk to Grey and this is what I see...he had fallen asleep holding Zoe's hand!

Swim Lessons

Back in June, Grevin took swim lessons from Grammie's friend's daughter in their family pool.  Grey loved being in the water and loved jumping in, splashing around, and more than anything playing with underwater toy torpedos. She would have him 'blow bubbles' or put his face in the water to retrieve them from the step. He would line them up neatly in row and once they were all on the edge, he would knock them back on the step so he would have to get them again. Mary soon caught on that he was going to keep playing with them so had him throw them in the pool where he couldn't reach:)

He loved jumping in and going under the water but would leave his mouth open, getting a big mouthful of water. Mary put her fingers to her lips to show him closed mouth so now every time he goes to hop in the pool he does the same thing with his mouth and fingers. He had all of us busting up laughing!

Another thing he liked to do was go potty on the potty tree. They did not want everyone walking through the house soaking wet so they have a designated potty tree by the pool. I had not picked up any swim diapers so we told him the first day if he had to poop or potty, to let us know. He went potty 3 out of the 5 days on the potty tree! He thought he was pretty cool :)

 Grey's cheering section. Whe Grey would start to loose focus, his cheering section would clap for whatever skill he was doing. He thought it was best when we would have Zoe clap for him :) He would do anything if it meant his little sister would cheer for him! And of course, she loved watching everything he did :)