First Halloween

Zoey's first Halloween! Woohoo!!

Our day started with an audition in downtown Seattle. My mom had agreed to come along and watch Zoey for me, but at the last minute, I received an email from my agency, letting me know that the casting director said it was fine for me to bring her with me! I was super excited for her to tag along (AKA, I'd get to show her off to more people :), but as I struggled to get her into the stroller, carry my portfolio and umbrella, and walk down the block without the wind and rain messing up my hair and makeup, the excitement pretty much wore off!

I think the casting went well though. I'll be surprised if I book the job (they were casting a "wife" and I don't get parts like that yet), but I think I rose to the challenge. Not surprisingly, everyone LOVED Zoey, and the casting director said, unprompted, that it was a pleasure to meet her and she'll keep her in mind if she has any baby projects!! Once again, my little Buggie stole the show, but I think I'll get over it!

Our next stop was my mom's office, to show of Zoey's Halloween costume. Everyone "ooh"ed and "ahh"ed, taking in the cutest little giraffe they'd every seen.

Happy to be with Granny

After Granny's office, it was off to visit Daddy at his work. Every year, anyone who has kids is invited to have them come by and the kids trick-or-treat around the office. There were a good number of kids there this year, and we even saw another baby giraffe!

Sitting in Daddy's chair, like a big girl!

Helping get some work done?

Once home, I couldn't wait for the trick-or-treaters to start blowing up our doorbell! Since we've been married, Michael and I have lived in apartments and townhomes, where you'd think kids would have flocked, but they never did. So, this year, being in a house, I just knew we were going to be bombarded by tons of adorable little sugar fiends!

While we waited for our first princess, Spiderman or pirate to arrive, Michael carved his pumpkin and we took some pictures with our baby giraffe.

Mike's pumpkin

He just dove in, without a template, making it up as he went!

Hooray for my last minute costume!

My bachelorette party dress + black leggings + a black shirt= Momma Zebra!

A momma zebra and a baby giraffe? 

Hey, apparently anything's possible on Halloween!

Checkin' out her pumpkin; a real work of art!

I'm thinking this costume could easily double as a cozy pair of winter jammies. 

She looks pretty comfy!

LOVE the profile; tail and all!

Say "Cheese"!

My favorite!

Who knew giraffes could fly?

"See you suckers later, I'm outta here!"

As we sat and sat without any children coming to the door, I started to realize that my dream of a jam packed, festive Halloween night was not going to come true. I started thinking about how we were the only house on the block (maybe even in the neighborhood) with decorations up. I guess I should have known...

Finally, at about 8:45, while I was upstairs rocking Zoey to sleep, I heard a knock at the door. I was instantly jealous that Michael was going to see our only trick-or-treaters and I wasn't. It turned out to be our neighbors from across the way. Why were they coming by so late?? I guess something was better than nothing at all, but come on! Michael told me later that he let each of the kids take a huge handful of candy. That was fine by me. Even with their handfuls gone, we had TONS of candy left over! 

All I see here is a bowl full of $$$

Such a shame!

I will never again waste our hard earned money on candy for kids that aren't going to show up! (Apparently, our neighbors have lived in their house for 15 years, and have had a total of 5 trick-or-treaters!! WHAT?!) I think every kid who lives in our neighborhood and didn't come by, owes us $1!

Oh well, it was a blast seeing Zoey all dressed up; her first Halloween was far from a flop. She was absolutely adorable and we had a fun day!

WTH

What the H-E-Double Hockey Sticks is going on with my life lately??! It seems to be one thing after another. This morning was no fun at all! When Zoey and I came downstairs to start our day, we turned the corner just in time to see a man walk across the backyard! I had no way of anticipating what happened next...

