Christmas 08/New Year 09

What a WHIRLWIND!

I have just been settling back into being HOME, so I haven't even posted any pics yet... but rest assured they're out there :D We had a great time celebrating Christmas (four times) and are gradually getting back to the "normalcy" (or that which we like to deem as such).

Christmas highlights: Zoe was a SUPER traveler (PHEW). Napping and the DVD player occupied her very well. She got so many gifts we had to rearrange her room; we took out the glider and added a shelf from IKEA... more on IKEA later... I can't possibly remember all the things she was given, but I do hope that someday we can switch from gifting so much "stuff" to gifting things like savings for college and/or the trip to cinderella's castle that is at the top of Zoe's priority list ever since she noticed it at the beginning of a Disney movie... now any Disney movie or show that has that icon/intro prompts her to remind us that she's been saving for that trip :) She's done a great job filling her tiger, elephant, and hippo banks :) One gift was a surprise to all three of us: a drum set. It's perfectly Zoe-sized and she has a BLAST playing it. If you're "friends" with either Leif or Brent on Facebook, both of them have videos posted of her playing. Another gift that kept her occupied for a long, long time was a beading/jewelry set. She made necklaces for everyone at our "Green Christmas" and Grandpa Green even got a bracelet!

OK so fast forward to New Year's. We went up to the Chicago 'burbs to celebrate with our friends Amy & Erica. Zoe was a sweetie, as usual and although it took her awhile to get to sleep (THANKS DADDY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!) she slept soundly, despite the ruckus we were making downstairs :D I am happy to report that I found a board game that Leif actually LIKES playing (Balderdash), so I'm going to keep an eye out for it on Craigslist/Goodwill, as I refuse to buy it new (especially since the older version is what we were playing and it was great as it was). Some of us were brave enough to relax in the outdoor hot tub for awhile. SO relaxing. Even I (who admittedly HATES cold weather and just being cold in general) love doing that... it's totally worth the 10 seconds of freezing one's tail off on your way into/out of the tub :D After some wine and bubbly and the official central time new year, we all hit the sack. Thanks a million to Timmy and Erica's mom who so graciously gave up their sleeping arrangements for us (we got up there unexpectedly due to a miscommunication...). Erica made delicious chocolate chip pancakes in the morning, and 2009 was off to a great start :)

Then we stopped at IKEA. It was supposed to be a relatively short trip but turned into somewhere between 6-8 HOURS. We started casually browsing, letting Zoe stop at all the 'play-stations' they have set up throughout the store to entertain kids while parents shop... before long it was lunchtime, so we stopped at the cafe' they have. We filled up on all sorts of yummy stuff like meatballs and mac n cheese and alfredo noodles and veggies and went back to finish shopping. Our initial intent was to find storage for all of Zoe's stuff. Along the way we decided to get stuff to finally finish our master bedroom. We always put that project on the backburner, and were inspired to make something happen. Well that's what ended up taking FOREVER. In the meantime, we kept hearing announcements over the loudspeaker about additional discounts on their "as-is" furniture. Leif got down there just in time to miss out on getting an AWESOME flippable loft-type bed we wanted for Zoe... oh well, maybe later... but he did find 2 shelving units that seemed suitable for storing stuff. The rest of the day was nuts and I sort of equate it to giving birth- I know it happened, I know I was there, I remember snipits, and there's some long-term memorable pain (this time thankfully only in the pocketbook and not the ya-know.... BUT I DIGRESS...)- Zoe skipped her nap, nearly falling asleep in the IKEA cart (literally- we put some throw pillows in there and made her a bed). She watched a movie and many episodes of Curious George. I'm sure we wouldn't win any parenting awards for that day, but we knew that we wouldn't have the free time to get back to IKEA in the near future, so we bit that bullet.

After IKEA, Zoe was hungry. We ate McDonalds bc let's face it. We just spent too much at IKEA and we had a giftcard for McD's from Christmas :D Fortunately this particular restaurant had a nice clean playroom which had activities suitable for ALL of us to enjoy!!! We left there late, and still had to stop at my parents' house to get Roxy dog. Of course when we got there Zoe was still wide awake and wanted to see Grandma & Grandpa Green. After a short visit, she finally tuckered completely out and we headed home.

Being home rocks.

Well this post is getting ridiculously long, and I am hosting playgrou in about 9 hours, so I'm gonna go to bed!

