Easter 2011

Easter 2011

Sadly, this Easter is probably the last holiday we'd spend at Lolo and Lola's house.  We made sure it was a good one.  We even all sat and ate at the dining table.  I don't know if we've ever done that before! 

On Friday Zoey and Gabriel promptly splashed down into the kiddie pool.  We busted out the water guns, beach toys, and sprinkler for them.

On Saturday Zoey and Gabriel did their Easter Egg Hunt.  They did great!  We hid eggs around the garden and in fun places in the backyard.  Only a few had candy, but the two toddlers enjoyed foam stickers, jelly beans, and chocolate.

After dinner we relaxed and watched Disney's Tangled.

On Sunday we managed to get to church and stay for a little while.  Zoey seemed super cranky that day.  We had to bribe her with jelly beans so we could take some nice pictures!

Happy Easter!

More photos here:

https://picasaweb.google.com/metria/Easter2011?feat=directlink

Zoey's 1st Beach Trip

Texas Sand Fest 2011

Port Aransas, TX

Zoey and the Wingler clan went to the 2011 Texas Sand Fest in Port Aransas, TX.  Zoey's very first beach trip!  We had a blast playing on the beach, in the pool, and hanging out with Zoey's grandparents, Uncle Todd, and cousin Jillian.  We watched Uncle Tyler and his classmates participate in the sand sculpture contest.  

Here is Zoey helping:

Zoey loved the sand.  She thoroughly enjoyed digging with her shovels, filling her bucket, and pouring water out of her watering can.  The ocean was pretty cold, but that didn't stop her and her Daddy.  She got pretty upset that she was too little to follow Daddy into deeper water.  That was ok, though, she also had a blast swimming at the pool.  The water was cold there too!  She toughed it out and enjoyed her floatie and practiced her kicks.  When we weren't out and about, she loved playing inside the beach house and out on the deck.  We casually watched a Toy Story marathon while we played and ate dinner.  

We had a great time.  We even had a nice drive into Corpus Cristi on the way back, where we stopped to have lunch and look at the U.S.S. Lexington.  We'll have to make the next beach trip there.  The water looked cleaner and there was also an aquarium and other fun spots to check out.

Zoey enjoys long walks on the beach, sunsets, and juice boxes.

Zoey's 1st Year

Zoey's 1st Year

I've added all of the photos from Zoey's first year on Earth to Google's photo host, Picasa:

https://picasaweb.google.com/metria/ZoeyS1stYear

I really like using Picasa for all my personal online photo stuff!  Enjoy this re-cap!

"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