Better Late Than Never

So tonight is the first night of Hanukah, and I still haven't even posted Halloween pictures. Yes, I have totally been neglecting this blog. Here's my attempt to catch up...

Zoe was a little ladybug for Halloween. Cute as can be. She had plenty of opportunities to rock the costume with a neighborhood pumpkin patch and petting zoo, a party hosted by a playgroup pal and trick-or-treating on Alta Vista. Zoe got pretty into trick-or-treating this year. She caught on to the concept of going up to people's doors and holding out her little bucket. But, she still has some things to learn. She tried going into a few people's homes and took handfuls of candy instead of just one piece per house. Oh, and those pesky wrappers got her every time. She definitely attempted to eat several pieces of candy wrappers and all. Regardless, she had a blast and Jody and I enjoyed raiding her candy bucket. Kit Kats, Smarties and Snickers, oh my!

Love Bug

Last week Zoe started saying "I love you" and it is truly the sweetest thing ever. At first she was just repeating us when we said it, but now she's started saying it on her own. Every night when we're finished with story time Zoe turns around in my lap, gives me a big hug and says I love you. When Jody leaves for work every morning, he gets a sweet little I love you from Z. It is so freakin' adorable and it just totally melts your heart. The best part of her I love yous is the happy little grin she has when she says it, like she actually knows what it means.

I Heart Fall

October is definitely one of my favorite months, and this year October rocked. The weather has been amazing and we've taken full advantage of these crisp fall days. A few weekends back, we headed to Caldwell Woods, a forest preserve on the Northside in Edgebrook. I can't believe we've never been to this park. It's amazing that there is this huge, gorgeous forest preserve in the city. I just figured we'd have to go to the 'burbs for this kind of thing. But Jody remembered playing a volleyball tournament at Caldwell Woods a few years back, so we decided to check it out.

We only made it through a fraction of the park because it is super big. (Apparently, it stretches way far up north, beyond the city.) With all the leaves changing colors it was so pretty and the temperature was just right. There was plenty of activity, but it wasn't super crowded, so it really was the perfect day to chill and enjoy the great outdoors as a family. Although Zoe enjoyed herself and had a blast feeding the ducks in the river, it was really Charlie's day. He loved walking through the woods, charging after plenty of forest critters and sniffing up a storm. I swear he was panting so hard with excitement. Too cute. Unfortunately, with the weather turning a little more winter-like, I don't think we'll be hitting up Caldwell Woods again any time soon, but we will be back.

Carnies and Carousels

She may look all serious here, but she was loving the carousel horsies.

A couple weekends ago, we decided to check out the carnival that the neighborhood high school was hosting in our park. Now, I grew up in towns that had some pretty cool carnivals. When I was really little, I was all about Corn Fest in DeKalb. When we moved to Naperville, the Last Fling was always a great way to end the summer. So, I kind of had high hopes for this Fall Carnival. Sadly, this was no Corn Fest...and certainly no Last Fling. It was actually a pretty sketchy carnival with the most rinky dink rides ever. There is no way I would have stepped foot on any of those rusty, creaky twirly whirly rides. Despite the seriously shady vibe and the, um, eccentric carnies, Zoe had fun at her first carnival. She loved the carousel, won 2 excellent bouncy balls at the duck pond and got a taste of her very first elephant ear. Good stuff.

Mmmm, elephant ears!

Sweet Rides

After one too many stroller meltdowns, it was time to make some adjustments. First came the wagon. Zoes loves her some Radio Flyer. At first she sat in her wagon seat like a total angel, but that didn't last long (of course). Now anytime she's in the wagon she's flopping all around in it--switching sides, buckling and unbuckling her stuffed animals and even putting the seats down so she can lay down. Next up: the pushy car. Another hit for Miss Zoe. Not as much flopping freedom in the car, but still a pretty sweet ride.

