HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

BOO! Happy Halloween everyone! Today Zoey had a full day of Halloween excitement. She came home from daycare with a bag full of goodies. She wants to thank everyone at daycare for the wonderful Halloween treats! Then we went over to Nana and Grandpa's house to show off the costume. We went trick-or-treating at one house. Zoey went completely shy, but of course charmed everyone. We are now home and warm--getting ready for bed.

Can you guess what we are?

Quack!

Zoey and Nana discussed her fashionable duck purse.

Zoey thought is was hilarious how Daddy wouldn't share the candy with her. If only she knew that she won't get to eat any of her candy--would she still think it was hilarious?

This is from last week, but I wanted to show how Zoey points. We have dubbed it the "hex" because when she points to things she tilts her head forward toward the object and points with three fingers. It is pretty funny and makes us giggle.

Zoey's Language Acquisition

As language teachers, Judy and I are both fascinated by Zoey's growing vocabulary. In addition to all the words Zoey can clearly say, she also imitates our words more often than ever before, and she's begun to babble in phrases and sentences. While it's fun to hear all of her words and share, "Guess what Zoey can say now," I think it is even more fun to observe the associations she makes with the world of words around her.

Here are a few examples that come to mind. This could be a growing list, so stay tuned...

* We put in a space heater in our basement for the winter. Zoey discovered the buttons on the front, and as a big fan of pushing buttons, Zoey turned it on and off. We cautioned, "Be careful Zoey, that can get hot." Upon hearing our warning, Zoey bent close to the heater and blew on it, just like she would for food that is hot.

* When singing a refrain in Lauryn Hill's "Can't Take My Eyes Off Of You" ('Ohh-oh, pree-ty, ba-by"), Zoey points to herself and says the word "Baby."

* When looking at books, Zoey likes to point at each character to have us name what they are. Later, we'll tell her to "point to the bear" or "can you find the doggie?" When we ask her to point to the "Daddy" or "Mommy" in a picture, she turns around and puts her hand on our chest.

* While reading a counting book, Zoey will tap each page and say "Doo, doo, doo" as if she's counting too. This is more mimicking behavior than an acquisition fumble, but it is cute and leads me to another mistake. The number 10 is represented by "Ten Different Buttons." When Zoey hear's the word "button" she immediately pulls at her shirt, trying to find her own belly button.

I know there's more, but that's all I have for now.

Cheers!

One Happy Family

Here are the end products of our efforts Saturday evening.
Neither, Tyler or I are big Halloween people, but it has been fun doing things with Zoey like picking out pumpkins and carving them together. The things that I remember doing as a kid. We are trying to figure out what to do for Trick-or-Treating--we obviously won't go out for long, but Tyler and I would love to collect some candy--and Zoey is getting good at scaring everybody by yelling, "BOO!"

Zoey got her first chance to help carve pumpkins this weekend. She took out the "guts" and only tried to eat them once. She was very helpful. Right into the tub she went!

After Zoey's bath she came back out and helped decorate the pumpkins--she colored on her's and helped push the pegs into another one. At night it lights up like a "Lite Brite." It looks really neat.

On Saturday, we got a call that someone wanted to look at the house in the afternoon. So we all pitched in and cleaned--even Zoey. She helped Grandma sweep the leaves off the deck. (Actually, she kept sweeping the leaves back toward the house, but she was happy to help!)

Here is Grandpa's 1990 Miata. He picked it up this weekend and drove all over town in it. He even joined the Minnesota Miata Club, which met on Saturday.

When do I get to drive it, Grandpa?

Look at all her hair!

Today was a wonderful day! I thought it would a good way for Tammy to get some quality time with her niece if we all went out to Berry Hill Farm in Anoka. (As opposed to sitting around the living room on this gorgeous fall day!) The farm was a perfect location--not crowded at all and plenty for a 16 month old to explore. There was a petting farm, a corn maze (actually a wheat maze), wagon rides, and a pumpkin patch. We picked out our pumpkins--maybe Grandma can help us carve them next weekend when they come down to visit. (Grandpa will probably be busy driving around in his new Mazda Miata)

Here is the family on the wagon ride around the farm.

Zoey and I took another wagon ride to the pumpkin patch.

Tammy and Eric

After we went through the maze, we all went to the pumpkin patch to pick our pumpkins. Zoey had more fun finding the rotten pumpkins and poking holes in them.

Zoey, Tammy, and Eric

Tammy and Zoey went and looked at the farm animals.

Zoey really enjoyed looking at all the things around the farm.

All in all it was a perfect day! The weather was beautiful and the company was fun!

Why do they want to grow up so fast?

So I still want to spoon feed Zoey half the time but she usually decides that she wants to eat things like a big girl. Today she took an apple and chowed away at it for a while. She was so proud of herself--it was messy, but she sure had fun!
















Zoey has been enjoying kicking around in the leaves as they are falling off of trees. There are plenty of opportunities for her to be outside at daycare and Tyler and I usually will take her on a walk or to the park when we get home from work. She has even added the word "squirrels" to her ever growing vocabulary. (There are about 30 words on my list so far.)
















Last weekend we went up to Moorhead to visit Rob, Nicole, Kylie, Grandma, and Grandpa. It was fun to see everyone and Zoey hugged her cousin--a lot.
















What else is Zoey doing, you ask? Well, she is using her imagination more and more every day. In the above picture she took an old envelope and decided that it worked as a very fashionable hat.