Zoe’s oldest brother Kyle got married on Saturday (05/31/08) and Zoe was one of the two flower girls. She was beautiful! My brother Fred posted a small video he took of her walking down the aisle during the ceremony and back up the aisle after it was over.

You can view the pics we took on our Photo Page and view Fred’ s video of her HERE.

Categories: Rantings
No Comments »

Zoe has recently begun using the word “no” to increasingly, um, annoying degree. We have told her several times not to tell us “no”when we ask her to do something. We have explained that she needs to do what is asked of her and that it makes mommy or daddy very mad when she says “no”.

So last night, I needed to go to the store to grab some stuff. I went into the bedroom to get Zoe. When I did, I told her that we needed to go to Home Depot to which she immediately replied, “No!” I then told her that she needed to get her shoes on so we coiuld go and again she replied “No!”

I immediately grimaced at her and told her “You do not tell daddy ‘No’, do you want smack bum? ” to which she responded “No…..YES!”

I laughed at that one for about 5 minutes….

Categories: Rantings
No Comments »

On Wednesday, Momma and Zoe took their friends Teagan and Carrie to go see the live stage show “Elmo Grows Up!” They stopped on the way and had a nice dinner at McDonald’s before they drove to the Dodge Theatre and enjoyed the show.

I didn’t get to go but Mommy reported that Zoe and Teagan had a fantastic time seeing all the live characters on stage singing and dancing around!

I asked Mommy to blog the report of the show but I was met with nothing less than a flat out refusal!

Categories: Rantings
No Comments »

I took Zoe and our dogs on a walk to the park the other evening. Kris was at work so we went for a stroll. The weather was great and we had nothing to do. I told Zoe that we were going to look at the stars from the park. We walked over to the park and went out into the middle, where the lights didn’t shine, so we could see them better. I told her the best way to see the stars was to lie down and look up at them.

We both laid down in the grass, in opposite directions with our heads touching. I pointed out some of the stars and she said in her sweet little voice, “Yeah, more stars over here.” We laid there for about 10 minutes looking at all the pretty stars and an overwhelming feeling of joy washed over me.

It was a perfect moment with my daughter.

The next day I was telling a guy at work about how great of a moment it was and hetold me, “Just wait until she’s 15 and can’t stand you.”

Thanks, chucknut.

Categories: Rantings
1 Comment »

While sitting on our new picnic table out back Saturday morning, I asked Zoe if she wanted to go play at the park. It went kind of like this..

Zoe replied, “Yes!”

“We need to take a shower first, OK?”

She replied “No.”

I responded, “Yes Zoe, shower first, then we can go to the park.”

Zoe the dropped her head into her hands. “Zoe sad!”

This was the first time that she actually verbalized her feelings and I just thought it was remarkable.

Endnote: I acquiesced to her desire to not shower prior to our visit to the park.

We stunk as we played in the sand and ran around the jungle gym.

Oh, yeah. This was the foirst time that Zoe actually got to fly a kite. I was watching Zoe jumping in the air trying to catch another kite being flown when I pointed out to her that I saw an Elmo kite. She ran over and tried to catch that one. The person flying the kite asked “Zoe, you trying to catch the kite?” I got upset for a minute wondering who this guy was addressing my daughter when I realized it was my friend Brian flying an Elmo kite while his wife and daughter were playing on the swings.

Brian asked Zoe if she wanted to hold the kite and she said yes. Brian handed her the string and she held on tight as I envisioned myself running across the field chasing down the kite. She held strong and eventually handed it back to Brian.

Categories: Rantings
No Comments »

Kris took Zoe to watch me play in an ice hockey game the other night. It was not Kris’ first time watching me play hockey, she has been watching me play for years and has been to at least 3 of my games. It was cool for me because I knew she was coming and was pretty excited when I started. I kept looking for them in the stands and  when they finally arrived, Kris pointed me out to Zoe as I waved.

I tried to look up and wave to her as much as I could without screwing up on the ice. I screw up enough when I am concentrating  on what I’m supposed to be doing.

I didn’t have a great game or a bad one either, skill wise, but it was probably the most enjoyable game of my life. I played knowing that Zoe was there cheering me on, not caring how I did but just feeling happy that she was watching her Daddy having so much fun. It was really a satisfying feeling.

When the game was over, I asked her if she wanted to come with daddy as I got changed and she sad “yeah!” She sat quietly and patiently as I changed. Afterwards, Kris told me that Zoe kept yelling “Go Daddy, Go Daddy!” as she ran back and forth in the stands following me up and down the ice. She even told Kris that I was in time out when she saw me sitting on the bench. Of course, Kris confirmed with her, “yes daddy is in time out!”

I thought back to when I was 11 and first started playing street hockey in Connecticut. Remembering thinking how cool it would be to impress a girl with my hockey skills, having one there to watch me play. I have thought throughout my whole life how cool it would be to play in front of a big crowd that was cheering me on as I played my favorite sport.

As it turns out, after my whole life waiting, there was only one fan that I was truly waiting for, my Zoe!

