Holy Crap! I can’t even believe its already 11 months that Zoe has been in our lives. It has really zipped by. She is so awesome.

We call her the “little human” now because she has all but shed the baby look and now seems to be much more like a toddler. She walks at apace now that is just short of a run. She can identify all kinds of things including food, toys and family members. She plays peek-a-boo with us by walking around the corner of a room, standing there for a few seconds and then walking back to show herself as we all say “PEEK-A-BOO!”

The only thing I wish she was doing more is talking. She doesn’t verbalize too much of anything right now. I know she is progressing intelligence wise, so I’m not too worried but it would be nice. She says “awgie” for Dog, “ock” for Rock, and sometimes rolls out a sound like “khitty” for Cat, but thats about it. Everyone tells me that once she starts talking I’m gonna wish she hadn’t started because her favorite word will be “NO!” I’ll take what I can get.

Zoe’s 11 month b-day arrived the day after her first Thanksgiving, which demonstrated to us her love for turkey stuffing and mashed potatoes! Just one short month and she’ll be a year old, I don’t believe it.

P.S. at the request of Zoe’s grandma Eleana, new pics are up HERE

Categories: Milestones
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I was asking Kris the other day to tell me that my daughter is smart. We certainly don�??t want to be the kind of parents who profess to the world that our child is the smartest most advanced kid on the planet. Everyone does that, and it has always annoyed me. I made it a goal of mine not to do that same thing about Zoe. So the way I get around the urges is to constantly check with Kris to validate my beliefs that Zoe is smart.

Example. Zoe can point things out, toys and objects that she plays with. I will ask her �??where is the fish car?�?� and she will look around and find her little fish with wheels and bring it to me. I line up some of her stuffed toys and ask her to pick out the pig or the rooster and she will easily locate and identify them. I asked her where the balloons are and she looks up in the air towards the balloons we have in the house, the ones for Kyle�??s first time back home on leave.

So Kris typically just smiles and hesitantly says �??yes Eric, she�??s smart.�?� So I feel confident enough in Zoe�??s mental aptitude to appease my patriarchal needs. All until I brought Zoe out front to play while Kris turned the dirt over in the old flower bed in our front yard. Kris wanted to plant some plants in this now barren patch of dirt adjacent to our driveway so she could fill it with cactus plants and the like.

A few minutes after being put down in the front yard to play, Zoe found her way over the this dirt patch and summarily began placing the clumps of dirt in her mouth. Clump after clump she just kept placing them in her mouth, even after repeated commands from Kris and I not to keep doing it. �??Ucky and No!�?� were stated several times, in no uncertain terms. Zoe just sat there filling her mouth with the grainy, smelly dirt. I�??m not sure, but I almost think that her look became defiant after the third clump, as if to say, �??How smart do I look now, Papa?�?�

All things in perspective�?�.

Categories: Rantings
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Two days ago, Kris noticed that Zoe had started getting a bit sick. She had a runny nose and eventually started to throw up. I came home from work on Tuesday to greet Kris’ mom (Ya-Ya) who gave me the info. She related to me that Zoe was under the weather and was being quite clingy. She was correct. Zoe hung on my lap most of the rest of the night. She did go to bed on time and seemed to sleep OK.

Last night was a different story, however, Zoe still had the runny nose and still had symptoms of a cold all day. Her nose was runny and she seemed to be just under the weather all day. Day wasn’t the problem, it was night time that brought the pain. Not for Zoe but for Kris and me, but mostly for Kris. I had to work in the morning and tried to get to bed at a reasonable time but apparently that was not a part of the general’s orders. I was ordered to be up well past midnight while Zoe roamed around the house in the wee hours of the night.

The reason for the late inght you ask? Because Zoe was identical to those little “cow in a can toy” that when you turn it on its side it makes the “moo” sound. Zoe was identical with one excpetion. When we put her on her side (or lied her down) she would cry hysterically. Stand her up, she was fine, lie her down, cry. Up, fine – Down, cry! Zoe in a can!
She got to that point where she was so tired that she was wired. Didn’t know if she was coming or going and Kris, needless to say, was quite frustrated, as was I. At about 1:30 or so, I drifted off and Kris remained on vigil while the general marched all over the battlefield.
Poor Zoe…

Categories: Rantings
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I uploaded Zoe’s walking video to YouTube.com for all the world to see.

