From A to Zoë

the house is still a wreck... we're moving and unpacking and trying to put together furniture and cleaning all at the same time. i have 4 days to get my act together, and then the holiday rush starts. we're having 4 people over for thanksgiving, giving us a total of 6 adults at dinner. which should be a lot of fun. but, i have to go grocery shopping sometime in here... because...

I'M doing thanksgiving dinner. okay, well, not all of it. greg is smoking the turkey, making the dressing, and giblet gravy. BUT. i'm doing everything else. which i am so excited about. no sarcasm. i'm super stoked about doing so much cooking. i am hoping to get to the store on monday night, so i can do pre-prepping by tuesday/wednesday.

so, on to the things you're actually interested in. being namely a 9 month old named zoë beans. who is now standing on her own for about a minute at a time, and crawling all over the place. she gets mad if you hold her for too long, since she just wants to explore all over the new house. which apparently means she's adjusted. yay for that. she's so verbal now. goo's, awks, mamamamamamma all the time, and dada... not as much poppa as she used to say, but i guess she got bored with those syllables.

i know some of the zoë pictures are older... i had needed to charge my camera batteries, and in the move couldn't find the charger. and i also know the colors aren't exactly true. the pics were taken tonight around 7:30, after the sun had set. so i was trying to avoid the flash, but got grainy texture. at any rate, this is the house in progress. i'm hoping and praying to have everything a little more under control by wednesday, so thursday can just be fun.

zoë is growing so quickly. i know that she's probably not growing at a different rate than before, but her face seems to get more toddler like, and less buddha baby every day. she's getting a little less chubby, since she's crawling up a storm now. and she loves to play in the bonus room. it's the perfect space for us in the mornings after she gets up. she gets up, i change her, feed her, and we head upstairs to play. after about an hour, she starts getting tired, and lays down for her midmorning nap. that's when i try to get things unpacked/washed, and just cleaned. after her nap, she eats lunch, and we go back upstairs to play. as soon as we can get a baby gate installed on the room, i'll be able to sew while she plays with her toys. right now, the room is too wide for a standard room divider gate, so we will most likely have to build it ourselves. with as much practice as i'm getting putting furniture together, i ought to be a professional! ;)

after afternoon play comes another nap, and while she's doing the second nap, i think i'll be able to start making dinner. we've been eating out of fast food restaurants and pizza boxes for 4 weeks now, and i am soooo sick of it. i made meatloaf the other night, and it was like a glorious dream that didn't end until the leftovers were gone.

the house is so much more than i could have ever imagined. yes, we poured blood sweat and tears into it, and there is still a lot to do. but i don't think i've ever loved living somewhere so much. i feel so incredibly fortunate and unbelievably blessed. and on top of that, we have the sweetest little girl. who knows what i mean when i say "no." and believe it or not, she actually stops what she's doing and looks at me when i say no to her. and usually, just saying no is all it takes to redirect her. now if it could just be that easy forever.

i'm trying to get video uploaded, i have 3 that i want to post. i might have to wait until the morning, as photobucket is moving pretty slowly.

thanks for sticking with us during the delay. i'm going to try to get lots more pictures taken tomorrow with sunlight.