So, I see the man walk by and, I'm not sure how he could have missed me, but he appeared to not see me. He just kept walking and disappeared around the side of the house. He was wearing a yellow reflector vest, as if he were a worker of some sort, over a black hoodie, and the hood was up (it was raining). I grabbed my phone to call Michael and ask if we were having any services done to the house, and when I turned back around, the man walked by again and then he was gone! I quickly put Zoey in her activity seat, ran and got a coat, and then went outside to see where the man went. When I got to the side gate (which I still can't believe he just let himself in and out of, as if he owned the place!) he was up the street a ways, getting back into his jeep. I whipped out my phone and took a picture of him, just in case I needed to identify him later. I went back into the house and watched him drive off. The fence blocked my view of his truck, so I couldn't make out the logo/words that were on the side.

I called Michael and asked him if the septic people had called to schedule their visit to our property. He said they hadn't and that he wasn't aware of anyone who should have been at the house. After hanging up with him, I called the septic company to see if the man was one of their inspectors. After looking up our file, the lady informed me that our inspection had been done in September (Ha! News to me...jeez people!). She then suggested that I call the Building Department and see if the man belonged to them. 

When I described the man to the lady from the Building Department, she said it wouldn't have been them. At this point, I was feeling pretty confused and really just wanted to know why someone was in my yard, without my permission. 

The lady from the Building Department suggested I call the City of Edgewood, so I did. A woman answered the phone and I explained that there was a man in a worker's vest in my backyard and that I was trying to figure out what company he was from. She immediately told me that he wouldn't have been from the city because they only have two people that make house visits, and neither of them had reported to work yet. Out of desperation, and with a shaky voice, I asked the woman if there was anyone else she thought I should call, and what she said next, really threw me for a loop! 

"Well, if I were you and there was a strange man in my backyard, and I didn't know where he was from, I would have called the police! You never know what kinds of disguises people will wear these days, to get what they want!"

Wow, thanks for putting that though in my head, lady! At that point, not only was I scared, but I felt like a huge idiot; thinking that I could have possibly just let a criminal traipse freely through my yard! I called Michael again and asked him if he thought calling the police was a good idea, or if it was taking things a bit overboard. He told me to go ahead and call.

After giving my report, one of the last things the operator asked me was "And how long ago did this happen?" I cringed as I nervously answered "I don't know...about 30  minutes ago...". There was a sharp moment of silence and then I could hear the loss of interest in her voice. She said "Ok, I'll go ahead and put this report through...But next time, try to call us right after it happens. Think about how far someone in a car can get in 30 minutes; that can make it pretty hard to locate them". Tired of what felt like guilt trips and condescension, I agreed to have follow up police contact, and quickly hung up the phone. 

Thinking that the whole ordeal was pretty much over with, I called Michael to tell him about the police phone call and then planned to give Zoey my undivided attention; just wanted things back to normal. Well, so much for that. Apparently, when you agree to "follow up contact" with the police, that means they're sending an officer to your door! (I thought I was agreeing to being contacted if they had any further questions. Or, better yet, if it turned out there really was a string of burglaries by a man impersonating an inspector, they might have needed to contact me regarding my citizen's medal of honor and upcoming TV appearance on the 5 o'clock news. Ha! If only.) 

After telling my story to the officer (who was super cute, making me wish I'd changed out of my bathrobe and sweat pants!) and showing him the grainy cell phone picture of the mystery man, he told me he'd keep an eye out for anything suspicious. As I shut the door, I was pretty mortified. I didn't think the situation was going to get this out of hand! A visit by a cute man in uniform was not enough to overshadow the fact that I still didn't have any answers as to who was in my yard, and why?

I called Michael back (I'm usually not this "needy", I swear!), to let him know about the officer's visit, and to see if there was any other company/agency he could think of, that I should call. After thinking for a moment, and going over the facts again, he suddenly remember (**eye roll**) that we may have received a notice in the mail from Puget Sound Energy a while back. He couldn't remember what the notice was about, but it sounded like the mystery man could have been checking out the meters, which are located in the backyard, on the side of the house. 

