Seriously...I'm 16 months old.

I am 16 months old today. No, I'm not joking. It's true. I love wearing my sunglasses and I love scooping wood chips into my bucket at the park. I love being outside, too. I can climb up the slide all by myself. But don't worry, my Daddy stands right by my side the entire time. I can sign 15 words and I can say 7 words. I know where my eyes, my ears, my hair, my tongue, my teeth, my toes, my feet, my belly-button and my nose are. I have 11 teeth. I love strawberries, milk, cheese, yogurt, green beans, peas, turkey, chicken, bananas, pears, peaches, oatmeal, gold fish crackers, cheerios, bread, spaghetti, rice, blueberry pancakes and black beans. My favorite things to do are read books, open things, hide toys, look out the window, climb on the couch, chit-chat, take baths, give hugs & smooches and play outside. I can bark like a dog and roar like a lion and I'm ticklish everywhere. Some of my favorite people are DADDY, Mama, Papa, Grammy, Aunt Rika, Unka Rone, Mr Greg(Sunday School Teacher), Adan, Eli & Ty. I also love to wave at everybody that I can see. I still do not like to have my hands and face wiped but I don't mind having my nose wiped...go figure. I do not like sitting in my car-seat for very long and I don't like playing in my pack-n-play by myself. I love to be with people and I love to have an audience when I perform. I'm going to the doctor on Wednesday for my check-up. My Mama can't wait to see how much I weigh and how tall I am. I'll let you know all the details on Wednesday. Talk to you then.

Love, Zoey

The Cruise of 2008

Last week Dave, Josh, Erika and I went on a 7 day, Royal Caribbean cruise. We really never thought the timing would work out for all of us to be able to do something like this. Between everyone's jobs, babies, and pregnancies it was truly a miracle that our schedules opened up. Zoey stayed with my parents and we literally had to pry her out of their hands at the end of the week. She had a fantastic time and misses her grammy and papa very much. We had the best time and I thought I would share some of our adventures with you.

Here we are on Day 3 of the cruise. It was our first stop and we did a tubing excursion in Jamaica.

Here we are relaxing on the catamaran that took us to two different snorkeling sites while we were in Grand Cayman.

Dave and me in Grand Cayman.

Josh & Erika in Cozumel.

Josh & Erika sun bathing in Cozumel on our beach break excursion.

Erika and me sipping virgin strawberry daiquiris.

Dave & me enjoying the last sunset of our cruise.

Josh & Erika all dressed up for one of the formal dinners.

The cruise was such a wonderful time to relax and catch up on sleep & hang out time. Those are some things that have been lacking in our lives since becoming parents. And since Josh and Erika are expecting a baby boy at the end of August, I know they appreciated this down time before the craziness of being new parents begins. We are so thankful to the Lord for a safe vacation and for allowing us this rare opportunity to spend quality time with Josh and Erika. We are also so grateful for my parents for taking care of our little Zoey. What peace of mind we had knowing that she was being cared for by two people who love her so much.

To see all of the cruise pictures, visit our flickr account.

Flat Tire? No Problem.

This morning, Zoey and I were heading out to the garage to get in the car and I noticed our Honda CRV tilting a little to one side. As I walked around to the passenger side, I saw the reason why it was leaning. A flat tire.

Bummer.

Shock and panic set in. I was supposed to meet my friend in 20 minutes to pick up her baby and watch him for the morning. After I called her and let her know about my situation, I weighed my options...call Dave and have him come home on his conference period to change it or call a tow service...and I decided to go with secret option three.

I will change it myself.

Now, I am the daughter of Anthony Leo. He taught my sister and me many things about our cars. He showed us how to change the oil, how to check the fluids, and of course, how to change a tire. I've helped change tires before but I had never taken on this task by myself...and with a toddler in tow. My first step was to set up the pack & play in the garage for my Zoey. Aaahhh, man she loves being in her pack & play. She loves it so much she "screams" for more. (did you sense the sarcasm?)

So, with the added challenge of a screaming 15-month-old, I found the jack and started loosening the lug-nuts. The scene from my garage must have cried out, "Help Me", because it wasn't long before the garbage truck went by and Romero, the driver of the truck, asked if I needed help. I told him I was pretty sure I could do it by myself. A few minutes later I hear the "beep-beep" of a large truck backing up. It was my good pal Romero wanting to double check and see if I needed help. I told him I really wanted to try to change the tire on my own, but if he had time to swing by in a few minutes, I might need help tightening the lug-nuts. He said no problem and I continued...all the while singing songs to Zoey.

The hardest part, for me, was putting the new tire back on the....the thing where the tire goes. It was really heavy and difficult to line up the holes with the screws. After five or six tries, I got it. Then I tightened everything I was supposed to tighten and I lowered the jack and put everything away.

A few minutes later, Romero came back and made sure the lug-nuts were on securely. He mentioned that he was worried about me driving on the highway with a baby and a loose tire. Very fatherly. He said I did a great job. Yea!!!

I did it! And by myself. Needless to say, Dave...and my dad...were so proud.

