Goodbye Shots

We took some pictures the day we left. Zoe started off all smiles....
Mommy tickling Zoe's feet
Zoe communicating that she's had it. Enough with the pictures. Someone put me to sleep, STAT.

Ma-ma

We tried to get some video of Zoe saying "ma-ma." Everytime she sees the camera, she freezes up. This was the best we could get, but when she's on a roll, she just doesn't stop saying it!

Pacifier Fun, Part 2

We walked in on this the other day. I'm telling you, this pacifier is her best friend these days.

Solid Foods

We've started. It's been a week of rice cereal. So far so good! Zoe seems to be getting the hang of things. She really likes grabbing the spoon away from me. I think she'll be an "I'll do it myself" kind of girl in no time. Here's a shot from her first day in her high chair, chowing down on some cereal.

6 Months

I can't believe that Zoe turned 6 months old on July 14th! In honor of this special milestone, I thought I'd share six of my favorite things about Zoe these days:

1.) I love going in to get Zoe from her naps. She usually wakes up cooing and making all sorts of cute sounds in her crib. Uche and I sometimes fight over who gets to go in and get her. When she is well-rested and happy, we both want a piece of the action!

2.) I absolutely love hearing Zoe say "ma-ma" these days. It's a new thing, and she doesn't quite associate it with me yet, but it is still so precious to hear! Many times when she's nursing, she'll abruptly pull herself off of me, stare in my eyes and loudly proclaim "ma-ma-ma-ma-ma-ma" and then whip herself around for more food. It's hilarious and adorable at the same time! We can't wait until she starts talking! We're anxious to hear what her cute little voice will sound like.

3.) I love how Zoe can spot me from across the room, fix her gaze on me, wait for me to look at her, and then flash her gummy grin. It is priceless! She often does this when she's playing in her exer-saucer. It's almost like she can't enjoy it until she knows someone's watching her.

4.) I love how ticklish she is! There doesn't seem to be a place on her little body where she is NOT ticklish. This provides hours of fun for us and her!

5.) I love the fact that she recognizes when I leave the room now. This is challenging as sometimes she'll let out an annoying shriek when she can't see me, but it's awesome, too, to realize that she knows me and realizes when I'm not there.

6.) Finally, i I love watching her sleep. She is so precious. Sometimes i just stand over her crib and stare at her, amazed at how much my heart is full of love toward her and so thankful for God's gift to us.

So those are six things! Overall, I just treasure my little girl!

Pictures

Jersey pics and various July shots are posted. Click the link on the sidebar to view them. Enjoy!

Splish Splash

My mom couldn't resist buying Zoe a little baby pool. Though she can't do much in it yet, we just HAD to put her in it. She didn't quite know what to do, but she sure did look cute sitting in the water.

Not quite sure if she likes the hat...

..that's better!
Grandma introducing Zoe to the pool
Zoe looks bored and somewhat puzzled. She's probably wondering why her diaper is suddenly very wet and cold.
Starting to kick those feet...
...and beginning to enjoy it!
When we lifted her out of the pool, all she wanted to do was suck on her feet. I guess it just doesn't take much to entertain this girl at this age. If we'd all just be satisfied with sucking on our toes, we would probably save a lot of money. :)
Thanks, Grandma, for my first swimming pool experience!

Jersey Recap

We're back! We had a great time in New Jersey visiting my mom, sis and extended family. We not only survived the plane ride, but we were actually quite impressed with how well Zoe did. She slept for 45 minutes the first flight and an hour and a half on the flight home. Not bad for a two hour trip! I'm sure the people sitting next to us were thankful, too!

We arrived on a Sunday afternoon and my mom had a huge family gathering planned for that evening. It was so great to see everyone and to be able to introduce our little girl to the rest of my family. Zoe was a trooper...she held it together for most of the night but eventually sleep overcame her and she simply fell asleep in my cousin's arms! Poor thing was pretty pooped from her travel adventures!

Here are some highlights of our family get together:

Hanging out with Thea Effie
Meeting her great grandparents for the first time. She was all giggles for my grandpa! My grandma couldn't get over how tiny her feet were!
Uncle Adam and Thea Georgia were happy to meet her, too!
My cousin's daughter, Eleni, was so sweet with Zoe. She gave her lots of hugs and kisses. I can't wait until Zoe is old enough to play with her.
Anthia accusing my cousin Perry of being a baby hogLoving on Thea Anthia's shirt. Yum...
Zoning out while Nona Dee enjoys her. This is when Zoe begins to fight against her sleepy eyes...
She doesn't actually fight for too long. Within five minutes of meeting Theo Demetri, Zoe went from wide awake...
...to finding a comfy place to rest her head!
Zoe laughing at the fact that she has more hair than Nono Chris!
Zoe trying to eat Eleni's hair bow. I hope Eleni likes to share. She is going to have her hand's full with this little cousin of hers!And of course...last but certainly not least...lots of Grandma time!!!

It was such a fun evening! I really appreciate my family and always look forward to the opportunity we have to spend time together. It is such a blessing to see people that love us, love our daughter too. We were so happy to be able to share our life with Zoe with them and look forward to more times like this! For more pictures from our Jersey trip, click 'Jersey Pics' on the sidebar link.

