fall

against every recommendation of my college photo teacher, here's a baby in sunglasses

so we all were sick for a week or so and when we finally ventured out of the house, fall was officially here, with colorful trees and chillier weather. zoey has exhausted herself and me with a pink eye scare at the end of her cold last week. she stopped eating easily, in other words, has been too distracted, too stuffy, or too anything to nurse. i use various techniques to get her to eat and thank God when she finally starts to. i always thought, if she doesn't eat as usual, she'll eat when she gets hungry, and it's not a problem because she's gaining weight right on schedule and everything else checks out. wrong! if she doesn't eat, she's super unhappy, nothing makes her feel good and she doesn't get enough sleep, which fuels the unhappy fire. yuck. so i cover her head with a blanket so she'll eat, i sit in a dark room with no sounds, and sometimes i even use the "laughing" bear that aunty chris gave us. it's a stuffed animal that has a recording of a mixture of demonic slide whistles with children laughing. we love that bear! it works wonders. it pauses the freak out, closed eye, wailing so that she can latch on. eric tried to imitate it the other day, but even he can't be that cool!

she's found her feet, very cute. she puts everything in her mouth, especially her hands. she maniacally grabs our finger as our hand passes her face and shoves them in her mouth to chew on. maybe she's teething, who knows. she tastes things with her tongue, which is painfully adorable. sometimes it's because she's hungry, sometimes not. she's got passion though, that's for sure.

clarify

to clarify, zoey was straightening up in the bumbo and therefore not really in the bumbo and ready to tip out at any moment. they are only to be used on the floor with constant supervision. i was worried she would hurt herself because she would not stop straightening out like it was an exercise regime, so i returned the bumbo.

Bumbad

thanks to all who sent me the warnings about the bumbo seat. coincidentally, zoey started to straighten up with what i can only describe as super baby strength yesterday! and i began to worry about that. also, i happened to drive away with our previous bumbo on the roof and had just bought a new one. go figure. i can't believe the company says the "remedy" is to send back the bumbo so they can put safety info on them, or to read the safety info on a website. i want my money back! wish i had kept the receipt. it seemed like such a cool thing until she started to do this. bumber

3 months and growing

giant cloth diaper butt

propped

we're finally over the colds. although, zo's nose is still a bit stuffy. she's changing a lot lately, has laughed for the first time, definitely the best sound ever of course. she is at that stage where she puts everything in her mouth, especially her hands, her whole hand at once. she likes to be read stories, and she "talks" a lot too. when lying down, she kicks her feet and gets excited, almost frantic, it's funny. also, we finally put together her crib and are trying to get her used to it. she's doing well, with the only slight obstacle being that she is woken up by more noises upstairs than when she's in the swing. she wakes up twice a night generally, and i feed her or at least i think i do, as i'm usually sleeping sitting in the chair. it's so hard to keep my eyes open at 1:30am and 5:30am! still we are incredibly blessed and she's a very very easy going baby. i still can't believe she's "mine"!

illin

hiyah!

nice bananas

i almost got the wubba out of the way in time

we're all feeling a bit better. zoey is playing even more with her playgym mat thingy. she grabbed the rings and actually held on, lifting her upper body a tiny bit off the ground. we watched, horrified at her superhuman strength. but seriously, we worried she wouldn't be able to let go (kind of like levi when his claws get stuck to the couch) but she was okay. i had a dream last night that eric's dad had filled our living room with sand, so he could have a beach party. i was totally annoyed because zoey would get all dirty, and it was hard to maintain. then i looked over and zoey was crawling already. i said, "man things happen fast, just yesterday she couldn't even roll over!" and i got sad that her blankets that she lies on would be obsolete now since she was mobile. hehe.

cold

the munch has a common cold according to her symptoms...watery eyes, runny nose. poor sweet pea, what they call a "low grade fever". i'm trying not to be the one who immediately runs to the doctor, but will if things seem to get bad. she's had it for a day and is sleeping and eating alright. i just feel so sad for her when she gets upset and starts crying that chokes on the snotty snot for a bit. plus she can't see well because of the watery eyes.
hope it doesn't last too long. any advice is welcome, although i'm not terribly worried, as people get sick here and there. i think she might have caught something in the air at the mall. it's mom and baby central at midday on a thursday.

cyampin - it's a long one

4 hours to get there. i sat in the back with the munch and fed her with a bottle, read stories, and played with peetee. she did really well, didn't get upset at all. if only i had a clone for when i need to go places without eric!