OH.EM.GEE!

I hung up, immediately called PSE and after making it clear to the receptionist that I was not messing around, the police had been contacted and I needed information, I was transferred to someone who could better answer my questions. Almost immediately, the lady confidently said that the guy sounded like one of theirs. Yellow vest: check. Random inspection: Check. White vehicle and cones: Check. Hallelujah! Mystery solved! Man, my husband is so lucky he wasn't standing in front of me right then! The police may have had to come back and pull me off of him!  (I wouldn't have killed him, just a bruise or two! ;)

The moral of the story: Husbands, communicate with your wives...and PSE, call  to warn customers that someone is going to just let themselves onto their property!


Fortunately, the day turned around as we ventured to Walmart, painted/carved pumpkins and put the finishing touches on our Halloween decorations.

**Oh Walmart! The employee who chased me down just to tell me that Zoey was the most beautiful baby girl she had ever seen, was very sweet. I can even live with the fact that the store didn't have a few major items from my list. But, if I never seen another pair of ill-fitting Spandex/stretchy pants again, it'll be too soon!! My eyes were burning!**

Michael's favorite Fall mix: peanuts, candy corn and caramel candy corn!

Eaten together, it tastes like a Payday candy bar :)

Ready to paint her pumpkin!

Goin' in with both hands!

Way to go, Baby Girl!

Pumpkin's done, now let's paint the plate!

I think she enjoyed the experience

The garbage bag dress kept her clothes nice and clean! :)

Finished product!

Our festive front window. 

We also had more decorations outside.

One of the things I look forward to most when it comes to home ownership, is decorating for the holidays! I've always loved it, and now I get to go all out if I want!! (The window looked better from the outside, obviously) Can't wait for the kiddos to come by tomorrow!

A Watchful Eye

Oh my Lord! If today wasn't one of the most exhausting days?!? We started off on a comical note, which is always a sign that it's going to be an interesting day! 

I don't know what I did differently in combing Zoey's hair last night, but something went terribly wrong, causing her to wake up looking like this:

Whoa Nellie!

"Oh Mom, what's the big deal?"...

and then she saw herself in the mirror...

"Ahhhh!"

(Ok, she didn't really look in the mirror, but I'm sure this would have been her reaction if she had! ;)

Once we calmed down her 'do, it was downstairs for some playtime. Today was my first day alone with a mobile Zoey, and right away, I forgot that she was in need of a much more watchful eye. I sat her down on her blanket and walked into the kitchen to start preparing my breakfast. When I turned around to check on her (probably about 10 seconds later), she was gone!! My heart skipped a beat as I ran back into the living room and I quickly let out a sigh of relief when I found her a few feet away, hiding next to the couch. Phew! No harm done. 

Getting breakfast prepared was no easy feat. I had to keep snatching Zoey up and putting her back down where I could see her. She was either getting too close to the coffee table, going next to the couch where I couldn't see her, or making her way to the dog blanket and kennel (off limits!). 

Eventually, I decided to give our "sitting room" a try as the new playroom. Only problem there...the sitting room is open to the dining room and the dining room still has a bunch of non baby friendly stuff on the floor. 

Solution:

My homemade "baby gate"! 

The chairs from our breakfast table are nice and heavy, so I didn't have to worry about Zoey moving them, or one of them falling on her.

My "gate" did it's job, but I don't think it will be a match for her, once she starts really crawling...

I've been looking at actual baby gates and man, they are not cheap! And it doesn't help that the entrances to most of our downstairs rooms are much larger than a typical doorway; it's a pretty open floor plan. We may need to consider a playpen (which makes me think of the cartoon, Rugrats! Fingers crossed that my kids are never THAT mischievous!)

Love watching her learn!

She's grabbing onto the bunny's fur. I used to have to guide her hand there, but now she goes straight to it and likes feeling how soft it is :)

Applesauce!

