Officially - she's walking!

She took her first few steps over Thanksgiving at Pappy and Pat's.... but now she's walkin, yes indeed she's talkin! What girl :) Go Zoe Go!

Houston, we have teeth

Two, to be precise. Miss Zoe is now the proud owner of 2 teeth (on the bottom). And Uncle Charles and Pappy were here to see them too! Well done Zoe!

And she's off!

Zoe is officially crawling. Friday she started doing the army-man crawl. I figured it would be a while before we saw an actual up on the knees crawl - WRONG! Sunday night she popped up on her knees and got moving. No rocking back and forth. No hesitation. Just not moving one minute and halfway across the floor the next.

This kid is amazing.

I've never seen a baby deliberately practice how to do things. It's like she has an instinctive understanding on how to refine physical skills. She will pull herself up to standing, lower herself back down then pull back up just to refine her standing skill. She's cruising easily now. I'm kind of surprised she bothered with crawling - I'm sure she's going to start walking soon. What an incredible kid!

Cashmere and Water Babies

This weekend we got a chance to visit our good friends, Joanie and Mark (well, Mark had to work, so we got to visit Joanie), who have both a salt water pool and a horse - aka, toddler and baby heaven. JJ was completely entranced by Cashmere, their beautiful mare, who permitted JJ to pet her nose and give her carrots. He has now renamed his toy horse from Coco to Cashmere and spent the next day feeding carrots to it. He also insisted on taking it to bed (a high honor, previously only afforded to his beanie baby alligator and Siamese cat).

Zoe on the other hand was all about the pool. When JJ was her age (7 months) we took him to visit Joanie and Mark and took him out in the pool and he FREAKED. Zoe however was apparently born to water. She thought it was the BEST thing ever, laughing and cooing and generally living it up. JJ refused to get in the pool proper, opting to dabble about in the spa. I think we need to get some swimming lessons for these two, pronto - for Zoe because she will love love love it and for JJ to help him get over his fear.

The adults got to enjoy good conversation, hanging out in the pool and yummy food. All in all a wonderful weekend :)

What a day...

Up this morning and off to the Farmer's Market - Zoe's first since her arrival. Lots of fun stuff to see as it turns out because it is a Civil War reenactment weekend! JJ got to see his first spinning wheel in action (very cool). Then this afternoon we went to a friend's child's birthday party at Chuck E Cheese. This was the first time JJ or I (or Zoe, for that matter) had been to a Chuck E Cheese. Oh my. I can't believe people actually pay to go to those things - it was insane! The noise alone was enough to make me want to run. JJ handled it ok, but was definitely ready to go within 30 minutes. We decided we were all too stressed out to cook dinner, so we stopped at Pho Mac on the way home for yummy cha gio (Vietnamese egg rolls). JJ, who turns up his nose at anything but macaroni and cheese these days, ate an entire egg roll and some rice noodles. Yeah! Then, during tummy time, Zoe turned over for the first time. WOW! what a day...

Rollin' Over

She did it! Today Zoe rolled over from her front to her back for the first time. You go girl!! So much for tummy time...

First Haircut

JJ's first haircut - at a real barber shop with Daddy's barber!

Getting to sit in a chair that is older than Daddy....

Here comes the smock....

Oh dear, not liking this at all....

What a handsome little man!

First Croquet Game!

Lake Charles, LA - You can tell he's a Matson!! Bring on the GAMES!

First day of Splash

At daycare, they have something called "splash" in the mornings during the summer. It's some kind of water play where they get to go out and play in the sprinklers and such. Well, today was JJ first day at splash (yesterday he put himself down for a nap and missed it - and yes, you read that right he put HIMSELF down for a nap - will wonders never cease?) and he LOVED it. Apparently, he had so much fun he was staggering around towards the end all tired! We really need to get this kid a pool!

These feet were made for walkin...

... and that's just what they'll do.  Today's the day these feet are gonna walk on over to you!

Well, he's been taking a step or two at a time, but today he walked a good 10 feet across the room.  Go JJ!  Guess I better go get him some sneakers :)

Child labor?

