Let the games begin

Life stays busy and Zoey changes everyday.  She does not like solid food as much, she will take it but still is slow about actually eating it.  She is getting better, but it is slow.  She is a crawler now.  Below is a video from September 6th.  She is a lot better now.  She can crawl all around her room, easily getting to any toys she wants.  She still has not figured out she can go through the door, so that is nice :)  She has also learned to pull herself to a stand, which meant a few nights of delayed going to sleep when she was too scared to sit down after standing.   It is amazing watching all of this, even the second time.  And I can hardly believe that she is a full blown crawler at 6.5 months.  She has also been teething more, which has brought a slightly elevated temperature, snot, more drool and some crankiness and restless nights. That is not as amazing to go through, but she will need teeth :)

On Nick's birthday, we went to Dunkin Donuts for breakfast.  A restaurant near us had a contest about Flat Paddy, basically Irish Flat Stanley, so we took him along.

Happy Birthday to Nick!  We finally got to return to non working riding mower and buy one that actually runs.

I made him a ribs dinner and a german chocolate cake and icing from scratch.  I did not have the right pans, so it is "3" layers :)

My Aunt and cousin's daughter came to visit.  My Aunt is a big gators fan, so she taught Sam the gator chop.

Sam loved hanging out with Alexandra.

Her first time holding a baby :)

Aunt Julia and Zoey.

It has been awhile since a Nana picture.

Nana was reading to Sam and she fell asleep, when she seemed to want more space, Mom got up and this is how Sam ended up.

We found a cool sand table at the kids consignment store near us.  Sam loves it.

Zoey loves Sam's balloon.  She giggles whenever we walk past.  Although she was distracted for the video.  Reminds me of Sam when I got my birthday balloon (http://southernkellings.blogspot.com/2008/10/cute-videos.html).

It is funny seeing everyone post on facebook about cooler weather when we are still hitting 90's.  I do miss WV fall and the festivals that came with it.  But I am loving life here.  My mother's club is very active, Sam likes school, and of course my parents are here to help.  I think Sam would move over there if she could.

Feeling blessed

I am really enjoying having my parents here.  Even with all of their move stuff to do, they have been a huge help.  I have gotten more done in the last few days then probably in the couple of weeks before.

A few of my friends have also had some really rough things happen, and these really put things in perspective.  A friend from Huntington who now lives in Ohio had her basement flooded.  But an even sadder one happened to a fellow graduate student.  She was ahead of me and the first projects I worked on, including the giant panda foraging one, were her projects.  She helped me in designing my masters and we had reconnected over facebook, sharing being academics and mothers and commenting on each others cute photos.  She has a 5 year old girl and 2 year old boy.  They live in Bastrop, Texas since her husband does cancer research at MD Anderson Cancer Center.  They were out of town in Dallas and a huge fire burned through their neighborhood (http://www.kvue.com/video/featured-videos/Update-on-Bastrop-fire-129290693.html).  All they most likely have left is their lives, some clothes, and some toiletries.  Their pets were most likely killed, but they cannot get back to check.  I cannot even imagine how horrific this would be.  It definitely makes the day to day stressors seem so insignificant.  Every now and then something like this comes along to remind me how cruel life can be and how you must really focus on your blessings and enjoy what you have.  And that you need to be prepared the best you can.  It is not a bad idea to have a video surveillance of your home and to keep photos digitally somewhere besides your house.

We continue life as usual, staying busy.  Sam does not like to nap, so we let her "rest", which usually involves reading and singing.  The other day she fell asleep with a book on her head.

And we have been so busy with everything that I have hardly taken pictures.  But here is one with my mom and the girls.

Sam keeps trying to bring the 80's back.  These made sense in WV winters, not so much in FL summers.

Zoey is loving sitting up and playing with toys.

And she keeps trying to crawl.  She can go for 3-5 strides and use rolling to get all over her room.  But she often gets in this downward facing dog position, bottom up, legs stretched out, and seems to expect to move forward.  

She usually ends up sitting though.

But she can crawl short distances now.  I am sure she will put it together soon.