PS- for recent pictures (including family portraits), click the link on the right of this page called "Zoe & Family Pictures". ENJOY!

Where to begin?

OK so this poor blog gets neglected for months on end before I even check it, but in case any of you friends/family members are still out there checking this from time to time, I try to at least post a little here and there. Bad blogger. I know.

ANYWHO... so.... what's happened in the last 7 months? TOO MUCH TO REMEMBER! (I know that's why I should do this more often...)

Zoe is potty trained (with minor accidents now and again, but the beautiful thing is that she's realized that diapers are totally uncomfortable so undies are the way to go :)). She still wears a pull-up at night and naps, though so if anyone has a recommendation about how to ween from that, we'd love to hear it. We've just been playing all this stuff by ear because I, for one, am not a book-reader when it comes to learning parenting skills. :) (not that there's anything wrong with that... I just can't keep up with all that reading!)

Leif has a new job at Urbana HS, which is stressful in the sense of having to get organized, but great in the sense that the kids and staff treat him with respect and he feels welcome and valid there. That's a refreshing change. He's now a "Tiger" again, with orange and black as school colors.... just like his HS (Warsaw, IN).

Zoe, Leif, and I are all back in school. Zoe's at Parkland College's Child Deveopment Center 3 days a week, Leif's in grad school at UofI and I'm finally at UofI finishing my kinesiology degree. Homework is problematic when you have an adorable little girl at home who begs of you to play with her :) But we're all making it happen overall. Wish us continued luck on that one!

Let's see..... Zoe is interested in learning letters these days. Uncle Tim sent an alphabet poster, which we taped to her wall.... it's been great! She learned (speaking/counting) numbers because we counted stair steps at the library ;) so it definitely works to just have stuff available to her in her environment so that when she wants to learn/participate she can without being coerced/forced. One of these days maybe we'll get a poster of numbers too so she can start to recognize them in print. So far she just knows how to say them :) (1-30 or so)

She's also learning some Spanish! I use whatever Spanish I know with her, and she now can almost count to 10 in Spanish and she sometimes responds to Spanish commands (come with me, wait, etc). Kids' brains are incredible.

Zoe loves her family and frequently requests that they come to her house. If we tell her they can't come right now she gleefully responds: "OK.. they can come later if they want" She loves veggies, as she'll announce out loud during grocery trips and when asked what veggies do for her she lifts her arms and says "STRONG!" Of course we taught her that, but it's really made for a good argument as to why she should eat them at every meal! She was at a friend's house the other day eating mac n cheese and peas. She ate just a bit of the mac n cheese (which is one of her absolute favorite meals- requested daily, I think) but she ate two servings of peas!!!! GO ZOE!!!!! I'm determined to help her learn to make better eating choices, although with our school scheduling and marching band and all that, it's all too easy to fall into the fast food trap. She recognizes all the places we've been (even if only once), and she loves McD's. sad but true.

Well I could go on, but the reality is that I have to get ready for class. Yep. On a Saturday. But it's fun!!! I'm in a hands-on teaching class called 'Creative Dance for Children', and we teach 4-10 year olds for 2 hours every Saturday for 10 weeks. I'm pretty excited (although a little nervous!). I'm sad Zoe can't be in the class yet, but in a couple years I'm sure she'll be ready :) She loves all things band and dance related. Last night at Leif's football game she kept telling me "Look- they have cymbals too! Cymbals, mommy! Cymbals!" Of course I was trying to record the band playing the Star Spangled Banner at that moment, so that video is pretty cute :) I'll have to share it someday, but I have to ask Leif to help compress it bc it's too big of a file for blogger.

Here are some pics from our summer.... enjoy!

Cutie-Pie

I'm not gonna type much- I got a paper cut from a book I was reading to Zoe today.... it's right where I type with my right ring finger!!! Ouch!

Anyway- Zoe has been amazing lately- especially with her explosion of words/sentences. Every day she is saying new things and being very clear and articulate. She seems SO thrilled that she can now actually have a bit of a mini-conversation with us :) I think she went through a stage of utter anger at not being able to verbally express to us what she was thinking in her head. She still gets frustrated when we don't understand, but she's so persistent that we usually figure it out eventually.

