Christmas Greetings

Christmas greetings to all! We spent a wonderful three days in Monterey with Vera's family. We ate too much, laughed a bunch, and had an all around good time. Christmas Eve is when the family was does their gift exchange. While other people were ooh-ing and ah-ing over the gifts they were opening, Zoe, who has not quite caught on to the whole present opening thing, received this small gift bag from Nana (Vera's mom). She emptied out the bag and started putting things inside the bag, and then would walk around holding up the bag saying, "Oooh!" It was very cute.

I have been a great big slacker when it comes to updating this blog. I have some video snippets and cute stories from the past months that I hope to update soon. When I do, I'll back date the posts and at the same time create a new post highlighting the updates.

For now, here's a quick update: Zoe has begun to get used to day care. She willingly holds out her arms to go to Sonja (the day care owner) as we give her a kiss good bye. It's a good feeling to leave there with her not in tears. And she is always happy when we pick her up.

Zoe is changing so much these days. She is learning new words all the time, repeating words we say and experimenting with sounds. She loves to say words with the "s" sound. She says "dis" for "this" a lot and points at things. Other new words are:

"ites" for lights. She stared saying that as the neighbors put up their Christmas lights.
"bees"or "beeths" for strawberries, which she loves!
"ock" for clock.
"eyepoo" for diaper.
"teen" for train.
"ahckie" for broccoli, which she also loves!
"ahpee" which we think is for happy. We're not quite sure what she is saying on this one. Vera thinks it might be a song from day care.

From the Chrebletts, happy holidays!

And check out our Holiday Elfs at http://www.elfyourself.com/?id=1126166089

Turkey Sandwich

Thanksgiving was sandwiched this year between Zoe being sick on either side of the Holiday. Last year, she got her first fever on Thanksgiving day. This year, she had the Hand-Foot-Mouth virus in the day's leading up to Thanksgiving, was healthy on Thanksgiving day, then had a cold and cough all week following Thanksgiving.

It's been a stressful couple of weeks. Vera started a new job, Zoe was sick, Zoe started full time day care. So that means little sleep for all of us and lots of emotional ups and downs. Not fun. I even forgot to bring the camera to Thanksgiving feast at Nana's house (Vera's mom).

Zoe is moving through her first-cold-without-fever this week while attending day care full time. I can't begin to describe the heart wrenching feeling to drop off your sick child at a place that she does not want to go to. Today is Friday and she is beginning to feel better. The saving grace is that Sonja, the woman who runs the day care, sent home this lovely picture that Zoe drew yesterday. I almost cried when she handed it to me. It's amazing what a little thing like a first art project can do to make two stressed-out Mommies feel better.

A big thank you goes out to Aunt Jackie for calling every day to see if we needed her to come over to watch Zoe, in the event Zoe was not well enough to go to day care. It meant the world to know there was a back up plan available this week!!!

All I can say is TGIF and TGFFB (Thank goodness for fluffy bunnies).

You decide...

I mentioned in a post the other day (see post called Walking, Walking, Walking and Stacking) that when so Zoe walks, she holds her arms up in such a way that she looks like the Mutant in the closing credits of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. It's tremendously adorable.

Here's a clip of her walking taken Sunday Nov 11, next to a clip of the closing Buffy "Mutant Enemy" credits. You decide... Similar, eh? Zoe's cuter though.

Kissing strange boys, already

We went to the Vacaville Outlet Mall today. While we were in the Gymboree store, Zoe walked to the play area where some kids were playing on small chairs. She walked right up to a little boy and said "Hi". He said "Hi" back. Then she made a "mmmm" noise, leaned in toward him with her lips pursed. He obliged by kissing her smack on the lips. Vera and I stood there, jaws dropped and watched. Then we laughed... and then we both said something like, "Oh God, this can't be starting already."

The boy's sister, also named Zoe, told us that her brother was called Tyler and is two. Sigh, and he's an older man...

Walking, Walking, Walking and Stacking

Zoe is walking and loves it. She just walks and walks. She goes from the kitchen to the living room and back. She walks with her hands out in front of her, a bit out to the side with her elbows bent. She looks like the Mutant Enemy animation at the end of the Buffy the Vampire Slayer credits - "Grr Argh" It's tremendously cute.

The other day Vera was in the master bathroom brushing her teeth and Zoe was with her. Zoe walked away thinking Vera was following her. She got down the hall and once she realize that Vera was not there, she turned around and walked back through the bedroom to the bathroom.