6 month check-up

Zoey went in today for her check-up.  Sam at 6 months was 27 inches and 15 pounds 14 ounces (http://southernkellings.blogspot.com/2008/08/our-crazy-life-all-that-and-tree.html).  Prepare your guesses for Zoey.

So here is a comparison:

Zoey's 6 month picture:

And Sam at 6 months:

One at just before 6 months with her actually smiling for a better comparison.

Zoey was 28 inches and 16 pounds.  Although Zoey did have on a fresh diaper and Sam was measured naked.  And the height measurement is not as precise as it could be.  But both girls are following similar patterns.  Zoey is a little live wire, so I am sure she will not gain much between now and 9 months, just like Sam.  The doctor did say she might slim down.  I just hope we can avoid the concern we had with Sam.

The firsts roll in...

So many big things to report in the lives of our girls.  Sam is doing well at school.  She seems to like the activities.  They had to make a star about themselves to share.  Due to printer issues and my not being willing to keep her up way past bedtime, I had to make the star (I know, already doing her homework for her :)  But she did decorate it with stickers the next morning.  

Here is a picture from Zoey's official half birthday.  I cannot believe 6 months have already passed since she entered our lives.  What a blessing!  Sam's school has color theme days right now and the day was blue day, so she chose this shirt and wanted Zoey to match.  Zoey seemed okay with her "you are my sunshine" onesie. She also seems to have read a book on what babies tend to do around 6 months, because she had started changing so quickly.  The first big one is that she erupted her bottom 2 incisors, which tend to come in between 4-7 months.  Sam was a late teether (not getting teeth until after 8 months, http://southernkellings.blogspot.com/2008/10/incisor-emerges.html) and Zoey already drooled so much that I would check periodically, but I was a bit surprised to feel 2 when there seemed to be a bit more drool.  She also seems to have some others just below the surface.  But she continues to be a pretty happy baby.

Her official 6 month panda pictures.  We will also have some done by a professional photographer if the weather ever cooperates.

Sam and Zoey in front of the panda.

And Zoey must have read that 6 months old is when babies sit up because within a couple of days she went from able to sit for a few seconds before toppling to being able to sit up by herself and stay that way unless bumped or reaching too far while distracted.  It was an amazingly fast change.

With Samantha, if people said "What a cute baby, what's his name" I would sometimes just say Sam to avoid embarrassing them if she was wearing pink or a long explanation if she had a gender neutral outfit.  With Zoey, I do not want to say Joey (which she actually was listed as for our neighborhood newsletter for a bit), so I bought her a hairbow.

And with 6 months came her introduction to "solids".  We started with oatmeal.  She loves it, leaning towards it and trying to eat it.  A lot still runs out, but she gets a fair amount.  Sam wanted to help feed her as well.

A video of her first reactions.

She really loves water.  Of course, most of that does roll right our of her mouth.  But she got mad when I took it away to try and feed her.

A video of water "drinking".

And since she sits so well, I thought she deserved a bath in the actual tub.  She had a great time.  She does love to splash and reach for toys.

After church today, we told Sam to change out of her dress.  This is what she selected.  Nick says she is trying to complete the mini me look by bringing back the 80's.  :)  It is probably something I would have worn.

A video of my 6 month old sitting.  She has changed so much, it is amazing.  What an amazing girl.  I sense that she may be a bit competitive, she already is flying by some of Sam's early milestones and really loves to watch Sam.  I imagine she will walk early and be right behind her big sister.  Watch out world, Zoey will be mobile soon.  She can already get all around a room by rolling and inchworming, basically getting up on all fours and flopping forward.  She can also crawl backwards.  And she has figured out one or two forward strides here and there.  I bet she will crawl really soon.

New skills

Sam did great at swimming this week.  We are so proud.  She went from hating to even putting her face into the water to being able to jump in and get to the wall.  It is still a bicycle kick and little use of the arms, but with some work, she will become less mechanical and more natural about it.

Zoey has also been learning.  She is getting better at sitting up, able to do so for a little bit before falling over. She also played the little piano recently.  She really enjoyed it.

She is also precrawling, getting up on all fours and rocking.  She can go backwards a bit and travel all over a room by rolling or getting on all fours and flopping down.  I cannot believe she is this close to mobile at not even 6 months!

