Warning: LOTS of Pictures!

Okay so here is a small fraction of pictures from Christmas Eve and Christmas Day!  These ones are the best-I think.

Alright so here's Christmas Eve:

I wanted to drive around and see Christmas lights and hubby's news station did a story about a retired vet who did this fancy light show at his house so hubby took us to see it.  It's synchronized with a radio station that plays music to the lights.  It was really pretty.  Zoe cried through the first part of it so I eventually took her out of her seat and held her up front in the car.  Don't worry-I buckled her back up before we left!





Then we went home and before bed we let her open up ONE present.















Also before bed daddy read "The Night Before Christmas".



Then Christmas morning came and Santa had left a couple of gifts!



One was for Zoe!



And Santa brought her Curious George!!!



She LOVES Curious George!!





So much so that when we took Curious George away so she could focus on opening another present, she took off after Curious George!!



We had to eventually hide him.

After we had her attention again, we opened more presents!!

















Look at all that loot!  And you can't even see everything!



She had so much fun!



Quite honestly, I think we had more fun playing with her new stuff then she did!  HA!

And here are a couple random shots:





Wow.  What a great 1st Christmas!  Can't wait til next year!!  It probably won't be quite as relaxing or quiet.  HA!

Christmas Photos!

Here are a few Christmasy pictures.  I haven't taken any of her in her Christmas dress yet but hopefully I can tackle that one tomorrow.

In the meantime you can enjoy these!

First of all, the people working the Santa booth weren't the nicest or best photo takers.  We could have had a couple of pictures of Zoe NOT crying but the one they took Santa was holding Zoe up in front of his face and then the other one she was looking away.  By the time they got it together she was crying.

9 Months Old!

Today Zoe had her 9 month well child check.

She didn't get any shots this time BUT they had to prick her big toe so they could test her blood for her iron levels.

The nurse goes "Oh this won't hurt her.  Babies never cry when I do this.  She'll be fine."  My response with a smile was "Well, she's kind of a drama queen so we'll see."

I held Zoe and the nurse did her thing and at first Zoe just kind of whimpered and then she let out a cry.  Her "I'm hurt" cry.  Her face turned all red and she was MAD.  The nurse goes "Wow.  You weren't kidding!  I've never had a baby cry when I do this!".  Zoe cried.  A lot. 

Didn't help that momma forgot the pacifier at home.  Yikes. 

We got her toe all wrapped up in band-aids and then put socks on her.  Earlier tonight when I was getting her changed for bed we took off her socks, she took one look at her foot and just started screaming again.  I don't know if the memories came rushing back or what but she just flipped out.  It was kind of funny cause she was fine until she saw her toe.  Silly girl.

So back to the appointment.  The doctor came in and we talked about everything and then he went to exam her and she FLIPPED out.  She was grabbing onto Tony like you wouldn't believe!  Poor thing!  And poor doctor!  He was trying to hear her heart and I'm not sure if/how he could with her screaming like that.  I was afraid she was scaring all the other little kids with her screams!

Here are her latest stats.

She is 26.5 inches long which puts her at the 20th percentile.
She weighs 18.8 lbs putting her in the 49th percentile.

She hasn't gained much weight (although it often feels like she has!) but she's right on track.  Her weight percentile should go down to meet her length percentile.  She's just gonna be on the smaller side!  She's already starting to come down in weight-we've cut back on her formula feedings (4 a day) and are introducing solids.

That probably sounds like we're trying to get her to lose weight but that's not the case.  We don't want her to lose weight.  She just needs to be eating more solids instead of just relying on the formula.  As our doctor puts it "You don't drink your diet.  You get calories etc from your food." 

She gets baby food but we're also giving her some 'regular' food.  Today she had small pieces of lightly toasted bagel which she liked.  She also had some cooked spiral noodles.  Oh and earlier she had some Cherrios.  I bought some YoBaby yogurt that I'm going to try to give her for breakfast.  We'll see if she likes it!

The doctor was impressed with her development.  And we actually appear to be doing things right with her!  He recommended not giving her any juice which we don't-just water.  He was happy with her sleeping (she sleeps 12 hours a night!) and her crawling/standing etc.  He recommended we start weaning her off the bottle so it doesn't become a security thing and I told him we were already giving her a sippy cup-although I can't always get her to drink formula from it.  He said we can stop formula at a year old (YAY!).  She doesn't have another appointment until the end of March for her 1 year well child! 

Wow.  That's kind of right around the corner.  Can't believe it.  Seems like we were just bringing her home from the hospital!

Zoe Fun Facts!

1)  Zoe really loves water now!  It took A LOT of work but she's finally drinking it.  I've been giving it to her in a sippy cup with her snacks and meals.  Tonight she found my water bottle and was sticking it in her mouth trying to drink it!  SO CUTE!

 



2) Zoe is starting to understand 'no'.  And she doesn't like it! 

3) If you take something away from her she just looks at you with these sad sad eyes.  You can't help but feel bad and of course laugh just a little cause it's so darn cute!

