mrs. zozo bumpy nubbins

2010-03-18T17:07:00.000-07:00

Zoe's new composition

2009-06-20T14:51:00.001-07:00

Zoe has taken to the piano. In fact, if I try to play, she will come over and will burrow her head into my lap and cry, until I let her play. Or if I try to show her how I play a song, she will listen for a minute or two and then start throwing my hands off the keys. So I caught her here, making up her own composition. Pardon the coughing; I'm sorta sick.

My eclectic being

2009-04-22T10:53:00.000-07:00

We scored some cute new photos of the baby child. In them one may notice my love of the eclectic. Sometimes it gets me in trouble. But it reminds me of my neighborhood, which is quite the melting stew. (I love mixed metaphors....)

What a neighborhood, though -- we have big houses, and small. Crumbly dilapidated and fresh newly spanking. Some of these houses are ancient mansions, picture perfect. A few have crusty dogs who will chew off your ankles if you let them. Some are shabby chic, with a little trash salsa on the side. (Which reminds me -- I have some yard work that is barking at me to finish it....)

There's a cute bunch of chickens who just moved in down the way. The lawns styles vary from All Native All the Time to pure green manicured, and a lot of in-between. Dandelions thrive, and why not? Zoe loves to pick them and give them as gifts. I haven't always adored them, but seeing them from a child's point of view can change things.

We have a good sampling of the cultural ethnicities of the world, and probably the religions as well. Spicy!

Here she is wearing a cute little Asian top with an all-American Khaki jumper and her da da's hat.

the war for beauty cc

2009-03-20T12:45:00.001-07:00

Zoe and I went on a walk, sans stroller, in our neighborhood today. It involved untangling ourselves from the dog's leash a lot, protest and sit-ins at having to stop at cross walks, impromptu lessons in not picking up trash, a conversation with a 5 year old about the letter S which he says stands for Sylvia, as well as Star Wars, and an admonition not to eat the violets. Then it started to get really hot, and I had to haul her home over my shoulder, like a sack of potatoes. I was starting to get really hot and sweaty, and the lessons about not picking up trash and cigarette butts were getting me down, so I decided to do a face mask to feel refreshed. When Zoe gave me a look like, geez yer scary, I explained to her that sometimes we have to fight for beauty.....

Zoe likes to meow

2009-01-26T11:57:00.000-08:00

Zoe has been meowing at our outdoor cat who sits in our window sill for about a month now off and on, and I finally got it on tape. Here she also appears to be trying to figure out a way to put the play glasses on the cat and give her a toy bird.

Zoe Words

2008-11-01T18:10:00.000-07:00

While I am thinking about it, I wanted to make a list of Zoe's one hit wonders. If you are a diligent reader of this post, and you should be, Mom and Dad, then you'll remember that Zoe said "Oh Yea" on multiple occasions when she was about 3 1/2 months old. It wasn't a pure Oh Yeah -- there was always a little baby gurgle and some alphabet soup inserted in random spots. But she would say it relatively frequently. Suddenly as miraculously as it appeared however, it disappeared. Probably when we started noticing it and commenting on it a lot

For a long time though, she just had fun with babble, and we enjoyed the sounds but didn't bother to attempt to translate.

Now, she has started to come up with what I'm calling "one-hit wonders" -- just one-time utterances of understandable words that make sense in context. But that she has never repeated since. Lest I forget them, I am making a list here. I'll include a little bit of the background.

*Up -- today we went on a hike in Millcreek Canyon. We were encouraging her to look up, when out of her mouth comes "Up."

*Adios -- Mom & Dad gave us a great educational toy -- La Granja Sonora -- also known as the Talking Farm. It's a fun bilingual 'farm' that has different animals you can press and they will say their name & the noise they make -- in either English or Spanish. If you neglect it, it encourages you to come back and play. After 2 or 3 tries of this encouragement, if you are simply otherwise occupied, it will say "bye bye" or "Adios". She plays with it constantly. About a week or so ago, it said "Adios" and she said it back.... with a little bit of that baby babble alphabet soup attached at the end. She's also starting to get more items correct when the man asks her to pick the right animal -- the other day she got three right in a row, in Spanish -- el caballo negro, la pata amarilla & la oveja blanca.....

