Christmas Eve 2007

It was a nice quiet day at the Livingston household. We spent some of the time cleaning and getting ready for hosting Christmas tomorrow with the Livingston family, but mostly we just hung out as a family. We had fun tracking Santa on the web and seeing where he was throughout the day. (Okay--so I thought it was cooler than the kids did.) We went to church and then came home and had a nice dinner with Nana and Poppa. Zander was full of smiles as usual.This morning Mary dropped off the projects that the kids worked on at daycare. Aren't they adorable? Zoey told me that she used her hands and Zander used his toes to make the Christmas banners.

More to come. . .Merry Christmas Everyone!

Just Enjoying the Break

Christmas Cookie Party

It was our second annual attendance at Mary's Daycare Cookie Party this year. As always, it was a blast. The kids were all pumped for the special visitor and there was enough sugar to keep us all hyped for the rest of the night.

Here is Tyler and the kids waiting for Santa to arrive.

Zander was in the spirit of the holidays and was full of smiles.

Zoey did the right thing and pottied all by herself before Santa arrived. Then she washed her hands. Yea, Zoey!

When Santa came, Zoey was so excited that she sat on his lap and froze. Zander however had to sit and think about what he was going to ask for.

Santa and Mary gave all the kids gifts. Zander got a book.
Zoey got a magnetic dress up doll-which she LOVES. She couldn't contain her happiness when she went to say thank you to Mary.

Here she is at home playing with her new doll.

Zander is ready, as we all are for a nice relaxing winter break.

Playing Hookie

Ok, so I wasn't really playing hookie today. Zander had pink-eye couldn't go to daycare so I stayed home and did nothing really but hang out with him. It was nice. In the morning Zander was a little fussy until I finally got him to fall asleep on my shoulder. Then in the afternoon, he fell asleep on the family room floor--I didn't have the heart to move him. He slept there for almost 2 hours! I love watching him sleep. (Why can't he do that in the middle of the night?)
Zander did have time to pose for a few pictures though. As I was playing with him today, I discovered that he has two top teeth trying to break through. It could explain a lot of the fussiness.

Last Friday there was no daycare so Daddy stayed home with the kids. He brought them both to school to have lunch with me--which I love! Zoey was very excited to be a part of my kindergarten literacy group and they were thrilled to have her there. The kindergarten girls all took Zoey under their wings and helped her sing songs with us, clap her hands and shake her sillies out. When it was time for Tyler and my kids to go home, Zoey didn't want to leave. It was very cute.

Speaking of cute, Zoey loves to watch storybooks on the internet and I am fortunate enough to have a membership through my school that allows us to watch these stories online. So Zoey has gotten into the habit of watching two every night ("Because I'm 2!") She has her favorites, but she also likes to watch new stories. So tonight I told her she could watch the story called Joseph and the Little Overcoat. As I was getting it ready for her, she was playing around and then came up and impatiently said, "I want to watch Jesus and the Little Jacket peas."

So while she watched her story book, I was trying to watch my television show. Zoey gets off her chair and goes and turns off my TV. "I want to hear my storybook!"

Tyler took Zander upstairs to put him to bed and I was folding laundry. I folded up some of Zoey's socks and playfully threw them at her asking her to put them away. All of a sudden, she starts to go upstairs and I ask her where she is going. "I am going upstairs." Why, Zoey? "I going to tell Daddy you hit me!"

Happy Birthday Gia!

I asked Zoey what she wanted to do for Gia's birthday today and she said she wanted to bake a cake. So here is your cookie bread hamburger cheese and peas cake--Zoey's specialty. Hope you had a wonderful birthday and a safe trip back home!

Happy Birthday Poppa!

Mom: Zoey, what is this picture all about?
Zoey: Grandpa
Mom: What is inside the circle?
Zoey: a baby suppi-o
Mom: Did you write your name?
Zoey: Yes--h, i, j, k, l, m, n. . . I found a Z!
Mom: What should we tell Poppa?
Zoey: Birthday cake! We having a birthday cake!

Happy birthday Grandpa Livingston! We love you and will get that birthday cake taken care of soon!

P.S. In honor of all of the grandparent's birthdays this year, a Christmas light was bought in your names. The money went to a food shelter in Mahtomedi.