Out of the ice cube tray and into a labeled freezer bag!

I am usually a night owl, but tonight, I can't wait to hit the hay! I am beat!

Special Delivery

Zoey and I were up pretty early this morning. She had no desire to sleep past 7:30; probably anxious to get downstairs and practice her army crawl! So, by 8:45, we had played a little and worked our booties off in the kitchen. The fruits of our labor: breakfast muffins, scrambled eggs and bacon! 

I found a simple recipe for basic breakfast muffins in that annoying little paper that gets dropped off in our driveway every week. I usually discard everything that's not a coupon, quickly skim through the ads and then toss those, too. Well, fortunately the muffin recipe caught my eye and I was super excited to make them this morning. Along with the basic recipe, there were suggested add-ins like cinnamon sugar, blueberries, apple chunks, banana, vanilla, etc. I chose to make the basic muffin and sprinkle the tops with cinnamon sugar.

They came out looking beautiful!!

(A little bland, but still yummy. Can't wait to try different add-ins :)

After breakfast, I randomly checked my cell phone and saw that there was a text from my aunt, Angie, waiting for me. I was beyond surprised as I read: "I dropped off some goodies at your front door. Anything you don't like, just take it to Good Will". The message was about an hour old, so I frantically wrote her back (a big, THANK YOU!) and began to dissect our special delivery. More goodies from Nordstrom! 

Zoey is so spoiled...err, I mean LOVED!

4 pairs of jeans, two tops, a pair of leggings, a "My 1st Thanksgiving" onesie and sock set, a pair of Mary Jane tights and a ruffly pink pants/hoodie set.  

My favorite item out of the bunch: 

A distressed pair of True Religion jeans!!

Bahaha! 

First of all, please don't mistake my poking fun at these for a lack of appreciation. I love the jeans, I just had to laugh when I saw that they were distressed...complete with a slight tear...for an infant! Fortunately, they are size 12 month, because Zoey's thighs can't even fit into them yet! She has a few more months to slim down (Speaking of...good news, she now fits comfortably into her 6-12 month pair of 7's! The day ever girl dreams of, right? Lol). Looks like baby designer jeans are made just like adult ones!

After a bit more lazy lounging, we got ready to go see a production of Willy Wonka that was showing at the Auburn Avenue Theater. Michael's co-worker's daughter played the role of Violet Beauregarde and she did a great job! Although the tickets were a little overpriced and the theater was tiny (we'd never been there before and expected something much different), the whole show was a lot of fun and I'm glad we were able to show our support.

Zoey didn't make a peep, until the last 5 minutes of the show; then, she may have sung along to the closing number!

On the way out, the woman sitting in front of us asked me if we had stayed in the theater the whole time. I told her we had and that Zoey slept through the whole first half of the show. She was amazed that she didn't hear any fussing or crying...and to be honest, so was I! During the second half, Zoey seemed content either looking at the actors on stage or bouncing up and down on my lap, while trying to sneak some popcorn!

Once home, in keeping with the surprisingly productive nature of the day, I decided to make some more applesauce. I had heard of freezing it in ice cube trays and couldn't wait to try it. Once frozen, you've got individual 1 Tbsp servings that are easy to thaw and serve!

So fun!

Cart Ride

I knew we shouldn't have opened the Halloween candy last night! 

Look what we started! ;)

We couldn't wait to get Zoey on the floor this morning and watch her army crawl some more! She is moving a bit faster today than she was yesterday. It's so wild how quickly babies can excel at something, once they realize they're capable. Now that Zoey knows she can get to things, when she see what she wants, she can't get there fast enough!

Power chords, cell phones and anything else that's not a toy, are her favorite things to head towards!

After watching Zoey for a while, and taking TONS of videos (most of which are us trying to entice he with things and waiting for her to start moving), it was time to get dressed and head to Target. We met my mom there and picked up a few necessities. Like every other trip to Target, I started out with a short list and then added a few unexpected items. 

