Andy & Mara's Family: March 2008

Message to Grammy

Sophie and Zoe love to sit at their little table, which Grammy Harriet got for them in February. The weather has been really great this past week so we have been spending as much time as possible outside. Sophie loves to dig in the dirt, and for some reason she likes to put that dirt on the table, on her truck, on her shoes, on Zoe... Must be a toddler thing. Anyway, the girls wanted to say "thank you" again to Grammy. They loving having furniture that's just the right size for them!

10 Months Old

Another month gone by...here's the big girl with Pooh Bear. Zoe did two new things to celebrate being 10 months old. The first thing she did was stand all by herself. It was only for 5 or 10 seconds, but she definitely is beginning to gain better balance. The other thing she did was point to a bird and say, "bird!" Pointing is one of Zoe's favorite things to do now. Sometimes she points randomly, but other times she names the thing she sees: "book", "baba" for bottle, and "pot" for cat. Another one of Zoe's favorite activities is eating. I am blown away by how much cheese and yogurt she can eat. Those are definitely her favorite foods, but she's also fond of apples, chicken, macaroni and cheese and pears. During meal time we practice the signs for "more" and "all done." Zoe is also practicing drinking more from her sippy cup and less from the bottle. She's growing up so fast! She tries so hard to keep up with her big sister, and now they've started to imitate each other. It's really fun to watch them interact with each other. If you haven't watched the video of them giggling, I highly recommend it. You can't watch it and not feel happy!

Off to a good start

Recently the girls got new toothbrushes. Sophie's has Lumpy (from Winnie the Pooh) on it, and Zoe has Elmo, Grover and Zoe (from Sesame Street) on hers. Sophie has always been great about brushing her teeth, and I think it's because we started as soon as her bottom two teeth were in. Now that Zoe's two teeth are most of the way through, she has been joining Sophie for teeth time. Of course mommy does the first two minutes of brushing for both girls, but after that Sophie has fun getting all of the crazy animals out of her mouth, and Zoe enjoys chewing and sucking on the brush. Someday, many years from now, I hope they will brush their teeth without being told!

Annual Easter Egg Hunt

Today was our Tucson Moms annual Easter egg hunt. This morning while I was cooking breakfast I got a little preview of our day: a double yolk in our eggs! This was actually a good thing because egg yolk is one of Zoe's favorite things to eat. After our morning walk through the neighborhood, the girls and I headed over to our favorite park to meet up with our playgroup for the big hunt. It was very interesting and amusing watching all these 2-year-olds find the eggs. Mostly they just wanted to open the eggs and immediately eat or play with the treat. Sophie's first egg contained a miniature container of playdoh, and she instantly sat on the ground and began saying, "open, open, more, open!" It took awhile for all the eggs to be found, and then finally the kids got to sit down and thoroughly inspect their loot. Zoe was disappointed that she didn't get to hunt for eggs, but Sophie was a very good big sister and let Zoe play with and help open the ones she found. Zoe especially liked the eggs filled with jelly beans because they made great rattles. Needless to say, after all the excitement and running around in the 80 degree heat, both girls took very long naps today and were eager to go to bed right at bed time! I'm thinking we might hit up some other egg hunts going on around town between now and Sunday:)

Girls Gone Giddy!

Here is an example of what can happen when mommy doesn't get dinner on the table by 5:30...

Update on Zoe

Today Zoe went for her 9 month check up. It was a couple weeks past due, but since she didn't need any shots it didn't really matter. Her official weight is 19 lbs 12 oz, and her height is 28 inches. Both measurements are just above the 50th percentile, which actually surprised me. Zoe has changed a lot in just the last week or so. Her personality has gotten very strong, and she has begun to express her opinions about things as well as hold her own against Sophie. She also has finally started eating solid foods. Her favorites are yogurt, potatoes and strawberries. These also happen to be some of Sophie's favorites too. If she had more teeth, I think Zoe would eat a turkey sandwich too! She truly hates baby food so I haven't even offered it to her for the past couple of months. This saves us a lot of money, so I'm happy to just give her table food. The doctor said that Zoe is doing great and that she would see us when she turns 1. That was shocking for me to hear because I feel like it was just yesterday that we were racing home from vacation to have her!

Road Trip Florida

Last week I took the girls to visit Grandma Ann and Papa in Florida. This was my first time traveling with both kids by myself, and I have to say that we all did a great job! We had a wonderful time on our trip. We got to do lots of fun activities such as the Jungle gardens, where Sophie held a parrot on her arm and also got to feed the flamingos. We also visited the Mote Aquarium. Sophie really enjoyed the touch pools, and Zoe loved watching all of the people! We also made it to the beach a couple of times. Both girls are true beach babies. They love the sand, and Sophie loves to splash in the waves. The water was a little chilly for Zoe, but again she had fun just watching all of the people. When we weren't out and about, we just enjoyed spending time at the house relaxing. I especially loved not having to cook or clean for a week! It was also really wonderful to spend time with the girls without the constant reminder of what's not getting done around the house. We hope that we get to visit Florida again, and maybe next time Andy will come too!