a few of Zoe's favorite phrases:

a few of Zoe's favorite phrases:

"Mommy, I was worried about you" (when I got out of the car to get us a spot at a resturant and she and Daddy parked the car).

"Ayúdeme" (spanish for "help me", phonetically sounds like "a-U-na-may")

"I'm stuck in the muck" (from Duck in the Truck books)


Recent Pictures:

waterpark break

We took a long weekend at the end of fall break and went to Great Wolf Lodge just south of Seattle.
We caught the 10:30am ferry out of Port Angeles.. the weather was okay, but the seas were rough.. Both Bruce and Zoe did not enjoy it.. in fact Bruce wanted to lie down.. Zoe was telling me that she was tired.. both of them fell asleep for the voyage... It was too early for Zoe's nap, I think she was just shutting down because she didn't like the motion sick feeling.

The drive from there was along highway 101.. it was beautiful!
Through the Olympic National Forest.. we quite enjoyed it. Zoe did so too, she got to watch endless episodes of Clifford. It took us about 3 hours to get to the hotel/waterpark.

The waterpark was fun, and there was an age appropriate area for Zoe.. we had fun until Saturday when all of the people showed up.. it was too crowded. I'm sure it would be a bunch more fun with a group of people or slightly older kids.

Durning this vacation, Zoe's favorite phrase was "I'm too young"... she was too young to sleep, too young to eat, too young to sit in the car.. it was funny.. she also came up with a tune for "no no no no no"... sort of like that thing kids do on the play ground when they are teasing some one "nah nanny nah nah".

new shows

Zoe is now branching out.. likes to watch a bunch of different shows. Currently she loves (and giggles so much during) Curious George (shown on PBS) and on our last road trip only watched Clifford (discs that she has turned her nose up at for more than 6 months). I think it is time to start her on the good old Disney cartoons. (Christmas presents?)

Speaking of Christmas presents, I'm thinking for her:

• Puzzles (she is getting really, really good at them)
• Movies (Disney cartoons/CG films (I have all the Pixar ones though) )
• Curious George Videos
  
• Thomas the Train set (but I'm asking Auntie Heather about their old one first)
• Leapster games (I bought Dora the Camping one, she could use a Diego one)

memories

It is amazing what Zoe remembers.

Out of the blue, she started searching her dress up clothes box

and when I asked her what she was looking for, she said, "looking for Dora treats"

and then looked in the mirror and said "Auntie Carrie has Dora Treats".

These are popsicles.. she had one....

last July.....

night terrors are back

Zoe didn't nap on the way back from our drive north, and as a result was much too tired when we put her to bed a 7:30. at 8:30 she woke up with the worst night terrors yet. I spent over 20 minutes trying to console a screaming baby, finally Bruce came up and we tried to do it together.. we tried things to wake her up, she was really still asleep, stuck in this terror rut... it just seemed to get worse. We just wanted to reset her and restart the sleep. Finally we took her downstairs to watch a Dora, but shock.. she didn't even want to watch that.. she said "Tired".. We took her back upstairs to our bed, I told her a Dora story (I have two "episodes" in my repertoire now).. and she fell back to sleep.

She had another night terror last night, but it was much shorter lived, and went away on her own (although I was cuddling her then too).

She does have a head cold, I don't know if that contributes to these or not. She's also been around too much arguing and I feel a little guilty about that too.

Salmon run (or how mean Mom and dad are that they won't let Zoe jump in the river)

Salmon run (or how mean Mom and dad are that they won't let Zoe jump in the river)...


We decided to break out of town and head up-island... not very far past Costco is Goldstream park.. which is now full of Salmon.. The Salmon migrate from the ocean, to return to the very spot in a river that they were born to. They pair up together (male/female), dig in the sand with their tails, female releases eggs, the male fertilizes them, they cover up the eggs, and then die shortly after in the river. We've never seen anything quite like it.. I'll put up videos soon.
These are 10-20 lbs fish.. lots of them, fin to fin, some in water not deep enough to swim in as they make their way upstream.