Poker Face

Lady Gaga has been one of Zoe's favorites since she was a newborn. Nothing could calm her down quite like a little "Poker Face" during those first few sleepless months. Well, it's been a year and a half and Zoe still goes gaga for Gaga. We had a little dance party the other day when "Poker Face" came on the radio and Zoe just kept on busting a move long after Gaga was done. I posted the Poker Face dance on Facebook, but here's another video of her dancing to what I wrongfully thought was Eminem. (It was, in fact, B.O.B. in case you care.)

19 Months

I can't believe our little girl is already a year and a half. Every day Zoe is becoming less and less of a baby and more and more of a toddler.

At her 18 month appointment, she was 23 lbs and 31 inches. So she's still in the 25th percentile for weight and 25-50% for height. Basically, pretty much how she's been for a while now.

Zoe is still a total joy. These days she's also become quite the drama queen, as well. She may be little, but this chica has one big personality. A lot of people have told me that girls start getting into their terrible 2s a little earlier than 2, and I can see that already starting with our sweet little Z. She is just so willful sometimes. There is so much she wants to do--and so much that she can do physically--but then we're always stopping her. I mean, what mean parents we are to not let her ride in her wagon standing up, right?

Aside from the drama, Zoe continues to fill us with so much love. She is so much fun to be around. She is super sweet and totally gleeful. There really isn't anyone else in the world I would rather be with. Our favorite game to play with her is Huggy Ball before her nightly bath. As we fill her bath, Jody and I sit on opposite ends of the room or hallway and she runs back and forth between us and diving into us to give us huge hugs. Honestly, it is the best thing in the world.

Huggy ball in action

As I mentioned in the last post, she's a total chatterbox these days and registering everything we say. It's pretty awesome to talk to her and know that she's understanding a lot of what we're saying. She's still a little shy in new settings, but she loves going new places and meeting new people, especially other kids. Once she's comfortable and gets a feel for her surroundings she's good to go.

I could go on and on about every little thing that amazes us every day, but this post is already long enough. I just really can't get over how much Zoe changes and grows every day. And I can't wait to see what's next.

Chatter

Oh my goodness, we have a little chatterbox on our hands. In the past month or so, Zoe has been talking up a storm. It's crazy...and awesome. Every day is something new. She's repeating everything and actually remembering it. So much fun. The other day, however, I was changing her sheets and I told her she had clean sheets. Now anytime she sees her crib she points at it and says "sheet"...except it doesn't quite sound like "sheet," if you know what I mean.

It's pretty cool how quickly her language skills are advancing. She's talking in 2-3 word sentences and can finally communicate with us better than ever before. Of course, she still grunts, cries and whines when she's really frustrated and agitated, but at least some of the time she can actually use a few words. I know everyone says this all the time, but these kiddos sure do grow up quickly.

Sadly, she hasn't quite mastered saying Charlie yet. When we say Charlie she knows who we're talking about, but I think the "Ch" sound is tough for her. She does, however, constantly talk about Olive (Charlie's doggy BFF across the hall). Zoe adores Olive and loves watching Charlie and Olive play. Now, whenever Zoe wants to see Olive, she starts banging on our door saying "See Olive! See Olive!" I've said it before and I'll say it again, Zoe thinks she is part puppy. I'm just relieved she's talking instead of barking.

Wedding Season: The Hires

A few weeks ago, we headed to the Maryland coast to celebrate Andrew and Melissa's wedding, bay-side. This marked mine and Jody's first getaway together without Zoe. Needless to say, we were pretty excited...and a little nervous to leave our girl. It helped that we knew she'd be in great hands with Jody's mom staying with her for one day/night and then my parents coming in from Michigan for the rest of the weekend. She had a blast with her grandparents and she was a great girl for them all.

Now, onto the weekend. We flew into Baltimore on Thursday morning and stayed at Lisa and Avi's place on Thursday night. It was so awesome seeing them all. Jody and I got there before Lis and Avi were home from work, so we got a chance to babysit and play with Edin and Adam. So. Much. Fun. The kids adored Jody. He was the ultimate play pal. He taught them all about underdogs on the swings, gave them Gatorade and did plenty of chasing, jumping and upside jiggling. Edin even asked me, "Can we keep him?" So sweet.