Plane Travel

We are off to New Jersey tomorrow for a few days of visiting family. I am nervous about the plane ride and praying Zoe does well. I'm sure I'm being ridiculous - it's only a 2 hour flight! I think we all can handle that. But still...it's a new thing for us and Zo, so I'm a bit apprehensive. We shall see...

Pacifier Fun

Zoe's use of the pacifier really only benefits her (and us) for soothing to sleep these days. Otherwise, she loves to play around with it and put it in her mouth like she does just about everything else. She doesn't even care if it's in properly, as you can tell from the picture. Silly girl...

Mug Shot

We were simply trying to get a better picture of the mullet hair.

4th of July

We hung out with our good friends, John Mark and Karen, and their cousins for the 4th of July. Since none of us have grills, we went out for pizza instead and came back to our place for a couple of competitive rounds of the Newlywed game (which Uche and I won, of course!) :)

Zoe went down fairly easily that night and allowed us to have much-needed quality time with friends. It was quite refreshing!

Not So Happy Zo

Scrunchy Face Zoe in anticipation of...
The Cry.
Briefly pacified...
until crazy Zoe re-emerges from the wild...

I can't help it. She's even cute when she's miserable. What's a mom to do? Record it for the world to see, of course!

Naive

Someone please remind me not to brag about my daughter's great sleeping patterns on the blog. I am so naive!!!

Things aren't horrible but we are not quite smooth sailing yet. I think she's teething, and i'm sure that is causing some sleep disturbances, too. Oh well. We're getting there!

Playtime

Here are a few videos of Zoe's playtime this morning.

Making Zoe Laugh

Finally! Zoe's at the age where she enjoys having her tummy tickled. This provides hours of fun for her and us!

Beauty

Oh. My. Goodness.

She did it! Zoe slept from 8pm till 7:30 am without waking once to nurse! She woke up twice because she had rolled over on her tummy and couldn't turn herself back over. But other than readjusting her position, we all got good sleep last night! (though I DID have to get up at 4 in the morning because my body is definitely NOT used to going that long without nursing - thank God for breast pumps!)

YAY for continued sleep success!

Sleep Training...Success?

You may remember that a few weeks ago I was at the end of myself. I was basically as exhausted as I was when Zoe was a newborn. I was definitely prepared to do whatever it took to make sure this little girl would learn to sleep on her own - desperation has a way of making a mom willing to do just about anything. I figured it wasn't fair to start sleep training before heading to Toronto, as her schedule would be so completely messed up anyway during that week. So I waited until the day after we got back to start. First order of business - swaddle free living. I decided we would have to do this cold turkey. I had previously tried to ease her into it with no success. After much encouragement from others that it would be a rough week, but a fruitful one, I pressed on. Well they were right. It was actually a brutal week and a half. Zoe would wake up constantly, not used to having her arms free and flailing about. We had not let her cry it out up to this point and felt that we should focus on swaddle-free sleep first, without adding yet another new thing for her to adjust to. That meant lots of rocking. Endless rocking. And very little sleep on our parts.

Next on the agenda: establishing regular naps. She had been napping a lot during the day before, but not for long and they were often sporadic. I knew we needed to get her on more of a regular schedule. We also needed to establish an earlier bedtime. We worked hard at this and we are just now seeing the fruit of it. Thankfully, after our trip to Toronto, Zoe began waking up between 7-8 every morning instead of her usual 5:30-6:00am. What a blessing!

Finally...stop the night waking. I really wanted to eliminate the night waking/feedings. I was exhausted and knew I could not take much more. When we felt she was used to the swaddle-free life, we decided to let her cry it out a bit. Again...brutal. The longest we let her cry was an hour, and then I couldn't take it anymore. She was nowhere near calming down and quieting to sleep, but rather increasing in intensity. It took me a half hour just to calm her down again. After that we decided to let her cry it out only at specific times. We would rock her to a sleepy-state, put her down and let her cry it out if she awoke again. This was/is difficult but it seems to be doing the trick.

For the past four days, she's been asleep by 8 and has only gotten up once at night to nurse. She's also woken up around 7:30 every morning which means she is getting about 11 and a half hours of sleep at night! Her naps have stabilized and she now has a regular morning nap between 9-10:30 and afternoon nap between 12-2 and a short later afternoon nap. We are hoping to begin pushing her bedtime back a little earlier in the next few days. All in all, I am SO THANKFUL!!!! It has been a VERY tiring process, but I have to say, if this sticks, it is worth it! As well, our rocking her to sleep now only takes about 10 minutes, if that. She is so used to this routine that she falls asleep in no time. YAY!

Thanks to all who have encouraged me to press on with this. I'm beginning to feel like I may just be getting my evenings and my sleep back. I hope this lasts!!

The Hair

Zoe's hair is OUT OF CONTROL. Seriously. Here is the proof. There's not much we can do until it grows out a bit more. For now, it's fun to look at. Especially when it hasn't been washed in a while. Uche sometimes calls her "mullet girl." Funny stuff. She doesn't seem to mind, though. Here she is with her fro...flashing her typical happy grin.

Inexplicable Joy

Exer-Saucer

Recently we broke out the Exer-Saucer. Initially, Zoe was hesitant. This first picture captures the moment perfectly. Arms down. Puzzled face. The stare. She just didn't know what to do. Since then, we've been breaking her in slowly - a few minutes each day. She's really starting to enjoy it now! Thanks for the cool new toy, Uncle Paul!!