Zoe's 1st Thanksgiving

Not one to do things quietly or small, Zoe decided 9 months was long enough to wait before taking her first flight. The plan all along was to drive down to Florida and back for Thanksgiving and then about a month beforehand my Mom calls with the idea of us flying, and when Mom and Dad offered to pay, well, that sealed that deal! Thanks again guys, but let's not pretend here, by us flying down, that gave Grandma and Papa more time with Zoe, and that's a good enough reason for me!! So, just like Daddy, Zoe's a natural born aviator, and although she's been sick and throwing up alot lately, sinus infection drainage coming up, no worries. BUT, on her first flight, she took it like a champ. The poor guy who sat in our row had Zoe next to him, 2 girls under 10 flying alone on the other side of the aisle and an 18 month old behind him... Basically he lost the airplane seat lottery in a big way. At the end of the flight he told us how happy he was that the nearest baby to him, Zoe, was so well behaved. The week flew by with going to get Madison and having Matt and Erica bring TnT over to meet Zoe. For those of you not in the know, TnT are Travis and Tyson, the LaGrows twin boys, they just turned 2 and are so much fun, and they loved baby Zoe, cause the told us so, which was better than some of the other words they use... If you know Matt or Erica, you'll know what I mean :-) Monday we all hit Disney, me, Brooke, Maddy, Zoe, and even Mom and Dad. It was great to get Zoe on the Jungle Cruise, Pirates of the Carribean, Peter Pan and of course, Small World. The lil punk almost slept through small world, she was napping on my chest in one of those baby backpacks all through the line, she woke up literally as I was stepping into the boat, so she saw the whole thing. I was really impressed on how well Zoe did on Space Mountain wait for it Okay, I'm kidding, they wouldn't let me taker her. BUT my other daughter conquered her fear of roller coasters and hit all the mountains.... Space, Thunder, and Splash, each more than once. So proud of Madison. I know Brooke encouraged her a bit, but she made up her mind and wouldn't you know it, she loved it!

Tuesday brought more family into the fray, and Zoe met her Great Grandma for the first time, I think a bit of bond formed, she just looked at Nana and smiled, very cute. As we've noted, Papa Joe and Zoe look alot alike, and Zoe understands that looking at Papa is like looking into some twisted carnival mirror, but those two have something special going on. When lil miss fussy pants got a bit rowdy in the Peter Pan ride, Grandma tried, she really did, but as soon as she got in Papa's arms, no noise, sleepy time.... it's incredible, I still say it's because my Dad thinks like a baby. Sleep, eat, poop, sleep, poop, eat, sleep.... you get the idea.

We took some family pictures with a great photographer in a downtown Mt Dora, which has a bit of a Key West feel to it, very fun. Hope the family liked it, we just saw the proofs today and they look amazing. Thanksgiving was a day for mixed emotions, I almost felt like it was safe to wear a Cowboy jersey again, almost. And I don't blame it all on Roy Williams, yes he did fumble the ball after a huge gain at the 10 yd line, but the defense allowed New Orleans to fly 90 yds down the field in less than 2 minutes to beat them.... How do you get beat deep on 3rd and 10? Ask Terrance Newman.... Ok, enough of the Cowboy rant. Dinner was at my sister's house and it was AWESOME! I have to say well done to my sister, Scott, and her daughters for putting on a super Thanksgiving feast. We had fun playing games on the Wii and Brooke's game of "telephone pictionary" where you write a phrase, then the next person draws a picture based on the phrase, then the next person writes what they think the picture is, and so on, until it comes around. I think my favorite one started out as "E.T. phone home" and in the end it became a picture of a decapitated bunny rabbit. So yes, I drew a picture of a choclate bunny with it's head flying off and sword slicing through it.... Hey, I worked with the phrase I was handed.

I have to take this time to say a little something about my sister's youngest, Rachel. Rachel, who is 12, and I have not always seen eye to eye on things, but she was the biggest help to us out there and she LOVES her cousin Zoe! She met us at the airport late Friday night, and stayed with us at my parents every night she could. Rachel is not into fashion, she'd rather wear shorts and have a softball glove on than anything else, but she and her sister got Zoe the cutest little dress, sweater, and oh yes, "boots with the fur!" Which we promptly left in my Dad's car and he's sending it to us.....ooops. BUT we love it, it's so cool. She also went on our "turkey trot" with Brooke, Zoe, and I, we did a lap around my parents neighborhood on Thanksgiving morning which turned into a full run as Zoe let us know she was hungry and wanted to eat...NOW!

