There were supposed to be more photos, really, there were. In fact there are more photos, and no, the dog didn't eat them (we don't have a dog), they are just sitting on out desktop waiting to be uploaded to the grand Tube Network for your viewing pleasure. So we all just have to muddle through with this "mini-update." It helps to realize we're all in this together.
Zoey Wren is doing awesome. The girl is damn funny. She really has no concept of relative size, so we often find her lugging around, dragging, or otherwise wrestling with object much larger/heavier than her. Pair of mama's boots? No big thing to our little SweetPea, pick 'em up and tote them around! Jumbo laundry basket twice as tall as you are? Forgetaboutit! New toy! Quite hilarious. We usually help her out with her self-appointed manual labor. After we're done laughing.
I'll try and get those other pictures up soon, they're awesome.
Wednesday, December 17, 2008
Mini-update.
Monday, December 1, 2008
Onomatopoeia
So my lifelong (okay, 13 month-long) dream of having Zoey's first word be onomatopoeia has long since been dashed. Dada, mama, this, that, bottle (well, "baba") and a few others have sealed onomatopoeia's fate to not be Z's first utterance. But the girl is quickly picking up some signs that coupled with her verbal-vocab are making life a lot easier for El and I. "More," "want," "milk," and "nice" are entering the Zoey lexicon. Virtually overnight she is adding these essentials to her vocabulary. I'm gonna have to watch my sailor's mouth.
Thanksgiving was an exhausting hoot for us. We were at my cousin's in Westchester, and they have a very nice sunken family room with small steps into and out of it. Zoey spent five hours doing laps up around and down. Mom and Dad were never far behind, helping the little Sweet Pea with the "down" part (up the stairs is a solo act for little Zoey Wren). I think Ellyn and I are the only two people in America to have lost weight at Thanksgiving.
I hope everyone had a happy and safe Turkey Day.
Monday, November 17, 2008
Pizza Skeletons
Apologies for the month-long gap in updates.
The photo set has a lot of firsts for Zoey in it: her first Halloween skeleton costume, her first bites of pizza, and her first time voting (she picked a winner!).
It's impossible to put a month of Zoey's life into a few paragraphs (which is why you should update more than once a month, dummy!), but here are some brief highlights. Motor skills: Zoey is loving getting into her bumbo seat all by herfelf. She often ends up backwards in it, and isn't all that good at getting out of it, but she LOVES getting into that chair. Her walking/running has unlocked a new super-power - Going In Circles. If El or I are sitting on the floor, Zoey will do laps around us until we get too tired. It's mainly right-turns at the moment, in case you were wondering.
On the verbal front, little Miss Z. Wren's language is exploding. She's said such sundry things as "bread," "giraffe," "toes," and "The enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people." (my favorite Amendment, dontcha know). She's also following directions. Sorta. The other night I asked zoey if she wanted to sit in my lap to read a book, and she waddled right over, plopped herself down, and let me read to her for an entire 38 seconds. Good stuff.
It's turned frigid up here, so I suspect the next several batches of photos will include lots of Zoey-Under-45-feet-of-bunting shots. So you all have that too look forward to.
Saturday, October 11, 2008
Walkin' and Coughin'
The little Sweet Pea got sick at exactly the wrong time - right when she was goin to have her 1st birthday party. Shazblat! She's had a fever and cough for the last few days, and the doctor said it would probably last another week. So we had to put off the festivities. That didn't stop Zoey Wren from showing off her awesome powers of twirling, though.
Enjoy her waddlings and I'll try and get some photos up in the next day or so.
Sunday, October 5, 2008
The above video is about 10 days old. The hesitant "dadadas" are now "mamamamas" and "nanananas" along with "dadadada" and "gagagaga." She also said "pass the Grey Poupon" once. Totally true.
Oh, below you can see some of what Zoey sees. The video is from an episode of "Jack's Big Music Show," a daily favorite, and a staple of my Saturday morning Daddy-daughter-date-day. These guys are awesome. Enjoy!
Thursday, September 18, 2008
Where'd my baby go?
So I got home last night, and managed to see Z awake for the first time in days. I was greeted with a boisterous DaDa! Oh man does that make a long day just fall away. El had the little one in her first pair of shoes walking around the mall. Yup. Our 11 month old is an official New Jersey Mall Rat.