*Oh My Goodness -- Zoe & Rolf were spending a lot of time playing together about a month or so ago -- Rolf is my nephew -- about 2 1/2 and quite the talker. Like most children his age, he repeats some of his favorite phrases with regularity. He was oh-my-goodness-ing a lot and Zoe got caught up in his exclamatory zeal and threw one out there. If I had to spell it, it would be " omigoognigabrladn"

*bagel -- We camped out in Jeff's parent's backyard at the beginning of the fall season to check out Provo Canyon & the beautiful fall colors. We found an awesome hike, by the way. Afterwards, we went through a drive through to get a bite to eat and were discussing the merits of bagels. Suddenly from the backseat (and with no alphabet soup trailing) comes "bagel". All of these happen so quickly and without precedent that you always wonder if you really heard what you think you heard.

*I know -- I say this a lot apparently, when trying to comfort Zoe when she's upset about something. The other night she was having a sad baby moment, and crying about not being able to sleep or some such thing. During the middle of her crying, to comfort herself she said "I know...." and resumed her sad baby tears.

These ones are the more popular ones that keep coming out:

*doggy -- This has come out on several occasions, not quite fully formed but in the proper context more or less. I haven't heard it come out without some extra letters attached.

*baby -- she says 'ba ba' so often that this one is almost a question mark. Of course we like to call her baby a lot so maybe she is saying it just as often as we do.

*mama -- does a lot of mama's which I interpreted to me from the get go, even though they may have meant something else originally. I guess I'm not the only mama who has done that ; )

*no no no -- I first noticed that she was copying me doing the infamous 'no' word when she shut my computer off in the middle of working. Buttons are obsessions with her; She also keeps making my page disappear as I type right now because she has figured out some function of the mouse that I myself have no clue how to use-- and does a little 'no no no' to accompany her naughtiness.

*ahem -- Jeff is a chronic throat clearer so Zoe does a little imitation of him...all the time, each time he does it

Baby Flashback

2008-10-25T11:16:00.001-07:00

Jeff just figured out how to get some old photos from our old camera -- Zoe when she was a little over 3 months old, and Jeff was a novice at baby dressing. It's pretty cute -- I'll try to post some other pics so you can see the mismatched socks.

Rolf sticks it to Zoe

2008-07-22T19:21:00.000-07:00

My sister Angela (hi Ang) -- has been very helpful with tending Zoe when I am in the office. Today, Rolf her 2 year old had fun decorating Zoe with stickers.

baby tales

2008-07-18T20:29:00.000-07:00

it's been such a long time since i've written -- and zoe is so different from the last time I checked in with the blog. She has a new nickname -- Mrs. Baby Lady. She says more things, she crawls, she has a few teeth. All these new little personality traits coming out. She's really quite adorable, and yes I am biased. But I'll be posting a few vids for y'all to contemplate.

Here she is below playing with the keyboard. She does more with the keyboard then shown in this video -- she's really good at changing the rhythms and adjusting dials. She's especially fond of the Wa Wa bender.

In fact, I have been taking this mom & baby yoga class, which has given her a chance to practice her skills with buttons & dials. She is the only crawler in the room; the other babies are relatively stationary. To keep the mood all calm and Namaste, they play your typical Eastern chanting type songs -- softly and quietly, so as to be soft and quiet, I guess.

She made everyone laugh when she crawled over and cranked up the music really loud. I guess she wanted to hear it better. She was the DJ for the day, or so said the instructor. I guess she doesn't know what DJ means, because it really upset her and she started to cry. 'Course we all thought she was adorable....

Pants Hair 2

2008-03-30T13:02:00.001-07:00

Pants Hair

2008-03-30T11:52:00.000-07:00

I'm going to start a new baby trend for all little girls who don't want to be too froo froo but yet sometimes miss the long hair of their older counterparts. It's called Pants Hair. Basically you just find a cute pair of pants and put it on your head, making instant hair, which can be worn in a variety of ways.

Zoe is modeling her white pants hair here.

Zoe's imaginary friends

2008-03-21T08:33:00.001-07:00

red cow
twin plugs stand on collective head
I have been meaning to do this post for a long time.

When Zoe was about 4 weeks old we started 'elimination communication' -- As I've posted before.

She often was a baby in a fog at that time -- at least like most little babies she got upset a lot

But whenever we took her to try potty she would start smiling and chattering in baby babble.

I think it was the fun of seeing herself in the mirror as much as anything else. In fact that's probably what it really was since she's going through a "potty strike" right now where even if she does have to go she doesn't want to. This is normal and common from what I've read.

So she gets mad if I try to potty her now sometimes, but if I turn around and show her the other mirror, her mood lightens considerably.

