"Zoey!"

"Zoey!"

Zoey has finally said her name to us.  Not sure why it took so long (we yell it like every hour for all kinds of reasons!).  Last night, Shawn asked her what her name was.  She pointed to herself and said "Zoey!"  Then she pointed to him and said "Daddy!"  Then me, "Mommy!"  

We were unsuccessful in getting her to say "Wingler"...

Rodeo 2011!

Rodeo Austin!
Sunday, March 20, 2011

The three of us had an excellent time at the Austin Rodeo!  None of us have ever been to it before, but this will definitely be an annual event for the Winglers.

Zoey loved the petting zoo.  There were goats and sheep and even a little kangaroo!  She would extend her arms pleadingly to an animal, but when it approached she'd suddenly get shy and shirk away.  Maybe next year we'll buy some feed and she can have more interaction with them.

I think she really enjoyed "playing farmer".  The kids "barn" that had the petting zoo also had this little setup where kiddos could "pick" fake apples, eggs, and potatoes from a little re-created farm play area.  I gave Zoey a little basket and away she went!

We got to see many beautiful animals at the livestock show portion of the rodeo.  Too bad Zoey couldn't pet them!  The sheep looked so cuddly.

We don't have a picture (it cost extra), but we all did pay to see this special exhibit of Lemur monkeys.  Zoey got to pet "Gizmo", a 10 month old adolescent Lemur.  He was too cute!  All the others were sleeping :(

lemurs look like:

Yee-Haw!

Ow, Daddy!

Ow, Daddy!

Even though Zoey doesn't know how to form full sentences, she somehow knows how to tattle on her daddy!  Yesterday morning Shawn comes in to work after dropping Zoey off at daycare and tells me he accidentally cut her.  Before my blood starts to boil he explains that he was trimming her fingernails with the clippers ... he couldn't find the baby-version of the clippers, so he was using our full-size toenail clippers ... and he accidentally nicked her.  There was some blood and tears, but I was relieved to hear that it wasn't that bad and it was more scary than painful.  He said he put a band-aid on her thumb and informed her caretakers when he dropped her off.  Julie calls me later in the day and I tell her the story; she says she's done it at least 3 times.  We laugh and eventually I forget all about it.

I go to pick her up after work and walk into the nursery room.  She smiles when she sees me and runs toward me excitedly like usually.  Right before she gets to me, she stops as she remembers something ... she holds up her thumb, looks up at me, and tells me "Ow, Daddy!"

Ms. Chris and I start laughing because Zoey just ratted out her father.  It was a minor cut ... it had scabbed over and she wasn't even wearing a band-aid anymore, but Zoey felt the need to tell me what happened.

I had to call Shawn right away to tell him and laugh ... he felt worse than he already did, but it was still funny!

What She Says vs. What She Means

What She Says vs. What She Means

"mina" => banana

"up" => down ... sometimes correctly as up

"Me-me" => Min-min (our cat)

"Me-me" => O-Ren-ren (our other cat)

"Moo-bis" => Anubis (our fat cat)
"Bob-bob" => "I want to watch Spongebob"
"Baa" => "I want to watch Shaun the Sheep"

"blue" => pink

"blue" => orange

"blue" => green

"blue" => red

"blue" => blue
"pizza pizza piz-ZZZAAAHH" => pizza

"nose" => "I'm not sure what you want me to say, so I'll just point to my nose because I really know that word well."

She really is learning a lot.  Here's the list of her vocal words (I'll be removing the running list that was on the blog side panel since it's getting long!):

• Daddy
• Mommy
• no ("NO!!!" + extended index finger)
• doggie
• meow
• up
• hi
• thank you ("thew-thew")
• ball
• bubbles
• I did it!
• that
• baby
• Zoey
• bye / goodbye / bye-bye
• shoe
• ears
• nose
• mouth
• belly
• Anubis
• horse
• mess
• moon
• box
• more
• wait
• juice
• please
• stars
• woof
• baa
• moo
• wait
• blue
• elbow
• cheeks
• milk
• water
• down
• house
• pig
• apple
• toes
• knee
• pizza 
• back
• down
• up

Holidays 2010

Happy Holidays!