This past weekend we had the quintessential family moment. We went out for breakfast as a family. Afterwards Zoe wanted to walk out of the restaurant, she made it very clear that she did not want to be carried. So Vera and I each took one hand and the three of us walked out along the side walk, Vera holding her left hand, me on the right. It was such an amazing feeling. Later we went into San Francisco and did the same thing walking down the street.

Zoe loves putting things away. She will stack blocks in the kitchen cupboard - one by one she will pick up a block, walk into the kitchen, open the cupboard place the block on a shelf, close the door, walk back to the stack of blocks and do it all over again. This kept her occupied long enough for Vera to make dinner the other night.

Zoe even helped me put soccer balls in the ball bag the other day. I had pumped up 5 soccer balls in the living room before my game. I said to her, "Can you help Mommy put the balls in the bag?" I didn't have to show her what to do, she knew! She picked up a ball, walked over to the bag carrying the ball and dropped the ball into the bag as I held it open. She did the same with each ball. It's amazing to realize how much she understands. I'm sure all parents feel their kid is extremely smart and we are no exception!

Bloody Halloween and The Golden Snitch

So, it's Halloween day... and I'm at work when I get a call from Vera. Zoe had just fallen, hit her mouth on a chair and was bleeding - a lot. Vera, understandably panicked by the amount of blood, dialed the first number she thought of, my cell phone. It's so much easier to be calm when you are not at the scene of a bloody screaming child... So I did my best to reassure Vera that mouths can bleed a lot. I offered to call the nurse at our pediatrician's office while Vera comforted and cleaned up Zoe. I called the nurse and realized that I couldn't describe what was going on 'cause I was not there. Doh, silly me! I gave the nurse our number and she called Vera. Five minutes later Vera called me back sounding much calmer. The bleeding had stopped while on the phone with the nurse. Vera was able to see the imprint of Zoe's bottom teeth on the inside of her bottom lip. Thankfully, the cut was shallow. The nurse had also suggested that Vera feel Zoe's bottom teeth and make sure they were not loose at all. They were not. Whew! After all was said and done, Zoe had a fat lip on Halloween day.

Fat lip or not, nothing was going to keep us from taking Zoe out for her first ever Trick or Treating. I dressed as Harry Potter, the youngest Quidditch Seeker in a century. Zoe was the Golden Snitch (costume hand made by my mom, thanks Grammy). Vera was a trooper and agreed to take part in my Halloween Pottermania and dressed as a Hogwarts student from Gryffindor House.

We took Zoe 'round to a few of our neighbors' houses. She just watched - not knowing what to do with the pumpkin shaped treat bucket. One neighbor goes all out every year with decorations... They've got fog machines, huge spiders, tombstones, screaming noises, and a robot with a bloody chain saw that actually runs. Tonight he was dressed up as a scarey troll thing and wandered around the front lawn not saying a word, his wife dressed as the cat in the hat. Zoe was fine walking through the yard until the cat in the hat started talking to her. Then she started crying, and began to get leary of the troll. Time to head to the next house!

It was fun to take her out. After we got home, Zoe had her first candy, a sour apple blow pop. The fat lip didn't stop her from putting the whole thing in her mouth. She likes it!!!

The Pumpkin Patch

We had a play day at Moore's Pumpkin Patch. Vera, Zoe and I had such a great time last year that we decided to go again this year with Zoe's favorite playmates "The moms and their boys".

Last year, Zoe was so little that we were not able to enjoy the rides. This year Zoe could enjoy the fun. Check out last year's blog post from 10/23/2006: A weekend of outings. She loved riding around in the wagon, with her buddies, Mackey, Enzo and Evan. Zoe would stand up in the wagon and bounce/dance to the music blasting from speakers everywhere. It was quite adorable.

Zoe LOVED the giant slide. She is a girl with the need for speed!! Both Zoe and Mackey laughed and smiled from ear to ear the whole way down! And although Enzo and Evan had serious looks on their faces on the first run, they both wanted to go down a second time! The kids also rode the jet ride, the train, and played on a kiddie bus.

It was a truly fun day - we're not sure who had more fun, the babes or the moms. (We'll say the babes had more fun, and "wink" knowing that carnival rides are a great excuse for us all to find the kid inside.) The only bummer for the day was that it was so late in the season, that there were no medium or small pumpkins left - only large fugly shaped ones. I think we were the only ones of our group to actually get a pumpkin, it is large, but not too fugly. Note to self, we should go earlier next year.

Here are some video highlights and a short slide show.