Zoe has changed so much these past few weeks. She has suddenly become obsessed with putting everything within arms reach into her mouth. Everything. Fingers (it doesn’t matter who they belong to) teething toys, stuffed animals, burp cloths, socks, spoons, grown-up food, her toes, anything, it all ends up heading toward her mouth. Zak calls it her new hobby. Now, she wouldn’t be able to be as successful if she hadn’t learned to grab objects. It was pretty amazing, one day she just started grabbing toys and the rest is history!
As a result of her new hobby, our lives have changed a bit. For example she reached into my cereal bowl two days ago, spilled the milk, pulled out a soggy piece of Cinnamon Toast Crunch, and attempted to stuff it in her mouth before I could grab it. Fortunately, I’m quicker than she is at this point. I now eat breakfast while she plays on her play mat rather than sit in my lap.
I have been fascinated by her toes from the get go and have smothered them with kisses for months. Zoe loves to mimic me, and has become fixated with kissing them too. Only if she can actually get anything in her mouth she’s bound to suck it, so toe sucking is another new hobby.
She has also discovered our faces. She’ll look deep into our eyes and explore our faces with her hands. Last night she found Zak’s mouth and was happy when Zak started to suck her fingers. She refused to take them out for several moments (even though Zak explained how hard it is to talk and read bedtime stories with someone else’s fingers in your mouth.
She rediscovered her voice last week. Zoe and I were at my grandparents’ house when suddenly Zoe made a new, high-pitched shriek noise. She looked around the room, clearly wondering who could have made THAT noise when it squeaked out of her mouth again. Within the next hour she just repeated it over and over. Lately it turned into a constant babble, especially when she is just waking up or having her diaper changed.
We celebrated her first Easter this weekend. We dyed 6 eggs on Saturday, although we didn’t let Zoe get too involved, with the new hobby and all. Sunday we went to church and Zoe was absolutely beautiful in her dress and Easter bonnet. We came home and searched for her basket and the 6 eggs before heading out to Elgin . It turns out that Easter Bunny is really anxious for Zoe to get some hair as he left a brush in the Easter basket at our house and the one at Grandma and Grandpa’s house. Aren’t we all though? It was a great day.
Other HUGE news on the Zoe front is the state of her sleeping habits. We painfully decided a couple of weeks ago to sleep train Zoe. It was rough, as we had to endure some pretty sad cries one night, but Zoe quickly learned how to peacefully fall asleep without being held and rocked and nursed for hours. We now get her ready for bed, read her a story, and place her in her crib. She nearly instantly falls asleep and sleeps for 11 hours. Every night. All of them. The next step is to conquer the naps (I’m typing this as she sleeps in my arms.) She is a great kid!
I guess that’s about all. We’ve been real busy lately, but I am recommitted to writing more now. Thanks for being patient.
