Zoe at a Year

Well, Zoe's a year old now. Her eagerness to master the daily actions of life is both inspiring and frightening. Innocence is so blissful, she's losing it everyday. Maybe not innocence, but ignorance. She's overcoming hundreds of mysteries every day. Her sense of wonder is slowly replaced by a harsh and swift understanding of the ways of the world. The sense of wonder will never be completely erased, but it is sad to watch it slowly covered over with knowledge. On the flip side, it's awe-inspiring to witness Zoe's little sponge-like mind slurp up all the objects and ideas around her.

Zoe is wandering her environment on foot now. She can walk and she can run. She's wobbly yet she moves with definite intention. She knows the drawer that holds the silverware. She knows where her rocking horse is. She knows how to open and close the toy box. She knows all these things. She's got several words as well, everything from mommy to daddy to ball to balloon to bowl to all-done to wow to hi to bye and a bunch of others as well. She's hilarious at times. Sometimes during her most uninvited diaper changes she yells "no no no why? why?" It's sad, but also very cute and funny. Usually diaper changes are uneventful.

The past month has been crazy. I took Zoe to a family reunion in lake Tahoe all by myself. Of course, we weren't alone when we got there, but it was a really challenging trip there and back. I plan to share my experiences about it later. In mid June, we had 8 visitors sleeping over at our house from out of town. Jess' parents, Doris, Jess' aunt, uncle, and nephew, and Jess' two grandmas. It was a great time. On the 21st we had a large party of like 30-40 people that came over for Zoe's birthday. Everyone besides the grandparents and Jess' dad went home on the 22nd. Jess' dad stayed a few more days to help rip out the tile in the kitchen and replace it with hardwood floors. He left before we really started installing the floor. It took that long to rip out the tile and sure-up the floor and tighten up some of the cabinetry. When he left, Me and Jess and Jess' grandma installed the new hardwood, Jess' other grandma watched Zoe. It was a good time and we are really happy with how the project turned out.

On July 2nd, Jess, Zoe, and her grandmas flew out to Indiana to attend a wedding. Jess was there for 4 days before she had to fly out to Sacramento for some special work-related training (AVID program). Zoe went with Jess' parent to Virginia. I missed Zoe a lot, as I was home alone for a week and a half. That was surreal, because it's been a long time since I've been home alone. I enjoyed the first few days, then it got lonely and boring. Anyway, after Jess' training, she flew back to Denver, and then Jess and I flew out the next day to the Virginia/Washington DC area. We stayed there from the 12th to the 21st of July. We had a good time in Virginia. There were many challenges though. Most having to do with Zoe being sick. She eventually started feeling better and the trip was capped off with a trip to the Great Wolf Lodge in Williamsburg Virginia. It was basically a hotel with a giant waterpark inside. It was a really easy and fun vacation for kids. Jess' brother and sister in law and their two kids came along and we all got to spend time together.

Anyway, That was the last month. We had a solid month of winging-it and were very happy to get back home.

Anyway, That's all for tonight. I am having trouble sleeping. It's 1:45 AM and I have work tomorrow. See ya all later.