Tales of Zoe and her Sidekick (aka Mommy)

Zoe and I had a low key week last week and we are hoping to have another one this week.

We discontinued eating cereal this week. It was backing up her plumbing (if you know what I mean). We are going to wait another month or so until we try again. She seems pretty content with her formula. Zoe will have to wait another month before she jumps into the wide world of food again. Once she starts having food with taste, its a whole new world. Sometimes I wish I didn't enter the world of food with taste. No. I take that back. Food is too good. There are people in this world that aren't crazy about food. I will never understand.

Speaking of Zoe's plumbing, when you become a mom people start talking to you about subjects you would never talk about with people before. You talk about the bodily on-goings of your child and their children. I don't mind it. As a new mom though, I often think, "Is it okay to talk about this?" Then I think, "What the heck? Like the book says, 'Everybody Poops'." I also have realized that I do things now that I never thought I would do or be okay with doing. For instance, when Zoe's nose is stuffy and I'm using that suction ball thing to get her nose clean, sometimes its just easier to get it with my finger. Now you're saying, "Katie, that is nasty." You're right. Being a mom is nasty. I often am in public with spit-up on me. Nate asked me if he should change his shirt because he had a little spit up spot on it. That shirt is clean my friend. That spot that looks like residual baking powder is nothing. I wish my shirts looked like that. Despite the nastiness, I love every minute of my job.

Zoe had a play date this week with her friend Collin. (This actually means that mommy was given much needed adult time with my friend Kerrie. Zoe and Collin laid on their tummies, wiggled a bit and wondered who this other baby was. I have realized that I get a little too excited to see other adults these days. I will go to Target or anywhere in public just to see other adults. Zoe can only take so much of my talking in a day.

I wrote a little bit ago that I felt like Zoe was my sidekick. I think I am actually her sidekick. She is the star of the show and I love it. She is Batman; I am Robin. She is Charlie Brown; I am Linus. She is Larry, I am Bob the Tomato. She is Lucy; I am Ethel. However, completely certain that she could save Gotham City better than Batman, kick the football before Lucy pulled it away, find her hairbrush much faster than Larry and not get into trouble with Desi Arnaz. She is a fantastic "front-man" to our duo.

One of her favorite things to do right now is lay on mine and Nate's bed. It calms her down pretty well if she is upset. The other night we had some fun with selfies. The pictures are below. :) Today I made a critical error. I laid down with her on the bed to get her to stop fussing. We had a nice time playing and then she fell asleep. The problem was that I couldn't move. If I left she would either wake up or roll off the bed. Nate was very close to bringing lunch to me when she woke up. I fully intended on eating my lunch in whatever position allowed the least movement as to not wake Zoe and allow me to eat without choking. Motherhood is funny.

Here, let me show you how to make this face.

Kisses Mama!

I disappeared Mama!

Just Kidding!

 Daddy made an appearance!

Anyway, that is all for now. God is good!

Busy Zobug Summer

You'd think things would slow down in the summer, but they don't. You leave all of the things you want to do during the busy time of the year to the summer and then you are busy doing the things you put off. For me, I still really need to decorate Zoe's room. I feel like a terrible mom because I didn't have the nursery done before she came. Between moving, my first year of having my own classroom, and dealing with being pregnant, I didn't get to it. I also kind of wanted to wait until we knew if the baby was a boy or girl. Hopefully I will make progress this week. I will keep you all posted.

Last week we took Zoe to see two doctors. On Tuesday, we took her to see her pediatrician. Once again, she is in the 50th percentile for height, weight and head circumference. She is the average baby. She had to get shots and she did great with them. She cried a little bit and then once I picked her up she felt better. Nothing a little mommy snuggling couldn't fix. That afternoon we drove to San Antonio for Zoe's appointment with her pediatric urologist on Wednesday. On the way up there, I realized that I had forgotten her medical records. I was beside myself. I had one job. Getting a baby packed for an overnight is way more work than it should be. In the process, I forgot the one thing we needed. Luckily because of modern technology and our friend Danny, we were able to have all of the records sent to us. I really don't know what people did without the internet. I suppose they were more responsible. Anyway, I dropped Nate and Zoe off at the hotel to watch the All-Star Game, while I went on a hunt for dinner. I found a Pei Wei. Done. We had a delicious meal. 

The next day we got up early and met our friend Rachel Schlie, that Nate and I went to college with. We met her at Panera, yet another great place we don't have in the Valley. I wish I didn't love to eat so much. Wait, I take that back. We had scrumptious bagels and caught up with Rachel. She got to meet and hold Zoe for the first time. I love it when our friends get to meet our daughter. It just makes me happy to share her with the ones I love. After a few hours at Panera, we had lunch with Rachel and then made our way to the doctor.

With Rachel. Love them.

