7 Months old (31 weeks)

Can you believe my munchkin is 7 months old already?  Time sure is flying by!  Things my kiddo has started doing this month are:
1. DADADADADADADADADA-  I'm the one that spends 100% of my time with her..and she chooses DADADADA over MAMAMA?

2.  Standing with assist of objects- she's getting so close to standing alone too!

3.  Laughs A TON more than before

4.  Sleeping Through the NIGHT!!!!  Mommy is thankful for this one.

5.  Sleeping in her crib...a huge step (for mommy)!

So...onto the pictures (cuz that's what everyone really cares about!)

Zoey's 7 month pictures were taken in the park.  In spite of our drought, we found some nice green areas to take her pictures in.  She had a blast..and we had lots of help from Aunt Kris.

Sitting in a field of flowers

Waving on the slide

Standing Up!

Flying!

Silly Girl is 30 weeks old!

If I could describe Zoey with just one word, it would be silly.  Be it laughing at mommy, grabbing aimals' tail/ears, chewing on random objects or just smiling the biggest smiles, she's just plain silly.  A couple examples this week.  She has claimed one of the cats as hers.  Our black kitty Galaxy is the only kitty Zoey wants anything to do with.  When Galaxy is sitting next to Zoey on the couch, Zoey likes to hold either a tail or an ear...some of her expressions when holding said tail are hilarious!

Strong baby holding kitty tail!

She's also started to actually play...and when she plays she makes silly faces, does silly things and rolls all over the place.  She especially likes cloth wipes to eat.  And sorting cubes to stack on top of herself...she doesn't play correctly with her toys, but she has a blast!

Rolling Around

Priceless Face

grabbing her sorting cube

Did I say I love this kid ever??

Fireworks, Family Reunion and 29 weeks!

This week was also a very busy week.  Friday night Zoey, mommy, daddy and Aunt Kris and Uncle Chris went to Woods Lake to watch fireworks.  Zoey was NOT in a good mood.  She was tired...cranky...hot...and just overall fussy.  She did seem to enjoy watching the fireworks in the sky, but was very impatient between them.  Aunt Kris was nice enough to take some pictures.

Sleepy Baby

I love my Daddy!

On Saturday, we had Mike's family reunion.  It was HORRIBLY hot and we ended up spending a lot of time in his Aunt Denise's air conditioned camper.  Zoey got to spend some time with Starlyn, Mike's cousin's little 3 week old.  She also had fun swimming in the lake with kids her own age as well as with great grandma and Mike's aunts later.  She went in the boat with us as well and the whole time the boat runs Zoey copies the sound of the engine "Ahhhhhhh  Ahhhhhhh Ahhhhh"  it's really quite funny.  

The rest of the week was pretty laid back.  She spent some time in her walker, which she loves...she loves zooming around the house, bumping things, grabbing things and just plain getting into trouble.

As usual, a nice big smile :)

We also got her a little Finding Nemo camp chair so she can sit around the campfire with us.  She looks like such a big girl in that chair, it's hard to believe she's already almost 7 months old!  

Lounging in her chair

Zoey's First 4th of July! (28 weeks)

So, this week was not a very good week.  It was HOT!  Even with our central air we couldn't keep the house below 75 degrees!  It got up to 106 on Tuesday..and of course it was a week we had to spend a ton of time outside.  On Wednesday it was Zoey's first Independence Day, of course she dressed for the occassion.  She went with Mommy and Daddy and Uncle Chris and Aunt Kris to Hastings for her first fire work show.  She actually watched the fireworks in the sky and didn't show ANY fear!

Patriotic, all the way from her head to her toes

Happy baby

On Friday we also did fireworks in the neighborhood Mommy and Daddy grew up in along with Uncle Chris and Aunt Kris.  Zoey wasn't too happy on this night, she was really tired and just wanted to sleep.  She did go skinny dipping in the lake by moonlight and thought that was pretty cool.

Other than that, Zoey has helped mommy and daddy stay positive through this heat wave.  She's always so happy, you can't help but be happy when you are with her.  Mommy couldn't stop snapping pictures of her this week, so enjoy a few of them :)

Does she ever not smile?

swinging the kitty

And another smile

Delving further into solids- Baby led weaning at 27 weeks

This week was all about food and swimming!  Because I am so picky as an eater, I am trying very hard to get Zoey exposed to all sorts of food early on so she doesn't eat picky like me.  From my research, baby led  weaning is the way to go.  The idea behind baby led weaning is to give them whole foods and let them feed themselves.  It gets them used to textures and lets them have control of what they eat.  This week I tried Broccoli and Carrots- steamed and soft.  She LOVED them!  She has great hand eye coordination and was actually able to eat most of her food.  She took HUGE chunks out of the flowery part of the broccoli and loved gumming the carrots.  She was so cute doing it too!