All in all it was a great trip, I hope everyone else had a great Thanksgiving.

Don't know how I almost forgot this, but we brought something back with us, that Zoe really loves. It started with my Mom, but she would raise Zoe's hands above her head, and ask, "How big is Zoe?" and of course the reply is, "Sooooooooooooooooooooooo big." Well now Zoe does the arm thing on command.... guess we have to keep that one going

Cannibals, Carrots, and Crusades

So as Zoe continues to grow, she continues to be just that much more fun. She's very talkative, and I have no idea where she gets that from. But she's also big into grunting, it's hilarious. Apparently it’s a game that Zoe and Grammy play during the day. Zoe will grunt, Grammy will respond with a grunt, and Zoe will grunt for almost 30 seconds straight. Maybe it’s one of those, “you had to be there moments,” but it cracks me up every time. As her teef start to become actual teeth, she’s able to eat more and more. When Mom was cooking using carrots the other day, we decided to see what she’d do with her own aaaaand…. “What’s up Doc?” She loved it, in fact there is little this girl doesn’t love, she is such a happy baby.

Zoe is getting over a bit of a cold which dragged out for about a week, which coincides with Daddy’s cold, not sure who got who sick, but I blame the baby, it’s all her fault. Zoe took her runny nose better than Daddy did, but then again, if I got to take unlimited naps throughout the day, maybe I wouldn’t have been such a pain in the butt. Unfortunately for Zoe, her cold hit a fever spike on Halloween of all days, so we didn’t get to pimp my daughter out to the neighborhood so we could get free candy, so we settled for staying home and giving it out. Half the fun was giving updates on the Rangers game to all the Dads out Trick or Treating with the little ones. I think word is out on my house though. I have a rule, “No Costume, No Candy….and you get shot with a water cannon.” Last year I got about 7, this year I only had one and he tried to pass himself off as a smoker. Let’s just say I extinguished his cigarette. Zoe did wear her M&M onesie and for fun we put her in the bowl of candy and took some pictures. It did seem a bit cannibalistic that she was putting an M&M wrapper in her mouth considering what she was wearing.

Oh and United Health Care finally got the hint that I wasn’t going away. We were still dealing with their screw up from back in December of ’09. We were on our 2nd appeal which they had lost for 45 days before I had to call and inquire about it. Well Sunday I opened a letter saying that they denied the appeal because they didn’t get a HIPPA statement from me within 30 days of my 2nd appeal, um see timeline above. This all comes after numerous taped phone calls to them in which no less than 6 employees from UHC stated that they had done it wrong and it should be corrected. Anyway, after getting my letter on Sunday I immediately emailed one of our HR reps who deals with these clowns, I told her I would accept no less than a face to face meeting with UHC management and they were going to need to go over all my documentation with me and then look me in the eye and tell me they had done a good job on this and that they were still going to deny my claim based on the evidence. Oddly enough within 24hrs I got an email back saying there were going to process this claim and we would be reimbursed. Well chalk one up for persistence. Sadly, I have wasted far more hours on this than the bill was actually worth, but it became my mini crusade and I wasn’t going to let them take that from me.

Ok, well that’s about it, enjoy the pics and Happy Veterans Day!

And she got Grammy too....

Ha ha ha, I'm not the only one! Grammy got the projectile treatment the next day. Same thing, finished a bottle, burp, laugh, hurl.... I was just glad I was there to see it! Then I got to give her a bath in the sink, while she laughed some more... I think maybe she has too much of my sense of humor.

Teef, Tex, and Tequila....