On Friday, we headed to St. Matthews, a cute waterfront town along the Chesapeake Bay. Friday night was the rehersal dinner at the Crab Shack. That night there was a high tide in the bay, which meant the rehersal dinner was a bit, well...wet. The water came up above our ankles. So we ditched our shoes, the guys wore shorts and we all enjoyed splashing around as we enjoyed fresh crab and fried chicken. On Saturday, Jody played golf with a bunch of the guys, while I tooled around town with Steve, Jeremy and Karen before the wedding Saturday night. The ceremony was right on the water and so beautiful. Melissa was a gorgeous bride and they were both so happy. The reception after the service was a blast. The dancefloor was insane and Jody got to learn some sweet new bouncing dance moves with The Europeans. The alligator/"Taking Care of Business" dance that some of you may remember from our wedding actually originated in Hire's family. So, of course, that was a real crowd pleaser. We had so much fun all weekend celebrating with great friends. Congrats Hires!

Wedding Season: The Walshes

The happy couple bustin' a move

We've had a fun couple of months of celebrating weddings. First up was on "my side" with Katie and Michael's Chicago wedding back in July. Katie was one of mine and Courtney's first friends that we made our freshman year at IU and we remained great friends our entire time there and beyond. Katie and I lived together when we moved to Chicago and spent that first year out of school trying to figure out real world. Now, 10 years later, it was awesome to see her getting married and starting a new life with a great guy. Congratulations, Mr. and Mrs. Walsh!

The wedding itself was fun. Katie looked beautiful and both the bride and the groom had huge grins plastered across their faces the entire day. The reception was in the Saint Ignatius cafeteria. And the word "cafeteria" is a total injustice. It was such a cool space, with a ton of windows and a gorgeous courtyard/garden.

Courtney and Jeremy stayed with us for the weekend, which is always the biggest treat! Last time Courtney was in town, she won over Zoe with her iPhone. This visit, she busted out the big guns with the iPad, and Zoe was all hers! Of course, I know it's more than just Court's sweet technology that Zoe loves, but it sure does help break the ice.

Our senior year 801 roomies (sans Katharine).

Butter Baby

Zoe may be a mini Jody clone, but on the inside she has plenty of me in her. Last night she proved that she doesn't share some of Jody's strange food aversions when we headed out to Stanley's for dinner. Zoe has been kind of hit or miss at restaurants lately, so we were thrilled that she was behaving herself and having fun. I credit her happiness to butter. Yup, butter. (Butter happens to be in Jody's top three most hated foods along with chocolate and all things white and creamy.) When Zoe saw the butter packets on the table she went to town. She actually took a handful of my coleslaw, dunked it in a butter packet and ate it. Jody's worst nightmare. Here she is dunking her french fries in the butter and, of course, offering some to Daddy--who was literally cringing at the sight of all that butter.

Swim Fans

A couple weekends ago we headed out to the 'burbs for a day with the Kleinfelders. It turned out to be a gorgeous day despite some major thunderstorms in the morning. Zoe and Mason did some bonding in the baby pool. Zoe was her usual cautious self in the water, but eventually she warmed up to it...well, as long as the sprinkler wasn't going at the same time.

Charlie also joined in the fun, running around, swimming in the lake and enjoying some serious doggy time with Favor. Even though Favor plays it super cool with him, I think she likes having a fellow four-legger around. Zoe got a little freaked out watching Charlie swim in the lake. I'm guessing that seeing just his head bobbing around in the water was a little scary for her. But every time he came out of the water and shook off, she calmed right down. Very sweet how protective she is of Charlie these days. We had a great time, as always. Thanks to Bonnie and Roger for being such awesome hosts!

Teething Much?