And then she has her friend Elephant Towel Hook to console her. I noticed one day that she was unusually interested in the towel hook. I then noticed it looks a lot like an elephant. It has screws painted blue by the last tenants forming the eyes, and a gold hook trunk. So I had fun with that and drew the rest of the elephant on the wall.

Now if she's upset, I can go show her the elephant and she'll start cooing and talking to him.

She's made other friends -- most notably Red Cow -- whose picture I shall post. She's not as enamored of him anymore since Mosha broke him in half. But besides the mirror, he used to be the main bathroom attraction. I was going to make a mini movie of her conversations with Red Cow, but the footage was never right. I will eventually try to get the sound on it since it was so cute.

She also had a brief friendship with Twin Plugs which I didn't want to encourage, since I don't think they make the best of friends....

a young austin powers goes fishing?

2008-01-23T08:45:00.000-08:00

check out the purple pants......

who is this cute thing?

2008-01-23T08:36:00.000-08:00

young love

2008-01-12T04:18:00.003-08:00

Post your Dickensian names here...

2007-12-22T14:54:00.000-08:00

c'mon Holly --what should he be named....? Hardy

Bilibous Snout? Alfred B Picclenez? Reginald James Beedily?

Zoe Is Concerned About Jeff's Great Transformation

2007-12-20T17:32:00.000-08:00

zoe is a party animal

2007-12-10T16:40:00.000-08:00

so, our friend had a party to show his slides of his climb of Mt. Kiliminjaro & we brought zoe along. She is quite the social butterfly. if you get super excited she will too, so much that it seems she's about to burst. next time you see her, you who will see her, make sure you find a way to slip the phrase 'oh yeah!' into your conversation. she seems to be trying to mimic it. don't be skeptical...it's true! (she also said 'pee' once...I would not lie to you.)

i see!

2007-12-08T13:21:00.000-08:00

More Happy Feet

2007-12-07T08:23:00.000-08:00

Baby Ninja fights his father

2007-12-07T08:19:00.000-08:00

So, concurrent with the theme 'all things baby' we submit to you this funny commercial.

Zoe Contemplating The Mystery of Her Feet

2007-12-06T17:17:00.001-08:00

Wanna Knuckle Sandwich?

2007-12-06T17:14:00.000-08:00

"Feed me or else!"

monkey taunting tigers

2007-11-21T18:09:00.000-08:00

we all had a good laugh at this video; you can watch it several times in a row and not get bored. jeff likes the slapstick sound effects. i like it when the tiger gets his tail pulled. zozo just gets excited about the whole thing. ... this is one funny monkey.

babies learning to read?

2007-11-15T16:30:00.000-08:00

zoe is cute. i love her....
and i've been testing someone's theory that babies can be taught to read as long as you write in large red letters. it appears that these letters aren't quite large enough, or zoe was just sleepy-slash-hungry. she looked for a few seconds but no more.

zoe is a sink pee-er

2007-11-14T07:59:00.000-08:00

so we are trying this thing called elimination communication (aka natural infant hygiene, infant potty training, or 'normal' in 75% of the world), -- i'll let fox news tell you all about it, lest you think us crackpots....

p.s. the newswoman's face will become normal if you give it time

funny hippicupping babies

2007-11-13T17:03:00.001-08:00

A fine tribute to hiccuping babies the world over. of which zoe is a chronic one. hiccups all the time. The little baby is full of such squeaky hiccups and with perfect comic timing -- or so his/her older little friend thinks. And then he catches her hiccups. quite charming.

fun house baby

2007-11-09T17:33:00.001-08:00

marisa monte: good for lullabies

2007-11-09T13:18:00.000-08:00

I can't tell you how much cleaner my house is thanks to this music. I just bought the album recently on iTunes: Marisa Monte - Infinito Particular. I've been playing the whole album on repeat, and she's sleeping very soundly in her swing. She had a little smile on her face at first, with her eyes halfway open, but now she's fast asleep.

p.s. thank you, Steph, for giving me the idea of putting you tube videos on my blog...

other bad habits

2007-11-09T09:31:00.000-08:00

another internet junkie is born

change on thum thucking policy

2007-11-09T09:17:00.000-08:00

just found out that sometimes parents actually ENCOURAGE thumb sucking unwittingly by forcibly removing the hand from the baby's mouth....so i guess i'll not freak out about it too much....

