14 months

Another month has sailed by so its time to update my virtual baby book. One day I hope to make this into an actual baby book, but for now... well, this one will have to do Zoe girl.

So-funs at 14 months:
~ Zoe claps when we finish praying at meal time. Maybe she's just excited to eat but its super cute
~ She's not walking yet but will take several consecutive steps. She is so proud of herself when she does, you can't help but make a big deal about it.
~ Thankfully her food throwing stage seems to be over (for now) which makes meal time more enjoyable
~ Zoe is more and more aware of her surroundings and really likes animals. We took her to the Museum of Natural History the other weekend and she liked looking at all the {stuffed} animals- tigers, elephants, monkeys... It makes me look forward to a trip to the zoo once its a little warmer out!
~ She loves playing "with" other little kids and is fascinated by older kids
~ The park in our neighborhood has tons of bikes and cars and walkers they leave out for public use, and Zoe just loves pushing them around. So much so that she throws a fit when we leave. That part's not so fun.

Not so-funs:
~ Since she won't drink milk, the weaning is going a bit slower than I planned, so she still gets a morning and evening feeding but I'm still loving the daytime freedom that offers. She never did take a bottle so why did I think this would go as planned?!
~ Her naps are kinda wacky right now. She won't always take a morning nap but if she does, her afternoon nap is usually better than if she didn't. If she only has one nap she tends to not sleep long enough to get her through the evening so bedtime pretty consistently starts at 6:30pm. If she's up past 7, the next day is usually not so fun. Some days I think she's trying to consolidate into one nap but she just doesn't seem to do well with that yet.
~ Its more an annoyance than anything and something I just need to get over, but the amount of food that ends up in her hair during meals... ick. Baths may need to become a daily occurrence.
~ Zoe loves fruit. And cheese. She'd exist on these alone I am convinced, so sometimes getting her to eat what's in front of her is a challenge. She'll just not eat rather than eat what I've given her. Stinker.
~ She looks less and less like a baby and more like a little girl. Of course its fun to see her change and grow and do new things, but it's kinda sad all the same.

It seems our days are either great or pretty terrible, but either way we're so happy you're ours, Pookie-pie. We love you and love you and love you. 

A Valentine's Restaurant Review

I'm not a big fan of Valentines Day per say, but at the same time I'll take any excuse to make a special date with my man. Some years we go out for a fancy dinner and other times we make a fancy (i.e. crab cakes) dinner at home. Since last year we had a one-month-old and were basically just existing, we did the dinner at home thing. We have pictures to prove it but I can't say I remember much of it. Since my wonderful sister lives nearby now and selflessly offers her time to babysit, we took advantage of the holiday this year to go out for a special dinner.

Our favorite restaurant in the neighborhood, and the place we always end up at on special occasions is Evening Star Cafe. We've never eaten the same thing twice and we've never been disappointed. We started our meal with an appetizer of seared scallops which were perfectly buttery and delicious. Geoff ordered Rockfish, which was served in a broth with mushrooms and andouille-stuffed calamari. The sausage gave it a wonderful kick of heat and the dish overall was mellow but had deep flavor. I ordered the Duck Breast, served over hazelnut dirty rice with brussels sprouts and a cranberry gastrique. The crunchy rice was a perfect counterpart to the soft duck, and the roasted brussels sprouts had amazing flavor. I can't describe how good it was. Unfortunately we did not have room for dessert, but we've had dessert there before and it is indescribably delicious. I'd also recommend their brunch menu. If you're ever in the area and looking for a bit-pricier-but-totally-worth-it restaurant, check out Evening Star (or "the Star" as they call it).

On a Valentine's side note, I'll take this chance to give a shout out to my man. He let me get a fancy new dress and wore a suit and tie himself because he knows I like getting dressed up sometimes. He is our dishwasher. He is so excited to come home from work and play with our daughter and help out with whatever he can. He routinely gives me breaks to have an hour or two of "me" time or girl time. He works hard to provide for us even on days he doesn't love his job. He manages lots of responsibilities and time commitments in a way that allows him to be home as much as possible, especially during Zoe's awake time. He spoils me. He serves me. He loves me. And I'm so, so blessed to call him my Valentine.