El's been taking tons of pictures for me (all of the above are her handy-work), and in going through them late last night I realized that our little girl isn't a baby anymore. She's always seemed like more of a little person than a baby, she's had that look in her eye that says "don't bet against me understanding exactly what's going on here." But seeing her walking, seeing her comprehend with more and more precision what we say to her, it's apparant that our tiny girl has outgrown the baby label. It's pretty exciting stuff.
Enjoy the pics, and look forward to some video this weekend (I promise!)
Monday, September 15, 2008
Walkin' and Talkin'
The little one has decided that enough is enough with this silent puddle of cuteness stuff, and has moved to a new, more interactive, babbling and walking bundle of cuteness phase. 10 steps followed by a lovely "bah-bah-bah-dah-dah-dah-bah-ma-bah-bah" are now par for the course.
Zoey is also now a prolific pointer, wanting everything in her world labeled. Her language is realling exploding, and she's recognizing words like "water" "eat" "play" and "come here."
"Go to sleep" is not, sadly, in her vocabulary of comprehension yet.
Sorry if the updates are a bit sporadic, I'm in the midst of another 14-21 day run of work, and El swears the computer will eat her if she tries to update the blog. =)
Monday, September 1, 2008
In the Duck, Out of the Duck
Sorry for the lack if updates, I've been at work for 14 straight days so updating has been difficult. Enjoy these pics, and I promise we'll get more up sooner rather than later.
I hope everyone had a happy and safe Labor Day.
Saturday, August 16, 2008
Magical mystical monkies!
As you can see from the photos above, Zoey Wren LOVES eating (well, maybe she loves the mess more than eating, but the food still goes in, so: VICTORY!), and testing out her new-found powers of altitude-enhancing-verticality ("standing" to those of you without verbosity majoria syndrome). Not so obvious from the photos, the little sweet Pea also loves to mewl. It's really the only word I can think of to describe her verbal screeches, screams, sings and rasps. The little girl like to take a deep breath, brace herself against something sturdy, and let her little pipes go! It's very cute, if a bit startling when it's otherwise quiet.
Z is taking a greater interest in lots of toys that we thought she had long lost interest in. One toy in particular, which is not old but new, is Maggie the Monkey. Last weekend Z and I had a little Daddy-daughter alone time, and off to the store we went. Well, sitting on a shelf was this brown fuzzy monkey, and Zoey nearly jumped out of the shopping cart to grab it. Since this was the first time I'd ever seen my daughter go after something like that in a store, and since the aforementioned monkey cost less than the change found in our couch cushions, magnanimous Daddy said, "Let's make that monkey ours!" It's been baby-monkey love ever since.
Of course, she'd still prefer a laundry basket, a remote control, and a laptop. Who needs the toy store? Although, El did buy her a "kiddie laptop" this week, and the little one loves it! It's pretty neat, with lots of buttons and lights and sounds, and as El pointed out to me, it has "educational flair." Hey, what's life without a little educational flair?
I'll get some more video posted soon, but hopefully the photos will tide you Zoey-groupies over for a little while :-)
Wednesday, July 30, 2008
Monday, July 28, 2008
Zoey Swims and Zoey Moves
Zoey took her first dip in the pool this weekend at Aunt Amy and Uncle Keith's engagement bbq. Let's just say she prefers a Caribbean-esque 85 degrees. Really, though, she did quite well for her first foray in the H2O, especially considering she had a large audience shouting "turn this way Zoey!" Little girl's a trooper!
As you can see above, mobility is not a problem for the little Sweet Pea, although us old folks are popping a few extra motrin from all the bending and chasing.
Blast From the (Clapping) Past
Ok, so google video stinks, and YouTube rocks. If this is general public knowledge, then I apologize for not being "with it." Anyway, the video above is from a month ago, but for a lot of you out there on the inter-tubes, you haven't seen Zoey's clapping routine, so I hope you enjoy it.
We have lots of video that we haven't been able to post, so expect lots of new (old) stuff over the coming days.
Sunday, July 27, 2008
Gourmand!
