Evolution Of A Spaghetti Lunch

What can I say.....It was a messy afternoon.



Zoe Scout loves to go to the window and slap it hoping the dogs will come over. Here she is showing me that she got Jeb to come over and climb into the chair. She was so excited.


I know y'all have seen a million eating pictures but look at her cute ponytails!

I Didn't Know People Still Got Croup

The last time I remember hearing about croup was when I read Anne of Green Gables as a little girl. Remember, Diana's little sister gets croup while her parents are away and Anne is the only one who knows how to bring her fever down and as a result the Berry's decide Diana can be friends with Anne again. Ok, so, apparently one can still get it, and by one I mean Zoe Scout. We actually think Colin caught it from one of his students and then Zoe Scout and I caught it. She started coughing on Monday and woke up with a fever on Wednesday morning. We took her to the doctor that morning and got some instruction about how to handle it (FYI she is 18 lbs now!!!!). It isn't serious and with a little baby Motrin and rest with a vaporizer she will hopefully be back to normal by the end of this weekend. She has been extra sweet since she doesn't feel well. Most of Wednesday morning she just sat with me and rested her head on my shoulder. I even let her have her bunny all day on Wednesday which she LOVED.

These aren't great pictures but I thought y'all would want to see some.



Today I went and got Zoe Scout some winter clothes and she had a great time inspecting and then throwing them on the floor. She did carry the brown cords around for a while.

Wait Just A Second!!! Who Is Jeb And Where Is Chloe?!

The first part of my post is a response to a comment left a couple of days ago about our dogs. For those of you who knew me pre-marriage you probably know who Chloe is but for those of you who don't let me fill you in.

Let me first share pictures of my first baby: Chloe the Jack Russell Terrier.

Here is Chloe, Layla, and me after coming home from a walk. I think this was shortly after we got Layla.


Here are Chloe and Layla in my parent's backyard summer 2006.





Where to begin.......Chloe is a great dog a I miss her terribly. I got Chloe in 2004 after moving into my very first apt. She filled an emotional hole in my life (I had just been broken up with) and we became fast friends. I even let her sleep in the bed with me. Not long after that Colin and I started dating and then got married. She had trouble adjusting to the new person in our lives and sleeping in her own doggy bed. Then we got Layla the next year in an effort to cheer her up. Soon after Layla joined the family we found out I was pregnant with Zoe Scout. When we moved out of our apt the dogs had to start living outside which Chloe didn't like after the "new" wore off. Colin and I tried to spend as much time as we could with the dogs and spent several hours with them almost every night. Once ZS was born all that changed. I didn't have the time or energy to devote to Chloe like I had had before and so she started running away. Some parts of our fence are only 4 feet tall and she could easily jump over them and go exploring around the neighborhood. We would get calls from the neighbors at all times during the day and sometimes have to come home from work or call a family member to go retrieve her. The last straw was when a neighbor called at midnight and said she saw Chloe trotting down the street. I had to get in the car in the middle of the night and go find her. We decided that we could not give her the attention or exercise she needed and that she needed a new family. The next day we went to the SPCA and got Jeb. We knew Layla could not be alone and we figured the transition would be easier if Jeb came before Chloe left. Now our search began for a suitable family for Chloe. Our friends, the Wiguses, live out in Celeste and know a family who is from Australia and have a couple of Jack Russell Terriers. They agreed to try Chloe out with their other dogs and see if everything worked out. If I remember correctly I think they have over 50 acres and tons of animals to chase. Chloe loved it and they loved her. They have a 15 yr old son named Denny and she is now his dog. They also go on English fox hunts (yes, traditional red coats and all) and I hear through the grapevine that Chloe loves to tag along. They even say she is the most obedient of all their dogs. So now we have Layla and Jeb. They are great, although, I still don't spend a lot of time with them but Colin does. Layla will be 2 in Nov and is around 65 lbs and Jeb is about 7 months old and is about 45 lbs. They are great with the baby and pretty calm for the most part when she is in the back yard. They do like to lick her all over which makes her giggle. All this said, I do wish we had been able to keep Chloe. She was so sweet and was a huge part of my life. It was one of those hard decisions when you do what is best for the animal and she really is better off and happier in Celeste. I just hope she still remembers me with good thoughts. Maybe she thinks about our walks in the park or jumping around in the snow together when she was a puppy. I do hope one day to have another Jack Russell Terrier, not to replace Chloe (impossible) but because I miss the sweetness of her disposition.

Here are some pics of Jeb and Layla. The look a lot alike. Jeb is wearing the red collar.








These are just some cute egg eating pics. You can see the egg she rubbed in her hair.




Today Zoe Scout was so cute! Here is a list of fun things she did!

1. She learned what the word "kiss" means today and gave them freely to her mommy and daddy.

2. She walked through the kitchen and hugged and kissed each appliance.

3. She tried pickles for the first time today and scarfed them down.

4. She let me pull her hair up in a new way and put a bow in it......check it out.







5. She helped me fold laundry and didn't even complain about the chore!





Isn't she so cute! I love her so much. Today I realized how good God is to give me such a wonderful little girl. What a privilege! I am also thankful for how He has protected her over the last 11 months. Barring one minor ear infection she hasn't been sick once so I know that God has kept her healthy! I am also hoping she got that Bate immune system of steel! Even so, I am blessed every day that I get to wake up and see her smiling face!

May I Please Have An Order Of Cute With A Side Of Ponytails?

How incredibly cute is she? I can't get over her precious face. Has a baby as beautiful ever existed....I think not! Best of all her personality is just as sparkling as her smile!


Was that enough verbal love? Scout's hair has started to get pretty long so this morning during breakfast I decided that I would pull it up. It had super cute results!


There is a little door in the front hall of our house that looks like it is straight out of Alice and Wonderland. It leads to a cubby underneath the stairs and the door knob is much lower then normal ones. As you can see in the picture she can reach the knob and normally her hand doesn't even get close. Now that she has figured out what a door knob is for she wants really badly to open the door. I am thinking that it might have to become her special, secret toy storage closet when she gets older.


Having now conquered the regular stairs Zoe Scout seems determined to climb the other set in our house.........


...........which as you can see from the picture below this scares me. Colin's office is at the top of these stairs and the sound of Daddy's voice is sometimes more then she can take. She just sits at the bottom until she thinks I am not looking and then tries to climb up. Of course I grab her immediately and tell her "no" to which she replies with a loud wail. I hate to see her cry but the alternative is even worse.



If you haven't reached your cute quotient yet I suggest you go back up to the top and look at the first picture again!

Mother - Daughter Moments

The best part of my day is always those special moments that only last about 5 seconds and only I see. Here are a few highlights from the past week:

>Zoe Scout was sitting at the piano, with me, playing and set her bunny on the keys, laid her head on the bunny and continued playing with her right hand.

>I was laying on the carpet next to the kitchen while Zoe Scout played in it and every 2 minutes she would come over, squat down and lay her head on my chest for about 10 sec. She repeated this action about 10 times.

>Coming down the stairs from her nap she put her hand on the wall trying to stop me and when I did she leaned over to give me not one but two open mouth kisses!

>ZS was standing at the back window watching Layla sleep in a chair and I said "Zoe Scout, say "Hi, Layla" to which she replied "Hi, Dayda". Maybe by accident but still precious!




Zoe Scout has her third tooth! I found on Sunday morning that her top left center tooth had come through her gum! I was so excited and promptly decided that the time of grinding food for her was over. She had eggs for breakfast (which she loved) and cheese, ham, and grapes for lunch. She is so thrilled and fascinated with feeding herself and it gives me 15 minutes of free time that I can use to clean the kitchen. We all win! It does, however, lead to some unprecedented messes! This morning she went straight from her high chair to the bathtub as she had egged her own head.







Colin spent most of Friday morning cleaning and while he was cleaning the upstairs bathroom ZS stood at the bottom of the stairs just waiting for him to come down. Then she couldn't resist checking out the scary vacuum cleaner. You will also see that she has her bunny (mentioned earlier with the piano) which has become the toy of choice. I have tried so hard to make sure that my child is dependent on nothing for comfort but alas, I have failed. We don't dare put ZS in her crib to sleep unless that bunny is in there with her. I would like to say though that this is the one and only time the bunny has ventured downstairs as I will not have her be more dependent on it then need be. It usually lives exclusively in the crib. Part of me does understand her attraction though, because it is super soft and it does make a great pillow for a sweet baby!









Another New Baby!
Our friends Ben and Angela Scarborough sent us pictures of their 13 week old. I can't wait until March to see baby Scarborough. In the last picture you can see the baby's face really well!




Now for something crazy. My friend Rachael and I were at Stonebriar mall in Frisco this weekend when I came across something I could barely believe. There was a lady pushing her Yorkie in a stroller!!!!! Besides the fact that Yorkies could possibly be the most intolerable dogs on the face of the earth this one was also wearing a full set of clothes. Now I am not totally opposed to clothes on animals but the dog has to be super cool to start out with (which Yorkies are not - all that yapping) because the clothes definitely bring down the cool points. Just when I thought it could not get more ridiculous the lady pulled out a camera and started posing her dog in the stroller in order to get just the right picture next to the indoor carousel. I, of course, had to sneak a picture. You have to look closely but you can see the dog's little brown head sitting in the stroller right next to the owner's leg (she's the one in the white dress).


Hope you got a few smiles from this post! Oh, I almost forgot.....I should have my car back on Sunday....pending no more roadblocks!

12 Days and Counting

12 Days without a car.

Zoe Scout had a great day today. She got plenty of sleep last night and was ready to go at 6:00 this morning!

Here she is playing with her toy dog that my grandparents, Granma and Papa, gave to her. It is a lot of fun because it talks and sings!







This morning ZS and Colin took turns tickling each other. Colin would tickle Zoe and then she would try to tickle his feet.








Precious New Baby:
My cousin Tommy and his wife Blanca just had their first baby. Little Dylan was born on Sept 4th and is the second great grandchild! He is so cute!



Congratulations to my cousins, aunt and uncle, and grandparents on the arrival of the newest member of our wonderful family!

September???

How could it possibly be September already?! I feel like this year has just flown by. I am glad though that it is almost fall. I am not a big fan of the summer simply because it is so hot in Texas so I get excited when August becomes September. Cooler weather is just around the corner!

Well, I still have no car which means I have been confined to the house almost all day everyday since August 26th. I have found myself becoming more lax then normal on things, especially when it comes to the baby. Over the past week I have let her have her pacifiers downstairs and play with her bottles.















On Sunday we went over to the Parr's to celebrate Labor Day. With all the excitement of church and then being at Mimi and Pop's, Zoe did not have a nap all day! Here she is reading with her Mimi and Pop. When she was sitting with Sue she kept wanting to change books and of course Mimi was very patient and happy to read just the first page of each book.






Occasionally ZS gets a hold of the remote and likes to walk around the house with it. Sometimes she will get one of her two DVD's and walk around with both as if to say...."Mom, it's time for Baby Einstein".



Scout is still picking the fake moss out of the fake tree so I have had to put it up on a chair in the dining room.


When I get the camera out ZS always wants me to turn it around so she can look through the view finder. If I do not oblige her she often gets pretty upset with me.




Here are some randoms.




Colin calls this Zoe's "Secret Passage". Instead of going around the chair in order to get to the kitchen she squeezes between the recliner and the table.





27 days until my baby turns 1!!!