Zoey's second catch of the day.

 

 

I missed the first fish of the evening.  I did "catch" the second one.  Enjoy!

 

 

Happy FIRST DAY OF SCHOOL!!!!

*Special thanks to Grandma Joyce for the headband.  Nicole and Sylvia for the HK lunchbox.

Zoey's phone calls

"Hello..."

Because I took this video on my phone and the file is too big to download directly...  see Zoey on YouTube! 

This is us preparing for Fourth Christmas here at the Manor.  Zoey was calling her friends and family in order to get dinner planned. (I figure.)  She called many people that day.  I even took a video of another few calls, but this one is the best!  I simply LOVE this kid and her imagination!

Enjoy!  (Video from early January 2013)

**Evidentally, I shush her and turn my back when I'm on the phone...  "Monkey see, monkey do!"  oops! 

Hidden Track...

I completed Zoey's annual birthday video on Thursday night.  (Yes, I actually got it done BEFORE her birthday!)  Buuuuuut....  Blogger wouldn't upload it.  I tried and tried and tried.  I even created a You Tube channel, thinking the file was too large for blogger.  I even tried to post it directly to facebook.  No luck.  Evidentally, the songs I used are too popular/copyrighted to use publicly.  Boooo!! 

So, here is the "hidden track" that I added to the end of her photo montage.  I hope you enjoy watching it as much as I did watching her dance while we taped it.  (This was the third dance in a series of four.  Each funny and superly toddler spectacular!)  John is playing a vintage instrument (plastic water bottle on metal lawn chair) as her musical accompaniment.

I'll either redo the video with different music or just load the photos sans music at some point.  This way we can keep the annual tradition alive.  :)

Enjoy!

Zoey's Year Three Movie

Musical credits: "Three is the Magic Number" by Blind Melon, "Count on My Love" by Liz Phair, "Here Comes the Sun" by The Beatles

"Once Upon a Time..."

This afternoon, Zoey read me a story.... sort of. She's hilarious! I have no idea where she's gotten the "Once Upon a Time" thing. None of the stories we have read recently start with this... hmmm.... :)

At the end of the video -when she looks off to the side and starts jumping - that's because when you move in our house all of the 70s-inspired doors jiggle. And they make a "fun" noise. (So, if you are ever in our house at night, now you'll know why we have socks stuck in all of the door frames.) ;)

Zoey had been reading to me for about 5 minutes before I went to get the camera. Doesn't that always happen?! :) So these little ditties capture the jist of the fabulousness! :)

xoxo

A birthday card for my baby girl...

Music credits: "I've got the world on a string"-Peggy Lee and "All kinds"- Dan Wilson

Icicles!

The top story for most of the last weeks has been the weather. More pointedly, the snow! Well, we did not get slammed like DC and that area, but we did get our fair share. The real story here at the Manor is the icicles. Some like I have never seen before (on a normal house, that is). I should have taken pictures of the outside of the house, but I didn't... perhaps later. Here's the view from outside the front window. (and these ice wonders are after we have cleared the stuff off of the guters once or twice before.)

This is an even better picture, taken standing inside peering out of the front door. I haven't measured them, but I am sure we have some that are THREE (3) FEET long. Yes, I'm not kidding.

On to the fun stuff: Zoey...

After much internal debate about cleanliness vs childhoodness... I broke off some of these massive wonders and Zoey and I ate them. Yep, we did.

As a kid, I loved eating the giant icicles that hung from the picnic shelter at Sun Valley. It's a great memory for me. I'd like Zoey to have some fun with winter this year and she's not been out in the snow. That, and I figure the crap from the roof can't be any worse than the crap in our drinking water (don't even get me started on the "local" water here... I'd take city water any day!)

But I digress... Zoey is also teething again. This time it's the EYE teeth. Oh yeah, another big'un! She's been kinda cranky, but dealing with it well.

This video was shot today. It's super cute, if I say so myself. I just LOVE this baby! :)

Enjoy!

Super "Super Zoey" Dance!

Super Zoey laughs and falls down and laughs and dances!!!

And yes, that's poor Dada John trying to sing the Super Why song in the background. He doesn't know the words. :) Zoey LOVES Super Why. Grandma Joyce is in the background jumping around with Zoey making her laugh. It was hilarious!! :)

Playing in the front yard.