Categories: Rantings
No Comments »

So I found the height and weight growth chart in our baby instruction book the other day and decided to see where Zoe fit in the height percentile. I often enjoyed the fact that Zoe was taller then most of the kids I see her play around. Weight you ask? forget it….She has her daddy’s thighs, enough said? anyway, so I walked into the front room where Zoe was watching Dora the Explorer, vegging out learning. I told her to come over to the wall where we measure her. Its near the kitchen. Because Zoe has hyper-focus issues like everyone else in my family, as she walked over to me, her eyes were firmly focused on Dora.

I grabbed the pen and backed her up against the wall as she intently focused on Dora and her latest expedition. I marked the top of her head and couldn’t believe that she had grown over two inches since the last time I measured her! Coincidentally enough, it was exactly one month earlier. Zoe bolted back into her worn out spot on the rug in front of the TV as I reached for the tape measure. Then it finally hit me – Zoe was on her tippy toes trying to watch Dora over the back of the couch!

“Zoe, get back here you little stinker!”

Turns out, she grew about 3/4 of an inch for a grand total of, get this, hold on to your seats, the 55th percentile.

SNAP!

Categories: Rantings
No Comments »

Two nights ago, Zoe was eating dinner with us and she was in a particularly crappy mood. She was very fickle about what she was willing to eat. She didn’t want this and she didn’t want that.

Even though she barely ate any of her food, we decided to give her some dessert. Momma gave her some peaches with yogurt, which she barely touched. Momma decided to give her some applesauc, which seemed to pacify her as we continued to eat our meals. A few moments later, we looked over and saw that Zoe was pouring her cup of applesauce all over her hand. The whole cup. Momma jumped up and told her in a stern but loving tone “Zoe, no! If you aren’t going to eat it I will take it away!” and she did. She took it away and hauled Zoe off to the tub. Before she could pull her out of her chair, I reiterated to her that she is to eat food, not play with it, or its gonna get taken away.

She then had a uneventful bath.

I got into bed with Momma later that night and she gave me the scoop. What had happened after her bath while they were playing in Zoe’s room. Zoe made some soup for Momma with her kitchen set, she had a great time cutting up the vegetables, putting them in a pot, cooking them on her stove, and then pouring the soup into a bowl for Momma. Zoe handed the soup to Momma who began to eat the soup until Zoe exclaimed, “Take Away!” and snatched the soup right out of her hand.

It took me about two minutes to catch my breath, I was laughing so hard.

Categories: Rantings
No Comments »

Momma recently decided that she was going to greatly restrict Zoe’s use of her pacifier (binky from here forth) since she turned 2 years of age. I thought it was going to be a disaster/nightmare. Go figure. But Momma calmly explained to Zoe that big girls don’t use a binky and that Zoe is a big girl now. Worked like a charm. She seems to have that touch. Reminds me of when she got rid of Zoe’s bottle. Just had Zoe help her throw them all out one day and that was that. Amazing.

The restriction is to bed time only.  That means she can have it during her naps and ant night, when in bed, for now. Kris will decide when to pull them all together.

Zoe fussed about it for a few days and then that was that. The really funny thing is when she asks for them and how. She knows that she can’t have the binky until its night-night time and she knows that when she asks for the binkys directly, the answer is always no. But she still craves it for pacification.  Now she’ll ask for night-night,  when she craves the binky, even if its at 10 in the morning or 6 at night.

The funniest thing that happened so far happened last night at about 5 PM.  She was playing around in the family room and fell over and hit her head. She stood up, turned around, looked at me with teary eyes, and in a slightly whiny voice asked “night night?”

Categories: Rantings
No Comments »

I knew the day would come, I kept telling myself to watch what I say. The more Zoe talks, the closer she is to repeating what I say. Every parent knows about this. Even I knew it was coming. I’m kinda glad it came when I chose to use a word that my friend Jason coined.

I was driving from Costco with the pizza for Zoe’s party, I was feeling aggravated because the lot was full and the lines were long. I finally got out of the madhouse, loaded Zoe into the car and proceeded to the party location. I got behind that guy (you know who you are) who was paying attention all the way up until a micro-second before the light changed when he decided to put his head up his bum. Green light, go! Not for this guy. apparently for him green light means slowly realize that you are driving a car and the first car in a line of ten waiting to go. So I yelled like any other annoyed impatient, on-the-verge-of-road-rage driver would do, I yelled,

“The light is GREEN, CHUCKNUT!”

I finally made it through the light as it was changing just to get stopped by the next red light 30 feet away. Then it happened, Zoe said it. “Cucknut!” She even used the same inflection in her voice, like she was saying, “yeah, ya stupid cucknut, don’t you know how to drive!”

Unfortunaltely for Zoe, she can’t say the C-H sound really well so it comes out “cuck” instead of “chuck”.

I dread the day when she utters back the word that rhymes with “cuck” because I’m sure she’ll pronounce that one just fine!

Categories: Rantings
No Comments »