For the past couple weeks Zoe has been in teething hell. She has about four teeth coming in at once right now. She's been dealing with it all reasonably well, although meal times have not been the most fun. She's also chewing on pretty much anything she can get her hands on. We need to always have some sort of chewy toy/food/etc. ready. I learned that lesson today when we were on our Charlie walk and Zoe decided her shoe looked like a tasty thing to gnaw on. So gross.

New Scootitude

After getting sick of his Rocketa scooter dying at the end of every summer, Jody decided it was time for an upgrade. Enter the Honda Metropolitan. A much nicer, more reliable and all around cooler scoot than his starter scoot. I, of course, still refuse to ride it. But I am tempted because this new one is a pretty sweet ride. Jody's been enjoying scooting to work, the beach and all around town this summer. He's still working on building a scooter gang, so let him know if you want in.

Better Late than Never

For some reason or another Jody and I felt like we didn't really need to do the whole child-proofing thing. Maybe we were just lazy. Or maybe we just had too much faith in our little girl. Probably lazy. Zoe's been on the move for a while now, but she is not quick enough or quiet enough to really get into any major trouble. Well, wait, I should put that in past tense. She was not quick enough. She is now. A couple weeks ago, I finally had enough and told Jody we had to get some child locks. Stat. (He came home from work that night with enough locks to childproof 8 condos!)

Every time I turned around, Zoe was playing in the pantry, in the pots and pats, under the sink, everywhere. She didn't get into anything dangerous, but she sure enjoyed making a mess of everything. The thing is, I felt really bad putting locks on all the cabinets. She loved playing in the cabinets, and she loved her pantry diving most. Find Puffins, open box, dump all over floor and, finally, enjoy a snack of crushed Puffins on the kitchen floor with Charlie. Good times.

So far she has been handling the new locks quite well. A little frustration and confusion at first, but now she mostly just steers clear of her former fun zone. And I am a lot happier not to be stocking and restocking the pantry 20 times a day. Below is video I took for Jody when he was at work, so he could see her first reaction to the anti-Zoe cabinets. So sad.

Just Cute

I hope everyone had a great July 4th weekend! This is one of my favorite shots from our fun-filled weekend. More updates to come...

Happy Father's Day!

Zoe and I are both so lucky to have such awesome dads! Happy Father's Day to Jody and my dad! xoxo

Toga, Toga, Toga!

Zoe just turned 16 months last week, and I'm pretty sure this is my favorite age yet. She's running, sqealing, climbing, dancing, chatting and even understanding a lot of what we're saying. It's pretty awesome. Of course, it can all get pretty exhausting and challenging. But worth it. So worth it.

With all these changes, I think we are supposed to start referring to her as a toddler nowadays, rather than a baby. (At least that what the folks at Babycenter.com tell me in my weekly "what your toddler is doing now" emails.) So after reading a comparison of life with a toddler to going to a frat party, I realized that yes, we officially have a toddler on our hands. We went to plenty of frat parties back in the day, and I gotta say this list rings pretty true. (I don't want to take credit for this list so please note that this has been copied and pasted from http://www.suburbansnapshots.com/2010/06/10-reasons-having-toddler-is-like-being.html)

10. There are half-full, brightly-colored plastic cups on the floor in every room. Three are in the bathtub.

9. There's always that one girl, bawling her eyes out in the corner.

8. It's best not to assume that the person closest to you has any control over their digestive function.

7. You sneak off to the bathroom knowing that as soon as you sit down, someone's going to start banging on the door.

6. Probably 80% of the stains on the furniture contain DNA.

5. You've got someone in your face at 3 a.m. looking for a drink.

4. There's definitely going to be a fight.

3. You're not sure whether anything you're doing is right, you just hope it won't get you arrested.

2. There are crumpled-up underpants everywhere.

1. You wake up wondering exactly how and when the person in bed with you got there.

A Hockey City

We've got spirit, yes we do! (And yes, we are in the bathroom mirror)

Taken from my phone as the Hawks headed downtown for the parade!

