An Elf in Indy

A little long, but worth it if only for the wii action at the end. Enjoy!

Rice Cereal

No apples yet, but Zoe has now had rice cereal, bananas, and oatmeal. Tonight's fresh vegetable is sweet potatoes a la Kate.

Zoe's First Tree

We're still catching up on all the backlog of pictures and events from the holidays. Prior to heading home to the midwest, we wanted to get some pictures of Zoe with her first Christmas tree. This tree was a bit like the sad Charlie Brown tree, though not quite as sparse. Originally, we wanted to head back to the Christmas tree farm we went to last year where you cut down you're own tree. But the weekend we wanted to do it was cold, wet, and nasty, so we ended up at Home Depot. First, the tree didn't want to suck up any water. Then a night later, MeMa's first with us during her visit, we turned on the heat and woke up the next morning to a large patch dead and browned. Miraculously, the tree did make it almost three weeks with no water. At least Zoe didn't care! :)

For her pictures, I think we were able to cover up the dead spot with her Bumbo throne lined with fleece. :)

Zoe's Christening

While we were in St. Louis over the holidays, we had Zoe's baptism at the church the Missey clan grew up at. The Shaffers and GGS drove in to join us. Zoe tried to put her dress in her mouth the whole time and didn't mind the water. The best part (outside of the cake afterwards) was that she smelled super good for several days afterward thanks to the christening oil.

Amazon Mom

We just found out about Amazon Mom this week after poking through one of our "Parents" magazines. It's pretty awesome. The main reason we joined was that we can now get diapers for about $.15 a diaper, delivered to our door. Turns out you can also get all kinds of other stuff for super cheap: paper towels, toilet paper, bath soap, wipes, etc. (usually 30% off Amazon prices, free shipping, and no tax!).

www.amazon.com/mom

(Sorry for the advertisement, but we had wished we found it sooner and wanted to pass the word along)

Super Nanny - Part II

Prior to the holidays, we had been narrowing our search for daycare / nanny for Zoe. Come January, both of us were going to be working full time. Well, when our potential nanny share didn't quite measure up to what we needed, then Kate had a meltdown after visiting the first daycare, and me having a freakout after visiting the second, we decided the best person to take care of Zoe would be her mom of course!

However, that was decided about 2 days before we left for the holidays and we needed to come up with a plan for someone to care for Zoe while Kate worked her final 2 full weeks. So Grammy, with minimal nudging, flew out the week after we returned to be our super nanny. Seriously! We were once again spoiled with dinner every night, a clean house, laundry never piling up, and all our clutter organized, not to mention a super happy little girl everyday. Zoe loved having her Grammy here and was a little crankier in the mornings since she's left.

Now Kate is working part time at home and we have arranged our schedules so that one of us can take care of Zoe. It's a big relief for us not to have to drop her off at the depressing day care, thinking about her getting shaken to sleep in a crib instead of snuggling with one of us. It would have never been possible without our 2 super nannies.

Grammy & Zoe

Blowing raspberries

6 Months

Already, seriously!?!

Everyone always says that time flies, but sheesh, you turn around and you're packing up the bouncer, avoiding the play gym, dealing with teeth, and watching her roll all over the place. At least we still have some more time with snuggles and feedings.

Zoe is a very happy little baby. She gives us big smiles every time she wakes up and has started to laugh and giggle at all sorts of goofy things (and not even just Grandpa, but Momma and Poppa too finally). She's figured out how to roll around and get to all her toys so she can stall actually learning how to crawl. And she has her first nickname, Thumper, because she'll sit on her back and thump her one foot repeatedly against the floor.

There's nothing quite like celebrating your half birthday on a typically California January day...

Having some early morning playtime in Mom and Dad's bed.

Spending some time at the Japanese Gardens