Spring Break 2008

We had the best Spring Break this year. Here is a recap of some of the things we did.

On Monday, we drove two and a half hours east to Tyler, Texas where we stayed at Pine Cove Camp for three days. There was a risk management conference that Dave attended and Zoey and I were able to come with him. While Dave participated in the meetings, Zoey and I hung out in the cabin, took lots of walks and played with some friends who stayed at the camp, too. We had beautiful weather and east Texas is so amazing. With all the wonderful trees, I kept forgetting I was still in Texas.

On Thursday, our friends invited us to join them for a visit to the Ft Worth Zoo. We had the best time. This was Zoey's first trip to the zoo. She loves watching people and since it was Spring Break, there were sooooo many people. It was a beautiful zoo and a perfect day. Thanks Matt, Emily & Tobin for inviting us along.

Happy Easter! My family came over for an Easter lunch after church on Sunday. After dessert, I "hid" some Easter eggs in the front yard and we all went outside to watch Zoey "find" them. Zoey thought it was way cool to put the eggs in her basket. Here she is showing off her loot. Bless her heart. She did all the work to find the eggs and Dave and I get to eat all the candy.

new pics posted on flickr

Hello, Sunshine!

The weather today was absolutely gorgeous. So, we played outside. The time has come to break out the shorts and crocs. And, boy, does she look cute in both. After months of long sleeves, pants and socks, it's so fun to see the baby rolls on her arms and legs.

We only played outside for a few minutes before Dave came home. Lately, Zoey is absolutely enamored with her daddy. During the day when he's at work, she wanders around the house asking, "Da?" And once he's home, watch out. Nothing, and I mean nothing, can keep her apart from her favorite guy. Since day light savings time began, Dave has been coming home from work and going for a jog with Zo in tow. He gets to run, Zoey gets to be with "Da" and I get some time to fix dinner and clean up. It's perfect. The only trouble is when they come home from the jog, Dave hops in the shower and I have the most difficult time trying to convince Zoey that daddy is still here and he'll be out to play with her in just 10 minutes. She just looks at me with sad eyes and asks, "Da?"

I LOVE that she loves her daddy.

snow???...in Texas???...in March???...of course!

Yes, you read the date correctly. Today is March 6th, 2008 and 9 inches of the most beautiful snow fell today. The crazy thing was how the temperatures have yo-yoed the last few days. In fact, yesterday Dave took Zoey for a walk while wearing shorts. And today...SNOW. The schools are closed tomorrow so Dave will get to stay home with us and, hopefully, we'll have a chance to take Zoey out and let her experience her first snow.

Hope you all stay warm and dry.

This is the view from our porch looking out to the front yard. Look...half of the mailbox is covered.

Our poor bushes.

Our back yard and the neighbor's tree...gorgeous.

a trip to the ER

Last week Zoey was running an on-and-off fever. She was very clingy and very moody. I just assumed it was teething related. She was cutting a molar and with that came lots of drool and a fever...so I thought. Apparently, a fever over 101 is not teething. I now know that it's a sign that there is a virus or an infection.

Dave was at a Robotics competition all day Saturday and Zoey and I hung out at the house. She never left my side for more than a few seconds before she would return to my arms for hugs and cuddles. If she even thought I was leaving the area, she broke down into uncontrollable sobs. She was still napping very well and her appetite was unchanged. She was not sleeping well at night and she was drinking more water than usual but other than that, she seemed ok.

After Dave got home Saturday evening, the three of us ate dinner and played and everything was great. Dave read to Zoey and put her to bed and she fell asleep with no trouble at all. Two hours later she started to whimper. I went in to check on her and she was burning up and asking for water. Dave helped me take her temp rectally and it registered 104.9. YIKES!!! We've been so blessed with Zoey's health...we have no experience with fevers. We gave her some Tylenol and called the on-call nurse at our pediatrician's office. The nurse checked with the on-call doctor and asked us to bring Zoey in. So at 10pm on Saturday night we were headed to the place where no one wants to ever have to bring their baby. The Emergency Room.

The ER nurse checked Zoey's temp and, thankfully, the Tylenol had lowered it to 102. She was given a dose of Motrin and we went back to the waiting room to wait to see the doctor. So, what was it like having a 14-month-old in the waiting room at 11:30pm? Absolutely fine. She was perfect. There were a couple of times I looked over at Dave and asked him to remind me why we were here. She was playing, eating cheerios, chatting and reading books. She had cooled down completely. She kept waving bye-bye to anyone and everyone she saw and she kept doing the sign for all done. I think she was ready to leave.

The doctor saw her at midnight and he diagnosed her with a double ear infection. My poor baby. He wrote us a prescription for an antibiotic and a decongestant and sent us on our way. After stopping by CVS to get the scripts filled, we headed home. Zoey was in bed by 1:30am and Dave and I were right behind her.

As we were driving home on University Drive, Dave mentioned how strange it was for so many people to be out on the road at this hour. Then we remembered that 1:30am on a Saturday used to be no big deal for either of us.

We are definitely not in college anymore.