Many parents are concerned that thumb sucking at a late age is a sign of emotional immaturity or lack of self-confidence. When investigators have looked at late thumb suckers for common traits, they found only one thing in common that distinguished them from other children -- a prolonged history of a strong battle with thumb sucking at an earlier age. It is striking that many well-meaning parents have actually encouraged thumb sucking by trying to forcibly take the thumb out of their children's mouths.

link to dr. greene article

thum thucking not allowed

2007-11-09T09:03:00.000-08:00

zoe's never been much of a girl for pacifiers-- well not entirely true -- she did fine with them in the hospital. now however, she eschews them mostly. she also is starting to have mixed feelings about bottles. true they give a rush of warm milk to the tummy, but they are also made of rubber. so she's found a fleshy alternative that she's fond of -- her fist. in fact, a few times when i have fed her a bottle lately, she does this: chews on the nipple to decide if she should drink it, starts to drink, and then midway thru, replaces the nipple with her fist. i think she would have consumed her entire hand if i had not removed it from her mouth.

so now we are removing her hand from her fist or covering it with her sleeve. she's almost discovered her thumb on a few occasions, so i try to remove the hand and find a distraction...altho i'm sure she would look cute sucking her thumb, i don't want to deal with future dental problems.

cutest little baby face

2007-11-05T09:11:00.000-08:00

dean martin serenaded zoe today. check it out

he had this to say as well... very zoe-applicable, i'm sure:
"too beautiful to be real....that kid wasn't born ... (s)he must have been made by Stradivarius"

someone play the twilight zone

2007-11-03T12:35:00.000-07:00

zoe is smiling and acting cute to someone over my shoulder except THERE IS NO ONE THERE

what I did today

2007-11-03T10:44:00.000-07:00

zoe has apparently been making cheese in her eyebrows, at least that's what it smelled like. so i cleaned them out with a q-tip.....

things they never tell you about babies

2007-11-01T05:44:00.000-07:00

so i'm going to be making a short list here of things they never tell you about babies which i've learned since i know you all have either never had babies or you all are having one tomorrow.....
1 -- they cry all the time.
actually this one I sort of knew because I am accustomed to people saying 'stop being such a crybaby', etc. But now I know the full impact of it, and usually find out that the crying is in relation to something I did -- treated the baby too much like a sack of potatoes, exposed the baby to unfamiliar air while changing her, made the baby wear a diaper, assumed the baby wanted a bottle when the baby really wanted to look at herself in the mirror, didn't figure out the secret for getting the baby to fall asleep fast enough, left the baby alone to contemplate mobile fishies for too long, let one aggravation happen after another one had recently occurred (that's the one you really want to avoid), etc. etc.
2 -- their heads pulsate from time to time
so I knew babies had soft spots, which led to anxieties about sharp pointy things falling from nowhere. (Apparently the skin is really tough and protective up there, so if you touch it a little you aren't necessarily squishing their brain...) But I did not know that sometimes you can see the pulse there. It's a little freaky. I noticed it when I was nursing her the other day and called the doctor. I was afraid that she wasn't getting enough food because her soft spot pulsated and then seemed to sink in slightly. I'm still not convinced that that wasn't the case. However, the doctor was and informed me that she has actually gained almost a pound since our last visit a week ago.....
3 -- they get really hot and sweaty at night
this one didn't freak me out so much, but it did make me wonder if covering up the baby in tons of blankets was really necessary, as just wearing a cozy sleeper seemed to turn her into a furnace at night. I assume they are hard at work growing like crazy. Also, we co-sleep and the baby likes to kick me in the middle of the night when she wants to eat -- so I know she's working on getting bigger. (10 pounds 11 ounces with clothes on as of Wednesday.)
4 -- sometimes they forget to breathe
this is a scary one. baby is nursing or sleeping and suddenly you notice that nothing is going on with regular breathing. They snap out of it and catch their breath and suddenly look relieved. I thought my baby had asthma or something already, but I asked the doctor and he said they all do that, and then give a shudder of relief once they breathe again.
5 - umbilical cords falling off can smell bad
our pediatrician warned us that the umbilical cord falling off would freak us out, so we were braced. the blood oozing out the sides did not phase us. however, no one told us that it would smell bad potentially. it's full of old blood, and so it smells like old blood which doesn't smell good. we consulted the internet, which sent us into a panic when we were informed that we need to call the doctor if a bad smell is present. apparently they meant another bad smell. it was worrisome too because when you actually get a look inside it looks like some kind of yellow rubber cement that just doesn't seem right. and then there are websites telling you to look out for pus. we have since learned to take internet medical advice with a hefty grain of salt.....since she was just fine and not suffering from septicemia or whatever they thought it was....

