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!!!