We wandered a bit more to find other streams, and sure enough, salmon in even the smallest of brookes... there were two teenagers walking (foolishly) through the streams, and Zoe thought that looked like great fun.. it took a lot of restraint to keep her from running in to. Eventually we just had to leave, the puddles and river looked like too much fun.

We then drove up to Nananimo.. 2 hours north of Victoria. The weather was not great, so we didn't explore the beaches.. just found dinner, a hotel overlooking the harbor, and then went to this fabulous Nananimo pool complex.. it had a great boat for Zoe to explore, a river pool, a wave pool, etc. The water wasn't quite warm enough... Zoe got tired, frustrated (she couldn't get the Diego ball for 30 minutes until the lifeguard fetched it down), and then was too cold to play (and wouldn't warm up in the hot tub).. it was a full day.

The next day we explore a pub for brunch, mall for toys and books... it was kind of strange, Nanamio is more up to date than Victoria, the shopping is much better, store better stocked.. just newer.

Friday a great day for puddle jumping

Last week (Thurs, Friday), we had about 36 hours of straight rain.. hadn't seen anything like it in Victoria yet.. Then on Friday, we headed out for our music class.. I successfully navigated Zoe past the puddles (in her puddle stompers) without her getting too wet. But the same can not be said about after class.. She ran through every puddle she could find and then despite the pouring rain, was determined to go the playground... did I mention deep puddles? Zoe headed straight for the puddles beneath the swings.. just a little at first, then out, then back in a little deeper.. not 5 minutes later she was running through them, the water much higher than her boots.. filling them up.. she'd leave the puddles and I could see the water sloshing out of her boots as she ran around.

I finally had to extricate her from the park, she was getting cold, I was getting wet (she was already way past wet).. as I'm carrying her like a 2x4, she kicks off her boots.. I pick them up, she managed to free a sock.. I got her in the car stripped off the wet, and went back to find the sock. We went to Tiffany's house, borrowed pants and socks.

Halloween

Zoe had a good time on Halloween.. she did nap late, so I ended up kind of waking her up at 4:30 when her friends showed up and she was not excited to get up, and liked it less that there were people in the house. But we made mummy hot dogs and sat the three little ones (Jeremy, Zoe and Panos) down to eat.

Everyone but Zoe really enjoyed the hot dogs.. Zoe only wanted to eat the dip (ketchup).

Then about 5:30, we took the kids out.
We went to about 15 houses in one hour and got bags full of candy... more than any two year old can eat.

I was dressed up as a pregnant cheerleader.. and unfortunately, the pictures of me did not turn out (lighting, blur).
But the pictures of the "Village People" did: Bruce, Zoe, Tiffany, and Panos.

The rest of the part that night (when the working Zombies showed up) went okay, probably not my best party.. I was so very tired, went to bed at 9:30.. leaving the party playing a board game. I've decided I'm too pregnant to host any more parties.

puzzles

Zoe is amazingly good at assembling puzzles now.. she received a really cool box of them for her birthday.. one duck of two pieces, another with three pieces, a crocodile with 4 pieces, and then two 6 piece puzzles..

Her dad also bought her a Diego Magnet one (about 12 pieces) that she is getting good at.. if you hand her two pieces that go together, she can line them up. Sometimes she does still try to put pieces in the wrong place, but she has the basic idea.

Dancing with my friend daddy

Zoe and her daddy started a new thing after bath.. they go to the mirror, Zoe in front, Bruce behind, and Zoe leads the dance. "Stomp like a dinosaur" and they prance in place.. "Clap for the dinosaur".. clapping... "Roar like a dinosaur"... shaking of heads and a loud "Roar"... repeat at least 3 times...
I tell Zoe, time to calm down and get ready for bed.. she responds: "No, I'm dancing with my friend Daddy".

ahhh.....