19 Months!

Zoe turned 19 months yesterday! I decided to celebrate by taking Zoe to the play area at the mall with my friend, Mubeen, and her kids. While we were there we took the kids to this really cool "Polar Express" themed snow globe. There was snow coming down in it, neat! And once you make it through the snow globe the kids get to say hi to Santa Clause. Zoe wasn't too sure about the whole Santa Clause thing (I didn't have her sit on his lap, I just let him say hi to her). But she LOVED the snow! Here are some pictures and a couple videos of that:

This is when we first got int the snow globe. She's so excited!

Playing with the snow. This is by a Christmas tree after the snow globe, right by Santa. Zoe and Madyson (Mubeen's daughter) playing in the snow. The girls suckered us (okay....me) into letting them ride this thing. We had a really fun time yesterday. Thanks for going with me, Mubeen! Today though is a completely different story. Zoe has strep throat. Oops. I really, really hope she didn't get anybody sick yesterday at the mall! She has been putting her hand in her mouth a lot lately but I had assumed that she was just teething some more. Well, after about two weeks of it we still aren't seeing any new teeth. So last night I took a peek at Zoe's throat and WOW! it was swollen big time. I took her to the doctor this morning and she is now on an antibiotic. I feel so bad about mistaking this for teething! The good news is that I had Zoe weighed while at the doc. and she is at 17lbs. 6oz. Okay, that's not really GREAT but at least she gained something! Here is some random Zoe stuff: The nursery seems to be going a little better. She stayed in there the entire time last Sunday. But that's only because I was in there with her the whole time. I don't teach my class on Fast Sundays (which was last Sunday...) so I was able to stay with Zoe. One area of concern that I have is that they fed all the kids popcorn during snack time. Zoe does not eat popcorn yet. Her mouth is SO small she would choke on it in a heart beat. So I'm going to have to mention something to the nursery leader about watching what Zoe eats when we're not in there with her. Speaking of food. Zoe feeds herself completely now (as seen in the video on my last post). She has been doing this for a couple of weeks. Yay! Oh, and we think Zoe will be right handed because that's usually the hand she uses when she eats. Zoe is a monkey and climbs into, on, and under everything. She climbs onto all the chairs and couches and our once somewhat baby-safe zone is now more like a dare-devil's play house. Great! Zoe calls Mike "Didda" now (we think she is just saying daddy backwards...as in dydda) and calls me "Mel" (haha! this must be because that's what Mike calls me). So funny! She also uses the word "No" WAY too often. Also, Zoe doesn't take naps anymore. This has me really thrown because I was used to having that time during the day to get stuff done. Now I'm having to re-organize my days! Even though Zoe doesn't really nap, I still put her in her crib for a while each day so she can have some alone time and also to just see if she'll fall asleep. Sometimes she does. :) Here are some recent pictures: Zoe helping herself to a cupcake. Can you see the green frosting that's already on her mouth? Slow down girl! This was the first time that Zoe ever dipped anything into ketchup and oh boy did she LOVE it! She now loves to dip things into ketchup, suck the ketchup off, and then re-dip (this one is for you, Natalie!). Zoe loves to look out the windows. She waves and says bye-bye to every car that passes by and barks or chirps at any animal she sees. It's so funny! Well, lately she has been putting her stuffed animals on the windowsill-facing out so they can see too! Cute Zoe with a mouthful of cheese! Like I said, she's a monkey girl. See her crawling out from under her crib at the beginning? And then climbing onto her fire truck at the end (we have stopped her from doing that since this video...but I wanted to get it on record. hehe).