Zoe: Happy FIRST Birthday!!

 (this picture is just SOO you, Zoe!) Love your silliness!

 

 Impossible to get a good picture with your giraffe!

 

Dear ZoZo:
Congratulations, you survived your first year in this crazy chaotic family, and you seemed to have thrived! You have grown into a toddler over night. I swear, just a week ago, I kept thinking that you didn't seem to be almost one, that you were still a little baby (doesn't help that you are so literally are still so little!). Then, all of sudden, you are walking everywhere, trying to communicate, doing things to make us laugh, and really exploring the world.

You have three words: mama, dada, and hi! You have been doing a couple signs for awhile now but have been picking them up quicker now...as long as I remember to show you! You can sign milk, daddy, eat, drink, more, all done, dog, bath, brush hair, brush teeth, and banana.

You love love love to eat. I would say right now your favorite things are bananas, blueberries, lasagna and any kind of meat. You can eat so much, I swear you must drop half of it, and you usually do, but you also eat way more than someone your size should! You want to eat by yourself most of the time so nightly baths are in order. You love to touch your hair when you eat so it usually ends up sticking straight up by the end of dinner!

You want to do everything your big brother can do and you are pretty good at keeping up. You want to be right by him all the time, checking out what he is doing. You are also starting to finally pay him back for all the full body tackles over the last year. You have started hitting him with just about anything you can get your hands on. The first few times I just thought it was an accident, like you were flying your car around and he was just in the way. Well, this last weekend, I saw you pick something up and walk all the way across the room to whack him with it. Ohhh, Zoe, I bet that felt good after all the tackles and toy stealing you have dealt with over the last year!

 

You even ask to wear your brother's jersey!

 

 "Playing" with Andrew

 

Sitting at the big kid table

The weather has been nice and you love going outside to play. You could be outside all day if we let you. We still have to be careful in our backyard because you love to eat rocks. Seriously, whoever decided that little rocks should be part of landscaping never had a one year old. Your favorite things to do-besides eating those stinking rocks- are swing and slide. You really love going down the slide. When we are at the park, you will crawl your way up to the slide, turn around and slide down on your tummy all on your own. You are getting so BIG!

 

For your birthday, we went to the San Francisco Zoo. You loved to people watch just as much as looking at the animals. You were very content to sit in the stroller and watch it all go by. It cracked me up though because every animal you saw, you kept signing "dog." This was your face almost the entire day, just in awe, taking it all in....

  

You have such a fun personality and I love watching you bloom every day. You comprehend so much more each and every day and already like to "pretend" to do things like sleep or brush your hair. You even crack yourself up! You are a happy little girl...but at the same time stubborn and know what you want! I wonder where you could possibly get that....

We love you so much!!

XOXO-

Momma

Tahoe time!

We headed up to tahoe last week for a long weekend in the snow. It was good and bad that there really hasn't been much snow up there. Bad because, well, you need snow to play in and ski. But good in that it was 50+ every day so Zoe and I could hang outside, it got cold enough at night for them to make snow on the mountain for skiing so it wasn't dirt skiing but there was NO ONE else up there! It was the quietest I had ever seen Northstar in the winter.

It was the perfect weekend for Grey to try out skiing. He went to ski school the first day for the morning then did a run with daddy, Brian, Michelle, and Andrew. He seemed to really like ski school and enjoyed learning to ski but it WIPED him out.

"Grey is ready, let's go!"

 The ski crew: Zippy, Grey, Andrew, Michelle, Brian

 The girls!

Michelle*Zoe*Jen

 Enjoying the ride to ski school!

 After snack, Grey was READY to get back to skiing...I love how intent he was to get back to his skis!

 This is when he saw me...he cracks me up! He couldn't quite figure out the goggles.

 Getting ready to get his skis back on, his goggles needed to be on because the "sun in my eyes!!"

After ski school, Grey was determined to carry his own skiis to the gondola to go up with Daddy. We kept asking him if he needed help and he kept telling us, "No! I am STRONG!!"

 After the run with daddy

 My little skier!

 Michelle taking the boys back on the ski back trail to the condo. Super woman!

Grey was beyond done at that point so she just picked him up and skied the rest of the way!

Zoe and I had fun hanging out. We rode the gondola up to the mid-mountain lodge to watch everyone ski while Grey was at lessons the first day. She fell asleep on the ride up there and slept for an hour while I hung out in the sunshine by the firepit and enjoyed my Northstar bloody mary (one of the best ever!). When she woke up we just hung out and played, I really thought we would head in after an hour or so but we stayed out there until Grey was ready to go back for lunch-almost 5 hours. I am glad it wasn't cold!

Gondola ride wiped her out!

A little slice of heaven!

On Saturday, we decided to skip skiing and instead played outside, sledding, having snow ball fights, making snow angels, etc.

It was a wonderfully relaxing weekend. The kids really enjoyed themselves and it is so much fun to watch Grey have these new experiences. Soon enough Zoe will be there right behind him!  We are so lucky to have Andrew for a friend!!

