Here Comes A New Shelmet

This past weekend Zoe met up with Lilly at Sesame Place. It was the first time Lilly had been there and the first time Zoe was able to walk around the park by herself. It was kind of a brisk day, so they both stayed fairly bundled. Because of the timing, the park was decorated for Halloween. Both kids were great in posing right as we made our way in to take a few pictures. From there, we went to the carousel. This is generally hit or miss with Zoe depending on her mood. Today was more of a miss, but she brightened up as soon as mommy took her off the terrifying, moving horse. After that, we made our way to see Elmo's World Live. It wasn't the happiest experience for Lilly, but I don't think either of them were too enthused. Zoe had a brief encounter with the large, blue pyramid that Annabelle loved so much. Once that was done, we made our way past a few more decorations, snapped a few more pictures and called it a day. Overall, it was a good day. We're

For a while now, Zoe has used several words in rotation. It's hard to say when or what her first word was, but somewhere around 12 months she seemed to be saying "ball" and "cat" regularly. Cat was most likely her first word. At least it was the first word caught on film. We should probably take a moment here to recall the progression of what she calls us. It started out normally with "mama" and "dada". Then progressed to "mommy," but it took a strange turn before it made its way to "daddy". There were several steps before that one. In no particular order, they were "da-mommy", "dummy" and "bummy". My personal favorite was when she would call me "dadadadadadada", but that didn't last very long. Today we're just mommy and daddy. Over the past couple of weeks, Zoe has been mimicking words we say, but just this past weekend she seemed to develop a whole set of words. For ins

This past weekend we finally got around to opening up Zoe's first birthday present from the Carusos. They had sent Zoe an art easel with paper, paints, chalkboard, chalk and smock. The box says 3+, and Zoe did take her first loaded paintbrush and stick it in her mouth, but apart from that, she's really enjoyed it. Sadly, I think her favorite part is using the eraser to clean off the chalkboard, but whatever makes her happy. It's clear to see that she loves it. She has used it every day since we've opened it up. Thanks again Carusos! She also used the paints to color her pumpkins. It's excellent work for a first timer. Not your typical holiday colors, but Zoe isn't your typical 18 month old.

One of Zoe's favorite television shows, which has become the source of much insanity for Cheryl and I, is Yo Gabba Gabba. For those of you unfamiliar with this show, let me summarize it by saying, it's amazing. One of the many features of this show is Biz's Beat of the Day where Biz Markie ( you remember him, right? ) does some beat boxing for the kids. Well, the other day I did one of these in front of Zoe and, much to my surprise, she did it back. I was able to catch a much weaker version of video, but it still cracks me up. The Saint Mary's Nursery School newsletter was released for the Fall. We were the featured family. You can read the newsletter here . We're on the second page.

Zoe was not feeling very well starting on Monday, so we kept her home for the rest of the week. While she was home, I took some pictures to document her condition. She was drooling constantly. In a few minutes, she would soak out the collar of her shirt. She was also very tired and would willingly lay down on me during daylight hours. I don't know if there is anything sadder than a sick baby. Thankfully, by the end of the week, she was feeling much better. We went to meet Cheryl for lunch and, as always, she was super happy to see her mommy. At home, she was really into stacking with her blocks. She's really good at it too. I didn't get a picture or video of it, but she stacked her regular blocks 10 high on top of her stool. I don't think I could do that! And here's some video. It's so nice that she's better again. Be sure to take a look at Zoe's Mobile set on Flickr to see all of the pictures that have been taken more recently wit