Zoe's Rocks

I just have to take a few minutes to write about Zoe's Rocks.  My daughter is addicted to rocks.  She has to pick them up every where we go.  If we show up anywhere there are rocks present (especially Paul & Laurie's driveway), she immediately heads to the rock saying "Rocks, rocks" over and over.   I have started a little collection of them for her.  I'm trying to get a least one from each of her scavenges. 

This picture was taken on a trip to Matagorda that we took with David, Amie and family in August.  We were at a playground just off the beach and as usual, Zoe was picking up small rocks from the playground area.  We were just heading out to leave when she spotted these off to the side of the playground.  You should've seen her eyes - they got big and round just like you'd expect from a kid on Christmas morning!  She was very upset that she could not pick these rocks up and I had to finally pick her up and take her away!

I'm not sure where this obsession with rocks comes from.  She'll have 3-4 crammed into each little fist and will still try to pick up more.  She used to give them to either me or Jeff like a kind of present, but no more.  Now they are hers and you better not try to take them away.  Now the only time she gives them up is to collect more.

Hurricane Ike

We recently had a brush with disaster when Hurricane Ike narrowly missed our part of the country and hit Galveston/Houston head on.  With the projected path predicted to hit Matagorda Bay, we decided to leave and headed to San Antonio.  Our convoy, consisting of me, Cheyenne and Zoe in our car, Jeff in his truck, and Jeff's Mom and nephews, Wesley and Caiden headed out on Thursday (Sept. 11) - my birthday!  Happy Birthday to me!

We met Mike and Cindy and Amie, Tyler and Riley at the hotel.  We stayed close to Michelle's apartment where Mark, Christine, Adisyn and Mark's brother, Adam were staying.  One big happy family of evacuees!

Ike moved onshore missing El Campo and so we all headed back on Saturday morning.  All in all the trip was uneventful.  We did learn that Zoe does not like being cooped up in a hotel room and that she loves the swimming pool!

She is also getting really good at saying Amie (Mamie), Cheyenne (Shy), Tyler (Ty) and Riley (RiRy).  This morning (Wednesday the 17th)  she moved up from Mamie to what actually sounds like Amie!

Zoe was awesome in the car on the way there and back.  She played with her books and toys and watched out the window most of the time.  Never once crying or fussing to get out!  She didn't even need the DVD player I installed for her.

We have a lot of family now in Houston with no power including my Mom, Lisa and her family.  The damage on Galveston and surrounding coastal areas is hard to fathom.  Pictures and videos are terrible to see.  We cannot count our blessings enough that we were spared and I am reassured that my plan to leave for any storm predicted in this area is the right one.  I cannot imagine staying with no power, water or sewage.  Yuck.

Repeat After Me...

It is finally here - the age that I have been dreading.  You know, the one where your child suddenly learns to repeat everything that you do.  The day before yesterday, I was changing Zoe and talking to Jeff.  Of course I was being a smarty pants and said something followed by a very exasperated sigh. And what does my girl do?  Repeat after me!  Not the kind of thing you want coming out of the cutest little girl in the whole world's lips!  

Now we are on red alert to watch our language and every little move!  

On the other hand, she's picking up lots of new words.  Socks, shoes, pink, purple and she is working hard to say names!  Mimi instead of Memaw...Mami instead of Amie.  She's getting there!  

Random Memories

This post's soul purpose is to provide a place for me to jot down random memories that come to mind...

One evening, sometime after Zoe's first birthday, we are at home alone.  I was playing on the floor in the living room with her just wrestling around like we sometimes do.  Zoe likes to be picked up and flipped around.  At one point, she happened to be laying on my stomach with her head near my belly button.  Next thing I know, she pulled up my shirt and blew a giant raspberry on my belly!  I laughed so hard I almost peed my pants.  We spent the next few minutes laughing and blowing raspberries on each other bellies.  I genuinely think that it was the most fun I have ever had!  Sadly, she hasn't done anything like it since that day.  But what fun we had!

Zoe's first steps were taken in her playpen on the front porch of our rent house in Wharton.  I happened to catch them out of the corner of my eye and asked Jeff, "Did she just walk across the playpen." He agreed that's what he thought he saw, too.  A few days later, she took two steps in the kitchen of the same house.  I was very excited to have my daughter learn to walk, but once she started walking, she no longer wanted to just hang out in the playpen! This picture was taken that same day. We didn't catch these first steps on film!

Guilt of a Mother

For the first 6 months or so of my daughter's life I was dedicated to journaling her every move.  What she ate, how much she grew, what she did - every milestone was recorded.  Then came the ear infections.  

Sleepless nights, doctor's visits and killer antibiotics.  We were all miserable.  Finally our pediatrician recommended PE tubes and 3 weeks later we handed our baby girl over to a nurse who vowed "to take good care of her." Two weeks after that, life could not have been any more different.  We finally got to experience sleeping through the night on a regular basis again and my husband and I were able to claim our bedroom back!

That's not to say there were no happy times during the ear infection phase.  Zoe learned to crawl, pull up, cruise and walk all before her tubes were put in.  But none of those milestones (the big ones!) were recorded in such a way as the ones before.  And I cannot tell you how this weighed on me.  So badly that I couldn't pick up the pen again.  I would tell myself "It's been too long."  She won't understand all the time that has gone by.  I'll just hide that first journal away and she'll never know!  

Today, I read a blog on a parenting website and thought what a great way to pick up the habit again.  So, from today forth, I am putting away my guilt and starting over.  Going backwards is harder than recording in the moment.  Details are lost - but the big picture remains.  I think that is all that is needed to let my little girl know that she is loved.  That the events in her life are monumentally important to both myself and her Daddy.  To let her know that she is our world!