Zoe and her new "brush"

Zoe is deceptively devious. She may not look like the child that would get into mischief but she is really the one I need to keep a close eye on. Just yesterday, she was upstairs with me while I was putting laundry away. I heard her push open the bathroom door (silently I cursed Grey for not latching it after going potty) and heard her "talking" to the shower and banging on the shower doors. Not wanting her to fall into the empty tub while she tried to climb in or chew on the toilet seat, I hurried to go get her the second she stopped banging on the shower door. I looked in and she had the toilet brush out from behind the toilet and was brushing her hair. She looked so proud when she saw me!! YUCK!!! I didn't want to even think of what might have happened before I came in there because she likes to try to use her hair brush as a tooth brush and her tooth brush as a hair brush....Oh, Zoe...

Who is this man?!

Zippy got his haircut the other day and it wasn't even a drastic cut for him....but Zoe woke up from her nap and did not want anything to do with him. She was sitting by me eating her lunch when he came in, she kept eyeing him funny but when I walked away, she started crying! When I came back, she buried her face into my shirt and would occasionally peak over at him. She wouldn't let me walk away without hysterics! We then went down to the play room where she was okay for a little bit. He picked her up to give her a kiss and she started crying again and trying to get away! Poor girl...of course I had to a take a couple pictures to capture the moment!

Zoe: Eleven Months

Dear Zoe,
I think all that screaming you did last month was the beginning of you trying to communicate with us! Luckily, the screaming has declined and you are more vocal but in a good way! You are signing "more", "all done", "eat", "dog", and "daddy." And you say "mama" now too, it was your very first word. Soon after that you started saying "mmmmm!" anytime you see food and sign "eat." You babble all the time. You love to wave and clap and engage with people so much now it is adorable. I love love love this stage so much.

You got pink eye for the very first time this month. Fortunately, we caught it before you could pass it to everyone else. It was really sad to see your eyes so goopy and itchy but you recovered quickly and were a good little sick girl.

You continue to be a little daredevil. You love to climb on everything. Boxes, chairs, stools, your brother...you love to push your limits. You have mastered the stairs both up and down. You race to the top of the stairs and spin around and slide down feet first on your belly. We have to be really careful about putting up our baby gates or else you disappear very fast! You are such a tough little girl, you still just roll with the tumbles and get back up again. It is amazing what you put up with from your brother. I think you are just happy that he is playing with you. Other times, you scream at him because he won't leave you alone.

You have officially joined our nightly soccer games in the living room. It is usually you and daddy versus Grey and me since daddy carries you around and then let's you kick the ball when Grey is not close by. You giggle and enjoy yourself so much. It is so fun to watch! If we aren't playing and you find the soccer ball, you will bring it over to where we are and start bouncing it around. You haven't decided to walk. You will take a few steps here and there but would much rather crawl to where you need to go. You can move so fast! It is really funny because you can be in the middle of the floor and can stand up without holding on to anything and dance...this takes so much more coordination than walking!

You absolutely love to be naked. You crawl away as fast as you can when we are getting dressed and love when you can go diaperless. You protest when we try to get your jammies on or get dressed for the day. The only way I can get you to hold still is to tickle you or put a diaper on my head and sing a silly song. You are starting to get into identifying body parts. You are obsessed with grabbing everyone's nose and you know where everyone's hair is. You love to kiss people's noses too and we have to be careful that you don't bite it!

Your brother lives to make you laugh. He does everything he can to make you stop crying and comes running to me yelling "Zoe wants your mommy's milk!!" if he can't manage to get you to stop. He waits patiently for you to wake up for the day and loves to run in the room to get you. It is so sweet. You adore him and always try to find a way to play with him and what he is doing. So far, it hasn't been too big of an issue and I just dream that this will continue as you two get older. A mom can hope, right? He is also your protector. If another kid wants to come play with you or talk to you, he is right by your side, holding your hand, and telling them that you are his sister. He always makes sure you have a toy to play with and other kids better watch out if they try to take something from you!

I am not even going to mention sleep. It is hit or miss and I can't wait for the day when you actually sleep all night long. For right now, I get through it reminding myself that you won't always want to cuddle and want your momma like this. Now eating is another story. You have that down to a science. You often out eat your brother these days and that is saying a lot. You have yet to turn anything down and you eat everything we eat.

I am so grateful I get to watch you grow, Zozo. You are starting to turn into the cutest little toddler and I can't wait to see what tomorrow brings.

Love,
Momma

PS. Here are some more photos from our attempted photoshoot.

Had to get a shot of that naked booty since you wouldn't let me get you dressed!

 Love being naked!

 Quick break to play trains with Grey

 See, Paige! I put something in her hair and she immediately starts trying to get it out. We keep trying...

Crazy Girl!

Zoe has taken a step or two but she just doesn't seem that interested in walking. Instead....she is climbing. anything she can find!

It started before Christmas...

And has escalated from there...I love how she gives me this look!

She is getting smart. If something is out of her reach, she can figure out a way to get it!

She loves to climb into this chair. She can't quite figure out how to get onto our furniture without help from her brother's chairs or a box...but she can do it at Grammie's!!