Slow down!

Zoë is approaching 8 months and every day is a little different than the day before. We think/hope her first teeth will be coming in soon. She seems to be in more pain off and on throughout the day and is chewing and drooling WAY more than normal...not to mention her new screaming hobby. She's exploring her voice and has started YELLING/SCREAMING (see video "Z upsets T"). We're trying to ignore this...in hopes that she might get bored of it and move on to better (less annoying) sounds :) Annoying though it may be, she looks so cute when she does it. She just looks right into your eyes and SCREAMS, smiling the whole time, often followed by uncoordinated clapping (more about this below).......

 Zoë never stops moving, except to sleep. She is super active and very social. She rolls all over the place and lunges all around but hasn't figured out getting on to all fours yet. Just recently she said a-da-da for the first time! She said it once and has yet to say it again. On the same day, she suddenly said ma-ma...sometimes more like ma-ma-muh-muh-ma-ma...She keeps practicing her new sounds. The best part is that the first time she said 'da-da' was TO Ryan the day he got home from a big conference in Switzerland. I was in the kitchen and he was in the living room playing and catching up with his girl. I thought I heard her say 'a-da-da' but I though, nah, i must have misheard. Then Ryan said, 'Char!'. I walked out and said....'did she just say DA-DA!?' Soon she'll say it again but in the mean time she's practicing 'ma-ma-muh' and 'AHHHHHH'.

Just yesterday, she began waving and clapping. A week or two ago I taught her how to high-five and we've been  practicing this new trick ever since. It is seriously cute. I'll get it on video soon, I promise. Last week I was sitting out in the back garden with her on a sunny afternoon and several little girls who live at Tyndale House (aged 5-8) were sitting around her. I told the girls that Zoë likes to high-five so they of course wanted to test her out. Zoë was all about it. Big smiles and high-fives all around. Every time we high-five, we clap for her and get really excited. I guess this is where she got the clapping? But the waving, who knows. It is so much fun to watch her change and grow and explore. We keep telling her to slow down, she'll only be a baby for so long. :)

We'll be home in less than 2 months, hard to believe!

xoxoxoxoxoxoxo

lots of love,

C, R & z