Christmas 2012

Finally caught up to Christmas! And it was only a month ago!

We were very excited to celebrate our first Christmas 'at home' this year. It was one of the more relaxing Christmas' we can remember in a long time. We hardly knew what to do with the extra days off and nowhere we needed to be!

Zoe enjoyed all the activities leading up to Christmas this year: searching for Holly our house elf every morning, reading all the Christmas books all day, making cookies every other day with Mommy, decorating the tree, and putting her ornaments on her Advent Tree from Grandpa. She was obsessed with Santa this year, but we missed out on ever actually seeing him, so she'll have to wait until next year.

Christmas day lasted 2 days this year as well. Zoe didn't really know what was going on this year until she went into the family room the morning of and saw all the presents and stockings filled. Next year, she'll be a pro and just getting thru December will be daunting enough! She was perfectly happy tearing through a present and thinking it was the best toy ever and playing with it for half an hour. Then curiosity would get the best of her and she would open another and find yet another best toy ever. She was also a big fan of helping Emma open her presents as well, and sometimes relieving her of said present.

We did miss seeing all our family and playing in the snow. We didn't miss the holiday travel and accompanying sickness!

Belly Laughs

Emma is quite the chatter box. She also gets into fits of giggles. They've been hard to capture on video because she's mesmerized by the camera. Finally we caught her.

ABC's and Counting

Zoe still loves to sing. She picks up tunes quite easily. This time she was repeating the songs being played from her house.

Emma's Latest Feat

Emma is getting bigger, stronger, and more alert everyday. She's staying up longer and has started to search for her hands and feet. Her favorite activity (whether by choice or not) is to sit in the bouncer and watch her big sister. Zoe definitely gets the biggest smiles. It's pretty cute. Luckily, Emma hasn't lost a foot in the process.

Emma's First Week

It's hard to believe it's already been a week since Emma was born. Thanks to LOTS of help from Grammy and Grandpa, everyone is on the mend and settling into a new routine. Thankfully, thus far Emma seems to have more Shaffer in her personality, so there's a nice balance for Zoe. Just like I did for Zoe, here is a 1 week video for Emma. We watched both last night and it's pretty amazing to us to see the difference between the two.

This (Old) New House

We're officially moved into our first house. While it's new to us, it's quite old and needs a bit of updating. I'm starting to liken it to a personal seat license - we're paying a ridiculous mortgage just for the opportunity to pay more to fix up the place. :)

Outside of  those touch-ups, we love our new house. Zoe runs around say 'new house, new house' and has explored all the worst spots for her to get into. Thankfully, Grammy and Grandpa arrived her early to help us get settled before little baby arrives.

Here's a little (or long) video tour of the house I did before carpet cleaning the night before our move.

Singing

Dum Ditty Dum Ditty Dum Dum Dum

Zoe's Grammy gene is starting to kick in full force. She's chatterboxing all day long and picking up new words all the time. She's definitely our little parrot right now. She's started putting 2 and 3 words together (mostly yucky something or other) and she still loves to sing. Her current repertoire includes such hits as Twinkle Twinkle Little Star (or Winkle Winkle according to her), 3 Blind Mice, GoodNight Zoe, ABC's, Ba Ba Black Sheep, The Wheels on the Bus, and Old McDonald. Lately she's started to read...

Look at me! Look at me!

Look at me now!
It's fun to have fun,
But you have to know how...

Well, someone has figured it out.

Zoe is also starting to love stuffed animals and baby dolls. She carries them around, gives them hugs, and puts them into the stroller (most of the time head down) for walks up and down the hallway. Here she is with Frankie, whom she loves to tote around.

Learning to Walk

Over the past couple weeks Zoe has become more and more interested in walking. She loves to push her stroller up and down the hallway and just recently started doing a bit of walking while holding hands. She still does jelly legs when she's not interested, which is kind of funny. It won't be long before she's on her own...

Changing Every Day

It seems like every time I come home from work these days, Zoe is doing something new. It's really amazing how fast she learns something new. I also think she grows an inch or 2 as well because she looks so big when I get home. It's hard to believe how much she changes week in and week out. Like this, not even 3 weeks ago...

Zoe Loves Her Mom

Over the past week and a half, Zoe has started into her separation anxiety stage. But only for Momma. It's now at the point that she gets very excited for Daddy to come home, smiles when I walk in, then immediately starts to get very whiny and extremely nervous anytime Mom isn't in sight. And as soon as Mom leaves...

She pitches the same fit even if I hold her, looking at me, then looking at the door like I'm supposed to bring Momma back. If you look closely, you can make out some of her crocodile tears she forces out as well. This is all making us very nervous when she learns about tantrums.

Toys, Toys Everywhere

Which one to play with?

A Triplet Tornado

A couple weeks back, Mark and the girls came up to visit and play with Zoe. The girls loved seeing their old toys. Of course, that's probably because we have almost all of their old toys, which has led them to proclaim "not for baby Zoe" anytime they hear she's going to be around.

Zoe loved the activity (Mom and Dad are pretty boring). The girls were / are really great with her, even when she's poking and prodding them.

Little mover

She's no longer just decoration in our living room...

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.

Teething

I guess this is what happens when you're teething...

I'm Giggling

We thought Zoe was pretty close to her first giggles before we left for Indianapolis last weekend. She had done a couple in her sleep and was giving us some super big smiles, but she was still being stingy with the actual audio. On the plane, we kept telling her we bet Grandpa would get some giggles out of her. Sure enough on the first night...

And Rolling Over

Lately Zoe has been doing her baby bridges a lot (and mainly on the changing table of all places!). Towards the middle of the week, she kept pushing herself onto her side and we thought it wouldn't be long until she finally rolled over onto her tummy. By Thursday morning, we were finding her in her crib on her tummy. On Friday, she rolled onto her belly while on her play mat, but made sure to do it when Daddy wasn't looking. Finally, Saturday morning rolled around and she was amped up to perfect her new trick. Mommy and Daddy weren't going to miss it this time...