I'll let you know if there are any other tips, even though you all probably either know this or will not remember until you have your own kids, at which point you will be inundated by so much unsolicited advice that you will forget to prioritize mine....(because I've learned that everyone wants you to take their advice first.....)

Did you know....?

2007-10-29T08:12:00.000-07:00

Just found out some whacky information that I feel obliged to share, despite the fact that it may seem somewhat controversial....it seemed important that I tell you... I just found out that men can breast feed. They have all the tools required, if they try. Apparently there have been reported cases of babies surviving off milk they get from their fathers.... and apparently it was done in biblical times. And other mammals have done it as well.. Check out this website that gives more instances. I also found an interesting Australian short film that talks about it as well.... hmmmmm

Milk Men by Peter Templeman

more funny zoe

2007-10-27T11:05:00.000-07:00

looking a little more like me here

2007-10-25T20:16:00.000-07:00

fun baby video

2007-10-24T15:06:00.000-07:00

take that, gerber baby

2007-10-24T14:22:00.000-07:00

heretofore unpublished side effects of baby-wearing

2007-10-24T14:06:00.000-07:00

arugula (?) and bleu cheese land on zoe's head as i try to multi-task.....

funny zoe pix

2007-10-23T19:02:00.001-07:00

what zoe might have been named

2007-10-23T18:49:00.001-07:00

i am having too much fun posting today. i came across a notepad file of baby names i was thinking up before we landed on Zoe (some were for boys)...so i'm posting the following to let my parents know what they won't have to get accustomed to saying.....

some highlights:

Henri Absalom "Axel"
Ian Johannes
Diego Carlos
Sunnia Leigh
Zoe Sunn
Zoe Jayne
Liesl Raine
Tajo ben Matthat
Tajo ben Yofri
Blackberry Zinn
River Legend
Levi Diego
Cassia Leandra
Ian Henri

p.s. the names are free for the taking if anyone has need for one....

recipe

2007-10-23T08:51:00.001-07:00

so i have a confession to make to all germaphobes. it's not a confession, i guess, if you're not a germaphobe -- it's 'advice'. well i just found an omelet recipe which calls for the separation and then reintigration of the egg white and the yolk. you have to separate them to beat the white to frothiness. this recipe calls for two bowls. well my sense of frugality (read: laziness) made me come up with a new technique which saves the extra bowl. instead of putting the yolks in another bowl, i carefully keep them in the eggshell and put them back in the container. i also like doing this way, because the yolks look so cute sitting in a row. once my whites are frothy, in go my yolks. bowl spared....

p.s. it's a good recipe for all frugal ones out there, which i know is about 97.9% of my family. just requires eggs, bananas, butter or substitute, a fork, some sugar (i use maple syrup) and some salt. oh and a bowl. make the eggy part, make the bananas sweet with carmelization, make an omelet.

i would elaborate but my bananas are getting crispy right now.

free home repair lottery

2007-10-22T17:17:00.000-07:00

ok so all that w/ the how cute we all are was a bit obnoxious. but given that mostly family members read this blog, and it's all about sharing the genes, I guess no one will object.

so to change the subject i thought i would let you know that today, just possibly, we have won the free home repair lottery -- Yet Again. Last Friday, Jeff had a roofer come over and roof. they were going to roof more today, but then Jeff became inspired by his inner-handyman and said bullocks to that, I can roof myself, yes I can. but we hadn't paid yet for the leak which they sealed. he just felt that the repair they did was not worth the $300 they charged. Given that they just smeared guck on the roof in all of 5 minutes and then skedaddled. well they were supposed to come collect on the repair today, and as of right now, 6:22 p.m., they have not. So, I hope they just forget and don't scour the internet for confessional blogs about people taking advantage of forgetful roofers.

this would be the second such free bee. the first one was even more spectacular. it occurred when our tub got so plugged we could no longer endure it. we called a plumber. the plumber had lots of fancy tools. one was just the long snake stick thing they poke down there. the other was very specialized and highly electric. well either our old house just doesn't handle highly electric or the electricity ions were looking out for us. because our power went out. and he couldn't use his high end fancy machinery to impress our tub. so clearly he couldn't charge us $150 because what's so hard about sticking a snake down the drain. (well it's more than i can do, but we like to be critical where money is concerned, even if we are house-repair illiterate -- help Holly & Rick! help!) anyway, he left as he didn't want to wait around for our power to reignite as we are clueless and luckily couldn't repair the fuse which had blown. turns out, the snake did the trick and the fancy machine really wasn't called for. so we um cancelled his return visit. and got a drain that works in about 5 minutes.

so the moral of the story i guess is that we are immoral in house repair issues, but that if it takes only 5 minutes to fix, should it really cost all that much anyway?

are we bad?