A distance shot so you can see her room, too.

And a closer shot.

Speaking of new, I finally got my car!  Not a great picture yet, but her she is.  She will be called Ellie since she is an Elantra.  I am enjoying having a car and this one is wonderful.  Navigation, back up camera, proximity key; all the bells and whistles.

We ended up buying the car in Tampa, so we went to the zoo after signing the papers.

Here is Zoey at the Zoo.

Sam with the new Ariel doll she got for learning to swim.  But our pool ran out of chlorine and got a little bit of algae, so Ariel has not been swimming yet.

We paid to feed the giraffe and on the menu today was lettuce.

 Sam also rode her first kiddie ride.  She liked it despite the look she has here.

And her first kiddie coaster.  She loved it!

My preschooler

First, the totally random.  We have decorative glass front doors and they make rainbows.  Here are attempts at showcasing them.  First I did my foot.

Nick tried a closer one of Zoey's, but the flash kind of washed it out.

And here is Sam's hand.  The light was fading fast!

Nick made it back with the truck.  Sam, of course, had to pretend to drive it.  Nick had some very long days; flying and loading, driving and unloading our stuff, and then being fingerprinted, going to swimming class for Sam, meetings and unloading the rest into storage on the third day.  I met him at storage and helped some, but I had to stay near the car.  So I just helped him tip things onto the furniture dolly and opened the door.  He had to do a lot himself.  Poor Zoey cried almost the whole time I helped.  Sam enjoyed pretending to drive the car.

Sam has been like a different kid lately.  I think she has moved past some of the issues from moving/Zoey/being 3, etc.  She is much more pleasant with a lot less annoyance.  She has been doing amazing and wonderful things.  She cried some about swimming, but really challenged herself and has made huge strides each day.  Today was her third day and she is already working on form and such.  She could doggie paddle with her head under to the bar/step by the first day and really well by the second day.  She still does not use her arms too much.  But I am so impressed and proud.

One of the things that my mom sent with Nick was an old tape from my teaching practicum class.  I did not want it, so I decided to let Sam practice cutting with it.  It made a HUGE mess, but she had a great time and worked on coordination.  Here she is with a portion of the mess.  She was great about helping to clean it up, too.

Our family portrait.

And besides being her third day of swimming, today was her first day at Resurrection Preschool.  I actually had to pick her up a bit early for swimming.  Yesterday was a quick 10 minute see the room, meet the lead teacher and drop off supplies.  Today we had to get up super early.  Nick had to be at USF Poly at 6:45 for a new faculty retreat.  I even had to wake up Sam as she has been sleeping in until 7/7:30 lately.  She was so funny saying, "But I'm still tired."  I felt like saying tell me about it kid since she often wakes us up super early given that 7 is sleeping in :)  After we dropped Nick off we came back home for breakfast and pictures before heading to school.

Her first one was a jumping one, silly girl.

Then a real picture.

For Resurrection, we drive up for drop off and pick up (after today), so Sam has to carry her own tote bag.  We have to send in a snack for her everyday, so I got her a mini spiderman snack box.  We also have to send or buy lunch.  And the days have themes often, so we have to dress special or take something along with the theme.  So much work!  I am glad she only goes 2 days a week.

I parked and walked her over today.  Here she is on the playground.  She has 20 kids in her class, including a Zoe and Sammy.

Sam did so well at school.  She cried briefly when I left, but was done by the time I got to the door and was much better than a lot of the kids.  She was even upset that I had to take her early since she did not get to paint.  She told me some of what she did; play outside two times, eat snack, dance, and draw.  She seems to have had a great day.  I am so proud and so relieved!  She also did well at swimming despite a little protest.  Here she is with her first day of school present.

What a big girl!  I heard a really good quote the other day by Gretchen Rubin; "The days are long, but the years are short."  I am definitely feeling that one.  Here are a couple more:


While we try to teach our children all about life,
Our children teach us what life is all about.
~Angela Schwindt



I brought children into this dark world because it needed the light that only a child can bring.  ~Liz Armbruster