The Baptism

Zoe was (finally) baptized on December 26th, just after Teri and Paul's wedding rehearsal. James, Sam, Paige, Renee, Jenna, and Pierce are her Godparents. It was so nice to have everyone together to participate with pouring water over Zoe's head, lighting the candle, and celebrating the special event. Zoe was calm and quiet throughout, thank goodness! Afterward, we all went to the Ale House for the rehearsal dinner. Everyone had a fantastic time, but the best part of the night was when Zoe, Renee, and Jenna sat up at the piano bar singing with the musician. Those girls were the hit of the night, playing tambourines, maracas, and singing into the microphone. At one point, we looked over and the other patrons were buying Jenna and Renee Shirley Temple drinks, Zoe was drinking her milk, and everyone was gathered around them singing Jingle Bells!

Merry Christmas!

We went home for the holidays and this is one Christmas I will never forget. Why? I realized at 10:00pm on Christmas eve that I forgot to buy any toys for Zoe. I did manage to buy stocking stuffers a few days before, and had every intention of buying toys, but with the Christmas rush, preparing for Teri's wedding and Zoe's baptism, I completely forgot. Luckily, Zoe is too young to realize, and she was quite happy with what Santa left for her in her stocking.

Zoe's First Haircut!

Ok, so I've heard for months now that my daughter has a 'rat tail', and really, I've grown quite fond of it. I mean, I've waited for nearly 2 years for that hair to grow, and that little rat tail was as close to a ponytail as we were going to get. However, I finally took the advice of many, and cut the rat tail off. I must say, her hair does look cuter!

A Place For Puppy

We put up our Christmas tree today. I didn't put up the "big" tree, just a little one that was just the right size for Zoe. Once the tree was all decorated, Zoe decided it needed one more ornament...her puppy. It's so cute, everyday after school, she walks in and puts her puppy and her "tatter" on the tree!

Happy Thanksgiving....and Birthday!

Zoe had a fantastic birthday weekend in Garmisch, Germany this year. We went with Matt and Lisa and their girls, and Jill and Lucas. On Thanksgiving day, we went to the top of Zugspitze - which is Germany's highest mountain (3,000 meters). We enjoyed the absolutely perfect weather and did lots of sledding. We spent the afternoon swimming in the hotel pool, and finished the day with a very un-traditional pizza dinner. The next few days were spent sledding on Hausberg, taking long naps and swimming in the early evening. Zoe's 2nd birthday was celebrated in an Indian restaurant - very fitting as chicken korma is her favorite dish! We had so much fun!

Zoe's First Snow!

Today we woke up to a little bit of snow. Zoe has seen snow before, but she's never gotten out and played in it. I figured we'd get out there and have some fun before it all melted, so we were dressed and out the door before 9:00. At first, Zoe kept calling it "smoke" instead of snow. Once she got the right word, she had a new phrase, "Snow is yuck." Let's just say it took her a few minutes to warm up to the idea of playing in the snow. After about 5 minutes, she was having a blast!

No, I Do It!

Aah, Zoe's favorite new saying..."No, I do it!" She wants to do everything all by herself....put her shoes on, get dressed, take her diaper off, brush her teeth, the list goes on. I'm always impressed with how much she can do for such a little one. Here she is putting her coat on all by herself, and not even 2 years old yet!

Mmmm Ribs

Zoe's new favorite dinner is barbecued ribs. I always strip her down to her diaper when she eats them, just look at the mess! After ribs, she gets chocolate ice cream - another favorite. This girl can definitely eat...hmm...wonder where she got that from? ;-)

Reading The Newspaper...and More Dancing

Zoe is really becoming quite a character. I just love the new things she comes up with. Today we were playing catch and before she threw the ball each time, she'd say, "Ready guys? Ok!" Keep in mind, it was just the 2 of us playing. :-) She likes to mimic everyone, both in speech and actions. Here she is reading the newspaper, just like me.

While I was making dinner tonight, Zoe pushed the chair up to the Ipod and started pushing buttons until she found a song to move to. This girl loves to dance!

Halloween

This year was Zoe's first time trick-or-treating. Zoe loves dinosaurs right now, so I decided to dress her as one. Turns out, this must be the year for dinosaurs, as we saw quite a few others as we walked from house to house. Zoe quickly caught on that if she walked up to a door and opened her bag, she would get something. Funny thing is, she's never had candy, and I didn't really plan on giving her any of it. She carried that bag for almost an hour before deciding it was too heavy and asked me to carry it. Just as she was about to give up and call it a night, one lady gave her a lollipop to hold. Well, she clutched on to that thing so tight and then tried to eat it - paper and all! I unsuccessfully tried to pry it out of her hands, but she wouldn't have it. When we got back to the house, I gave in and unwrapped the lollipop, and Zoe enjoyed her first official piece of candy. She gave it back after a few minutes and said, "Trash, mommy." Guess she's not a candy fan. Thankfully, she won't miss her Halloween bag of treats that I gave away today.

Cleaning and Dancing

This morning after I made quiche for breakfast, Zoe wanted to help clean up. I got a chair for her, and she climbed up and started wiping counters. What a big helper!

Zoe's latest saying is "Oh, man!" She says it everytime she drops something. Too cute!

I was cooking dinner tonight and I heard a sound that I just knew was marker on fabric. I looked over and saw Zoe coloring the white chair in the living room. I silently thanked Crayola for their wonderful invention....Color Wonder markers!