Here we are hanging out in the front yard. Zoey was standing up and walking all over the place - before I got out the camera (of course). So, this video shows her a bit distracted by a bunch of birds and a neighbor walking his dog. (You can hear her say "Max." That's our next door neighbor's dog - but not the dog walking by... all dogs are "MAAA" these days.) She's still so cute I can hardly stand it!!

It's official

I have a TODDLER!!!


I told you about her taking her first steps at the shoe store... well, she was a bit slow to get going from there. She took a few steps here and there while John was in Texas. He came home Friday night and on Saturday morning (August 29th), our sweet Beana was walking! She still prefers to crawl (because she's super fast as a crawler), but is moving right along.


On Friday, Sept. 2nd, she walked the length of the hallway closet all by herself. :) (The draw just happened to be the promise of going outside.) She walked toward the door, but then I think got impatient and had to crawl (fast) the rest of the way.


She still hasn't mastered the art of falling and then standing back up. That could be because I feel she would rather crawl and therefore I stand her up (Oops, pushy mama!). She gets to do both as she wants. We just practice walking. :)

***So, if you hadn't noticed, I started this post last week. But I finally got Zoey walking on video. Now, she is getting very good at it. ENJOY!!

Note: I don't normally have my child running around only wearing pj bottoms, but this was after breakfast this morning and her shirt was dirty enough to warrant being removed before she got out of the chair.


This video was taken yesterday afternoon. (Before we got the A/C fixed - hence the loud fan. Now it's FIXED! thanks, hubby!!)

**Also, sorry for all of the weird formatting (lots of spaces... then lack of spaces... ugh. If only I was smart enough to program HTML..... err, whatever.)

Making Crop Circles....

This morning after breakfast Zoey and I were playing in the front room and she decided to take her new car for a ride... her way. She actually drove it around in circles for quite awhile before I got out the camera. (If you look closely, you can see the circles in the carpet.) But as per usual, when I got the camera out... the camera was more interesting than playing. :)

That car is the one Grandma Joyce brought down for Zoey last week. It was Uncle Bill's originally. Zoey really likes it - although she won't ride on it the way it is intended. When we try she scoots herself off of the back end.

**I'm sure she'll make more crop circles in the future. I'll try to capture those and post for you!

Walk that car, Baby!

This video is so short because by the time she gets on the car and I get out the camera, she's half way across the room... and the space in which she can walk the car is relatively short.

She's super CUTE anyway!!!

"Bbbrrrrooommm...." in the "bool"

Here's a little scene from our July 4th party. Zoey is hanging out in her "Bool." We have yet to put any water in it, but soon... I mean the girl has two bathing suits, it'd be a shame to never wear them in the pool.

To Zoey, on your birthday.

Music credit: Dixie Chicks "Lullaby"

After dinner entertainment.

Here is a funny little ditty that I shot after dinner this evening. Just a note: the crazy shake faces she is making are something I've been trying to catch on camera for a while now. She just started doing them one day when she was really excited. At first I thought something was wrong. "Why my kid is shaking intensly for no reason?!" eeek... But then I realized it was for fun. Now, if someone else gets really intense and funny, she'll do it for you (when she feels like it).

The end Q&A session is also a work in progress... It all startesd when John taught her COW, then he moved to Chicken. This move confussed her at first (resulting in Cows that "Bok"), but now she has it down. The next animals up are sheep, dogs, and pigs... in no particular order. Then we'll move on to Darth Vader (for real, my friend Wes taught his little girl to sound like Darth Vader). SO FUNNY!

And a SHOUT OUT to my In-Laws... Joyce taught Zoey to make a sound like a truck today too. I didn't know this until after our movie moments, so we'll have to get that one later. :) It's HI-larious!!

...giving me time to get babyproofing!

She's almost there.... :) This video was taken on Monday, May 4th. It seems weird to put up a video of an "almost-milestone"... I thought it was cute and I especially like her little grunts as she 'worm-style' makes her way across the floor. Then again, everyday with a sweet bean baby like mine is a milestone in cuteness!!! (Please forgive my very loud voice - especially if you turned up your volume to hear Z's noises.)

"Never Shake Your Baby"