Doctors' office waiting rooms are quickly becoming a great place on my list for people watching. Pediatric offices are the best. You see parenting at its finest in these places. We really like the doctor that we saw. He explained to us pretty much what I had expected. Zoe has the most severe grade of her condition which means that we will monitor her for now, keeping an eye on signs of UTIs and making sure she takes her medicine. She will have sonograms of her kidneys and bladder every three months, and then at a year they will repeat the reflux test. Depending upon if her condition improves or not, she will probably need surgery when she is one or two years old. The doctor seems to see a lot of these cases. He explained exactly what he would do for her surgery. He said that Zoe only has about a 5-10% chance to grow out of her condition. I pray every day that she will. If she has to have surgery, she has to have surgery. God gave doctors the gift the preform surgeries and heal babies for a reason. Zoe is an otherwise healthy and happy baby. She acts and functions just like all babies do. She just has a problem with her plumbing.

On a lighter note, our new senior pastor and his wife are here. Pastor Lorenz was installed on Sunday afternoon.  Nate and I couldn't be happier that they are here. Pastor Lorenz and Stephanie are fantastic people and we have had so much fun getting to know them already. They lived with us for a few days while they waited on their apartment to be ready to move in. We got to know them rather quickly. They didn't move far either, they live right next door for right now. It is so nice to have them close.

Nate, Zoe and I with Pastor Greg Lorenz and Stephanie Lorenz

The New Dream Team

Pastor Kasper and Zobug

 In an earlier post, I had mentioned us going up to Austin and meeting up with our friends Gabe and Melissa Kasper. Gabe's dad came down for the installation and preached a killer sermon. He used his fine tuned Grandpa skills on Zoe. They were instant friends.

Today was a big day for Zoe, she tried solid food! We introduced rice cereal today. She was very serious about the matter, but she didn't turn away from the food. I can't believe she is already starting food. Kids do grow up too fast. 

She makes rice cereal look good.

Once again, we are so blessed to have her. I can't believe the intense love I have for her. I love that thanks to my wonderful husband, bringing home the bacon, that I can stay home with her. I know she has only been here four months, but I am convinced that she is the best human being ever.

Rocking the tummy time.

"Mornin' momma!"

"Mom, I don't know what these things on my feet are, but I look fabulous."

The computer went rouge and added a bunch of adorable pictures of Zoe to the end of this post. Weird. Guess we'll just have to get this thing looked at.

That's all for now. God is good.

Zoe: Most Popular Baby on the Plane

Zoe’s travels started out on a plane Dallas and then another to New York City. We would eventually end up at Nate’s parent’s house in Connecticut. She did great on the plane from McAllen to Dallas. In Dallas we weren't able to get anything to eat because by the time we got to the gate for our connecting flight, it was boarding. I was a worse traveler than Zoe at this point because if I don’t eat, things get ugly. We boarded the plane to New York. Nate and I forgot to pack headphones so we watched “The Lego Movie” without any sound. It is actually quite fascinating.

Out of the five flights, this was the only flight that really bothered Zoe. Her ears were hurting so bad. She just cried and cried. Like all good, crazy mothers, I couldn't take her discomfort and I started getting weepy. Poor Nate is a saint. We were the family you watched. Luckily we didn’t really get too many stares. There was a guy across the aisle from us that fell asleep with his Bluetooth headphones on. The Bluetooth disconnected and it kept playing the same song over and over again for the entire section of the plane to hear. That guy got more dirty looks than we did.

We landed at LaGuardia Airport in New York City at 10pm. There are no chairs in the American baggage claim there. What is that?!? I needed to feed and change Zoe. I ended up holding her while standing up to feed her and changing her when we got to the car. Due to the confusing nature of the parking at LGA, it took us a while to connect with Nate’s brother Andrew. We didn’t end up leaving the airport until 11:50pm and getting back to the house until 2:00am. It was an extremely long day. I was not in very good spirits because for that entire night all I ate was homemade Chex Mix. Yes, it was delicious, but it wasn’t a meal. Man, bed felt really good that night. All three of us got some much needed rest.

We spent the week in Connecticut seeing Nate’s relatives. A Once Upon A Child location went in near Nate’s parents’ house. Needless to say, Nate’s mom and I went a little crazy with the baby clothes. We must have spent at least an hour in there. Baby heaven. We had a very good time. Zoe met her Great Aunt Jen and her Great Grandma (GG).  She spent a good deal of time with them.

Great Aunt Jen

Great Grandma

Nate’s dad, Alex, Andrew, Nate’s Aunt Kathy and Uncle Dick, his cousin; Scott and I all went to the hottest Yankees game ever on Wednesday. I love going to New York and seeing a major league baseball game, even when it isn’t the Cardinals. We happened to go on the hottest day in New England. I don’t take the heat well (Yes, I live very close to Mexico, practically on the surface of the Sun. God has a very funny sense of humor.).  I developed a system to keep cool at this game. I would leave our seats, stop into the coldest gift shop for a while, refill my water bottle at the fountain, and watch the game from the concourse.  This worked quite well for me. I had Nate’s brother Alex in the routine by the end of the game. It was fun. We then took a 4 hour ride back to Connecticut because traffic was horrible. We had some serious bonding time.