Today was Zoey's first time riding in the shopping cart, outside of her car seat! After holding her for a bit, my mom asked if she could put her into the shopping cart seat. Although a part of me wanted to shout "No, that would mean she's a big girl and I'm not ready yet!", I agreed and was amazed at how natural she looked. Embracing the reality of the situation, we found our way down the aisle that had the seat covers for shopping carts and high chairs. I quickly found one that was on sale and not too masculine looking. I took it right out of the box and we started using it immediately!

My baby girl is becoming less baby-ish by the day! (tear, tear, sniffle, sniffle)

It was pretty amusing, watching the teller ring up the empty box and then discover that the "missing" item was already in use!

All of the excitement of her first cart ride must have made Zoey sleepy. She was getting fussy, so I fed her in the car and she dozed off mid-meal. When we got home, it wasn't long before she was fussy again and longing to finish the meal she started. As she ate, she became distracted by all of our talking and just couldn't wait to check out what was going on. She stopped nursing, did her best to get upright and tried desperately to peak her head out from under the cover.

We were cracking up as my mom took a few pictures! 

"What'cha guys talkin' about? Huh, huh, huh?"

"I know you didn't think you could carry on a conversation and not include me?!"

The above video, plus another cute one, is on the Life In Motion page :)

She's Mobile

The day I've been dreading has finally arrived! Zoey is now doing a slow army crawl!! Using one arm to brace herself and the other to pull herself forward, her arms and legs are now working together to move her across the floor! 

This morning, when I brought her downstairs, she was still in her sleep sack, so she couldn't move around very much. I had no idea that once I changed her into pants, freeing her legs, she was going to take off! Fortunately, she's not moving very quickly, but I still have to keep my eyes peeled for anything that might be in her path that I don't want her to reach.  

Still in her sleep sack, she brought the jungle mat to her!

Makeshift blankie?

What Zoey is doing quickly these days, is rolling towards, and/or swiveling around to, things near her. If I change her diaper on the floor, I have to make sure that the surrounding area is clear before I let her get up (she tries to get up multiple times during the changing...no patience, sheesh!") One item I always seem to forget about is the package of diaper wipes! 2 seconds and she's got 'em!

I went to get some hand sanitizer, and when I turned back around, she had reopened the package! 

"Stop!"

After rolling her back over, holding her down and putting her pants back on, I set her free. She turned right around and made her way to the coffee table. Apparently she was in the mood to read last years holiday cards...

This was a great reminder that everything on the bottom shelf of the coffee table needs to be removed!

This afternoon, while looking through Facebook, I was thinking about how I couldn't wait for Michael to get home and help out with Zoey, so I could finally take a shower!! (yes, it was one of those days.) As soon as I started entertaining the notion of sleeping in tomorrow, I came across this picture that a friend had posted:

Sooooo true!

I didn't know whether to laugh or cry! Although Micheal does help out a bit on the weekends, it doesn't change the fact that I am still Zoey's mom and she doesn't become any more independent just because it's the weekend. I am still her primary food source, diaper changer, problem solver and snuggle partner. Showers, naps and hair appointments have now become my "time off" (Short, very short, but I'll take it!)

I gave in to peer pressure tonight and went trick-or-treating with Michael, in the pantry!

We settled in with our stash (8 piece max) and watched The Expendables on Netflix.

(Oh yeah, we dropped Cable today in an effort to save some $$. I'm pretty sad about it, but we started a free trial on Netflix...we'll see how it goes!)

Library

I have been wanting to get Zoey out and meeting other kids for a little while now, so when I found out that our local library puts on a storytime every Thursday, I couldn't wait for today to arrive! It said on the library website that storytime starts at 10:30 and goes for 20 to 60 minutes.  Well, Zoey and I are still a long way away from having a rigid daily routine, and today, she decided to eat and take a nap at 10. I had no idea how long she was going to sleep, but because the library is literally up the street from us, I wasn't too worried about getting there on time.