Signs she is growing up

Zoey was downstairs playing quietly a couple of days ago and came running upstairs yelling, "Mommy! I wrote my name!" Then she handed me this post-it note. I must say, that being a reading specialist, I was quite excited to see her attempt. This morning, Tyler told me that Zoey looked at the jeans that Zander was wearing and they had the letter D at the bottom and the words dump truck. Zoey read the words, "Happy Birthday Halloween!" It is VERY fun for me to see the process of learning to read and write from the very beginning!

Here is Zoey's picture of herself. She told me as she was drawing what everything was. "Here is the head and here are some toes."
Zoey is carrying around her drumsticks, exploring what things sound like when she hits them. She also asked me to put her hair in a ponytail. This was the best I could do.
Then the kicker. . .Zoey is still plugging away on the potty training journey. She has had some set backs, but has been doing well overall. She doesn't like it much when Tyler or I go in to help her. She wants to do it all by herself. So today we let her go in and potty all by herself when she told us she had to go. After about 5 minutes, Tyler goes to check on her and says, "Get the camera!" So I went to see what was up--here is Zoey at the sink. Please notice that the pull-ups are put on over her pants and her hands are full of soap. She has the right idea, but. . . we may still have some work to do.
On the napping front, we have had 4 days in a row of good naps and overall good bedtimes, too. I hope I am not jinxing it. I am not ashamed to admit that it took a little bribing with some art supplies, but the deal has been that if she has a good nap (or at least a good quiet time) she and I get to watercolor together afterwards. So far, so good.

The Dance Line

Our goddaughter Hazel was elfed recently and it was so cute that I had to do it to our kids and neice also.

http://www.elfyourself.com/?id=1168962049

Happy Holidays

4 month stats

Zander turned 4 months old last Saturday and had his appointment on Thursday.
He weighed in at a healthy 15 lbs. 12.5 oz. He is 25.5 inches long and his head is 17.5 inches in circumference. All of these land him in the 75th percentile range.

Other points of interest:
Zander is able to roll over from his back to his stomach in one direction.
He still only has the two bottom front teeth.
He isn't sleeping through the night yet--but I can tell he really wants to--oh wait--Tyler and I really want that.
He is holding and playing with toys now--although I don't think he always realizes it.
He loves to try to stand up by holding our hands and he has really good head control.

Thanksgiving Weekend

As is tradition, we drove up to Brooten to celebrate Thanksgiving with my side of the family. It is always nice to see everyone and the food is fantastic! Here are some pictures from our weekend.

Here is Zoey showing off her Turkey hat she made at daycare.

Here is Zoey "helping" decorate for Christmas on Friday.

Here is triple trouble--Cousin Kylie, Zander and Zoey. Once they are all mobile--we will all need to take cover!

Kylie is a hugging machine! She was full of hugs when it was time to leave today.

More hugs from Kylie.

Hey Kylie, where are my hugs?

Happy GivingGivings Day!

We spent our "Givingsgivings Day" (as Zoey kept refering to it today) at Nana and Grandpa's house. It was a tasty meal and good company. Zander basically just chilled the whole day--did whatever. He showed off his new skill of rolling from his back to his tummy over and over again.

Zander meets Ernie face to face for the first time.

Zoey horse roughed with us a little and wore herself out. We even got a quick little nap in today! Yeah!
Zoey and Tammy spent some time together looking at pictures on the "puter."

The semi-annual Livingston Family picture--getting bigger every year!

Another couple Zoeyisms:

Last night when it was time to clean up, I asked Zoey to put away the magic 8 ball. She picked it up and said, "Let's answer it first!"

(Tranlastion: Let's ask the 8 ball a question first.)

Every morning (and at lunch and dinner) we ask Zoey what she wants to eat and the answer is 95% of the time: "eat meal!"

(Translation: oatmeal)

A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to Daycare

I was driving the kids to daycare today and hear Zoey in the backseat saying, "Don't hit me! Don't hit me!" Knowing full well that it can't be Zander she is talking to, I look back and see her hitting her hands saying, "Don't hit me!" Then she proceeded by taking both hands and hitting her face saying, "Oh, their working together!"

Bright spots in an otherwise difficult day. . .

