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

football season is HERE!!!

As you know, Dave is from Pittsburgh, PA and is a Steeler fan by birth. I am a Steeler fan by marriage. :>) We celebrated the season opener by watching the game with my folks and Josh & Erika. As you can see, Zoey was very excited about the win and she was thrilled to wear her jersey.

Later that afternoon, Zoey came down with a cold. It was no big deal, at first, but then on Tuesday she stopped nursing. As of tonight, she is still on a nursing strike and we're trying to get fluids in her any way possible. Since tomorrow is Friday and she's still not making progress, I'll be taking her to see the doctor again before the weekend begins. Thankfully the cold has almost cleared up and she is able to sleep and nap again. She just doesn't seem like herself. There is a great possibility that she is teething and that it's just too painful to nurse right now.

Dave and and I humbly request your prayers for this situation. Please pray for wisdom for the doctor we see tomorrow that he will be able to shed some light on why she might be doing this. Also, please pray for healing rest for Zoey and for any pain she might be experiencing to go away completely so she will want to nurse again.We appreciate you all very much.

new pics posted on Flickr

My best friend, Shay

This is my best friend, Shay. She is amazing. This picture was taken at her baby shower/girls' night out the night before she went into the hospital to be induced to deliver her third baby. She had a baby boy named Ty Orlando. He is precious and his big brothers, Aidan(4) and Eli(2), think he's pretty wonderful.

I have been friends with Shay for, at least, 10 years. We were bridesmaids in each others weddings and have been there for each other during many of life's major milestones.

The two things I appreciate most about Shay are her faithfulness and her wisdom. She is a great example of a faithful wife and friend and she gives amazing, biblical advice. She has such a gentle spirit but she can crack you up with her sense of humor...just ask her what sound a dinosaur makes. :>)

I feel the Lord has blessed me with many things: a wonderful husband, a beautiful daughter, a fantastic family. But He went above and beyond when he put Shay in my life. Thank you, Lord.

new pics posted on Flickr

Welcome home, Zoey

We're home!!! And we couldn't be more excited. Zoey, 7 1/2 months, doesn't seem to remember our house at all and so she is a little nervous about everything. She doesn't know her room or her bed and she has had a difficult time falling and staying asleep. She has figured out that she can sit up in her crib but I don't think she knows she can lay down when she's ready to sleep. I know she'll get back to her normal schedule and that we all just need a few days to re-adjust. It's been difficult to unpack because when Zoey's awake, she cries unless we're holding her or playing on the floor with her. Our house is significantly bigger than our one room cabin at kamp. She must think when we leave the room, we're never coming back. She also has a bad cough which keeps her up at night and at nap times. As soon as we get unpacked and her cough goes away, we'll get back on track.

The state of Texas pushed back the start date for school, so we actually have a week off between kamp and the first day of school. We can't begin to tell you how amazing it is to have down time after kamp. What a treat! It's 109 degrees out today so unfortunately we'll be hanging out inside, but at least we can do fun stuff.

Gotta go...Zoey's calling.

new pics posted on flickr

Introducing...Rice Cereal. Yummy!

After much thought, advice, and prayer, we decided to start Zoey on solids at 6 1/2 months. Originally, I had wanted to wait until we were home from kamp before introducing rice cereal into her diet. But, after asking a lot of moms their advice and reading everything I could get my hands on, we decided to give it a try. Needless to say, the first meal was messy and really funny. It's been about 2 weeks since she started solids and we have recently added sweet potatoes to the menu. In another few days we'll add squash, then carrots.