Joffri -- so hot right now -- Joffri

2007-10-18T13:59:00.000-07:00

while we are on the topic of lookiness....

isn't he
really really ridiculously GoodLooking

cute thing done by zoe

2007-10-13T10:00:00.000-07:00

so zoe did something really cute a few days ago which i must relate...

she has been smiling sporadicallyhere for several weeks but they were usually only half smiles -- technically of course she was smiling long before that, but those were supposedly gas-powered smiles only. (of course i like to count the 3 smiles she did on the 3rd or 4th night in the hospital because each one came after i had made a joke....but per all the "experts" those are just some kinda reflex)

anyway, she's been doing this thing where sometimes when she nurses she smiles a little bit and keeps going. i couldn't tell if it was one of those gas-powered smiles (they kind of give her a spacey look because of how big they are). so, i noted how cute they were and wondered if it was just gas or if she was having some kind of fond memory of something amusing from her short history. well, the other day, she not only smiled as she was nursing -- she also laughed -- out loud. at first i wasn't sure she really did it, because it was so cute -- so she did it again! I must have humor just flowing through my veins.... : )

Zoe's Mom

2007-10-12T18:08:00.001-07:00

Heather's posting of our gorgeous dog Mosha prompts me to post a photo of Zoe's gorgeous Mom.

The above photo of Heather is among my favorites.

and one of my gorgeous dog

2007-10-12T11:17:00.000-07:00

more doctored photos

2007-10-12T11:09:00.000-07:00

i am just having too much fun with this foto editor -- my only regret is that there are not more effect filters -- just works for doing the basics -- but i love the tint feature -- tell me if i'm going overboard this is one of her first days on the planet...hooked up to an iv to feed her and give her antibiotics -- the tint hides some discoloration in her skin which she has thankfully recovered from...
i love this one because she looks like a little madonna and the color desaturation gives it the air of a 1940's postcard - this one is one of our last days at the hospital
another fun tinted one- one of our first days home together

this one is more fun in black and white for some reason - from the famed 'milk' series
so this one is actually better of me than zoe -- rare occurrence and sure to get rarer, most likely-- but check out the nice background -- yes, our living room walls are PINK!

i like the framing on this, although i do regret the look up z's nose

there she is in all her cutie-pie-ness...

i love this one b/c i oversaturated the colors a bit, which highlights her anger and angst as well as the flowers - she is full of life! another hospital photo, p. s.

Another Wide-Eyed Zoe Pic

2007-10-10T19:47:00.001-07:00

A Short Introduction by Narrator #2, Father of Zoe

Hello. I am Zoe's Dad. Perhaps you have heard about me. You will see more of me in the form of a blog entry.

Now For Our Central Character

I encountered Zoe's hat a few minutes prior to the taking of the above photo, one of a series of photos, part of which most of you have seen, taken a few seconds apart. We laughed hardest at the milk soaked Zoe photo, but this photo is one of my favorites... but my favorites change like the weather, so you may have to ask me tomorrow. Zoe is an endless source of amusement and wonder for her parents. Having her around has given me the best lack of sleep I've had in my life! How can I ask for more?

got milk?

2007-10-06T15:41:00.000-07:00

sleepy close-ups

2007-10-06T15:31:00.000-07:00

i'll be a monkey's mama

2007-10-04T10:42:00.001-07:00

We are excited at the idea that Zoe may actually have red or strawberry blonde or even auburn hair. Mom says that Grandma Johnson had really pretty thick wavy auburn hair, and zoe's started out strawberry with bleach blonde overtones (I'm sure my third trimester pool excursions were responsible...).
But I actually recall a conversation we had before she was born where we discussed the possibility of a redheaded child. and she is a redhead, now if not forever. This makes me happy also because of who my substitute baby was for the longest time...... see pix ! Also, see if you can find the hidden monkey ba by in the family pic.