It has come to be that Zoey just doesn't nap for us on the weekends--no matter how hard we try or how tired she really is. Then it gets to be so late in the afternoon that if she really did fall asleep then she would never go to bed at a decent time. Unfortunately this makes for very trying evenings around our household on the weekends. (She naps just fine at daycare.) As you all know, 2 year olds that are sleep deprived cry at the drop of a hat and are hard to reason with. Zoey is now unsuccessfully working on trying to go to sleep as I blog. Despite the extreme test of our patience today, here are some of the highlights. Above are Zoey and Zander enjoying some sibling time inbetween a rousing game of hide-and-go-seek. Zoey loves trying to find where Zander hides. I would also like to add that Zoey had a fantastic potty-training day! I am so proud of her. She is starting to do it all by herself! (Thanks Lisa for the M&M suggestion--maybe the sugar high from potty training is why she isn't napping :-)

Zoey dressed Zander in one of her hats to go over to Nana and Poppa's house for a couple of hours today. Thank you for having them as guests!

After being kicked out of the kitchen, Zoey joins daddy and Zander for storytime before dinner. This was such a sweet sight. Zander seems to really enjoy stories. Today before one of his naps he started laughing when I read one of our Mrs. Wishy-Washy books--it made me giggle.


This picture was from last week. I just thought I would add it to the pictures that I need to look at when we have a tough day. They really are just so sweet!

Happy Birthday Grandpa!

Happy Halloween!

So you are probably looking at these cute pictures thinking, "I thought Judy said that Zoey wanted to be a ghost and nothing but a ghost." You would be right--or so I thought. Apparently, at daycare today her costume just wasn't working out, so Mary let Zoey borrow this dalmation costume and Zoey was thrilled to be a dog for Halloween. Who knew! I was glad because I was dreading going out with the ghost costume tonight because it wouldn't stay on and Zoey would have tripped every two steps. I think she made an adorable puppy--Thanks Mary!

Zoey loved going up to the houses and trick-or-treating.

She also did a little trick-or-treating at the mall.

We hope everyone had a safe and happy Halloween!

Halloween Part 1

About a month ago I asked Zoey what she wanted to be for Halloween. "A Ghost," she said. I asked her a few days later. "A ghost." I showed her costumes at Target--which she oohed and ahhed at. "Now what would you like to be for Halloween?" "A Ghost. A scary one. Boo!" So being the crafty mother that I am (ha ha!) I found an old crib sheet and cut a hole in it--tried to make it long enough to look like a ghost, but short enough so she wouldn't trip all the time, attempted to cut a circle for her face--all of which is not easy with a two year old that never quits moving!

So last Saturday, Zoey got to test out her new ghost costume downtown North St. Paul--the stores there were passing out candy to all the trick-or-treaters. Here is Zoey riding in the stroller. She was very tired and could barely find the energy to say, "More! More!"
Zoey was really getting the hang of saying Trick-or-Treat and then saying Thank You! and after a while wanted to do it by herself! This was the first one she did with out Tyler or I right with her. She was very proud of herself.
On Sunday we went over to our friends' house and joined in their Pumpkin Carving Party. There were a ton of other families there and we all sat in the back yard and carved our pumpkins. The picture below shows about the most help I got from Zoey in the process. She wasn't interested in carving a pumpkin. She wanted to pick candy off of the Gingerbread House that was there for DECORATION!! Argh!
She did stick with me long enough to say that she wanted her pumpkin to be sad. Then she posed with the pumpkin. She is becoming quite the empathetic little toddler. One of my favorite lines of her's lately is when we are reading and she says, "I want to go into book and help that little one." or "I want to go into book and give that baby kisses."
Zander was with us for all of our weekend activities--teeth and all! Here is our little penguin chillin' out at the pumpkin party on Sunday.

I have another Zoeyism to add to our ongoing list:

We were playing with her play dough and she made something and came to show me. "Mommy, these are my knockers." Hmmm. . ."Sure, Zoey. Those are nice knockers." I sometimes feel like I am playing Mad Gab when we talk. She says something and I keep repeating it to myself until I can turn it into something that I understand. Knockers. . .knockers. . .(Zoey puts it up to her eyes). . .AH--binoculars!