Other than the life changing news about Zoey and cereal, we've had a wonderful summer. It's hard to believe that kamp is almost over and we're getting ready to pack up and head home. I miss my house. And, I'm tired. I guess I thought I was Superwoman or something. Running the office and taking care of Zoey has left me pretty exhausted. There were days when I would ask myself, "What was I thinking?" I miss the days of catching a movie and sleeping in on my 2-4s (days off) or catching a nap during FOB (flat on back). Though, I will tell you this. My main goal for this summer was to have no regrets. I didn't want to look back on the past 3 months and wish I had spent more time with Zoey. I didn't want to miss anything. And I really, truly feel that I accomplished my goal. I may have let other things slide...balancing our checkbook or sun tanning (I don't even look like I worked at a summer kamp)...but I got to spend time with my family. I love that Dave can spend time with Zoey during the daytime. He can lay her down for her nap or carry her around kamp in the front carrier. He can take for walks and tell her she can always come to him and talk to him about anything. As excited as I am for getting home and seeing my family and friends, there is a big part of me that will miss the lifestyle we lead at kamp. We'll get home and become busy with the day's tasks. Dave was accepted into grad school and he'll be starting classes this fall. He'll head back to work and I will miss getting to have lunch with him everyday and walking around kamp together. It's such a bittersweet time.

The good news is that we will always have next summer.

new pics posted on Flickr

Long Time...No Post

Well, it's been a while everyone. We have been at kamp since May 17th and this is our first opportunity to post some pictures. I had the hardest time deciding which picture to post, but after many options, I decided on this one. I couldn't have posed her better myself. So many things have happened and Zoey has grown and changed so much since we've been here. Instead of a paragraph of info, how about a top 10 list of interesting things that has happened to the Cribbs Family.

Here we go...

#10...Zoey learned to blow raspberries a couple of weeks ago. She thinks they're really funny.

#9...Dave celebrated his first official Father's Day with his baby girl. Technically, he was a father last summer when I was prego, but this year Zoey gave him his gift...a black fleece vest from REI.

#8...Zoey went swimming for the first time a couple of days ago. She was pretty indifferent about it. She didn't love it but she certainly didn't hate it. PS-she looks adorable in her bathing suit.

#7...Zoey turned 5 months on May 28th. At the time she weighed 15 lbs and measured 27inches. She's getting so big.

#6...Dave got a black eye here at kamp. I like to tell people that he ticked me off and I let him have it, but the truth is he was launching a water rocket and the bottle came up and pegged him right in the eye. Nice shiner.

#5...Zoey learned to play peek-a-boo. When I lay a burp cloth over her and ask her, "Where's Zoey?" she pulls it off and smiles. Cuteness.

#4...Zoey is 6 months old today. We haven't weighed or measured her, yet, but she is long and skinny but she's got the cutest chunky thighs. She's wearing 9 month outfits but only because she needs the extra length. She can still wear a pair of 0-3 month shorts.

#3...Dave is going to sign up for another adventure race that takes place in September. Usually he and his teammates do the Booger County race, but this year they're considering the Berryman which is a 36 hour race.

#2...Zoey is getting close to sitting up by herself but she still needs to learn to not throw herself back. She really enjoys sitting upright because she has access to all of her toys.

And the number one thing that has happened to our family is...

#1...On Tuesday, June 26th...I turned 30!!!!!!!!!!!!

New pictures posted on Flickr

Happy Mother's Day

Today I celebrated my first Mother's Day. I love being a mom. It's a lot harder than I thought it would be but it's so much more rewarding than I could have ever imagined. I know that sounds cheesy, but it's true. She is the best gift ever.

We're down to our last few days before we leave for kamp. I've got a ton to do but if I stop for a moment to think about my list of "to-dos" or how I'm going to miss my friends and family, I will end up in tears.

Onto Zoey news...

She started rolling over about a week ago. I laid her down..on her back...for a nap and a few minutes later her cries sounded muffled. When I went into her room, she was on her tummy and couldn't figure out how to roll back over. She's since realized that she likes sleeping on her tummy and it doesn't freak her out anymore.

She loves, loves, loves playing on her baby gym. She kicks her toys and squeals with delight. She coos and carries on extensive conversations with toys, people, the ceiling fan...whatever catches her eye.

I hope and pray that she will make a smooth transition to kamp. It's always a little scary being in a new environment and around a ton of new people. Please pray that she will sleep well, eat well and enjoy meeting new people. As always, we'll keep you posted.

new pics posted on Flickr