right after this scott, eric and i went down the ocean rocks to a little cave that housed the biggest star fish i've ever seen. after a few minutes i heard zoey crying quit loudly and although i knew she wasn't hurt as she was with my kristin, i went traversing the rocks yelling "i'm coming, i'm coming!" at the speed of light. poor kristin was traumatized because i had forgotten to check if zoey was hungry before i left, and also had forgotten to tell kristin that she tends to "choke" when she cries hard.

the car floor was a good place to sleep in her snuggle nest (portable bed) because it was warm and quiet. we, of course, happened to camp next to the loudest family on earth.

campsite was beautiful, right on the inlet from the ocean. across the way we saw a bald eagle in the top of a tall pine tree. eric and scott launched the kayaks right from our campsites rocky shore.

by the fire, she fell asleep wrapped up tight. eric wondered if watching the fire too long is like watching the sun too long, for an infant.

for the first time, the benevides's were up in the morning before the javai.

zoey helped her Godparents make camp cakes the morning after our first evening stuffed in a tent.

cuddly

sweet

kristin has really nice shoulders, especially when they're wrapped in kermit the frog.

campsite haven. those are kristin and scott's kayaks. love the reflection across the water.

it was bright, she was a good girl wearing her japanese looking sunhat. so cute.

she liked when her feet touched the sand. i wouldn't reccomend doing this when you're camping however because it takes quite a lot of wipes to get the sticky beach sand out from between a baby's toes!

eric, the marine biologist. he should really have a show on television. everyone on the beach (it was a nice quiet place with only about three groups of people other than us) came to see this moon snail enveloping a quahog. freaky! slimey.

no, the carrier is not "intended" for the back but it sure feels better to us, and she loves it. eric was looking for that bald eagle we saw.

peekaboo. she actually was really comfortable, or at least she appeared to be.

crazy sock hands

what do you mean i have to stay here another night?! at least tell the campers next door to stop yelling "zoey" at their dog named zoey. sheesh.

heehee

constructing tarp town it was to rain the second night, and it did. good thing we had tarp town!

munchkin in a sweater hood

i have to sleep where?

diaper liners hung from the apple trees

family is fun. i'm so lucky to have these two in my life.

the car ride back was equally enjoyable. it was a happy surprise to us all i think. look at the sweet hair.

bumbo popdeb peetee

thanks to hand me downs!

she loves him

super chub

yo peetee are you tired of riding in the car too?

on sunday we stopped at pop and deb's on the way home for a nice visit of smiles and good soup. zoey tried to eat pops hand as if she was frantically devouring an ear of corn. it was bizarre and funny. i think she was looking for a nipple. then she had a lovely nap in deb's lap skirt-turned-hammock.
on the drive home from nh she slept for a bit, but then stayed awake without crying from boston home. 1 hour! in fact, she talked to peetee most of the way. apparently he had a lot to say because she looked at him with concern.

next weekend, camping in maine. will we survive!?

the party

scott and eric pose

jarvis

regina and violet perform

daddy and zoey relax before festivities

hibiscus

"uncle" allyn

romeo has a secret and isaiah loved that rooster!

betty and romes

zoey and my sweet kristin

i felt ceremonious as we came into new hampshire for zoey's first time in my homeland. haha. dramatic times call for dramatic sentences dammit! but seriously, it was great to be home. we stayed with beloved friends scott and kristin in their new log cabin, which is dangerously close to ski ball playing locations weirs beach and funspot. after a 4 hour drive! normally it takes 2.5 hours, zoey was in top shape. she did very well, as i sat in the back of the car with her for part of the way in the beginning and eric sat with her in the end. we both fed her out of the bottle and shook peetee the peacock to various dance beats provided on the satellite radio. the drive took so long because of traffic, not screaming baby. we were confused.
as new parents, we brought the swing in fear of her not sleeping without it at night. as new parents, we fretted that paco (the blind cat) would jump from the coffee table two feet away into the moving swing and sit on zoey's face, thus suffocating her. we pushed aside the asinine worry and fell to sleep in a refreshingly cold room beneath a lovely artificial down covers.

the next day events started early with a visit from betty allyn isaiah and romeo. it was very loud and exciting. people arrived to see the new home of the jarvai (kristin and scott) and zoey too. eric suggested, in retrospect on the way home, that we should have roped off and area for zoey in her swing and charged $1.00 for photos with her. she's as cute and fuzzy as the easter bunny after all. it was the perfect day for a nursing mother like me as there was a constant large and delicious selection of food throughout the afternoon and into the evening, at our fingertips. potlucks rock.