a very busy day with Zoey

OUR WALK THIS MORNING

Our day today began like it usually does...with a walk around the neighborhood. Zoey wakes up around 7:30am. After breakfast, we get ready for our day and head outside. We walk from 8:30-9:15am. She loves to be outside. Some days, like today, she likes to ride in the stroller backwards and chew on her head rest. Other days she faces forward and gets excited and kicks her legs when she sees birds fly by, hears a dog barking, or sees a basketball goal (we think it's because she thinks it's a person...it's really funny). After our walk, we come inside and cool off before we go into her room to get ready for a nap. We read a couple of books together, close her blinds and cuddle for a minute until I lay her down with her blanket and bear. She spends a few minutes, after I leave the room, cooing and chatting before she falls asleep. Usually her morning nap is from 9:30-11:30am. That's when I get a shower, check my email, make phone calls, and try to get some chores done.

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When she wakes up from her nap, we have lunch and get ready to go somewhere. Anywhere. Neither of us like to be in the house all day long. We'll go to Target or visit friends or go get the oil changed like we did today. She does really well in her car seat for errands around town. When we go places longer than 45 minutes away, she gets a little stir crazy. But who doesn't.

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After we get back to the house, we play until it's time for Zoey's afternoon nap. About 2:15pm we go back into her room, read some more books, close the blinds and cuddle. She sleeps from 2:30-3:40pm but I tend to let her play in her crib until 4pm just so we both have some time to ourselves in the afternoon. At four o'clock Zoey has her dinner and then "plays" while I get dinner ready. Notice I said "plays." What this usually looks like is while I'm trying to work in the kitchen she is fussing in the living room wondering why I'm not playing with her. She does not like to be by herself. It's something we're working on but it can definitely test my patience. After 15-20 minutes of this...right about the time that I'm torn between letting her fuss and letting her learn the value of independent play, Dave comes home and scoops her up.

Yippee! Daddy always saves the day.

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Now today was a bit different. Dave has class on Monday nights so Zoey and I are on our own for evening playtime and dinner. Tonight we played inside until someone was tired of her surroundings. So we gathered up some outside toys and grabbed the plastic wadding pool (a gift from grammy & papa) and played in the front yard. The pool gives her the ability to play outside in the grass without having to worry about ants and spiders. Yuck. The weather has been warm during the day but it cools off and is lovely in the early evening.

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Thanks for sharing a day with Jenni & Zoey. Hope you had fun.

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PLAYING OUTSIDE THIS EVENING
new pics posted on flickr