Our little Sweet Pea is mastering the fine culinary skills. Now, maybe she's not quite ready for chop-sticks, and I'm not sure f she can keep a soufflé from collapsing, but c'mon...9 months and shoveling food into her own mouth with a spoon? Pretty awesome, no?
Enjoy the video (courtesy of YouTube since Google Video is for crap), and we'll get some pictures up soon of Zoey playing with a whole slew of other babies at Amy and Kieth's engagement bbq.
Friday, July 25, 2008
Why We Crawl
Unlike Eugene Jarecki's disturbing look at the American military-industrial complex, Why We Fight, Zoey Wren has a much more benign, and adorable, reason for Why She Crawls: Mommy!
Saturday, July 19, 2008
Big Summer Update
Lots and lots of news from the last month. Zoey had her second plane trip, this time to Florida to visit her great-grandparents. She handled the flights with her usual calm (the frat party traveling home with us could have used some of Zoey's poise!) She's standing like a champ, cruising along with a happy grin. She's also got her two bottom teeth in, and boy are they sharp!
Zoey had her 9 month check up, and now weighs a whopping 16 lbs, 1 oz, and is 27 inches long. She's eating everything we put in front of her - yogurt, cheerios, cheese, turkey burgers, vegetable stew. The biggest problem we have is that her food tastes so good I find myself eating it (Sorry about that missing box of cookies Sweet Pea!)
She still is an awful sleeper. Sigh.
Well, enjoy the massive photo update, and stay cool in this brutal heat.
Monday, June 23, 2008
Corral that gal!
Zoey is now a full-fledged crawler. It's not the most graceful crawl, but it sure gets her where she thinks she wants to go. And then back to where she really wanted to be. And then over to the other spot. And on. And on. The energizer bunny has nothing on this girl.
Given our daughter's new found locomotive ken, we did what any reasonable parents would do and bought a kiddie cage gated play area. Zoey loves it. She especially loves using the bars to pull herself up into a standing position. She is very strong, and doesn't mind plopping on her backside a few dozen times in her pursuit of bipedal brilliance.
All of this motor activity means sleep, once again, as it's always been with this little sweet pea of ours, is in extraordinarily short supply. El and I have been functioning on four or five hours a night for the last week or so. Not fun. Zoey still starts each day smiling and giggling and rolling and happy. Mom and dad? Not so much. Ugh. I'm probably the only parent in existence yearning for her to become a teenager just so she'll start sleeping 15 hours a day. Oh well. She's an awesome little girl in every other regard, so we'll just have to figure out a way to get her to close her peepers for more than an hour at a time.
Enjoy the pictures and these first days of summer.
Saturday, June 14, 2008
First we play, then we sleep!
Not much rest for us last night, but today was The Day of Many Naps. WooHoo!
Everyone have a great weekend!
Thursday, June 12, 2008
Teeth and Sleep.
Zoey Wren has cut her first tooth! And would you believe it, she's not bothered by it much at all. The little pearly white is poking through on the bottom front, and the little Sweet Pea is just rolling and smiling along.
Zoey also slept the entire night last night in her crib and pack and play. Let's hope this is the beginning of a trend and not a one night tease.
In other developments, Z is pulling herself up in her crib to stand up and run her tin cup across the bars demanding bread and water. She's also becoming an expert at playing "catch" - well, more like "roll" most of the time, but she does fling her ball across the floor to El or I, and "catches" it when we bounce or roll it back her way. I think she enjoys it, but I know we love it.
We also got another giggle out of her last night. It involved a lot of raspberry's from daddy (Louie Armstrong's chops couldn't have done a better job!), but by golly, Zoey was giving off little peals of giggles. Best sound in the universe.
Enjoy the photos.
Monday, June 9, 2008
Holy Heat Wave Batman!
Well, techmology (spelled with an "m" on purpose in order to maintain the blog's cuteness factor) just cannot compete with mother nature. We've had to keep our desktop rig turned off the last two days because of the brutal heat. The machine gives off way too much heat, and it's also making this not-so-comforting whirring noise. So, no photos or videos as previously promised. Hopefully the heat will break so I can get some photos quickly uploaded (the video takes about an hour to format and upload, so that probably won't happen for a few days - sorry!)