Alright already! I get it! You guys really like Zoe and need more than what you’re getting. After hearing about it in the strangest of places… Brooke’s 10yr reunion, dinner with Carol’s college roommate, random people at work… I get it. I will try and do better about writing and keeping the pictures posted. I’ll also work harder not to offend the sensibilities of the more sensitive of our readers, no matter how inadvertently I may have done it in the past. Zoe is 8 months old today, and to celebrate she thought it would be BIG fun to projectile vomit some laxative laden apple juice ALLLLLL over Daddy. Yup, she finished the bottle, looked at me, smiled her sweet toothy grin, burped once….and then the flood gates opened! It’s gross people, stop laughing!
Now you may have noticed I said, “toothy grin,” and yes the bottom teef have been in for some time now, but Zoe is pulling off a foursome of top teeth all at the same time, and handling it well in my opinion. Yes, she’s needed her frozen chew toy (so now she’s a dog)a few times and a little midnight fussiness, I still can’t complain, she hardly wakes up in the middle of the night and chomping on a piece of ice wrapped in a wash cloth usually does the trick, for the more painful nights, we go with tequila shots, she’s getting real good with the salt and lime! Please, for those of you without a sense of humor do not call CPS; the previous sentence was a joke. Zoe’s getting the handle on solid food now too. Having mastered the art of the mush, she’ll down strained anything in 4 bites now; she’s moving on to chewing with Yogurt Bites and what can only be described as Baby Cheez Puffs. Not sure what they are called, but that’s what they look like, and the dogs like em too!
Since we get this question a lot, we know it’s what is foremost on your minds. Nothing new is really all we have. Zoe has been to Scottish Rite for appointments a couple of times since we last talked, and while they were good appointments, no new revelation came of them. They still say they expect Zoe to be highly functioning and cognitively she is doing exactly what an 8 month old should do. She’s not real interested in pulling up or crawling, but if you were her and didn’t really feel your legs, you wouldn’t know what you’re missing. I did see a story in the news recently about stem cell research to treat spinal cord injuries. http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-504763_162-20019265-10391704.html?tag=stack
It’s not really dealing with Spina Bifida, but it shows that there are potential breakthroughs happening everyday, and if someone else doesn’t do it, I’ll have to come up with the first fiber optic nerves. Bottom line, I don’t care how the miracle manifests itself, I won’t ever stop believing for it, and when we see Zoe walk, I mean really walk, then we’ll know, and you better believe I’ll have something to write about on that day.
Brooke and I are working to find ways to make our jobs fit our new life, or the other way around; I’m not sure which it is. Neither of us have your basic 9 to 5 job; I’m not sure anyone does anymore. We are finding it challenging to make all the extra commitments our jobs require work together. We never know when an emergency will force me to stay late at work and Brooke has a few more after school commitments than we, or at least I, anticipated. So far we’ve managed with more than a little help from Carol and a team of babysitters. One thing this little girl has is a long line of people willing to play with her, and for each one we are thankful. One really good thing about being a choir teacher in a high school, a near limitless supply of potential babysitters for nights out, some even drive themselves! Jackpot!!! On that front, there are a lot of government programs that have been around long before the Hopey Changy Thingy came about, and we are getting close to finishing all the qualifying requirements to benefit from them, one of which is no kidding, money for babysitters. How cool is that?!?
Okay enough of the boring story; I know most of you are here to see Zoe, so I’ll put as many pics up as I can, enjoy the many faces of Zoe

Happy Half Birthday!

Yes, believe it or not Zoe is 6 months old today! At first, it seems like yesterday when Brooke and I first walked through the door with her, not sure what to do next. But then looking at her pictures from then to now, it's obvious Zoe's done A LOT of eating since then. We are transitioning back to a full working household again, and by that I mean school's starting and Mommy is on day two of her new position in the Lovejoy ISD, as the Assistant High School Choir Director, a bit of a bump up from the middle school, but with it, new challenges and new opprotunities! So we are also on day two of Grammy taking on full time ZoeCare, and it seems to be working out okay for both.

Zoe has started on "solid" food, if you can call the multi-colored mush solid. Bananas seem to be a favorite, along with sweet potatoes and all while mixing in the Barley cereal too. For those who don't get to see her often, Zoe is sporting 2 little white teeth poking up through her bottom gums, they look like little islands forming in a pink ocean, but they give her real character. Unfortuneatley, it also makes her play with them so we have something in our mouth at all times these days, pacifier, fingers, hands, shirt sleeves, dresses, Daddy's fingers... you get the idea. It also makes for some VERY funny faces as she uses her tongue to play with her new teeth, and again, she looks like my Dad when she makes those silly faces. Oh, and one other thing she picked up from Papa, the tongue. When my Dad is concentrating on something, turning a wrench, or working out a problem in his head, well he looks like Michael Jordan driving the lane for slam dunk, tongue out, focused look, no idea he's even doing it. Aaaaaand Zoe does the same thing. Great, thanks Dad. If she's really trying to grab something, putting her binky back in her mouth, or trying to roll over... the tongue. It's funny though, she provides many laughs in our house.