Of all the songs on the Ipod, the one that got her moving this morning was Steely Dan's Dirty Work. Check out her moves...

Picture Day

Today was picture day at Zoe's daycare. She was thrilled to be wearing matching dresses with her babydoll. Even though it was only 6:30 in the morning, she was all smiles!

Fall Centerpiece

Zoe brought a craft home from daycare today and it's the cutest thing I've ever seen! Denise took Zoe and the other girls on a nature walk earlier in the week and they collected lots of leaves. Today they glued some of their leaves onto a paper towel tube and created a fall tree. I absolutely love it! I know it won't last forever, so you know me - I took a ton of pictures of that tree!

Zoe adores the neighbor's puppy, Lollipop. She always pulls a chair up to the fence and watches the dog, sometimes they play ball for a while. Today, she pulled a chair up for me. :-)

Zoe is still cracking me up with the things she says. We were reading a farm book tonight and each time I read the name of the animal, she'd say, "That's right." or "Good job, mommy!". Too cute!

Weingut Kreuzhof

We spent our day on a horse-drawn carriage ride through wine country near Bad Durkheim. We had a wonderful time enjoying the wine and tons of food everyone brought. The ride was lovely, except for that few minutes toward the end when the horses got spooked and ran off the path into a ditch. Luckily, everyone was fine, and we all laughed about it for the rest of the ride back to the barn!

Race for the Cure

Today was the annual Race for the Cure in Frankfurt. It was the first time Zoe actually walked a bit of it - I think she got halfway before tiring out. We enjoyed the walk on this beautiful day! After the race we joined some friends for lunch, then let the kids run around the fountains in the city. We had a fantastic weekend, but we are exhausted!

Zoe has been talking up a storm for months now. The other day, she said her first grammatically correct sentence: "Mommy, I like your hair." It was so cute! She's also into asking, "What's that?" about EVERYthing! She'll be 22 months old tomorrow...time sure does fly...

Stuttgart Fest

It's that time of year again when Stuttgart's fall fest is going on. This is one of my favorite places, and I'm certain Zoe feels the same way. Jill, Lucas, Zoe, and I went on Saturday and we had a great time! After 4 hours of rides, it was time to head home and rest up for the big race on Sunday.

Pumpkin Time!

We just got back from the annual pumpkin fest in Ludwigsburg. Last year's theme was so cute - Noah's Ark - and I got some great pictures of cute animals. This year, however, the theme was a little odd! The theme was space, and the rockets, planets, ufo's, and astronauts made out of pumpkins just weren't as cute as last year's creations. We still had a great time, though!

London

I've gotten a few emails asking if everything is ok, as I haven't posted in a while. :-) Guess things have slowed down a little from the 4 posts and 200 pics a month! Good news, though -- all is well here! We've been busy getting back into our routine here in Germany. Zoe and I went to London over Labor Day to celebrate my 40th birthday. Jill and Lucas, Jill's mom, and Kim and Hannah helped us celebrate. We had such a great weekend; I absolutely fell in love with London!

Zoe continues to have her word explosion. Lately, she looks for "walking birds" (birds that aren't flying), "choo trains", and "blue chucks" (blue trucks) wherever we are. She is really becoming quite funny, even playing jokes on me. She asks about everyone in the family and all of her friends almost daily. She'll start with "gramma" and then say "how about Pop-Pop" followed by a "how about...." until she's asked for at least 10 people. I think it is very cute! Lately she's been into dressing up in her plastic high heels and plastic jewelry and saying "mommy, cute". She is quite a character!

Road Trip

We've just come back from an 11 day road trip! I took Zoe, Paige and Jenna to Doylestown to visit Tina and Jerry and their kids. We had such a great time visiting; and lots of laughs when Tina brought out the high school yearbooks and photos! We had a fabulous dinner at Tina and Jerry's Centrebridge Inn, rode the rides at the Midway Carnival - boy did that bring back memories!- and I even showed the girls the house I grew up in. On our last day in Doylestown, we all drove to Dorney Park together before heading to Lancaster to meet my sister and her daughter, Renee. We did a day's worth of serious shopping at the outlets in Lancaster, then headed to Baltimore together late that evening. When we checked into the Marriott Waterfront Hotel, we were disappointed to know they completely messed up our room reservation. After an hour of trying to get it right, they finally decided to give us the presidential suite that normally goes for $5,000.00 a night! Although we couldn't get our original adjoining rooms, we decided we could live with their offer of spending two nights in the same room that John Travolta, A Rod, Chris Rock, and Russell Crowe have all slept in. You should have seen us walking into that suite - 2 adults and 4 children - all screaming and laughing and running from room to room. Even though it was midnight, we somehow found the energy! The next morning, we couldn't resist ordering room service and sitting at the dining room table that seated 10 - in leather club chairs I might add! It it didn't take long for my other sister to decide she had to see the room for at least one night, so she headed up with James and Pierce. We were like the Clampetts! We visited the Aquarium, museum, and Bodyworlds before leaving Baltimore and driving north to State College. We spent a few days visiting with my sister, shopping, and going to Hershey Park before we finally got back into the car and drove back to the Outer Banks. After a long car ride, and lots of bad music (I don't need to hear Manic Monday ever again), we were all thankful to get back. Pictures will come soon...