Now that the holidays are over, we can all finally relax, breathe, and blog.  Zoey had the best Christmas ever!  Well she only needed to top 1 Christmas, but we did try to make it awesome.

The Wingler family packed up on December 22nd and headed down to Humble.  This may be our last Christmas ever in the Suson house since Zoey's Lolo and Lola are retiring to the Philippines.  Zoey had an excellent time with her cousin Gabriel.

Zoey and Gabriel got to go to the community playground that me and Mark used to go to when we were little.  Fortunately it's much cooler than back in our day!

On the 24th we all went to Rick and Lorena's beautiful wedding in Beaumont.  All the cousins, young and old, had a wonderful time.

On the 25th Zoey and Gabriel opened their presents together!

The Daddys had to put together tricycles!

Yeah ... neither of them can reach the pedals.

Lolo and Lola held a lovely Christmas lunch at the house.  We had a wonderful time eating and hanging out.  I made everyone watch a marathon of Cake Boss: the Next Great Baker.

Bah humbug.

On the 26th we rushed back to Austin to attend Shawn's extended family Christmas party.  Zoey got to see even more cousins!!!  The girls made a fort out of some large cardboard boxes in the living room of Aunt Mimi's house.

Tarin

Josie

Lula

Jillian

We opened tons of presents for the kiddos and even had a white elephant exchange with the grown-ups.

Here are a few attempts of getting 6 little girls on 1 couch.

Zoey was clearly more interested in this stuff pony than participating.  We'll just have to try again next year!  Thank you everyone for a memorable holiday season.  Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

More photos ...

"Wait!!!"

"Wait!!!"

Zoey's vocabulary is growing daily.  Today she screamed "wait!!!" for the first time as Daddy tried to take her juice cup.  Earlier today I taught her "elbows".  She now throws up her hands, palms upward inquisitively, when she wants to know where something is or what just happened.  Last week when sitting in my lap, I sneezed, and I swear she said (approximately) "bless you" and patted my arm.

It won't be long now ... soon she'll be correcting my grammar ... as she fetches things for me that are on high shelves.

18 Months!

18 Months and Growing!

Not sure where my baby went and where this little girl came from!  Zoey always amazes us with how fast she grows.  Now, at 1 1/2 years old, our daughter is energetic, spontaneous, and creative.  We're still struggling to make sure she eats her veggies, but she loves cheese, apple sauce, and, like always, milk.  She enjoys playing outside, tucking acorns in to her pockets for later.  She definitely lets us know when she's ready for bed and goes down easy.  Zoey is comfy in her 18 mo. old clothes, sporting a size 6 shoe, and even has enough hair for some pigtails.  She's repeating simple words back to us and building her vocabulary, which is roughly 25 spoken words at the moment.  Her diapers are size 6, and she helps us out by letting us know when she needs a fresh one.  If she "tinkles", she'll point down to her crotch.  That's the only sign so far, and if we miss it, she doesn't seem to mind marinating for a little while longer!

Today we witnessed something really neat: she actually played a game with a toy and expressed happiness in success and disappointment in failure.  We have a Rubik's cube toy that we got last Christmas.  It's not really a Rubik's cube, though.  It's shaped like one but doesn't have moving parts.  It is electronic and lights up a colored square on each side of the cube.  We've let Zoey play with this frequently, but this was the first time we've seen her actually play the game correctly by herself.

She searches for the lit square to press the button.

She can get several in a row correct.

Oh no!  She didn't press it in time and it beeped at her!

Ha!  She even pulled her hair in frustration.

Don't worry; she has fun playing!

More photos here:

What Zoey has spoken so far:

• Daddy
• Mama
• no ("NO!!!" + extended index finger)
• doggie ("doddie")
• meow
• up
• hi
• thank you
• ball
• bubbles
• I did it!
• that
• baby
• Zoey
• bye / goodbye / bye-bye
• shoe
• ears
• nose
• mouth
• belly
• Anubis
• horse
• mess
• moon
• box

Zoey still uses some sign language too:

• milk
• more
• all done
• pumpkin (daycare taught her this for Halloween!)
• bird