We were recently encouraged when Zoe went to the pediatrician last week, which included shots. Now I understand that most parents would not be so excited by what I'm about to tell you, but we are. Zoe got a shot in her left leg, no reaction, just like last time. Then Zoe got a shot in her right leg, ummm, BIG reaction, and it wasn't a good one. She twisted up her little face, made a frown, got beet red, and let out a wail of a cry. But ya see, that means she felt it, and THAT is great news. She also used that same leg to kick over her catheder bottle on me the other day. Thankfully we had just started and it wasn't very full, so no drama there, but it is a very good sign and we are encouraged!

I also got to do some just Daddy/Zoe time when Brooke went down to San Antonio for a teaching conference for 4 days. I took off of work and it was just the two of us, we had a great time and I got a new appreciation for what Brooke had been doing all summer. I did have to laugh at the seemingly high level of concern Brooke had in leaving us alone. We did just fine, took naps at the same time, ate at the same time, went shopping at the stores together, got to play with Mommy's hair products, took naps again.... it was fun!

Little update on me, I'm in week 3 of my walking boot for a possible stress fracture in my rt ankle. I am NOT a good patient and need out of this thing so I can get back to running, which is what caused it in the first place but I don't care. Brooke is sporting her new haircut for the new year and just trying to get all the things done that need doing before starting a school year. You wouldn't believe the amount of work that goes into just getting ready to teach. So here we are, Zoe is 6 months old and doing all the things a 6 month old should, she's raising her head and looking around her crib, she laughs.... at everything. We were scolding D.O.G. the other day, cracked her up... now we just look at her and say, "D.O.G.!!" in sort of a scowling way, and she just laughs and laughs and laughs. So as we blow out the candle on her cupcake, no full on cake until she's one, we love our little jiggly, much larger than when we brought her home, bundle of joy, our lil Zoe.

Celebrations, Giggles, and Goofballs

Has it really been a month since I last posted here? I need to do better, but so much goes on on a daily basis that it’s hard to keep up with it all. Since we left you last Zoe’s learned the joys of cereal, barley and oatmeal to be exact, we thought we’d wait a bit to start her on Count Chocula and Lucky Charms. We’re not sure how much actually makes it in down her throat, her bib and face seem to be covered in it, but they say this is really just to get her used to eating solid food so make as big a mess as you want lil one. That may be the last time you hear me say that. On 20 June, sisters met for the first time as Maddy flew in from Gawgia, I mean Georgia. What a great time we’ve been having, Maddy learned all about Zoe’s issues, and potential complications. The wonderful people at Scottish Rite even set up an appointment, specifically for Madison, to get her acquainted with Spina Bifida and all that is involved with Zoe’s treatments down there. She kinda mastered the course since we gave her a crash course before she went, and she has a friend with SB, so this was not a world ending moment for her, which was great to see.

Zoe’s been Zoe, this kid loves her routine, I wish I could be on her schedule. She’s usually asleep for the night by 10:30, if we don’t wake her up, she’ll get up about 0830-0900, but she won’t cry, she’ll kinda coo and talk to herself until someone comes to get her. She eats a good hearty breakfast, hangs out for an hour or so, then back to sleep for a much needed 2-3hr nap. It’s tough being a baby. Again, wakes up from that, eat, and play around with Mom or whoever’s available to laugh with. She’s a great laugher, always a smile. Then back down for an afternoon nap, up to eat, bath and cath, and off to bed. It’s not that simple ever, but she gets a full night sleep and 2 pretty good naps throughout the day.

