Taking the Scenic Route

We have WALKING!

29th December 2006

We have WALKING!

Although she has taken one or two steps before, she has never intentionally walked before.  Today, she purposefully took her first steps!  One year, six days old.  She walked back and forth between Mom & Dad a few times before we grabbed the camera.  Pictures will follow later (and videos if they turned out), but she is wanting to help me type now and making it difficult to accomplish anything on the computer.  lol.

YEAH ZORA!!!!

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28th December 2006

Thursday December 28, 2006

Zane is 5 years, 1 day old today

Zora is 1 year, 5 days old today

(and yes, Fee, I loved that you noticed a similar occurance earlier this year.  lol)

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28th December 2006

Thursday December 28, 2006

We had a really nice Christmas Day.  Zane had a rough time getting to sleep the night before, so we had a late start.  We did stockings and were just ready to open the Santa gifts when my folks arrived and added to the pile of presents.  (besides their gifts, we had sent several Amazon orders out there since we don’t have much room to hide presents).  My brother came by shortly after.

We had a lot of fun unwrapping, although Zane is decidedly NOT a “rip open the packages in a frenzy kid”.  lol.  He opens each one, and once open, explores and plays with the toy for a while, or wants us to read the book to him, ect.  Therefore, opening gifts gets stretched pretty much the entire afternoon, with a good 10-20 minutes between each gift.  Santa didn’t even *wrap* any of the Stocking gifts and it still took us 30-45 minutes to take the objects out of it.  Zora got her stocking undone faster.  lol.

Zane’s first letter to Santa:

Dear Santa
I want
trains
mickey
Zane (and the first attempt at a sig where he ran out of room after)

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the stockings

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This is how casual it was…we didn’t even set the table, people just grabbed food when they wanted to and ate it while watching Zane unwrap gifts.  Zora, of course, insisted on eating off of my plate instead of her own.  lol.  Hey, she eats salad, so who am I to complain how it gets there.

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On a funny note, notice how big the house is?  Now, notice that in one of the smaller rooms, he put the computer desk, the computers, the other desk, the two living room chairs and the couch.  All in one little crowded room.  lol.  So…ya think he is trying to tell us something?

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27th December 2006

Wednesday December 27, 2006

Happy Birthday to my boy.  He’s 5 years old today and sick.  bleh.

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25th December 2006

Monday December 25, 2006

on Zach’s page

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24th December 2006

Zora is a year old!

The birthday party for my baby girl. 

Attending:  Grandma & Grandpa, Uncle Steve & Aunt Joy, Robert & Cody (the middle son…the rest of the family was sick)  She received a Noah’s Ark set & book from mom & dad, a bunch of books from grandma & grandpa, some bath books and soft playbook sets from Steve & Joy, and a baby doll from Robert’s family.  There seemed to be a theme of “Noah’s Ark” going on.  We ate pizza and cake and ice cream.  Zora got her own mini cake to decimate.

How did a year get by me so fast.  Wow!

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Steve and Joy also brought up their Christmas gifts since Joy is working Christmas Day.  Zora opened hers with her birthday gifts.  Zane got a bunch of nice Matchbox/Hot Wheels Cars and a track thing to crash them on.  Zora and Zane also got dolls made by my aunt, very similar to my favorite childhood doll she made for me.

 

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23rd December 2006

Saturday December 23, 2006

 
A little bit of bad language, but not terrible.  Funny.
I love Pachelbel Cannon, and, funny enough, I love many of the other songs he sings in the montage at the end.
 

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23rd December 2006

Saturday December 23, 2006

Little stinker could walk if she wanted to.  In fact, within the last few days she has taken a step here and there, but sits down and starts “cussing” at us as soon as she realizes she has been duped into taking a step.

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evile genius

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standing unsupported

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22nd December 2006

Friday December 22, 2006

I took our last name off of it, but here is a copy of the birth announcement I finally did for Zora. 

I can NOT believe it has been almost a year.

birth ann-public

(clicking on it should provide a larger view)

The main color photo was taken on Christmas Day last year, with the light of the billi blanket glowing in the background.  The first black and white is on her birth day.

