Up and down, over and under...always busy Z

Zooey in action!

Videos from the past month:

new game for Z, workout for mom

her "stage" where she always heads to dance

first carousel ride at South Coast Plaza

Frauelein Z!

Thank you to Lauren emo for sending the dirndl all the way from Berlin!

the many faces of z

remember this face?

(June 7, 2013)

Me and my horse

Remember this video from last October?

Well, she still loves it! 

For the past couple of weeks, Zooey has

been climbing on and off by herself

Zooey loves dogs!

Where's Zooey?

Where's Zooey?  Can you spot her?

"Peek-a-boo!" 

long time no see....

Hello to all of Zooey's fans

and so sorry for the long absence from this blog.

Life with Zooey has been super busy - it feels like in the past month, 

all of a sudden, she is no longer a baby but a little girl, or in

daddy's words "it's like she's a real person now!"

Some updates:

*She is now running around. Her balance is still a little shaky,

which leads to many falls, but luckily she rarely cries

*She loves to dance, stomping her feet and tilting her head to the side

*She loves to climb on top of everything and crawl
into the tiniest of spaces
*She loves playing peek-a-boo
*She gives great hugs and kisses (usually juicy, open-mouthed ones!)
*She loves being outside and smelling all the flowers, pulling grass out
*BUBBLES! 

*She is very strong and tries to lift heavy objects, eg. she 

dragged at 15lb bag of rice around the kitchen (she is 23lb)

*She LOVES dogs

*She is still nursing but also eats pretty well, 

liking a variety of food including mediterranean, 

mexican, korean, even spicy food.
*She will put her dirty diapers in the diaper can, her laundry
in the laundry basket

*She is very social, saying hi to everyone, especially little kids

*She is VERY vocal, loves to sing and talk. 

VOCABULARY (words she will say)

Zooey = "Zoe"

Joann = "Joe"

Daddy = "dada"

Mommy = "dada" 

(occasionally she throws me a bone and says "umma" )

emo = "eee-mo"
elmo = "ay-mo"
book = "boo"
ball = "bah"

bubbles = "bubboo"

apple = "appoo"

banana = "nana"

car = "cah"

dog = "gog"

violin = "ninee"

do (as in 'do-re-mi') = "doh"
(when you sing "do" on a given pitch, she will reply by 
singing "doh", on a different pitch)

hi = "hi"

hello = "hello"

bye-bye = "ba-bye"

baby = "bebee"

more = "moh"
what's this? = "wassis?"

no = "NO" or "nnnnnnno" depending on her mood

yes = "yesh", sometimes "doh"

'da-wat-da' (we're here!) = "dah-da"

'da-haet-da' (all done!) = "dahh-da" (there IS a difference)

'gah-ja' (let's go!) = "gah-ja"

I'm sure there are more I can't think of right now.  

She is also signing some words and understands quite a bit, 

so it is a lot of fun having 'conversations' with her.

more pics/videos tomorrow!

I love rice!

Zooey's new ride

Mean mommy's never far.....

On our way down to Dana Point a few weeks ago, 

we stopped by the Barnes and Noble at Fashion Island.  This was Zooey's first time in the children's section and she made a beeline for this mini Adirondack

If you look closely, you may recognize her intense look of 

concentration from this post last year, and you would be correct in guessing that an on-site diaper change was needed. 

Well, we went back to B&N this past weekend and again, saw her furrow her brows intensely.  One might have believed that she was super-focused on the Elmo book in front of her, however, the 'grunts' also coming from her direction revealed the truth...another diaper change was in the IMMEDIATE future!!

Sigh. 2 for 2.

We hope this is not any indication of a future aversion/anxiety 

to books and studying.

After all, her birthday #1 future career pick was "scholar." 

Does this mean gastrointestinal issues are also inevitable?? 

I love water!

Last week was really warm here in SoCal so I took Zooey 

out to our yard to play with water.  

Yes. We have a pool.

"Dear Daddy, please clean the pool so I can play IN the water

and not in this teeny tiny tub.

Love, your Zooey xoxo"

Fun at Gymboree

Zooey continues to enjoy going to Gymboree to play and sing.  The kids are all  starting to interact more with each other, which is very cute to see, 

and Zooey is usually one of the most active and vocal ones there.

Zooey, the puppy

We were walking around Victoria Gardens (an outdoor shopping mall)

when Chuck heard a puppy barking.  He looked around to try and show Zooey the dog, only to discover that it was actually Zooey barking like a dog. 

The girl loves dogs - her favorite stuffed animals are all dogs (and she has quite the collection) and whenever she sees dogs, she goes beserk! 

A few days ago, we went to a friend's house for dinner, and they have two small dogs.  When Zooey saw them, she started squealing with excitement, raising her hands up in the air, and running towards them.  Unfortunately, we didn't catch this on tape but it was very cute.

If she keeps it up, I think Daddy will cave soon....

then Zooey (and mommy) can get a REAL dog!!!