We’ve had some concern recently about her right foot, her toes practically touch her shin and it’s bent off to the side. We also see no response in her legs to any stimuli, which is not good. I guess I’ve been very good at letting people know it’s a concern of ours, “How’s her legs?” is usually the second question I get after, “How’s Brooke, how’s Zoe?” Once again the wonderful people at Scottish Rite were willing to talk to nervous newbies about it, they said that, “yes” it is something to watch for, it could be many things, but they are not going to do anything at this stage to stunt her development as a baby. They say they could put her in a cast up to her chest and try and straighten everything out, but even my Super Baby would have a hard time learning to roll over with a body cast on. On top of that, these issues would be just as likely to come back later anyway. This is hard for us, but we need to have patience. And if indeed patience really is a virtue, it is not one Brooke and I possess in abundance. But we are learning, and we pray for patience and that Zoe would be healed.

I haven’t shared this with many people, and I’m not usually one to take stock in dreams, but I like this one so I’m going to. In this dream, I am in my house, I knew it was mine, but it wasn’t my current home (but it was nice), John Ferguson was there too. We were talking when Zoe walked past, carrying something. I then said to her, “Are you putting your brother to bed?” Don’t remember a thing after that…. I believe there are 2 key words in the above sentence – “walked” and “brother.” Any questions why I chose to believe this one??? Saddle up, this could be an interesting ride.

We’ve been having a lot of fun with Madison, she’s learning how to change a diaper, give a baby a bath, and she even got to feed Zoe the other day! My little girl is growing up into a fine young lady of 11 and getting ready to start middle school this fall. Ah, to be an awkward middle schooler again, not really out of the child stage, nowhere near ready for high school. I truly think middle school kids are insane and have no idea how Brooke deals with their crazy lil minds. My wife is a super hero!

We had a great 4th of July weekend, I ended up with 5 days in a row off, and we did one cookout and fireworks show after the other, it was a good time. Zoe, however, took more of a liking to her cousin Scott on Saturday. Scott and I had come back from an 8mi run and I was about to make us all breakfast when Zoe caught him in her gaze and began to crack up. He hadn’t done anything really, but he had her in laughing away…since then we’ve gotten some good laughs out of her, but nothing like that morning, way to go Scott!!!! Priceless!

Brooke got some good news today as well, we have some really good leads on some programs that will help cover some of the expenses my friends at the insurance company don’t want to cover, which In reality is all of them, but I’m not going down that road again. These programs will provide some money for things like catheters, physical therapists, and even equipment we might need. Still a small mountain of paperwork to climb but we’re getting pretty good at climbing.

Well, I will try to do better about keeping this updated, I do better at keeping pictures on facebook, much less time to do that, then come up with good writing, or my version of it anyway. Until next time, thank you all for checking in to read on our pudgy bundle and continue to pray for her, as you pray for us. Thank you all, God Bless.

I shall call her "Mini Me"

Okay, not too much today, somebody is a bit cranky tonight, but I told you all before, she looks like my Dad, well the proof is in the puddin faces. So here it is folks, the photographic proof. Enjoy, I know we have.

Zoe's Modeling Debut

So not so long ago, Brooke pulled a fast one on me, she had Jamie Huffman now Jamie Blackerby come over and take some shots of Zoe. For those of you who don't know, Jamie is responsible for our outstanding Engagement Photos, where she actually caught the moment I proposed to Brooke on film(digitally speaking of course) and she also did our wedding reception. Needless to say, she's kinda the official family photographer so it stands to reason she would get first crack at Amercia's Next Top Model 2030. So here are just a few of the master pieces. Enjoy!

Lil Bunny Fu Fu...

"Little Bunny FuFu came walking through the forest, down came the rain and washed the Bunny out." WHAT?!? Is that not the lyric? Okay, so I may know all the words to Rapper's Delight, but I don't quite have my Kiddo Song Book down just yet. We make up lyrics to other songs in this house and then apply them to what we're doing at that moment. This kid will definitely be a singer, between her Dad, "The King of Karoke" and her Mom, "The Queen of Melodious Beauty" she hears most of her words in a song. Ya never know, she may be the first "classical rapper" in history. Not much new to report, other than Brooke almost hurt herself laughing at me when I sang the above incorrect lyrics. That sorta made Zoe laugh too. We get alot more laughs out of her lately. Zoe went to the Ft Worth Botanical Gardens a couple of weeks ago, I think she enjoys the outdoors! I know we would have too, had it not been just shy of 1000 degrees outside. Ah Texas in the summer. She also has done super great in the pool over Memorial Day, see the pics above. But the best one is my lil Pantaloni Pie Face with that big smile! Love this kid!!!