Even the lions at the Art Institute were decked out in hockey helmets for the Stanley Cup finals

Congrats to the Chicago Blackhawks, winners of the 2010 Stanley Cup! It's not too often that hockey takes over the city in the middle of June. But, last week, Chicago went hockey crazy. After waiting 49 years, the Stanley Cup finally came home to Chicago.

Now, I'm not going to pretend that I am a lifelong Hawks fan. As most of you know, I'm not much of a sports fan, period. But during these playoffs, I watched more hockey than I have in my entire life. And it was fun. The games were exciting and the players had plenty of personality both on and off the ice. Of course, it's pretty doubtful that I would have watched any of the games if Jody hadn't been so into the Hawks this year. He loved it all. So, thanks to Jody for getting me hooked too.

More than anything, I love how Chicagoans come together and celebrate during these kinds of sports victories. I even loved how the city celebrated when the White Sox won the World Series a few years back, even though I've never been a Sox fan. The city actually seemed even more alive this time around with the Hawks victory, and our neighborhood was especially rockin. On Friday, I got a close look at of the players and the Cup when I was coming home from the gym and watched the parade pass through our 'hood as it made its way to Michigan Ave. Very cool.

With news outlets reporting that there were more than 2 million people downtown for the parade and rally, I couldn't help but wonder what the city would be like if/when the Cubs win the World Series. Can you even imagine?

Organic vs. Non-Organic

I know that it's better to buy organic, but I also know that buying all organic produce can really rack up the grocery bill. So I was excited when I saw an article on CNN the other day that detailed which fruits and veggies you should always buy organic and the ones that aren't as affected by pesticides so you don't necessarily need to buy them organic. So, for any of you grocery shoppers out there who struggle with this like I do, here's the list:

Dirty Dozen (these are the foods you should always buy organic)
Celery
Peaches
Strawberries
Apples
Domestic blueberries
Nectarines
Sweet bell pepperes
Spinach, kale and collard greens
Cherries
Potatoes
Imported grapes
Lettuce

The Clean 15 (these are the foods that are okay to buy non-organic)
Onions
Avocados
Sweet corn
Pineapple
Mango
Sweet peas
Asparagus
Kiwi
Cabbage
Eggplant
Cantaloupe
Watermelon
Grapefruit
Sweet potatoes

We've Got a Climber

I can't say I'm surprised by Zoe's newfound interest in climbing. I mean, I've seen the pictures of Jody climbing doorframes as a kid and I have heard the tale of him climbing to the top of the refrigerator as a wee tot time and time again. So I suppose it was inevitable. Up is Z's favorite word, and she's quite the proud little girl when she figures out how to get "up"all on her own. Her stroller is a particularly enticing climbing toy. Here is a step-by-step look at her climbing success.

Go Cubs!

This past weekend Zoe took her first trip to Wrigley Field to watch the Cubs vs. the Pirates. And she did great! We went with Heather, Jason and Ean and Jerry. It was Ean's first Cubs game too and he was pretty amazing as well. Just chilled out in Jason's Baby Bjorn almost the whole time. He even slept for a little while. Jody and I were totally impressed.

It was a sunny day. A bit chilly up in the stands, but with a little hot chocolate and hoodies, we were pretty good. The cousins seemed to enjoy the game. Zoe kept herself quite entertained--making friends with a little girl in front of us, trying to climb the chain link fence behind us, watching all the birds flying around eating all the concession crumbs and just squealing and pointing at all the action. I originally thought Zoe would last maybe 4 innings, but we ended up staying until the 8th. Of course, we had to take her on a couple walks around the stadium and Jody took her to the deck for a while to warm up. But all in all, it was a hit.

The most fun for me was getting her dressed up in her cute Cubs gear. Between her and Ean, we had to two cutest, most stylin' little ones in the stadium!

Oh yeah, and the Cubs finally won. So, I'm pretty sure Zoe and Ean are lucky charms.