Zoë Calamity: The last word in little girls.

For those of you wondering what Miss Princess Ballerina Cowgirl Pirate Zoe might like for her upcoming birthday, we’ve created a wishlist at ToysRUs. Please don’t feel constrained by the list if you wanted to go a completely different direction- that’s totally cool, we just figured we’d help you out if you needed it. Or if you just don’t want to get her anything, then that’s fine too, she’ll just go over in that corner and cry.
The ToysRUs registry is here- enter the registry code: 46950714

She’d also love any books or puzzles, or if you’re thinking clothes, she’s generally in the 12-18 month size. It’s easiest to go by her height for clothes sizes, she’s about 31 inches, so just get whatever size matches up with that rather than her weight or age.

And I would love her to have any of these cutest shoes (each of those links to a different adorable style) in  size 6-12 month. (I know, her feet are tiiiiiny!)

Zoe turned 11 months a couple days ago, and since we last posted, she can now:

click her tongue

pull herself to standing (she’s not free standing yet, but working on it!)

make a ton of talky babbly sounds

say “daddy” and mean it (it sometimes comes out “addy”)

pull plastic spoons out of a container and put them back in (this is one of her favorite things to do)

turn on the clock radio (also one of her favorite things to do)

dance by bobbing up and down (she will do this anytime there is music, even if it’s one of us singing, and it’s always in time to the music)

make popping sounds with her mouth (she does this and the clicking her tongue in response to us doing it)

provoke Bruce to chase her by crawling up, hitting his feet, waving her arms, shrieking and crawling away as fast as she can

touch her feet in response to Dr. Seuss’ The Foot Book

make a popping sound at the right point in Mr. Brown Can Moo, Can You?
kick in her little floaty thing in the swimming pool so that she can move around

She’s also started laying down on any throw pillows around the house- she’ll just put her head down suddenly, wait for us to say “how sweet” and then get up and keep crawling around. She also has fallen in love with her blankie, and will pull herself up outside her crib and try to reach in to get it. She’s almost perfected “crawling” on her hands and feet (with straight legs) when wearing a dress.  She’s also quite good at turning pages in grown up books and graphic novels without tearing them.

Well, Zoë crawled for the first time today. Not bad for 8.5 months. She’s progressing well within agency estimates. Unfortunately it was early morning and the lighting is pretty poor, but we have a little footage for whoever it is that actually looks at this site. We’ll try to get a better lit recording soon.

Zoë has been clapping for a few days now and making a “Yay” sound while doing it. Unfortunately she is VERY interested in the video camera, so its been tough to catch it on video. She’s used to the digital still camera which can take small videos. Its a little lower quality than the video camera, but you can get the gist of it.

Maryanne was out shopping for some Christmas goodies earlier this week and had a chance to get Zoë’s picture taken with Santa.  She was in her usual happy and smiling moods, so the picture (much to the chagrin of the mothers of the other children there who were fussing) came out great!

1074 (click the picture for the full size goodness)

Well, she rolled. Oct. 30 was the eventful day, and she not only rolled from her back to her tummy, but then later in the day got so frustrated on her tummy that she pushed down and flipped herself onto her back. She hasn’t done it again since then, but we’re confident she’ll be unstoppable in no time, especially since she scrabbles like a mad woman to try to move forward when she’s on her tummy. Soon nothing and no one will be safe!

Zoë ate quasi real food for the first time today, and wow did she enjoy it. It took her a couple tiny spoonfuls to figure out that she couldn’t just let it all collect in her mouth, that she actually had to swallow, but once she did she was pulling the spoon to her mouth. It really was extremely funny. As a result of that eating added to the bottle she drank afterward, she was too full to suck on her bottle to fall asleep as she has been, so with a little encouragement from me, she actually fell asleep sucking her thumb! Hooray! We’ll see if that full little belly helps her to sleep longer.

She had her immunizations a couple days ago, and man, can that little girl scream. She actually made the other mother who was in the room (with her 10 year old son) cry. But she lived to scream another day, and seems to be doing just fine. They took all of her measurements at the appointment, and she’s in the 75th percentile for weight, 75th for head circumference, and 90th for height. So she’s healthy, and awfully cute.

Speaking of cute, one of Zoë’s aunties made the observation that Zoë looks like her Auntie Hayden, and I have to agree!

I got in big trouble yesterday when Zoë smiled at her grandma and said grandma realized that no one had told her that Zoë’d started smiling. So I’m telling everyone now. Zoë smiles. And it is dang cute. Pictures to come.

Well, we decided (against the usual naysayers advice) to take Zoë on her first trip down to San Diego. During the trip, she officially hit 5 weeks old. She did amazingly well. We were worried about the flight down, but she ended up eating on and off through the trip down to San Diego and sleeping through the whole flight back. She was a model passenger.

We got in around 1:30 and headed over to Comic-Con. Comic-Con has been a regular event through our lives given that her momma worked in the industry for quite some time. One of the interesting things about Comic-Con is its where we get to see a lot of our friends. Our friend Justin let us stay at his house since he would be staying at a hotel next to the convention center, for which we are extremely thankfull for. It was nice to have a place larger than a hotel room where we could have some down time.

While at the convention, we got to see plenty of our friends. We saw Joe and Dottie, all of Maryanne’s cronies at Oni Press, crazy Tommy, the Moore’s, Judd and a few others that I am sure I’m forgetting. Zoë did well at the convention, but I have to admit that the parking and crowds bugged me a little. To unwind after the convention on Friday, we headed over to Lolita’s for some comfort food.

Friday evening and most of Saturday, we got to hang out with our great friends, the Stier’s. Ben and Jessica were some of our first friends in San Diego and we’ve kept in touch with them when we left. They have two wonderfull kids, Uly (Zoë’s future husband) and Garland. We had a great time sitting around talking, eventhough it was 102 degrees in San Diego that weekend. We had a blast spending time with them and can’t wait to go back and visit again soon.

You can see some pictures from our trip by clicking on this link.

We took Zoë into the doctor’s today to be weighed, and she’s HUGE! She was born weighing 7 lbs 9 ounces, and today, a week later, she’s at 7 lbs 12 ounces. It can take up to two weeks for babies to get back to their birth weight, and she’s managed it in a week. We’ve decided this is because she was a week late, so she’s rushing to catch up. The nurses say she’s doing fantastic, and are really pleased with her eating. And so am I, because they’ve given us the go ahead to let her wake us up at night when she wants to eat, instead of us waking her up every three hours. And that is a beautiful, beautiful thing. I was really kind of worried that the breastfeeding would be difficult or a problem, but we’ve been really blessed that she’s caught on so quickly. Go go Zoë, eating machine!