Coming soon to a mailbox near you......

6 months!

old pictures, new page

I finally got around to making a scrapbook page for these pictures - I'm so behind! I'm trying to get some pages done in the next few days because I start a new part-time job teaching at an online school on Monday. Needless to say, my schedule will be pretty full between 2 jobs, a baby, and a husband in grad-school full time. It's never boring around here :-)

5 months!

Okay, so she is really closer to six months now, but here is her 5 month picture.

Here is what Zoe's been up to lately:
-She can crawl like a maniac! She's really fast now, especially if she sees a cell phone that she wants
-She sits up by herself. I'm actually very impressed by how straight she is sitting up now.
-She can easily go from sitting to crawling to sitting
-She is starting to pull herself up on things like the couch and the sides of her crib. Once I found her all the way up on her feet, but usually she's just standing on her knees with one hand on the couch or baby gate.
-She LOVES to eat. Surprising considering her parents :-) She has liked everything we've given her so far but I think that carrots and oatmeal are her favorites.
-She likes to give kisses
-She has 2 little bottom teeth
-She loves bathtime
-She likes to flip over onto all fours when we're trying to change her diaper - not cool
-She loves sitting in her new big-girl carseat, sitting up in the cart at the store, and going on walks in her stroller
-She notices whenever we leave the room and screams for us to come back
-She's getting better about going down for a nap when we just put her in her crib and tell her that it's naptime
I'm sure there's more, but that's all I can think of for now. We sure love this little girl!

Crawling!!!

Zoe is crawling! She's not super fast yet, but I'm sure she will be within the next few days. You can see her 3 favorite toys in this video - the snot sucker, my cell phone, and an empty pepsi bottle. Seriously, why do we even buy her toys when these are her favorites?!?!

the rest of the story

she's on the move - as you can see from the photos - and doesn't like to sit still for pictures anymore. i guess i have to start chasing her now!

Are we done yet?

We tried to do 4-month pictures this morning - she obviously was not very into it :-) She's down for a nap now. Hopefully we can get some more good ones later!

Rice Cereal!

"talking"

Zoe has been talking a lot lately. We have no idea what she's saying, but she's trying really hard :-) We took this video about 2 weeks ago, but I just remembered that it was on my camera. Oops. Oh well.

Coming home from the hospital scrapbook page

3 month pictures

Scrapbooking

Like most people, I'm WAY behind on scrapbooking. BUT, I just learned how to do some digital scrapping really quickly and easily. The best part is that I can have the files printed in 12x12 and stick them in a traditional book or have them printed and bound. Here's one of the pages from our spring break cruise last year that I never got around to blogging. You'll probably see a lot more scrapbook pages on here for the next little while :-)

She was not very happy about another photoshoot...

more of that photoshoot....

2 months old!

Little Squeaker

Zoe is getting so big! She is really starting to enjoy bath time. She likes the water and doesn't seem to mind it when I dump it on her head to rinse out her hair. I can't wait to see what she'll do in the pool later this summer!


Her nickname is Squeaker. If you watch these videos, you'll see why. She loves to squeal and yell all the time. She's starting to like her toys, but she can't really figure out how to control her arms to play with them very well.

smiles and more

Zoe loves to watch tv - she must be related to us :-) I think she probably likes the flashing light more than the programming, but I hope she's learning a lot from the Food Network and HGTV (and hopefully not learning much from the Bachelorette!). Here she is in action:

She also likes to nulti-task. In the picture below she is eating, holding dad's hand AND watching tv!

This morning she was all smiles and giggles and I finally caught a few on camera. I don't know what she is doing with her tongue......

today's photoshoot

What a guy....

I have the best husband. He is always trying new recipes and making me delicious food. Tonight he turned our bbq into a smoker and smoked some DELICIOUS ribs, along with grilling some great chicken and zucchini. Check out the ribs -

Zoe has decided that she doesn't like her bouncy chair right now. I think she's figured out that we put her in there when we need to do something other than cater to her every whim. It's hard to tell in this picture, but she is putting her feet on the battery box and standing up in the chair in protest. I guess we need to start using the seatbelt so that she doesn't catapult herself out of it.

On Friday I went to school to show off Zoe. She was very good the whole time and even impressed some of the football coaches with her burping abilities :-) Although I already knew it, it was fun to have so many people tell me how cute and sweet of a baby that we have.

The other day Zoe was sitting up and watching TV with her dad. How cute! I know, she's screaming in this picture, but she really was enjoying herself until the camera turned on. I swear that girl can hear the noise that the camera makes when it is turning on because no matter how happy she was before, she starts crying every time the camera turns on. Oh well.

I can't believe it!

Zoe is growing so fast - I just can't believe it. At her doctor's appointment last week she weighed 10 pounds already! Here's a peek at what she's been practicing.

Zoe says hi

I'm just trying to learn how to upload videos. Here's a little clip of Zoe saying hi and smiling (kind of). Please ignore my high-pitched voice.

The Great Zo-dini

The other day I mentioned to some friends that we don't even try to swaddle Zoe anymore - she doesn't want anything to do with it. I have many friends who swear by swaddling. They say it is the best thing to calm your baby and help them sleep. The problem is that Zoe just gets even more upset when we try to swaddle her. My friend suggested that I try those specialty swaddling blankets that have the velcro on them so that you can wrap them really tight and make sure they stay that way. She even loaned me a couple of the blankets that she wasn't using. We decided to give it a try last night. I wrapped that thing as tight as I could get it - far past the intended velcro fasteners. For the first 10 seconds of swaddling, Zoe was quiet, but looking at us with these huge eyes that said "what do you crazy people think you're doing?" 30 seconds (and some loud screams) later, she had managed to do this:

She pulled her arms out of the swaddling blanket that was specifically designed to keep the arms in. At least she knows what she wants :-) I'm thinking of buying some straight jackets so that she can practice her escape and make us some money in a travelling circus. What do you think?

The Last 2 Weeks

Wow! I can't believe that it's been just over 2 weeks since the little Zoester was born! Time is flying by already. Here's what we've been up to in the last 2 weeks (minus the eating, pooping, sleeping, trying to sleep, etc)

My mom came to visit for almost a week and was a huge help. She stayed up with Zoe every night so that we could really rest for the first week - I know, we're spoiled. But seriously, I think it helped me recover from the c-section 10 times faster than if I'd been up all night that week. Thanks, Mom!

I don't know exactly what she's doing in this picture, but I thought it was SO cute!

This is actually her second sponge bath, but we were unprepared for the camera the first time. She doesn't really enjoy getting bathed. But then again, she hates it when we take her clothes off or change her diaper too. Modest little girl :-)

These are a few pictures that I took today. She had her 2 week checkup today. She is now 8 pounds, 10 oz (50th percentile), 20 1/2 inches tall (50th percentile), and her head measures 37 1/2 cm (75th percentile).

Every day she changes her mind about which binky is her favorite. For the last 2 days the purple binky has been her favorite - she even keeps her hand on it to protect it from falling out.

All in all, we're pretty lucky to have such an adorable, good baby. Hopefully she stays this way!

She's Here.........

Zoe Kate finally arrived on April 21 at 11:26 pm. She weighed in at 8 pounds, 2 oz and 20 inches long. We got home from the hospital on Saturday afternoon and are enjoying every minute with her! Here are a few pictures:

Finally Finished!

I finally finished Zoe's quilt and I LOVE how it turned out! I started it over Christmas Break, but got distracted and didn't finish it until last night. Moose picked out all of the fabric - isn't it cute?
The front:

A close up of the raggedyness:

Part of the back: