Learning to Ride a Bike...

Papa and Nana got Zoey a bike for Christmas... She loves it! BUT....



one day she will get it right and realize its more fun to actually sit on the bike...

Hilarious!

Amazing how 30 seconds can brighten your day!

"C" is for Cookie!

Carrier Monkey..

That would be Zoey! She is feeling better and now WE are feeling worse! ARG!!!

So officially Zoey is a carrier monkey for RSV!

What to do...

So I have been trying to find fun things for Zoey to do inside...

Mostly she looks like this...

This is what Finding Nemo does to my child...

Then I got a little creative... and made homemade play-doh...


I was pretty impressed with myself... completely edible, flavored with crystal light.



Zoey loved it! She needs to practice with play-doh since they use it all the time in her new 2-year old classroom (which is where she was for 9 days.. until she got sick)

Well we have been inside for 4 days! We did venture out twice once to the doctor and kohls and then once to target... I was going stir crazy! Other than that its been Digeo, Dora, Sesame Street, and Finding Nemo... at least once a day!

Poor sick baby...

This was from Monday.. after 6 hours in the ER, 4 hours of sleep... finally a nap!




She is feeling a ton better now, but is still not completely better... that means more cuddle time with mom!

Zoey's First trip to the ER...

Yesterday afternoon just as I put zoey down for a nap, I updated Facebook with a status of "a lazy Sunday afternoon... i love it"... then God laughed in my face...

Zoey woke up coughing and crying because she threw up while trying to nap.. pregnancy and baby throw up.. not a good combo. She coughed pretty much the rest of the afternoon and had a low grade fever.

SO needless to say she didn't nap.. so at 8 we put her down in our bed, after another throwing up incident, and almost immediately fell asleep, after a couple of hours, she was still coughing, having trouble breathing, and spiked a fever of 102.5.

We called the Dr. and she said that 90% of what they are seeing is RSV. So we decided to be safe rather than sorry and take her to the ER. We got there at midnight, and left around 5:30 am! After a chest x-ray, they said she had RSV.

So now we are home for the week, she seems to feeling better.. hopefully she will be after a bottle of tylenol and some TLC.

Second Child Syndrome strikes early!

This kid is already suffering from second child syndrome.. you know the one where no one pays attention to the second child and there are no pictures or memorablia to speak of... (I know this occurs from personal experience... just look at my baby book)

I haven't kept up a very good baby log (although I am sure you were really upset)... but since this as much of a journal as I will ever have.. I need to make sure baby #2 gets equal representation. So here you go... (feel free to skip this post.. I promise more adorable pictures of Zoey in the next one)

This pregnancy has TOTALLY different than Zoey! I am 15 weeks thus far. Nausea definitely is playing a huge role! I am way more sick this time around, and still continuing! I feel sick if I don't eat every couple of hours, and I can't eat huge meals, so literally every couple of hours I have to eat something! Its crazy.

I feel like I am showing tons already, but am definitely still in the "Is she fat or pregnant?" stage... but no maternity clothes yet which is very exciting!!! On a similar note... I haven't gained any weight!! WOOHOO!! Hugely excited about that!

Other than that things are going well.. We find out February 1st what the baby is.. so stay tuned (and vote on the side)! Then we will start the baby name debate... any suggestions cause we are stumped???

You shouldn't ...

...laugh at your child when she puts a towel on her head and takes off running and then runs into a wall...

But I did!

Christmas with the Mattes'

We had an AMAZING christmas this year! Zoey had sooo much fun and we LOVED watching her enjoy all the fun of Christmas!

We gave in a bit early and decided to let Zoey open a gift...


A little big for our house... but she loved it!






Christmas Morning! (After Grandma dropped of her presents)Unfortunately Grandmas was sick for Christmas so we skyped her in so she could watch Zoey open all her presents!


Zoey couldn't contain herself... and had to open her stocking!



The aftermath! This doesn't even include all of Zoey's presents...


Zoey LOVES her bike from Papa and Nana!


Gary and I really enjoy Zoey's basketball hoop!.. Zoey likes it too!


Christmas Dinner... Zoey's outfit from Grandma...


A cute one with her daddy!


All-in-all an amazing Christmas! Topped off with a week long visit to Tampa... details coming...

Cow, Are You?

Quick story...

On the way to my mom's house today, we passed a few pastures one with cows. Gary pointed out the cows to her and Zoey immediately starting 'mooing' at the cows.

When we passed the field, she said "more, more, more"

I told her she needed to look for more cows.

Zoey responded by saying "Cow, are you? Cow, are you?"

We about died laughing.... this girl is getting funnier and funnier by the day..

Now it's Christmas.....

What's Christmas without an embarrassing video?

Train 'em early... Train 'em right...

Jump Around!

We are working on Zoey 'ups'...

Even white girls can't jump!

I think she needs some tutoring...

While I'm glad she is interested in the potty... I don't think she quite gets it...



I guess we will keep trying..

Before I forget...

2 quick things...

1. Zoey has become obsessively attached to a hot pink dog affectionately named 'puppy', that Ms. Claus gave her to try and calm her down... you can see it in the screaming Santa pictures below. Now everynight before she goes to sleep she asks for 'puupppy' in the most pathetic voice she can muster up. Then when you give it to her in her bed, she hugs it and then lays her head on puppy. ADORABLE! This morning she woke up at 5:45 screaming.. and after 30 minutes of screaming and going back to sleep, I went to go get her and her last word was 'puppy.' She woke up because she couldnt reach her puppy who was across the crib. CUTE.. even if I woke up at 5:45!

2. Zoey has said a couple unsolicited "thank you's" or at Zoey says it 'tantu' in the past week or so! Woohoo! ADORABLE!

I got what I wanted....

Last year's pictures with Santa were good, and Zoey sat nice, and was in aww of Santa, cute pictures, but not what I was hoping for.. every kid needs the screaming Santa picture.. and this year Zoey did not disappoint...

Happy kid waiting in line for Santa...


She was ok, until I put her on his lap!


So mad! (I love it!).. Yes, I was tempted to use this as our Christmas card!


A little better with mom!


Much better outside, She liked the idea of the bounce house, but not in practice..

Baby #2

Not the best picture, but what ultrasound is a good picture...

But even better than the picture was seeing a healthy heartbeat, and the BABY WAVED at me.. no joke.. be ready readers.. I am officially obsessed!

19 months.. a few days late!

Someone took my sweet precious Zoey and replaced her with a child that is already going through her terrible two's... We will see if Zoey makes it through the next couple of months.

Zoey can..
- sing and do the hand motions for "Wheels on the bus" "Popcorn popping" "Itsy Bitsy Spider"
- look through books and identify most objects
- identify letters - E L M O
- sign 'read' 'book' 'mom' 'dad' 'grandma' 'pop' 'all gone'
- starting to sing "ABCs"
- bite - unfortunately this has happend at school far to many times
- say phrases
- throw temper tantrums

Zoey likes..
- GETTING HER WAY
- saying 'no no no'
- reading books
- playing outside
- seeing airplanes, trains, trucks, and buses
- seeing other kids and babies
- playing with her puppies
- throwing temper tantrums for no reason
- milk
- watermelon, grapes, fruit

Zoey does not like..
- listening to mom and dad
- going to timeout
- being told no

Here's to hoping that my sweet Zoey will return... and soon!

Giving Thanks!

This Thanksgiving with so much to be thankful for, we were most thankful for FAMILY! Kim, Tj, Alex, and Sam came up for the week to visit, and we had a BLAST! spending most days at the park, and topping it off with an amazing family Thanksgiving!

Fun at the park!



The Mattes Family, our last Thanksgiving as Three!


Aww.. Cousins don't shake hands, cousins gotta hug!



Love from Sam, very special!


Handsome Alex!


What completes a holiday better than a family sing along! hilarious! They are going to hate this when they older!