On Friday, Nate’s cousin Katie got married. Zoe attended her first wedding and did fabulous. Catholic masses are long. She came through it with flying colors. She danced the night away. Everyone at the reception was amazed at how the atmosphere didn't negatively affect her mood. She’s a party animal. She had her first trip to a photo-booth. Yes, we are those parents.

On Sunday, we traveled to St. Louis. Nate had a pastor’s conference there. We were able to see my parents and a good deal of our friends from seminary. Zoe rolled over for the first time and about 10 seconds later, rolled back. I think she wasn't fond of it.

Zoe took her first trip to the Zoo, Ted Drewes and Hodak’s. This was all very exciting. I got Zoe a book called, “Goodnight St. Louis”  that says goodnight to all of the different special things in St. Louis. It is only the best book ever written. I’m pretty sure it says goodnight to the Budweiser Clydesdales. I get all misty just thinking about it.

Love Aunt Betsy!

Grandpa Cox tried to convince her to stay with him in St. Louis. He kept whispering things in her ear about not getting on a plane. Grandpa is always right. That kind of thing. She ended up coming with us, she may have been on the fence, though.

Chillin' with Grandpa Cox

Playing with Grandma Cox

She did well on our trip back to McAllen. She thought our flight delay from Dallas to McAllen was so funny, she laughed for the first time! We finally arrived back in McAllen around 9:30 pm and back home by 10:30. We are still exhausted. We had a great trip, but we are glad to be sleeping in our own bed again. We were also excited that when we got here, our new senior  pastor, Rev. Greg Lorenz and Stephanie were here. We are so happy that they are joining the ministry at St. Paul.

Zoe has her routine 4-month doctor’s appointment tomorrow and she sees the specialist in San Antonio for her bladder reflux on Wednesday. Please keep us in your prayers while we travel to see the doctor and get his advice.

In case you forgot how cute she is, here is another reminder.

We love her so.

That's all for now, God is good.

Zoe is 4 Months!

Zoe is now 4 months! It feels like we will be doing college visits tomorrow. I had to put away her 0-3 month clothes. It was tragic. We fall more in love with her every day.

Zoe loves:

• Jesus
• Mommy and Daddy
• Her grandparents
• Snuggling with Aunt Victoria
• Her Uncle Andrew and Uncle Alex
• Her Godmother, Katie Lane
• Mommy and Daddy's friends
• Snuggling
• Hamming it up with anyone who smiles at her
• Grabbing Daddy’s Face
• Those Blankets with a Stuffed Animal Attached (I think they are called Lovies.)
• Soft Lighting at Night
• Ceiling Fans
• Yelling when she is hungry (not crying or screaming, yelling)
• Chewing on many assorted things
• The Song of the Cebu
• Flight Attendants
• Staying up all day long
• Pulling mommy’s hair
• Yelling until mommy or daddy walks around with her
• Formula
• Her teddy bear
• The Rock N Play
• Blankets
• To smile
• To chat with Mommy
• Popular Songs that Mommy and Daddy insert her name into for example:
• My Little Zobug for My Little Deuce Coupe by The Beach Boys
• Millions of Zoes for Peaches by the Presidents of the United States of America
• The Zoe-Bug Talk Show for The Barry Gibb Talk Show which is a Saturday Night Live skit that uses the theme of Nights on Broadway by the BeeGees 

Zoe doesn't like:

• Long Naps
• When people aren't paying attention to her
• Being hungry (just like her mommy)
• Wet diapers
• The Ice Machine
• A wall hanging in Grams and Grandpa Wollenberg’s house that looks like Aunt Jemima

 Zoe is undecided on:

• Pacifiers
• Sandals
• Headband Bows
• Bath time
• Airplanes

What people say about Zoe:

“She looks so much like her daddy.”

“She looks so much like her mommy.”

“She’s such a good baby.”

“She’s (insert synonym for cute here).”

“She has beautiful eyes.”

“She has her daddy’s hair.”

“She did so well on the flight.”

“What is the price to take her home?”

“Oooo chiquita!!”

Mommy and Daddy's Nicknames for Zoe:

• Zobug
• Bug
• Baby Bug
• Bugaboo
• Little Bug
• Little Baby
• Mommy's Girl
• Daddy's Girl
• Little Snuggler
• ZoZoBee
• Buggy
• Buggily
• Little Mama
• Baby Girl
• Sweet Pea

She is our world.

Don't worry, she still has two feet. One is hiding.

She clearly loves him.

This photo shoot was a little bit more difficult. She is wiggling more these days and she tried to eat the sticker on her shirt.

She is fantastic.

God is Good.