ZoZo and her sidekick YoYo

2007-10-03T11:19:00.000-07:00

So hello fair family and friends and random passersby. it's the one-fingered blogger, back atcha. I am recovering enough from my rocking chair bound new motherhood, that i have figured out how to multi-task enough to blog,do the occasional load of laundry and even feed myself! there is hope.
however my lovely infant (who i am really quite madly in love with) has got me on a string and plays me like a yo yo. we nurse and she gets so comfy that she starts to snooze (worrying her OCD mother who fears she has not eaten enough). but then I put her down and she seems to suddenly realize i am missing and cries like i have betrayed her. so i go rescue her and we nurse fo 2 minutes and she falls asleep again. mom here is still working on feeding herself and typing out this here blog 1-fingeredly. what will eventually happen is that she will wake up and want to eat again -- the big drama however will be -- Will she nurse? or will she insist that i am dry like the proverbial bloodless turnip? and we then try The Bobby (known to those in the grocery business as 'infant nursing device or just 'baby bottle').

new to the drama is that she is recovering from a somewhat high fever (102.9 at its apex) and the appetite has been skeewampus. also the bobby seems to exacerbate her cough (which indeed sounds painful) -- so she seems to only want boob juice -- from me anyway -- jeff claims he can get her to take the bobby and has, but for me she sort of spits it out and gets a grossed out look on her face and even went so far as to push it away. so here am i, fearing that she will become third-world in her nutritional status because she only wants to nurse -- the pressure is on.

so-- add to this the scary manufacturer's warning about the harm which can be done from feeding formula which has been out too long and the quantity of formula which we have discarded when we have been able to nurse, and you can begin to see why i'm feeling like a yoyo!

well it's been amazing that i've typed out this much and my lunch must be inhaled between these feeding dramas so i bid you all adieu and hope to have fotos for to post muy pronto!

p.s. thanks to all who post comments -- i haven't figured out the most elegant way to keep up conversations but I am reading! and will try to visit your respective blogs as well -- much love

heather

enjoying the sunshine

2007-09-14T12:34:00.000-07:00

Rooming in at the Hospital

2007-09-14T12:28:00.000-07:00

Home at last

2007-09-14T12:21:00.000-07:00

It's a little easier to be yourself when you aren't getting poked hourly by well-meaning nurses and their needles.

Hospitals Suck!

2007-09-14T12:18:00.001-07:00

Baby Pix!

2007-09-14T12:13:00.000-07:00

Hello all. So I had a baby. I am not currently in the mood to expound upon the whole process of getting her here, but suffice it to say that I am an exception to the rule for 'first time moms usually go over about a week'. Zoe's due date was September 4th and she was born on August 30th at 7:43 p.m. She weighed in at 6 pounds 7 ounces, and was 19 1/2 inches long. I'll be posting pix now...

Look what i got for my baby!

2007-07-26T17:40:00.000-07:00

type bad, not say much

2007-07-26T17:29:00.000-07:00

Hi -- so I have some really crappy carpal tunnel problems right now -- which make it so that I wish to truncate my blogging. my fingers are numb and therefore I will not be editing this post. I did finally figure out how to add a link, so Holly's page is now on my site. For some reason, it is impoossible to find it by searching for "pie for dinner", which is clearly the only reason why rick and holly aren't entirely famous yet.
My iGoogle countdown says i hae 19 days till Zoe's 3 week early date, and 40 days to her official date. So, any bets on the date?

Proof I'm Tweedle Dee

2007-06-02T13:06:00.000-07:00

Should I really put this picture on the internet? Do I dare to eat a peach?

Another pregnant post

2007-05-08T02:37:00.000-07:00

So it's 3:37 in the morning. We went to bed early; that's a new thing with me. Going to bed early increases the chances of waking up in the middle of the night for a snack and a pee, so here I am. I got a promotion at my job, and am currently in training. It's a pretty fun move, since I will be working with mostly happy people, doing what I like best about my job. Today we were in department specific training going over a computer program that we will be using to log our work. My supervisor also happens to be quite pregnant, due in under a month. Despite any apparent personality differences, then, we obviously have quite a bit in common. This was emphasized today by the fact that we both wore matching silky kimono pregnant shirts. Our manager is also quite pregnant, and she came in at one point, wearing yet another silky floral pregnant shirt that matched my supervisors somewhat. Plus she came bearing ice cream cones.

So you can see the environment at my work is very pregnant-friendly. Which of course is great. It was perfect when at the end of training today my supervisor was going over lessons learned for the day. She says "So, does anyone have anything in the pit of their stomach which is giving them cause for concern?" I give her this look like, um ....that's a funny question and start laughing. She says, "well Heather obviously has something in her stomach to give her something to think about." Everyone started laughing at that point. Much fun. I would say I 'bust a gut' but it's a little too uncomfortable a reference at this point.