It was already 10:50 by the time she woke up and as we took off down the road, I prayed that today was a 60 minute session. We got there at about 10:55, to find 3 mother/children pairs and a friendly looking group leader. When we entered the room and headed toward them, I could see a kind, but hesitant look on the leader's face. She greeted us and then informed me that we had arrived just in time to help clean up! NOOO! As the clean up song boomed from the CD player, I bounced Zoey on my lap and tossed a few toys into the toy bin. What a bummer.

After all the mommies left, I introduced Zoey and myself more formally and asked if story time usually ends at 11. She said it does and that the activities they do depend on the age range of the kids present. The ones who attended today were all over a year old and didn't feel like sitting for songs and stories...hence all of the toys scattered around. I told her we'd be back next week, and hopefully right at 10:30 (no promises!).

Not to waste a trip to our new neighborhood library, Zoey and I stopped in the children's section and took a look around. After playing with a puzzle (that I didn't even really want her touching; Germ City!!), one of the mother's from the story time group kindly pointed out that the library offers "Baby Packs". On a nearby shelf there were a bunch of pre-packed bags, each one full of about five baby books, one parent book and a baby music CD! What a cool idea. We looked through a couple and found one with books that we didn't already have at home. Again, the germaphobe in me was screaming "Germ City! Don't let anything touch her mouth (and preferably not her hands, either!)!!", but I decided to take the pack home and give it a shot. After getting a brand spankin' new Pierce County library card, we were checked out and on our way! 

That poor T-Rex didn't stand a chance!

(BTW, how young is too young for mouthwash??)

Excited to take home our first Baby Pack!

Baby Faces

Zoey's got a new favorite book these days, called Baby Faces. I can't remember where it came from, but I was ecstatic when I found it in her stash of books in her closet. She has a number of board books that she loves to read, but some (most) of them don't appear to be as baby proof as they should be. After sucking and chewing on them for a while, I noticed that she would have little specks of colored paper all over her mouth. I'm not sure, but I can't imagine that painted paper is that safe to ingest. When I initially pointed it out to Michael, the first thing he asked was "Are the books made in China?!" Oh goodness!

So, I don't know why Baby Faces was left behind in the closet with all of her "Big Girl" books, but it has been set free and is now at the mercy of Zoey: Queen Distructo-Baby! So far, it's holding up just fine. And Zoey loves looking at all of the cute babies. Each page has a picture of a baby showing an emotion; she usually stares hardest at the "Sad Baby" and then cracks a smile. Maybe she's trying to cheer it up? :)

Hooray for cute babies!

It's a sturdy (and delicious) board book, that can't be ruined by excessive amounts of slobber!

Even the back cover appears to be entertaining and informative!

The next two pictures have admittedly been thrown in for Zoey's Grandma Darla. Her granny is an expert picture swiper (copy, save, send to Walgreens...prints in no time!), so I thought I'd throw a few extras in today (You're welcome, Mother! ;)

I caught her going after her Buzzy Bee

Letting Momma take her picture. Why, thank you, Buggie :)

So, I can't remember if I've already mentioned my newest beef with Laugh & Learn Puppy (and I'm not going through all the previous posts to check), so I'll be brief. When Zoey lays on it or gets a paw in her mouth, the darn thing goes off, incessantly! Instead of playing out a tune while she's pressing down, it keeps skipping to the next song/word. Sometimes we listen to  "Ear...blue ea...sooo bi...ruff, ru...I love y...EAR!" over and over and over again! It is pretty hilarious, but can also be extremely annoying. I know this isn't even close to the most irritating thing I'm going to have to endure when it comes to shows and toys, so I guess I better just get used to it, right!

With her hand and mouth both on a paw, the poor puppy doesn't know what to say! LOL