Thanksgiving 2012

Derek and I got up early on Thanksgiving and headed to the park.  We both ran the Turkey Trot 5k, I came in at 37:38 and Derek at 41:58 (The best overall time was 16:05, this is my first 5k but that seems insane to me).  This was our first 5k and I am very proud, the course is very difficult as for more then half the course it's a steep incline.  I only walked once for about 2 minutes, if it wasn't for Brandy I would have walked a few more times.  We are looking forward to more races and possibly an attempt at the Bowling Green Marathon next November.

We had a late dinner that night and had a great time visiting with Derek's family.  Zoë got to play with Aunt Misha's makeup and got her finger nails painted.

Date night with Tripp

A few Saturdays ago Tripp came over for a few hours to hang out while his parents went to dinner.  Zoë was very excited and kept wanting to give him hugs, but he wanted to check out all the toys.  They played really well together.  When we had dinner Zoë and Tripp kept giggling and it took me a minute to figure out that they were playing footsie under the table.  After dinner they just ran laps through our house and laughed.  It was a really fun night!

Shanty Hollow

We have had some warm weather here in Kentucky the last few days and today we took advantage of it.  We drove out to Shanty Hollow Lake and went on a short hike.  It is so pretty and I had not been there since I was pregnant.  Z did most of the hike on her own and was very busy moving leaves to try and find sticks.

Halloween

Olivia came for a visit before Trick or Treating

This was the first year that Zoë actually got dressed up and went Trick or Treating.  Last year we were hanging out with my parents in Nashville before they flew back home, and the year before that she was 2 days old.  We wanted to avoid our house at all cost as we get a ton of kids in our neighborhood.  

We went to Sean and Sara's house and Zoë got to hang out with Gracie.  Just down the street from their house is Pumpkin Ally, they close the street off and lots of house participate.  I was a little worried that Z would be scared of all the costumes, as she saw the Cat in the Hat once and freaked and every time she sees WKU's mascot Big Red she get so scared I worry for her health.  She did great and only got scared of two people.  (In my proudest Mama voice)  The two people she got scared of you ask:  Mitt Romney and then she saw someone dressed up as a Robot and just said "Zoë scared of Robot"  but old Mitt totally freaked her out.  The Dad to the kid dressed up as Mitt asked him to take off the mask to calm her down.

Once we hit the road Z was a little confused and thought we were just going on a walk.  Then when she found out you get "candies" if you take your bucket up to houses she was so excited and we could not get to the next house fast enough.

We had a great time and next year I know we will have to go to more houses as we only ended up with a handful of candy.  At that time I was happy with that so Z would not eat so much candy, but the next day when I was digging though her candy and I did not have much to steal I was kind of sad.  Also we will need to pack the stroller with more wine, one glass was not even enough.

The Party!!!

We had Zoë's Birthday Party on the Saturday (27th) before her actual Birthday.  I did not do much planning until well the day before so I was a little stressed with the amount I needed to get done.  But thankfully my wonderful Mother was there to help and Derek's parents were on their way.  We started the morning making rainbow eggless cupcakes, which both the rainbow and eggless were a first attempt for me.  They turned out pretty good, they could have come out a few minutes sooner but all and all not to bad.  Zoë got to lick each different colored spoon before each bowl got washed and got very upset when she wanted the next spoon to be a different color then she received.

Zoë went down for her nap and it was a good 3 hours, once she got up she was in a lot better mood and so was I.  When she woke up NaNa and Pop had arrived and she got to see what Derek and I got her (Tricycle) and what NaNa and Pop got her (car).

Within the hour Aunt Misha had arrived with her gift which was hands down Zoë's favorite and it was the hit of the party too.

I set up a photo booth but then only got photos of about half of the kids who came.

Melanie

Sylas

Gracie

Zoë

Dempsey

Tripp

Larkin

She had a lot of fun and so did we!

Being Two

Zoë at two is a lot of fun.  She does a lot of pretending and is really understanding emotion.  She is a little obsessed with looking at pictures of herself and I am not sure if it is a bad or good thing.

Funny things she says:

Hippy Hooray is Hip Hip Hooray

Hippy pot mus is Hippopotamus

When she says Goodnight now she will also say Sweet Dreams

When she says Bye Bye she sometimes will say Nice to see you

Her favorite food is Broccoli and she also loves Cheese.  If she can dip a food it makes her very happy. Their are not to many foods she will not eat.  Sometimes she pretends something is yucky even though she really likes it.

Her current favorite books are: The Giving Tree and a Bad Case Of The Stripes

Blue is her favorite color but Pink is a close second.

Itsy Bitsy Spider is her favorite song and she can sing most of it.

She can say her ABC all the way to E and when she counts now she says: "2 1 2 1 4" instead of just a short time ago she would just say 2 over and over again.

She still really likes to hide and scare people.  She will be standing there not even hiding and just scream "BOO!"  O ya she loves to scream, which is not fun.  She is only allowed to scream outside and will stop when I remind her of it but man those times in the car when it comes out of nowhere is going to give me a heart attack one of these days.

Dinosaurs are really big for her.  She has probiotic that she takes everyday that is in the shape of a dinosaur.  When Granny was here for a visit she got Zoë a little rubber dino that Z cuddles with and she carry's it around in her purse.

She is constantly talking she says usually everything she is doing while she is doing it.

She really likes to talk about her friends, when we drive by her buddy Tripps house she says: "Tripp House!"  She pretend calls Gracie on her play phone.  And at bed time she talks about the kids in her class and we talk about who will be at class the next day.

Fall in Florida

We spent our Fall Break down in Pensacola Beach Florida.  It is a 9 hour drive and with a 2 year old this worried me a little.  Of course the amazing Zoë did a great job!  We borrowed a friends DVD player and this was a big help.

Once we arrived we went straight down to the beach.  Z loved the surf.  She kept pushing me away saying Go Away Mommy which of course made me sad.  When we left the Beach we had to strip her down and rinse her off before we could go back to our room.  I was completely unprepared for her fearlessness.

On days two and three we stayed mostly in the room since a bad storm was coming in and it was very windy.  We did squeeze in a little pool time when the sun came out.

After the storm past we had beautiful weather.  We spent most of the days napping, at the pool or at the beach.

hunting for sea shells

First sand castle at the beach!

 We cooked most of the meals at the condo but did go out for a couple meals and our favorite was Peg Leg Pete's where my mom was able to see us on the bar camera.  We also got to feet fish and they had a playground so Zoë loved it!  Sadly I did not get any good shots from Peg Leg's.

One night the six adults went out while the five kids stayed at the condo.  I so appreciate the girls watching Zoë, Thank you Carrie, Emily, Natalynne, and Malory.  Extra special thank you to Emily for dropping us off and picking us up.  While out we all walked out on the Pier where we saw a few sharks and stingrays.  We walked to a couple bars and a big drink in the region is called a bushwhacker and it taste like a chocolate and coconut milk shake, so good.  One of the bars had Skeet ball!  We were all playing and a few tables over an awkward gentleman who was only wearing swim trunks and a creepy smile began to do air skeet ball, mimicking us.  I was trying so hard not to laugh as he creeped me out and I did not want to encourage him.  I totally wish I would have gotten a photo of him.

Renee took some family photo's for us as it seems so difficult to get a shot of all three of us let alone a good one.  Zoë decided she did not like the idea and the sun was so bright we only got a few good shots out of more then a hundred photos.  Thank you so much Renee!

How sweet huh

This is what we really looked like

It was a blast and was a much needed vacation.  I think it may be a new fall tradition!