Dear Zoe...

Dear Zoe Kate,

Who told you that you were allowed to grow up so quickly? You must be growing up at least twice as quickly as Joshua, who also grew up more quickly than instructed. Specifically, who told you that you were allowed to get your first tooth already? Please slow down, little girl. You have your whole life to do all these things, but only a few moments to be a little baby. Thank you for your consideration in this matter.

Love,

Mommy

It's true, folks. She has her first tooth through and her second is right behind it. Fortunately, she teeths like Joshua - without a lot of fuss. You can't really see the first one yet but take my word for it, I'm nursing, and it's there. She has also eaten (and loved) oatmeal, applesauce, prunes (as a result of the oatmeal) and pears (they were in the jar with the prunes). That hasn't slowed her down on the milk any, though. She can hold her own bottle and will fight to keep it if I try to take it away. She rolls every which way, scoots and turns in circles, loves the exersaucer, and grabs everything within reach. Yesterday, she slept in a crib for the first time (we just got one) and seems to really like it. She hasn't spent the night there yet since it is next to Joshua's room and she still wakes up at night; however, I have the feeling that she will be spending the night there before long. I will miss her living in our closet! I will not miss nursing at 3am.

By the way, we are repainting the kitchen and installing a tile backsplash. Here's the tile. The paint color is hiding under there somewhere.

When I say we, I mean mostly Craig and Joshua. Craig had a visit from the hair fairy... picture removed by Craig....much to embarrassing for it to be posted on the Intraweb.

Bye bye green for which we have no touch up paint. The new paint color is called Savannah Red, so I was obviously drawn to it since Savannah holds a special place in my heart as the location of our 14 day courtship and subsequent engagement. I couldn't have asked for or imagined a more perfect husband and family. Hopefully my Savannah Red kitchen will remind me of that every day!! That, and it matches our other paint colors way better.

Here it is after primer (that big wall has been primed twice... the first color was too orangey)

what a mess!!

firsts!

Zoe's first bite of oatmeal a couple days ago. She only took a couple bites the first time, but today she ate a tablespoon or so like an old pro! The girl loves to eat... hence the cheeks.
She was pretty interested in the spoon too
Her first ride in the exersaucer! She loved it! (Joshue wanted a turn in it too)

First flight on Daddy Airlines... I think she drooled on his face.

Daily dose

Joshua drinking his (antibiotics hidden in) chocolate milk
My Nonna holding Zoe.

Joshua and Grandma dancing to keep warm during the snowstorm

Mo' pictures

Just thought I'd show you this picture of myself circa 1978. I saw this framed collage in my mom's basement and for a moment, thought I was actually looking at a picture of Zoe. Here she is... she's way cuter, if you ask me!

Another picture of Joshua out playing in the snow. Apparently he stole my mom's cheetah hat. And those are socks on his hands/ arms. And Santa socks up to his thighs. We weren't going for style points, obvs.He came inside shortly thereafter and got to enjoy his first cup of hot cocoa. He only took one sip, then started fishing the marshmallows out with his fingers and eating them. Zoe can't have hot cocoa, but she was quite content to try to eat this rainforest toy

Zoe, could you please be a little cuter

Here is the first installment of pictures from our trip home to Rhode Island / New York for Christmas. It was a LONG trip but we had a great time seeing everyone. It would take me forever to write about it all so I'll just put the pictures up and let you figure it out, with some helpful captions, of course.

I think this is my new favorite picture of Zoe. Her eyes are getting bluer, hair is getting spikier, thighs are getting chunkier (in the cutest way), smiles are getting bigger and she's just generally getting cuter every day. I thought it wasn't possible to have an easier baby than Joshua but boy was I wrong. Hopefully that doesn't come back to haunt us when she's 13!Here's Grandma teaching Joshua how to catch snowflakes on his tongue... and here they are about 20 mintues later trying it again... look at how much it was snowing!
and here it was the next day. Good thing we didn't have to go anywhere!

While Joshua tried to eat snow, Zoe was in denial about all the cold and wanted to be at the beach instead. She had tons of fun with this beach ball and I really think she would have eaten it if she could have figured out how.

Welcome Home Daddy!!!

We got to go pick Craig up from the airport in Nashville this morning and, of course, headed straight for Chick fil A and the helicopter at the mall. Joshua has been one happy little boy since I woke him up and told him we were going to get Daddy. He said "get Daddy" and "come home" the whole way to the airport, and said "get wies" the whole way to Chick fil A. Hope you enjoy these, I'll get some more up soon. Thanks for all your prayers to bring Craig home safely!

Happy New Year

Oh look how fancy I am! I didn't make any New Year's resolutions, but I can say I made one to spice up my blog and hey hey hey I've already completed it!

I have so much to catch up on blogging about that it will all just have to wait, but consider this your warning that I'm back in bloggy action! I have to admit that I've missed it!

Happy 2009!!