Here's a quick synopsis, followed by a bunch of recent pics:

PIC 1 & 2: Zoe climbing at the mall playground... she is INCREDIBLY CAUTIOUS... all the other kids are running around, falling down, etc etc and she's super-slow in her monkey-like pursuits... but she's warming up to being a little more "go-for-it" and a little less "OH NO!!!!" about when she does take a tumble ;-)



PIC 3, 4, & 5: Zoe enjoying bubbles (which currently sounds an awfully lot like "balls" in her vocab, so you have to figure out which of the two she actually wants... both are extremely popular!). These were at storytime at the Urbana Library... a lot of our playgroup friends were there, too.




PIC 6, 7, 8, & 9: Today's Playdate @ the Savoy Rec Center, followed by brunch/lunch at LePeep... Zoe LOVES open gym time! She was screaming at me when I finally made her put her coat on and go outside to head to lunch... but as you can see, she enjoyed lunch a lot as well :) It was quite the sight to see 5 toddlers lined up in a row across from their mommies (we got a lot of comments and look-sees from the employees and other guests at LePeep :))... and what you can't see in PIC 9 is that there's actually 1 more lil' guy sleeping away in his carseat which is sitting on the floor between our two tables. It must've been quite a sight to see....

Horsey

Zoe is pretty good at sharing... in this case with her horsey :) She's wearing her "Abby Sirt!" and "dance sirt" pj's from "An Mehn & Kis" (aka Abby Shirt, Dancer Skirt, Aunt Meghan, Chris). They are too big, as you can see, but she wanted to wear them- in fact as soon as she got them on, she went running into the living room so she could twirl around in circles and plie/jump and just have a ball dancin' around :) It's quite entertaining, and I took video of it, but the file is too big to put online and I don't know how to compress it. Since Leif's out of town, it'll have to wait. This is the smallest video file size that I have of recent stuff, so hopefully it'll work. BTW- we had to get another new camera :( We went to the Children's Museum in Normal, IL last weekend and our "old-new camera" broke. We don't even know what happened- it was working, then we set it down for a moment, and when we went to use it again it was all messed up. Leif didn't have any luck fixing it, either. He's usually really goot at that, but it just wasn't going to cooperate this time. The new-new camera is working well so far. We just got it yesterday (Leif hasn't even seen it yet!!). Well I have some laundry and shoveling to do. Over & Out

PS- apparently the video didn't work... I'll have to have Leif try. I'm tired of trying and continuously failing :) That's why he's the computer whiz of the family!

snow day!

Mommy & Zoe's school got cancelled today, so we got to play instead! Daddy's in Peoria for the IMEA All-State conference/performances. We have the unlucky yard that gets more snow drifts than any of our neighbors' yards... but at least we have a garage for the cars! Right now we're snowed in because I couldn't keep Zoe outside long enough to clear the whole driveway. I'll finish when she naps :) She had a great time using her new snowpants for the first time... when I pulled them out of the closet she shouted "Look!!! Coat!!!" I guess that was a decent description considering "Snowpants" isn't yet in her vocabulary. I bet it will be very soon :) Once I got them on her, she went running laps around the house because she liked the "swooshy" sound the fabric makes. Too cute. Anyway... you get the idea... here are some pics.

STAY WARM!!!

Opening Doors and other cool tricks

Zoe's up to all sorts of new and exciting tricks lately- this morning she woke up, turned on her light, played a little bit, and then figured out how to open her door (for the first time ever) and came to wake up mommy & daddy! We were thrilled- she waited 'til 8 to come get us! (any other day daddy would have been up already- he forgot to set his alarm :))

Last Saturday we went to the Children's Discovery Museum in Normal, IL and it was REALLY COOL! We highly recommend it to all our baby/kid friends!!! :) It was worth the hour drive both ways for sure... http://www.childrensdiscoverymuseum.net/

Zoe's also back to using the big potty every now and again, too. We're trying to let her attempt going at each diaper change. She's pretty "tickled" to be "tinkling" like a big girl ;-)

She's got all sorts of words and sentences in her vocabulary now, so if you haven't seen or talked to her in awhile you'll be amazed! Shoot, I'm amazed and I see her every day!

Happy Birthday Leif!

 
Lisa, Meghan, Chris, and Zoe put together a suprise birthday celebration for Leif this weekend in Chicago. It was pretty cold, but that didn't stop us from hitting the shops at Navy Pier and on Michigan Ave. We all had a great time!