Here are a couple of videos too that I recently uploaded.

Momma's Heading Back to WORK!

That's right ... I finally landed a job!  And not just any job, basically my dream job.

First of all, in this economy it's a miracle I got a job period.  Eugene's unemployment is still pretty high and it's the Holidays so I know a lot of people are/have been looking for work.

I applied for this position the end of October never heard anything.  Then sometime in November they posted an administrative assistant/secretary position (similar to my last job) and so I decided to apply for that too.  And then I got a call back, for both positions!  I had the phone interview and then I had a face to face interview with the program director.

And then last week I got a call and got the job!  It is of course contingent on me passing the background check and drug test but those won't be hard for me to pass!

If they get back everything in time I'll start December 27th.  I'll be working as a CNA (certified nursing assistant) at an advanced wound care center.  Its at one of the local hospitals but it's owned by a different company and contracted with the hospital.  It's a pretty neat facility.  It's Monday-Friday, 8-5.  Benefits will kick in first of January.  I am so excited!  I can't wait to start!

So this week Zoe and I are cracking down!  Vacation is over!

I really have to focus this week on getting her on a new schedule/routine.  We've been sleeping in until 8:00 AM but once I go back to work she's gonna have to get up at 6:30 AM.  So, I need to get her nap and feeding times worked out this week so when she goes back to daycare she won't be a complete mess! 

I'm also taking advantage of my last week at home to get a lot of things done around the house.  Cleaning!  Cleaning!  And more cleaning! 

While a part of me is sad knowing I'll have to be away from Zoe for 10+ hours a day, I am very excited to be at work.  Not only because it'll ease things up financially but also because I LOVE being a CNA.  And at this new job I'll really learn a lot and it'll be a great experience for me since I want to get into nursing.

I'll be sure to let you know how it goes!  I'm already a bit nervous!  But mostly excited!

Just a couple pictures!

Today we went to Church and had a glorious morning enjoying some amazing music.  Of course going to Church means putting on the cutest outfit possible!

I dressed her in a really cute and somewhat Christmasy dress with leggings.  Much to my surprise she has fit into two 12 month sized dresses!  She's growing out of her 6-9 month stuff already!  YIKES!  Well, I guess she will be 9 months in less then a week.

Anyway, this afternoon I wrapped up some of the gifts Zoe's grandpa and grandma Karen sent and decided to try and take some pictures of her since she looked so adorable.  (As always! HA!)

Avacado is YUMMY!

We went to Cafe Yum last weekend and feeling adventurous we let Zoe try avocado.  (More like Tony let her ... I'm always hesitant to let her try stuff.  But I went home and checked the book ... Avocado was on the approved list of things to feed her for her age! HA!)

Sorry the quality isn't very good ... I took them with the camera on my phone and I don't exactly have an iPhone.





And here's just a random cute one I took today.

Zoe loves to play under the desk when I'm sitting at the computer.  I just have to keep her away from the cords.   Don't worry ... When there isn't someone at the desk the chair blocks the cords and the outlets so she can't reach them!

New Videos!

Some of these aren't very 'new'.  I've just been behind in my posting of them.

I'm not sure what the last video was that I posted so I'm just going to post a few and if you think you may have missed some you can check out our YouTube page here.

New Year ... New Place!

Yes, the Gists will be on the move again!

While we just moved into our current apartment last January we will be moving to another place the end of February.


We are so excited for this new home.  It's a rental attached to our family friend's house in West Eugene.  So we will be back on a side of town that makes sense for us!  It's closer to Tony's work, our Church, and a majority of our friends.

It is smaller then our current place only 1 bedroom instead of 2, but it's worth it!  It will feel more like a house then an apartment and we won't have to worry about loud neighbors. 

We'll be sure to post pictures as soon as we get moved and settled, but it'll be a while!  We still have a few months left at our current place.

Oops!

I forgot to post Thanksgiving pictures!

We sort of failed at taking Thanksgiving pictures.

We went over to a friends' house and had so much fun we forgot all about the camera and picture taking.  I managed to get one of her before we left (but it's just the back of her-she was too focused on the dog to pay attention to me) and we snapped a couple when we got home.  But by the time we got home she was tired, her bib was dirty, and so they aren't the cutest pictures.  Also, her face looks dirty but it's not.  She had some really dry, red, skin only made worse by her pacifier so that's why her face looks dirty.

Anyway, here are some pictures!





And here are a couple of random pictures for a week or two ago.

Here's our first snow of the season:



And Zoe just being cute!

Winter!

While technically it's not winter, I consider it to be so after December 1st! 

I normally love this time of year and up until this last weekend was a little bummed that it's already almost time for Christmas.  With us only on one income I didn't think we'd have much of a holiday season.

But thanks to WalMart we managed to find a cheap tree and some decorations.  Cause Christmas just isn't Christmas without a tree.

Zoe's grams (Grandma Gist) got her some great ornaments as did grams' parents, Zoe's great-grandparents in Ohio.

So here are some pictures of our tree and Zoe!