 

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22nd December 2006

Giddy anticipation

For the first time in many, many years I am truly excited this Christmas season.  I was talking to my mom last night and realized it is probably the first time I have been this excited for Christmas since I was a kid.  Most of my pre-kid days had me working on Christmas day because I “didn’t have a family”.  I resented it in my earlier 20s, but actively sought to work as much as possible in my later 20s when infertility and miscarriages had me progressively going from not terribly excited, to apathetic, to downright hating the holiday season.  I wanted to work because it kept my mind busy on work instead of how sad I was.  The last few years have gotten better because we have kids, but money has always been so tight and Zane didn’t seem to really “get” Christmas until he actually saw the presents under the tree…even then, he had to be shown to open the gifts.  He had no sense of anticipation, although he did enjoy things we did.  Last year, was absolutely one of the hardest Christmases we have had.  Zane and Zach were both sick and I was in the hospital with Zora, both of us trying to recover from birth, and her wrapped in a bili blanket and struggling with blood sugar and eating issues.  It was rough.  We hadn’t been able to shop for Christmas due to money and my health, and my extended family was also having a rough year.  We ended up not having the big family Christmas at all and just had Zane open his presents one quiet morning in January.  Most of his presents were from his grandparents, with a few hot wheels cars and activity books thrown in from us.  We tried to make it as nice of a holiday as we could, and it was nicer than we thought it would be because of the generosity of people in our lives, but it sure wasn’t the kind of Christmas you dream about.  (Please don’t misunderstand…we truly were grateful for the wonderful gifts from last Christmas and some of the help likely saved our lives…help with gas money to go to doctors, ect…it was just a hard year emotionally)

This year, in contrast, is rich with excitement, activities, and about perfect.  (the only thing that would make it better is if we were in our own house, but we know that that will come in time, and that hope and optimism makes the present seem just fine).  For the first time, we are able to buy our kids gifts from our own paycheck instead of my folks having to help out just so we can have a Christmas.  It is the first Christmas we aren’t on food stamps since Zane was born, so we can shop for our food where we want instead of having to plan around the stores that accept food stamps.  We are going to be a little tight money wise because we didn’t realize Amazon charges when they ship instead of when we order it (and we made one last purchasing round there that we wouldn’t have if we had realized the money hadn’t been taken out of our account yet..whoops!), but Zach also got paid for a grad school project and that will help us squeak by with some adjustments in our budget. (like not printing up our final part of our parent’s Christmas gifts (photo albums) or paying for postage until the paycheck on the 29th for his dad and waiting to see if his mom is going to make it out here in early January and waiting until then to give her gift to her) 

This was also the first year, in many years, we were able to afford to send Christmas cards out.  In previous years, we couldn’t afford both the cards (even cheap ones) *AND* postage.  This year, we actually, for the first time, took a family photo, and were able to get a package that included not only some prints for us, but some photos we could send out AND a photo Christmas Card.  It had been so long since we had been able to send out cards we didn’t even have current addresses on most people and had a paniced round of calling up parents to find out addresses.  lol.  Plus, we were able to print up Zora’s birth announcement and send it out too (at least I got it done before she turned 1.  sad second child syndrome…Zane’s were out much, much sooner)  On an embarrassing note, I also finally got all of my thank-yous out for Zora’s birth.  I had to toss all of the original thank-yous since I had a chunk of them done but they were hideously late at this point.  I felt like such a heel not getting them out sooner, but at least I have them done now.  Some people are getting quite the stuffed envelope from us this Christmas.

The reason for it being such a great Christmas, though, is not the financial one.  It is because it is the first time Zane has truly anticipated the holiday.  He wanted the Christmas tree up before we had it out, he knows the names of the nativity ‘characters’, he seems to understand the nativity story, he seems to get what Santa is, at least on a basic level, and he seems to be understanding the concepts of gifts a little better.  He has enjoyed craft projects and draws Christmas stuff, and has been fascinated, instead of scared, of the Christmas decorations(i.e. mechanical santas/reindeer/big displays).   It is so much fun!  We have been able to go see Christmas lights for the first time because we can actually get him to look the right direction when we see something, and he really enjoys the outings to see the lights we have been on.  I don’t know if everybody feels that level of joy seeing their kids enjoying the little things, but the wait for him to enjoy it has made it all the sweeter for us. 

We feel so blessed and joyful and appreciative that we are able to have such a wonderful holiday and healthy family.  I could just burst I am so happy.  We are all breaking out into song and dance as we go around our days…it is just overflowing and wonderful.  My Christmas wish is that everybody can enjoy their lives this much.  *content sigh*

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  • Zane's age

  • Zane is 22 years, 2 months, and 23 days old
  • Zora's age

  • Zora is 18 years, 2 months, and 27 days old
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