On the Zoey Wren front, life is good for our little Sweet Pea. The little girl can't stop moving, rolling, plopping, sitting and squirming through the day. Our daughter is a very funny baby. She's taken to presing her face up againt the mesh sides of her pack and play, as well as tapping away on El and me with her pudgy little hands. The girl's got good rythem (DEFINITELY from her mother!).
As far as the great sleeping-in-the-crib effort. Well, let's just say we love Zoey very much and leave it at that. =)
Stay cool during the blast furnance days this week, and I'll try and regale y'all with cute pictures of our georgeous daughter soon.
Friday, June 6, 2008
Rolling, giggling and a love of carpet.
More photos to come later today (or more likely tomorrow), but enjoy the short set above.
Zoey is doing awesome. She is almost crawling; it's more of a roll-wiggle-sit-plop, but it gets her where she wants to go. We are also trying to get her to sleep in her crib. No offense to Master Yoda, but this is definitely a "try" situation - Zoey does, and does not sleep in there at carious times of the night. It's tiring for El (I sleep the guilty sleep of the 5am commuter), but Z seems to be asking nice progress, going a little longer each night. She just may make it through the entire night in time not to piss off her college room-mate.
More to follow, but enjoy what we've got up now! Everyone have a great weekend.
Saturday, May 17, 2008
Hey, it's an update!
Sorry for the long gap, we'll try not to let that happen again. Enjoy the photos!
Sunday, March 30, 2008
Philly Easter.
Zoey traveled to Philly for the second time, sleeping over at Auntie Amy and Uncle K's. Little one likes slumber parties.
Saturday, March 29, 2008
Quick Pics.
I wanted to throw up some sets we've taken over the last couple of weeks.
Zoey in her Davidson Wildcats shirt will be up shortly =)
Saturday, March 15, 2008
Baseball's newest fan.
After two weeks of getting the the tv schedule wrong, daddy and Zoey finally got to watch their first Yankees' game. Z was asleep by the 2nd inning, daddy by the fifth. But as you can see above, we were both representing the Captain in our sporty #2 t-shirts.
Zoey also started a new fruit this weekend: apples. Add apples to rice and bananas on the list of yummies that Z loves. Z loves to eat, and is actually getting a little less messy about it. El really works with her on it during the week, getting Z's tongue in the right position and making the whole thing fun. My technique is a bit more crude: I just act as silly as I can and let Z chomp away (but also use the techniques El recommends; it's nice to have a speech therapist for a wife).
Zoey's hearing and processing really kicked in this week. She now seems to understand that voices are more than just another noise, that they are communication. She will make immediate eye contact with people who are speaking, and really responds to hearing her name by turning her head. She's also very close to being able to sit by herself (again, check out the photos above). She wobbles over after a few seconds or so, and leans pretty far forward, but hey, "baby steps" for a baby, right? She'll figure it out soon enough.
update 3-16-06 Because who can get enough Zoey pics?
Sunday, March 9, 2008
Bananas, Tallyho!
A new weekend brings Zoey a new food: bananas. Our daughter must be part monkey, because before the first spoonful was even near her mouth, her kisser was opened wide, and she had her head leaning forward in anticipation. Zoey loves bananas.
The solids thing is going well, in general. We'll see how bananas work out for another 4 or 5 days, and then add in applesauce. At that point, we'll start mixing the fruit with the rice cereal, and then look out Dunkin Donuts, here Z comes!
We've also been putting Zoey in her rainforest jumparoo, and the little girl is going nuts for it. She start jumping back and forth, spinning around, trying to grab every toy at once. It's enthralling to watch this little creature discover her world, one plastic elephant and swirly crocodile at a time.
Rolling and scootching (spelling on "scootching?") are also current favorites, and El and I are constantly rescuing Z in her crib after she rolls over and forgets to bring her left arm along with her. Nobody likes having a hand stuck underneath them.
Have a great week everyone!.
Saturday, March 1, 2008
Solid.
Zoey Wren has entered the world of spoons and bowls.