Goals

Yep it's March and I'm just posting some of my goals for 2013. In case you couldn't tell, I don't take the whole "resolution" thing too seriously. I often don't bother making them because I know I will fail and who wants to start a year off with that attitude?! However, I like having goals. Goals are something to work towards, an end result or habit that takes time to achieve with built-in room for improvement. This I can get behind. And with my counseling\treatment planning background, I need my goals to be short-term, concrete and reachable, with clearly identifiable steps to achieve them. Ok that was far too much background info, I apologize. If you are still reading, here are some of my goals for the year:
• read 15 books, at least 5 non-fiction ones, including Babywise 2 and Sacred Parenting
• read through the New Testament (I'm using a YouVersion app for this)
• menu plan bi-weekly and lower our grocery bill (use cash system for this)
• exercise 3x per week and continue losing weight, continue eating a mostly non- wheat diet
• finish reading Sacred Marriage with Geoff
• do some sort of music or activity class with Zoe (library group, swim lessons, etc.)
• learn our DSLR camera
• get away together for at least one night without Zoe
• have a monthly date night

Well there ya go. Probably not that interesting to anyone out there but at least it's an easy way to keep myself accountable:) My main goal this year is not so tangible : to love well and be joyful. Because without those things, well, the rest of it doesn't really matter. Happy Friday!

Lets not do that again

We got take-out for lunch last Friday from our favorite Chinese place. Almost 3 yrs we've been eating there with no trouble, but unfortunately this time we got sick from my meal. Ugh. I don't know if you have ever had food poisoning or not, but its not.fun. I came down with it first and thought it was the flu because I had the chills, nausea, headache, the whole bit. By the end of the night all 3 of us were sick and thus began the longest {and most unpleasant} weekend ever. We felt so bad for Zoe who was so sad and pathetic when she threw up, not understanding at all what was happening. We watched A. LOT. of Baby Einstein. Yesterday was the first day I felt like a normal person again and we're slowly getting our appetites back. I wanted to lose a few pounds this year but not that way.

13 months

Its funny to me that almost every "month" post starts out with "I can't believe how quickly this month flew by..." and the month between 12-13 seemed to take for.ever. Maybe that's because Zoe was sick twice and our car was being repaired so we were holed up in the house a lot, or so it seemed. I don't know. But anyway, here's an update at 13 months...

The oh-so-funs:
- Zoe is incredibly expressive and vocal at this age. She makes us laugh. A lot.
- Her most common word is "hi" but she has added "bye" to the mix this month although she can't say the B so its just "aye". Its pretty cute. She is good at waving and giving kisses, as long as its mostly her idea/timing.

- She's slowly being weaned and is only being nursed 3x a day right now. She does not like milk so it hasn't been as easy a transition as I was hoping for but so far, so good. She still sleeps a solid 12-13 hrs a night and naps twice {usually}. Her morning nap is about 40minutes at 10am, afternoon nap is 1.5-2.5 hrs at 2pm.
- She's had the chance to play in the snow a few times and loves it! She fits in to this family well :)
- Zoe is not walking yet and doesn't seem all that interested in it. I suppose this could go in either category for different reasons, but its fun to watch her try and stand on her own for a second at a time when she thinks we're not watching :) She still cruises around on everything and gets into anything she wants so it doesn't seem to make that much difference.
- She is definitely a performer. When we Skype with her grandparents she loves to put on a show and be extra goofy. Its great fun.
- She clearly signs "all done" when she's done eating, but usually not before food has been thrown on the floor


The not-so-funs:
- She still throws food on the floor at meal time, and quite defiantly. Her taste buds seem to change daily so its always a guess as to what she will eat, but cheese and blueberries are consistent winners.
- She's learned how to push the buttons on the TV (yes,we still have an old one with buttons on the front) and gets pretty upset when told no or removed from the TV. It's usually her own program she's turning off so I don't mind that much, but still don't want to teach her that it's ok to touch.
- Zoe likes to gag herself, especially when she is told no. So far she's only made herself throw up once but its really not very fun to watch or listen to.
- I'm attributing it to teething because I do think she has some molars coming in, but she's pretty grumpy these days unless she is being held. And by grumpy I mean screaming crying.

Our sweet Zoe, each day is a new exciting adventure with you! You make us smile and laugh and we wouldn't trade you for anything in the world. Even when you're grumpy :)