Zoe's Song

2007-04-22T20:56:00.000-07:00

Had a little pregnancy scare. FYI, it's important to drink water like a fish to avoid too many premature contractions. (and it helps to know what is normal and what is not) I 'made up' a little song to keep Zoe and me focused. I've improved it a little here, so when I go to sing it again I'll have a few more lyrics. I believe you'll be able to pick up the tune:

Risin' up, straight to the top
Gotta gut, got the glory
We go the distance, now we're back on our feet
the Baby and her Mama will survive

It seems right now, it happens too fast
Oh please just stay right where you are
Don't lose your grip on the dreams of the past
You must fight just to keep them alive

It's the eye of the tiger (fibroid), it's the primitive fight
Risin' up to the challenge of our fibroids
And the last known survivor kicks her mom in the night
And she's watchin' us all in the -rhythmic guitar lick- eye of the tiger (fibroid)

P.S.

2007-04-19T20:10:00.001-07:00

OK so I missed a few of the details on the train story, due to my myopic and winded state. I found this out once I found the news story. The actual misquote would have been attributable to Bombardier guy Spurr. What he REALLY didn't say was "We will provide the products and cervixes that you need to create a transit system that drives progress in this developing region." I'll be calling on him around Labor Day. My developing region is burgeoning, to say the least.

"Mother in Training"

2007-04-19T19:26:00.000-07:00

The pregnancy gods rewarded me today for good behavior. I have been sporadically visiting the gym at my place of employment, and doing a cursory 15 minutes on the bike for the health of all involved. I managed to haul myself again in today. I was rewarded for my efforts by the close-captioning on one of the TV's at work. The KSL news was on, giving info about the new Front Runner service and their plans to refurbish some old trains. Interested, I pulled my glasses out of the tray on the workout bike just in time to read the captioning about the new trains. According to the captioning, this group Bombardier is very excited to provide this new public transit for all and they are even providing 'all of the necessary cervixes' to run the train. If that's any kind of omen for the size of my baby, I may have to call upon UTA for a few of their spare cervixes.... :)

more than a passing resemblance?

2007-04-19T19:20:00.000-07:00

Practicing Parental Fatigue

2007-03-25T14:25:00.000-07:00

Eavesdropping 101

2007-03-25T14:23:00.000-07:00

So, as it turns out, holding a glass up to one's pregnant belly does not have the same effect as it would have if you held it up to a wall and eavesdropped on your sister. (Just kidding, sisters....)

Newlypregs

2007-03-25T14:06:00.000-07:00

Here we are, practicing our serious parenting looks. We are not to be trifled with, see.

September 4th

2007-03-10T17:55:00.000-08:00

well hello big blog world....

just created this blog, upon inspiration from my younger sibling Holly, who has been blogging for some time. so, here we are, looking to fill you in on the smarmy details of our life. ok so they aren't smarmy, and if they were, you wouldn't probably be reading about them here.... : )

the big development of late is the ever-increasing tumescence of my midsection. a condition also known as pregnancy. it's my first time, as I have typically been a late bloomer. I guess that makes Jeff, my husband, a late planter... : )

but we're past the first trimester without too much incidence. there were the moments of food aversion. and I found out that either I'm not the great cook I thought I was, or that pregnant women were meant to be foragers only. Cooking was completely beyond my threshold of endurance. I've overcome my fear of the kitchen, however, since the unseemly smells have subsided somewhat. There are still some foods I'm leery about, however, and I seem to have gained an appreciation for whole fruit and lots of cereal. In fact sometimes I think I am just eating baby food. That could be the only explanation for wanting to eat yams and peaches together. Except for that they're also both orange, and I've found that color coding your food just makes sense flavor-matically.

Jeff is also very excited about this pregnancy thing. I think I should be pregnant more often, so I can negotiate for foot rubs and back massages with some air of entitlement. In fact, as I sit here typing, without my pleading or other coercion, he is giving me a nice little back rub. He didn't even know I was typing this. Yay.

Oh the other fun thing I will have to chronicle in this blog are the Dreams of Pregnant Woman. I found out that I'm not the only one who has vivid dreams while pregnant. Apparently they get more wacky and vivid the further along you go, so since I've always been kind of a dream junkie, I think that will be one of the entertaining aspects of this whole thing.

For example, last night I was having the most placid of dreams when all of a sudden the nice dreams were interrupted by a semi which just started coming straight for me. It actually turned around and aimed itself in my direction. I had to wake up fast, and my heart was pounding. (You know what they say, you can't actually dream that the bad event happens because then something truly bad will happen.) So, you know it's like being a stunt guy in a movie, or something.

Well, that's all the news from the manor. Take care.