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!
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