John was outside with JJ today next to the spa.  He saw we had weeds growing out of the flagstones and pulled up one, examined the root to make sure he got it all, and reached down to pull up another.  He looks up to see JJ holding a weed that he's pulled up, examining the root, then tossing it aside to pull up another one.  

Now, if he could only reach the mower handle....

These footie pajamas were made for walkin'....

He did it!  We've had a hesitant step here and there, but tonight he took 3 steps to come to me!  Way to go J squared!  I had best start working out more - before long he'll be out running me....

Must've been the spaghetti....

First Christmas

And, as anticipated, the most popular item was (drum roll please....) - the BOXES!  Yep, typical kid, likes the boxes better than the toys. Fortunately he's started getting into the toys, but only because I've put the boxes in the recycle bin :)  

It's a good reminder sometimes that we do not need "stuff" to find fun.  I remember when a large box and a marker was all the toys I needed for fun. John and I have been trying to scale back on "things" focus, and it's kind of neat to see that we arrive on this earth without a need for electronics or fancy toys that require batteries. 

JJ's First Thanksgiving!

The whole Baker-side of the family came to visit and what a wonderful time was had by all!  JJ got to play with all his Aunties and Uncles (plus a bonus visit from Auntie Angela) and was just about as happy as you could want. All three turkeys were delicious (a roasted heritage turkey from Rehoboth Ranch, a fried turkey and a Greenberg smoked turkey) as were the traditional accompaniments that John made and the tasty desserts from Casa Linda Bakery.  

Poor JJ - all worn out from the festivities!

Crawling...mostly

Well, we've got three out of the four limbs going - both arms and one leg (he alternates).  The final leg just kind of gets dragged along.  It's like he's just about to stand up so he doesn't really want to commit to having both legs crawling at once.  What a crazy little boy!  We shall have to change his name to Igor :)

First tooth

Yeeeowch!  It's here - the first tooth.  He's been fussy and not sleeping well for days and at last we have something to show for it.  Before you know it he'll be getting his driver's license and chasing girls...oh wait, he already does that last one :)  Such a ladies man!  We were at Academy the other day and this cute little girl about his age goes by in a cart.  He's watching her and all of a sudden this leggy 20 something blonde goes walking the other way.  He nearly got whiplash following her!  What a little man :)

Mamma!

Hooray!  We have "mama".  Ok, really it was "ah goo bah bah mamamamama aaaaaaaaaaaaaah!" but close enough.  Figures he'd start that when John's out of town so I have no witnesses.  Darn!

Got his own toilet!

Well, we finally got around to getting Mr. JJ his very own toilet.  This is especially good for Mommy who's back has been KILLING her trying to dangle his fast growing tuckus over the toilet.  Now he can rest in splendid comfort on a cushy seat to do the deed.  Ah JJ, such a big boy you are!

Sitting up

Two new milestones today - sitting up and blowing raspberries!  Yeah, I didn't know that second one was a milestone either, but there you have it.  Apparently it indicates that he's got some kind of muscular control important for speech going on.  It certainly make meal times interesting (can you say technicolor raspberries?)

And, by "sitting up" I mean, if I set him down in a sitting position, he stays there on his own.  Not that he can sit up on his own.  But it's coming - all too fast...

Cloth diapers and first bath

I started using cloth diapers during the day this week and it's going really well. I've been trying out all the different kinds we got. The All-In-Ones (AIOs) are super convenient, but they take FOREVER to dry once you wash them. The Pocket diapers are also very convenient and fit quite well (plus they dry faster) They seem to leak about as much as the disposables. The big surprise is the prefolds - you have to change them a bit more frequently, but they leak less than disposables and are surprisingly easy to use and to clean.

Something I didn't really realize about cloth diapers - most baby clothes (onsies, specifically) are made with disposables in mind so they don't take into account the bubble butt the baby has when you use cloth (cloth diaper = baby's got back). As a result, he's wearing a lot of t-shirts during the day.

JJ had his first bath this evening. Boy, did he hate it! I thought babies were supposed to like bath time. You'd think we'd dipped him into molten lava given how much he screamed. Once it was over, he seemed to think that the lotion and towel phase was pretty cool, but boy he sure didn't like the water too much.