Granola Water

Yesterday, we went on a family trip to St. Joseph to pick something up (hopefully I can talk about that soon), and decided to make a day of it. Having been fascinated by the Pony Express for a while now, I was excited to go see the museum as well as see the house where Jesse James was shot. We also made sure to scout out a good park for Zoe to get her running around time and brought a little picnic with us. The Pony Express museum was a lot of fun, Zoe's first trip to a museum actually unless you count the gazillion museums we went to in New York when I was pregnant with her... OK, it was only 3 since the Guggenheim was undergoing renovations, but still, she doesn't really have a vivid memory of them, so this was definitely her first. We were excited they actually had stuff for her to see and do, but by the end, she was way too fussy to risk going through the Jesse James house, so we just drove past it on the way to the park.

Once in the park, we were excited and surprised to see they had Oxen!... Go figure, in a fenced in reserve right in the middle of the park. After spending a few minutes with them, we were off in search of the perfect stretch to let our baby run free. A tougher task than expected since there were a lot of hills and sharp drops (some on to concrete!) in this very beautiful but somewhat perilous park. After a couple of circles we finally settled on a spot near the amphitheater that had a pretty good stretch of land for her to frolic.

Then, it was picnic time and oh, how meals have become a fun and interesting venture with our sweet baby girl. Today's poison? Granola Water!... After chewing on a piece of granola bar for what seemed like an eternity, Zoe was obviously thirsty and eager to "share Mommy's water"... I gave her the bottle to take a sip and before I knew it, she'd spit the entire contents of her mouth into the bottle, giggled and proceeded to drink it!... Ick. Needless to say, the water was now hers.

It never ceases to amaze me, the things babies will eat vs. the things they refuse to eat. Let's see, mommy's BBQ meatloaf, won't eat. sidewalk chalk, will eat. Tuna noodle casserole, won't eat. Yard dirt, will eat. Lasagna, won't eat. Her shoe, will eat. It's a mad, mad world inside a baby's brain...

Zoe's First Sentence! (Sort of)

OK, so it's not exactly a run on sentence, but exciting just the same... We went to wake up Robb this morning and as I walked away with Zoe to head back downstairs, she called out "Bye Bye Daddy" as she waved to him!.. It was clear as day and just about the sweetest words I could have heard. It's those moments that make the poop grenades well worth it!

Mother's Day 'Gift'

It was the end of the perfect Mother's Day... Robb had gotten up early to help with Zoe and give me my present (an awesome framed picture of our baby girl) and this was of course after he stayed up the night before cleaning! We spent the morning together as a family, something I'm sad to say we just don't get enough of with Robb working nights... My mother and uncles, Barry and Dale, came over and we had a really nice afternoon on the back deck watching Zoe run around in the gardening hat they got me. It was beyond adorable as you can see. [See more pics here]

Eventually, Zoe took her afternoon nap (How I miss those days when I could do the same)... But it did allow my mother and I to get caught up and rest a bit ourselves. Much to my delight and surprise, Zoe even woke up in an amazing mood! (She's usually a bit cranky when she first wakes up... hmm, wonder where she could have gotten that from? *wink*...)

Then the three generations went out into the garden where we planted sunflowers for my grandmother who passed away last year. Now that we have a garden, it seemed only fitting to plant her favorite flowers in her memory. It was a really special moment... Made all the more special of course when Zoe kept trying to drink from the watering can. It was quite a sight... Although I have to say I'm proud that she poured more water on the ground than she did into her mouth.

I made us all a nice dinner (Sans Lemonup), while Zoe and my mom continued to play and watch Little Bear. I love watching the two of them together... The adoration they both have for each other is such a joy to see. Robb joined us for dinner and our wonderful Mother's Day was coming to a close. It was almost time to put my sweet angel to bed and I would have some much needed quiet time. I started her bath and Robb headed back to work after dropping mom off. It was just the two of us and I couldn't be happier. She was in a great mood and I had her all to myself!...

... And then it happened. She gave me my Mother's Day 'gift'... One she had clearly been saving up for me for a while. In between splashes, she started to make this grunting noise and just as I asked her what she was doing, there it was... A poop nugget floated to the surface of the water like a land mine tossed out to sea! "ZOE!!" I gasped... Not mad, just in shock and of course, disgust!... She then proceeded to stand up only to reveal the MOUND of poop balls neatly settled at the bottle of the tub. Nine of them (yes, I counted in disbelief at the sheer volume of them!)...

Needless to say, her bath and bedtime ritual were cut short. I had her dry and in a diaper faster than you could say diaper and was plopping her into her crib (under protest of course)... I then proceeded to spend my quiet evening time cleaning poop out of the tub. Ahhh, the magic of children. They really know how to say "I love you mom... Happy Mother's Day... I made this just for you"... *sigh*...

The inspiration...

OK, so I've been thinking about starting a blog for a while now. After all, I love to write and let's face it, having a 19 month old daughter certainly gives me a lot to write about... But where to begin?... And then it happened, just like that... over dinner one night, Lemonup was born.

This dinner really wasn't different from most other nights. Zoe was being her usual fussy self and didn't want to eat what she loved just a week ago (Fish sticks, tater tots and corn. What kid doesn't love that??... Not to mention the ketchup, lots and lots of ketchup). I had read one of those helpful articles on "how to get your fussy toddler to eat" which stated emphatically, "Everything tastes better with Ketchup!"... And so, like many hopeful moms, I crossed my fingers and squirted more ketchup on the plate. Unfortunately, ketchup was about the only this she WAS eating. Then she spotted the glass of pink lemonade my husband was drinking and she HAD to have some. Not just some in a sippy cup mind you, her very own glass... After all, she'd been practicing and "she's a big girl now". Hoping to have at least 5 minutes where I might actually be able to eat some of my dinner, I gave her her own glass of pink lemonade... which she decided of course, 'would be better with ketchup'.

My husband and I gave each other the look. You know, the one that pretty much says, oh dear god... and yet it's so cute. We thought for sure that would be the end of it, she'd take a sip, spit it out and hopefully go back to trying some food. But no, she actually liked it!... So we've dubbed her new found drink 'Lemonup'. Of course, if we named it after the myriad of other things that eventually wen in there, this blog would probably be called "LemonLimeup sticks". Thankfully, she agreed the fish sticks did not improve the taste!...

And so my blog was born. Unfortunately the unhyphenated version was already taken for the url by a woman in Brazil that apparently doesn't actually blog (quite annoying!), but the logo and name were already created and I wasn't about to change it over a silly thing like it being taken.