Doggies, Haircuts, Snow, Oh My!

Apologies to anyone coming here on dial-up, this is a biggie update.

Zoey Wren had an awesome last two weeks. She made her third trip down to Davidson, NC, where she and Gracie (the golden retriever) promptly fell into giggle fests, she got her first haircut, she played with her Dad in the snow, she fell in love with a complete band set from Grandma and Grandpa, and she colored with crayons for the first time. The fact that I've been off the last two weeks has only made it all that much more fun for me (and Z and El, too, I hope).

When we got down to Davidson, Zoey fell in love instantly with Gracie. A peal of laughter erupted from our little one's mouth, and she didn't stop giggling for 6 days. She also liked getting her face right in Gracie's tail and following her around the house. Strange behavior.

Less strange was Zoey's love for Grandpa's piano. She would run the length of the house, stand on her tip toes, and hit the highest key. Just once. And just that key. Then she'd run away giggling. She also got treated to quite a few concerts from Grandpa, featuring mainly The Itsy Bitsy Spider.

Her haircut was a lot of fun, too. Zoey has this lock of hair that she was born with, and has continued to grow quite quickly. Right into her eyes. Action was required. So we zipped off to a great kiddie cutter in NC, and Miss ZW had her first "day at the spa" (they seriously offered us a manicure for her - don't they know there's a recession on?). She was happy as a clam through the whole thing, which may have been a result of the bubble machine, goofy mirror, and two sets of cameras clicking furiously away. Either way, she got some long bangs and now can see the world around her.

After we got back to NJ, we were treated with a nice bit of snow on New Year's day. A quick bundle up landed me and Z on the front lawn, tasting snowflakes. I promised the little one a cup of hot cocoa as soon as she can handle it. Snowy day play time just isn't complete without hot chocolate, and I feel derelict in my parental duties. Of course, burning my 14 month old's mouth by funneling hot cocoa down her would probably be a criminal act, so I'm glad we held off. Maybe next year. =)

Last week Grandma Margie and Grandpa Steve came down and brought Zoey a holiday haul of toys and books. Far and away Zoey's favorite was a band-in-a-box set. Grandma, Grandpa, Zoey, Mom and Dad all had a silly good time playing maracas, clackers, cymbals, tambourines and other percussion instruments whose name I don't know. She's been handing me the tambourine ever since, trying to get me to do some kind of Mamas and the Papas impersonation. The girl loves her music.

And now, a quick house keeping item. I've been thinking about how we share photos on this blog, and wanted to get some feedback. You'll notice a poll over on the right side of the page. The options are pretty straight-forward: 1)keep things as they are, or 2) have us do some editing on which photos we share. We have some pretty big updates on here (today's, for example), and to be honest, quite a few of these pictures are either redundant, not so great, or both. So, what would you, our audience prefer? Editing requires a bit more time and effort, but not so much that it's really difficult to do. But if people like seeing everything we've got (with the exception of shots that make me look fatter, which I remove anyway), I'm content with continuing as is. The poll is open through February, so let us know.

I hope every had a merry/happy/joyful/{fill in the blank} Christmas/Hannukah/Kwanza/{fill in the blank} and a Happy New Year!

Zoey's First Haircut.



Zoey in Davidson.



Zoey in the Snow.



Random Shots of Zoey at Home.

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Mini Update Part II

Here's the promised second set of photos from two weeks ago.

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Mini-update.

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.

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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.

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