The Livingston Rocking Horse

Besides capturing a moment between Grandma Livingston and Zoey, this picture requires some special attention.

The rocking horse was a toy made especially for me by my granddad, Robert Unwin. I've only begun to learn how incredibly talented Granddad is and how he lives his life with so much honor and grace.

At any rate, this was a toy that both my sister and I enjoyed quite a bit, and one of our great brother sister pictures was taken on this horse.

During his recent visit, Grandad (Now Great-Grandpa), refurbished the rocking horse for Zoey. Grandma Livingston would like to have a picture of Zoey on the rocking horse, enjoying what I suppose has become a family heirloom.

Zoey--the Champ!

Well--while dad and Zoey sleep on the couch, I will take my turn to talk about Zoey for a bit. She had her 2 month wellness check today and is right on track. She weighed in at 11 lbs. 12 oz. and has grown to be 23 inches long. The doctor said that everything looks good--then came the shots. There is nothing harder for me at this time than watching Zoey have to go through pain. She took it like the crying champion of the world! I have heard from other mothers about how fussy babies can be after they get the 4 shots that Zoey got today. We gave her some Tylenol when we returned home and she went straight down for a 2 hour nap. She hasn't strayed from her routine much at all.

Well--we have about a month before Tyler, Zoey, and I need to adjust to the new routine of going to work and daycare. It will come way too soon. It has been a wonderful summer as Tyler stated in his entry today--just the right amount of relaxing and business.

I hate to do it--but I must go and wake the sleeping duo. Supper time! :-)

Zoey is (Almost) 2 Months Old

I haven't contributed to the Blog for some time, so I thought I'd sit down and pound out a few thoughts about Zoey and the first 2 months of fatherhood.

Life is grand.

I cannot express it any other way. I have never felt so incredibly satisfied and fulfilled as I have with Zoey and Judy in my life. Zoey is now, as you can see from the pictures below, spending much of her awake/alert time smiling and making little baby noises to entertain us while Judy and I look on. When she is tired or bored of the same scenery, she yawns or starts to look away, playing with her fingers. Judy and I are starting to read her queues or baby langauge and we can tell that she is ready for her nap time.

For naps, we close the blinds and say, "Goodbye" or "See you later" to Mr. Sun, we wrap Zoey up tight in a swaddling blanket, and we cuddle for a short time until she starts to drift off into dreamland. Sure, some days are harder than others. Today, for instance, she spent most of her awake hours making noises and screaming for something that we could not apparently provide. However, most days her eyes roll back and we gently place her in her crib, and she garbles and grunts herself to sleep.

Often, we stay in the room just to be there.

In addition to looking after Zoey, I've spent a good portion of my summer vacation reading books. After a month of playing PS2 (EA Sports MLB Baseball 2004), I decided that I probably should be doing something a bit more industrious with my time. In fact, I actually told Judy that, after winning the World Series, I would pack up all of my PS2 games, seal them with packaging tape, and not open them until I finished my capstone. I did that about 3 weeks ago now, and I haven't missed them since. Unfortunately, I haven't begun my capstone, because I've been reading like mad.

So my summer basically has gone like this the past week or so:

- Run/Exercise (either am or pm)
- Play With Zoey
- Read
- Feed Zoey when Judy is sleeping
- Read some more
- Read to Zoey
- Watch Zoey sleep while I read.

You get the point.

I can't wait to share books with Zoey. Even today, a day where she was definitely not in her best spirits, I sat Zoey in her vibrating chair and I showed her a cardboard book on baby animals (touch and see variety) and I read her Grandpa Livingston's favorite story, "Peter Rabbit." She was calm while I read, and that was very rewarding.

Sometimes, as I'm putting Zoey to sleep, we whisper about what we'll get Mom (Judy) for her birthday (the big 3-0 is quickly approaching). Sure enough, Zoey inspired me to get the very thing that Judy has been wanting. She actually said just the other day, "I really need a walkman so I can not be bored when I exercise." I told her that I had it covered. OK, I basically spilled the beans that I was going to get her an IPOD for her birthday. Therefore, Judy got a birthday present early. All was inspired by my whispered conversations with Zoey.

Don't worry Judy. Zoey still has some ideas up her sleeve for your birthday.

Zoey just keeps on smilin'!

Zoey is finally getting the hang of the camera. She has been doing sooo well--Tyler and I couldn't have been luckier. She seems to know her routine and follows it pretty well. She is taking her nap right now--and it only took us 5 minutes to put her down--leaving me plenty of time to blog all the cute pictures she took this morning. Enjoy!

I can't choose which ONE to put on the blog--so I am putting all of my favorites up! :-)

What a cutie!

How can this not make you smile?

Zoey is a real morning baby!

Another Smile

She absolutely loves her changing table. One of my students gave us a mobile that hangs over the table, and no matter how cranky Zoey gets, she almost always calms down and enjoys looking at the patterns or at herself in the mirror.

Some Smiles

We're trying to capture some of Zoey's smiles. She really does smile quite a bit, but we almost never have a camera ready. We'll have to fix that.

Anniversary #1 -- a happy family -- July 9 2005. Grandma and Grandpa Livingston got to watch Zoey for a couple of hours. She stayed awake for almost the whole time. 

Here is Zoey at Cora's birthday party on July 8th.

Zoey takes a nap on mom after her big day at Cora's 2nd Birthday Party!

Zoey helps mom out at school while she cleans her classroom. What hard work!

This is why we need Zoey's help!

Our first major trip with Bean. . .

We enjoyed some family time up at the Nyhlen cabin near Bemidji. When we drive around town Zoey has always been pretty good in the car--usually just sleeping. She kept up that reputation on the trip--she was so good. Both Tyler and I are very proud of her. We left on Friday morning and it took about 6 hours to get there (1 hour stopped on the road to eat and rest). The rest of the time Zoey slept in her car seat. The rest of the weekend was spent relaxing and visiting with Grandma and Grandpa Zoey who were excited to show her off to all our lake friends. Zoey also got to see Gracie again--I think they will become good friends.
We returned home on Sunday. Our Fourth of July consisted of a visit from Aunt Tammy and a walk to the Dairy Queen (did you see that they have French Silk Pie Blizzards???? YUM!). We are going to pass on the fireworks this year.

Happy 4th, everyone!

Grandma Nyhlen and Zoey walk around at the lake.

Zoey took the tour of downtown Bemidji.

The weather at the lake was beautiful--we all got to enjoy the outdoors.

Gracie and Zoey get to know each other.

Zoey enjoys some lazy time at the lake.