Nom Nom broccoli

I love carrots!

On Tuesday, Aunt Kelli invited us over to her apartment to go swimming.  Zoey was able to use her baby float for the first time.  The water was pretty cold and took Zoey a bit to get used to but she seemed to like swimming.

Zoey and Aunt Kelli

We also took Zoey out on the boat for the first time this week, no pictures and it was pretty dark out, but she did really good and we look forward to going out on the boat many more times this summer!

Happy Half Birthday! 26 weeks

Zoey turned 6 months old this week!  Time is flying by!  She had a ton of firsts that we get to talk about but first, lets talk about her stats!  She is 17lbs 12 oz and between 26 and 27" tall.  She is running around in her walker bumping into everything.  She smiles at anyone and anything.  The things that make her laugh the most is when mommy "eats" her tummy at bedtime.  She loves grabbing faces and when mommy pops her hand out of her mouth.

This week Zoey continued her quest into the world of solids.  Zoey's second food was squash and it took 3 days to get her used to it!  First she made some really funny faces and tried spitting it out.  By day three she was ok with it, but definitely not a favorite food!

Zoey also started to feed herself from her straw sippy.  She can hold the cup herself and get the straw to her mouth!  She's growing up so very fast!  She really does like her straw sippy.  With a bottle, the few times she would take one, she would take 2-3 oz total.  With a sippy straw cup she drinks up to 6 or 7 ozs!

Because Zoey was going to start swim lessons next week, we decided to buy her an inflatable bathtub since she had never been in water other than taking showers with Mommy.  At first, she was apprehensive.  She cried.  Then Mommy showed her how to splash and after that she LOVED the tub!

On Friday, Zoey started swim lessons.  She did awesome, even if she was a little scared of going under the water.  They had us have them practice on a belly board, hang on to the side, go under water, and show her how to blow bubbles.  Overall she did great!

Finally, we did her six month photoshoot.  She LOVED posing for the camera we got some AMAZING pictures of my gorgeous girl!

My all time favorite picture of my little girl!

A busy week 25!

The first half of this week was pretty normal, nothing too special.  I took some pictures of Miss Zoey in an outfit her grammy made for her at church with a lot of our church friends.  I also took a couple "cute" shots with props.  Wednesday we spent some of the evening in the hospital waiting for Mike's cousin Kelsey to have her baby.  We left at 10pm and there was still no baby.  The next morning we headed back to the hospital and waited for baby.  The baby was born shortly after 11am.  We got to meet her that evening around 7pm.  We couldn't stay because Zoey had her session end picnic for Lift up Through Literacy.  She got a beach ball and some bubbles and I got a giftcard to put towards her next carseat.  On Friday, Zoey went to the Zoomobile at the library...she touched a snake!  Starting her early!  That evening Mike and I decided to start her on solid foods.  She started out with Avacado.  She wasn't too sure of it in it's normal consistency, but when i thinned it out, she loved it!  

Zoey and Great Grandpa Stanley

The Look Alikes

Zoey and Great Grandma Hazel

Happy baby

Zoey and Loralyn

Zoey Petting the Snake

Pretty Girl

Feeding herself

Avacado

24 weeks and not much to write

Zoey is 24 weeks old.  She is zooming around the house in her walker, forwards, backwards and side to side.  She is growling constantly, in happiness and in anger as well as to fall asleep.  Oh, and she finally ROLLED OVER!!!!!!

Only decent shot this week

hanging out with Mr. bunny

And I can't figure out how to post a video, so here is a link to her in her walker :)

Zoey in her Walker

First time at the Zoo and South Haven Beach

Ain't she a cutey?

This was a HUGE week  for Zoey.  We started out going to John Ball Zoo with Aunt Kris.  She had a blast. she liked all the attention that she got and really liked the aquarium and the petting zoo area.  She got to pet a goat, sheep and cow.  She also got to sit in a big pile of stuffed animals for a photo op.  I can't wait til she's older and can appreciate the animals more.

looking mischievous in a pile of stuffed toys

grabbing a goat's horn

sitting on a sheep

with mommy in front of the aquarium 

hanging with Aunt Kris

with mommy in front of the flamingos

Later in the week mommy, daddy, Zoey and Aunt Kris made a trip to South Haven Beach at sunset.  Zoey LOVED sitting in the sand.  She wasn't too sure of the water since it was so cold, but did go in up to her butt.  We got some beautiful pictures and it's an evening to remember.

Loving the sand and sitting fully up!

Zoey, mommy and Aunt Kris

I love this kid!

Baby and Daddy

Family shot at sunset