I tried to embed it on this site but couldn’t get it to work right.

CLICK HERE to watch it on YouTube.com

Categories: Rantings
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Zoe’s first Halloween was awesome. Kris and I love this holiday and try to do it up whenever we can. This year started off like most years past, with a visit to Mike and Suzy’s for the annual pumpkin carving party. This year was of particular importance to me, not because of Zoe, but because I came in second place in the carving contest last year. This contest is judged by Mike’s 11 year old son. He snubbed me last year and gave the top spot to Mike’s long time (and now my) friend Will. I declared war this year and was very pleased when I arrived to find that there was a pumpkin shortage in town and Kris and I had the only pumpkins at the party! We brought three, two big ones for Kris and I and a little one for Zoe.

The best way to win the contest is to have the only pupmkins there, right? Wrong… Another friend of Mike’s called on the way and declared that he had 4 at home and drove back to get them before arrival at the party. I was devistated to say the least.I had my work cut out for me this year (no pun intended) so I decided to go for the top spot by picking a design that would appeal to the judge, not me. Will went at it without a template and I thought he was done for but was really suprised when he came out with a really cool design. Cool, but not to an eleven year old. Anyway, long story short, I SMOKED HIM and took the top spot with my mummy design. I rubbed it in, like any poor sport would. Check out the winners HERE.

On Halloween night, Zoe dressed up as a little bumble bee , a cute number that her mom got for her. I took her around the neighborhood for some Trick or Treating. We hit about 10 houses before calling it quits. She is funny because she loves being scared, you can see the fear and excitement in her eyes at the same time. We got to one house where a strange man lives. We see him walking all over the neighborhood all the time. He does not seem to have a car. When we got to his house he was sitting out in his driveway. I was not sure if he was passing out candy or not. As we got closer, I saw that he was reaching into a bag of candy by his side. The bag contained full sized candy bars, not the little bite size ones. He is weird no mre, just cool. Full size candy on Halloween makes him OK in my book any day! He handed Zoe the candy and I said “Say thank you.” to which he replied, “She’s too young for that.” I was initially stunned but then quickly overcome by reality that he was right. She is too young for that.

Anyway, we cleaned up and the candy we got now sits at home waiting for her older brother Kyle to come home and eat it. After our trek around the neighborhood, Zoe took a bath and Igot a really cool pic of her and her mom below…

Categories: Milestones, Rantings
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A week or so before Halloween, Zoe went to the Schepf Farm Pumpkin Patch with mom and grandma, also known as �??Ya-Ya�?�. Kris got some really cool pics of Zoe in and around the pumpkins. They are in the October photo album. She also got a chance to pet some goats in the petting zoo. Momma reported that Zoe absolutely loved the goats. I knew she would, she absolutely loves animals. They took some short video clips from the camera of Zoe playing in the farm, they were really neat.

Click here to check out the pictures when you get a chance�?�

Categories: Rantings
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Zoe now claps her hands whenever she wants. I guess you would have to want to clap your hands, after all who would clap if they didn�??t want to? Anyway, usually Zoe�??s clapping takes place while she is watching a show on the TV that is playing music. The Baby Einstein series seems to be the biggest trigger. Speaking of the Baby Einstein series, I heard from a guy the other day that the Einstein family received the second most royalty money in 2005, totaling more than $20 million, second only to the Cobain family (Deceased lead singer of the band Nirvana). The overwhelming majority of these royalty payments were from the Baby Einstein Company. And if they paid out nearly $20 million, imagine what they took in�?�For anyone that has seen these videos, it must boggle you as much as it does me. They have got to be some of the lowest video production quality of anything I�??ve seen. I will say that Zoe has almost all of them and they seem to mesmerize her, low quality or not, she loves them. And if Zoe loves them, I love them.

Once again, I digress, back on track now.

The clapping is invariably accompanied by some dancing and lots of smiling. It is amazing to watch her clap (as stupid as it sounds) because a few days ago, she couldn�??t do it. I would clap her hands together and say �??clap, clap�?� while doing so and she wouldn�??t do it. Then all of the sudden she did it all by herself. It sounds absurd but it amazes me. A simple gesture like her clapping to a song she likes floors me, it really does.

Categories: Rantings
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