A couple of tablespoons of organic rice cereal mixed with some water were little Sweet Pea's first foray into fine cuisine. She loved it. Dribbles, drools and rasps sent a bit of the soupy concoction sliding down her oh-so-posh bib (do they make one in my size for the next time at at the Red Lobster?). But quantity swallowed was not the important thing today, rather, we were thrilled with Zoey's enthusiasm for the approaching spoon, and her instant swallowing skills. With a dad like me, who could doubt this girl would be a born eater?
For now Z will have a one-hit wonder menu: rice cereal. But over the coming weeks we'll be adding fruits, and then veggies, and eventually meats and other fun stuff. All that is for the future. For today, El and I are just sitting in wonder at another momentous first that our little sweet Pea has tackled with aplomb.
Sunday, February 24, 2008
Oh, hello.
So it's been awhile, huh? We'll try not to let such a large gap in updates happen again.
It'd be impossible to cover the last month and a half in one post, so let me just bring everyone up to date on where Zoey is now. She's doing AWESOME. Her hands are hers to control now. Z's able to spot an object, grab for it, hold it, and manipulate it. She can roll from front to back, and back to front (almost - she gets stuck about 3/4 of the way through the roll, but it still counts!), sit with her head steady, "talk" with people (in coos, gurgles, and rasps), and of course, smile and laugh all day long.
She's still tiny (10 lbs, 10 oz at her 4 month check up last week), but she's got a huge personality, so we mainly forget about her petite frame until we notice she's still wearing mostly 0-3 clothes.
Enjoy the slide shows above (they are from mid January through yesterday, from top to bottom), and please accept our apologies for the tardiness of the updates!
Saturday, January 19, 2008
Gimme gimme gimme.
Zoey has discovered the joy of grabbing things. Plastic rings, blankets, daddy's shirt, mommy's necklace, her little monkey toy. Sometimes, however, she seems to have forgotten that she's holding the object, and so Miss Monkey Toy finds herself suffering a wild, long ride. Whatever, we laugh, and I don't think the monkey is one for revenge.
Zoey has almost outgrown her 0-3 size clothes, so El and I are experiencing that first heartbreak of all new parents: saying goodbye to Z's first clothes. We've waived goodbye to pink reindeer and purple owls and a couple of others. But, as is the case with all things in life, as we say goodbye to some stuff, we say hello to others. Green frogs and blue bears are making their first appearances, and El and I will learn to adjust to these new friends. As for Zoey? She's just happy to have the leg room. Pure pragmatist, our little daughter.
We've been taking Zoey out to eat these last two weeks, and the girl may just have a career as a culinary critic (she can ask her great-grandmother for advice). She's been out for cafe-food, diner fare, sushi, and a smattering of other cuisine. Zoey is mellow as always, eagerly looking around but never really fussing. We've made sure to go places early where there won't be much of a crowd, and the staff inevitably falls in love with the little one. Maybe I should start taking her to the bar to try and score a free bourbon? Hmm.
Wednesday, January 9, 2008
Rock and Roll
Zoey Wren is officially mobile and agile...she had her first roll! From front to back, with squeals and giggles to accompany the topsy-turvy joy of her first flip. She's repeated this exciting new talent more than once, and we even caught one on video (to be posted in a few days).
I started work this past Friday, and it's been quite an adjustment, for me and El more so than Z. Friday was the first time I'd been away from Z for longer than a couple of hours, and needless to say, I miss her more than a little when I'm away. Don't get me wrong, a paycheck is nice, but after spending 24 hours a day for three months with my little cutie, being away for 12 or so hours is tough. Thank goodness for camera phones! El's dealing with flying solo during the day, and having to handle the night feedings on her own, too. We'll survive just like every other couple who isn't named Rockerfeller or Trump, but if the updates to the Garden are a little less frequent, please bear with us.
Zoey's doing awesome, cooing and chirping with more force and determination each day. She's sitting in her Bumbo (the blue chair with the pommel in the pictures above), and grabbing our hands and fingers with her own. She's also discovered the primal joy of kicking things: her swing toys, the sides of her pack-and-play, her daddy's belly...you know, whatever is at hand (or foot, more accurately). Little Sweet Pea is really sprouting.
Thanks for your patience with the tardy updates. I hope everyone had and has a great New Year!
