Happy Halloween!

Happy Halloween everyone!

Zoey's had a great first Halloween, although much to my regret, no trick or treating this year. Next year I can get fat(ter) off my daughter's candy haul; this year, we contented ourselves with watching Zoey enjoy another Baby Einstein video - World Animals. Z loves monkeys, elephants, lions and fish, but for some reason the girl hates giraffes. Must be the freakishly long necks. It was amazing to watch her react with coos and squeals to the video - she's not really supposed to be this "interactive" yet.

Zoey and I also had a very extended conversation today. I did most of the talking. Well, all of the talking. And it was all in a gibberish that I don't quite understand (I hope I didn't promise her someone else's homeland in baby-ese). But who cares, my daughter held eye contact with me, and broke out some what-are-you-talking-about-dad smiles. Who needs Charleston Chews after that?

Enjoy the pictures and videos below. Happy Halloween!

Update 11-3-07Zorry about the dead videos below, Google Video is being stupid. Go You Tube! I'll have the second one back up as soon as YT finishes processing it.

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Globetrotter.

We got a call from our landlord on Sunday telling us that he had a couple who wanted our apartment, but only if we could be out by today. We had planned to trek up to the Clair on Wednesday to clear out, but with the opportunity to save half a month's rent, we figured Monday would work just as well.

Two things. One, Zoey had a rough night Sunday night, needing to be held to sleep. So she slept great. Mom and dad, not so much. Two, if you ever find yourself moving out of a third floor walk up, and possess decent homeowner's insurance, just burn the damn place down. Boy did those stairs suck.

But we're all out, and Zoey was great during our ordeal. The girl LOVES the car, and slept like a champ on the ride up and back to Marlboro. She also was a trooper as El and I spent the day gathering up all the crap we swore we already gathered up. Too much crap. Zoey was quite content watching the action from one of our floor cushions, eating when she got hungry, giving a coo when she needed some attention, and doing all of the other baby things babies do (think: the end result of eating).

Since the weather was a bit chilly, we bundled Zoey up. The only problem is, this girl HATES hats. She hates socks, pants, and the Red Sox, as well, but hating hats was the problem du jour. Our cleaver parent solution? A hooded sweatshirt. As you can see from the picture above, though, Zoey is tiny, and her sweatshirts are big; hence the Rocky Balboa, "I'm coming down to the ring" look of our daughter. She didn't mind a bit, being the chill babe that she is.

We all slept well last night, although El and I may both need back-e-otomies after a gazillion flights of stairs.

Anyone know of a good ranch style house on the market? Preferably one with an elevator.

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Sleepless in Marlboro

So needless to say: SLEEP DEPRIVATION has set in....
Even though Z sleeps through the night, with the occasional wake up for feedings, poopie diapers, or other fun surprises, she is letting us snooze from 1:30 am to about 9 ish. Sometimes she opts not to sleep and then the fun really begins.

Zoey is adjusting to her pack -n- play (we are easing her into the whole thing). We added a fun new mirror to her crib, which she just loves. Daddy spent about 40 minutes video taping her looking at herself in the mirror. She is just too much (& too cute). Enjoy the videos.

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Adventures in Parenting

Zoey had a great night. She got her cry on around 10pm, worked it all out by 11, and slept soundly through the night except for the couple of times we woke her to feed her. What a great kid! It probably helped that we wore her out yesterday with her first round trip car ride. We're still moving the last of our junk (i.e my clothes; hence the same red t-shirt in all the pictures I'm in!), so we went up to Montclair yesterday morning, spent a few hours cleaning out stuff, and Zoey was just awesome. She loves the car like most babies, and slept through most of the time we were in the apartment.

Last night we set up a play mat with all sorts of ocean related stuff, and Z loved it. This morning, it was a vibrating bouncer, and she loved that, as well. Heck, this kid loves the sponge baths we've given her. She is enjoying each new experience we throw at her.

One thing Zoey is enjoying that daddy isn't so much is her new found use of her hands. Now don't get me wrong, I still have every intention of her stepping on the mound of Yankee Stadium some day, so her discovery of her hands is a pleasant step in that direction, but she seems to have settled on grasping and pulling daddy's chest hair as the best use for said hands. Ouch! I may have to wear t-shirts until she finds a better use for those little grasping fingers.

Anyway, Zoey and El and I are all doing great. We seem to finding a bit of a routine, even if it's leaving us pretty exhausted. We've manged to go out once a day to run some errands or pick up food, and that's been a great mental relief for us and for Zoey. Enjoy the video we took this morning of Z in her bouncer, and the slew of pictures below, including Zoey in her crib.

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