Bye Bye Pets

It's been a bit of a challenging time lately. Zola has been sick for many months with a bad cough. She got an x-ray, and turns out she has asthma. Almost definitely, she has allergies to the pets. So it was either Zola goes or the pets go, and obviously we chose to get rid of the pets.

We really, really didn't want to send the pets straight to an animal shelter, so we asked around, posted ads, posted on a facebook group, and found new homes for all of them! We did this all in a week and half or so. I can't believe it! All seem to have gone to great homes. 

Nimbo (the dog) went to the sister of someone at my office. Nimbo will have another doggy friend at his new home, something that he hasn't had with us. 

Climate (the orange cat) went to a nice family who, I found out after the fact, actually lives next door to the people who took Nimbo! How funny is that? The family who took Climate has a young boy who Climate seems to be getting along really well with.

And tonight, Oreo and Snowy (the black/white and white cats) went together to a family with children. They are not neighbors with the other two families, but aren't that far away. Snowy and Oreo are best buds anyway, and it will be nice that they can stay together. For that matter, Nimbo and Climate got along well, and they will live next door now.

I am so happy how this all turned out well, but of course sad to see the animals go. They are our children too. Zola had definitely developed a relationship with them. Zola has been away from the pets for a few days now with Jenevra and Grandma in DC, and already seems to be doing better, a sign that it is probably the animals that have been bothering Zola.

Goodbye Nimbo, Snowy, Oreo, and Climate. I love you all.

7.5 Months Old

Zola has changed a ton since early October. She is now crawling everywhere, and you can tell that she really enjoys the newfound freedom. She is also standing and taking small steps with assistance from something such as a chair, couch, or box. One strange thing she is often doing is standing on her tiptoes often rather than with flat feet. Future ballerina?

A funny and cute thing she starting doing about a week ago is frequently shaking her head side to side, as if to say "no". We keep nodding our heads up and down saying "yes" when she does this, so that hopefully she doesn't say no to absolutely everything like some toddlers can do.

Another extremely cute thing she does is moving her finger up and down across her lips while making noise. This, needless to say, makes for very funny sounds! She is also saying things that are somewhat discernible, such as "I love you" and "kitty cat".

Zola has grown to really love swimming. She can't swim on her own of course, but she splashes and kicks a ton in the pool or bathtub. Hopefully, she won't grow up to be the terrible swimmer that I (Todd) am. Zola also loves looking at her beautiful, smiley self in the mirror. Zola also loves music, in particular, for some odd reason, Lakota music. "Lakota Lullaby" plays, and she instantly stops crying and is transfixed.

Since the move to Caribou, Zola hasn't quite adjusted to the time change. Her bed time of 8pm now varies from 8pm to 130am. Hopefully, she'll eventually adjust.

And one last piece of exciting news: Zola has two teeth in the middle on the bottom!

Zola's first snow of the season (in Girdwood)!

Zola and her beloved box of toys

Zola wants to play!

Zola loves climbing on Daddy's back

Zola's Halloween costume

Zola in Red Lodge with Todd's parents back in September

Jenevra has her hands full teleworking in Caribou in the hotel!

Zola loves playing with the metal dog bowl

Zola would be a great baby model for Diet Pepsi

Zola eating her little cow

Flowery hat made by Todd's mom

Zola at Jenevra's office back in Anchorage

Zola is excited to go swimming!

This was taken just a few days after she started crawling.

6 Months Old

Lots changing with Zola as she passes the six month mark. One thing, however, that hasn't changed is how much she smiles. She smiles all the time, and her smile is the most beautiful smile in the world. It's also very easy to get her into laughing fits by tickling her.

One downside lately is that she is sick all the time. She's had a cold for I believe three weeks now. It all begin the day after she started daycare, and it hasn't gone away. There's always snot running out of her nose, and she's coughing frequently. I guess it's good in a way to get her exposed to some germs.

Exciting news! Her first tooth is beginning to poke through! It's in the front on the bottom side. Likely related to this, there has been extra drool lately, and also more frequent bowel movements.

Also some breaking news: as of this morning, she has begun saying "ba, ba, ba" continuously. She had done hints of this before, but now it's much more frequent. She has also been trying to say things such as "I love you". She hasn't said it super clearly yet, but she is getting close.

Zola is still getting the hang of crawling. She has no problem continuously rolling over and scooting backwards, but hasn't quite gotten the hang of going forward. She's getting up on her knees and lunging forward briefly, but not doing the full crawling motion. I dreamt last night that she was crawling, so that must mean it will happen soon. In the last two weeks, Zola has mastered sitting upright. As long as she isn't drowsy, she can sit upright for long periods of time without falling over.

There still isn't much hair on Zola. She probably won't have much hair until two or three years old. The lack of hair makes things confusing for some people because they don't know if she's a boy or girl. Heck, even when we dress her in pink, people say "What a cute little boy!". She also is still quite large for her age. Even though she's six months, most of the things she wears are 9-12 months or 12-18 months.

Here are a few pics from this month. Sorry, we haven't been as frequent in taking pictures. We definitely need to pick things up.

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Zola doing sign language for "eat".

We stopped by the Billings Weather Forecast Office on our vacation to MT. I worked here as an intern from 2004-2006.

Four and 2/3 Months Old

Zola continues to change every day! That being said, I know the saying is that kids grow up faster than you can imagine, but for me, it seems like we've had her forever. It feels like it's been a year, not five months.

Still her most distinguishing characteristic is her beautiful smile. She smiles all the time. Even when really upset, she will smile back at you if you smile at her.

Zola has begun to eat solids within the last week. We've given her a wide variety of foods: squash, peas, carrots, bananas, rice cereal. She seems to like it all. Of course, that's still just a tiny part of her diet. Zola also likes to chew on her tongue.

One little downside is that she can't seem to sleep through the night any more. Over a month ago, she could make it through the night, but now she gets up for a feeding once and sometimes twice. I guess her brain is just too darn active. To get enough sleep, we definitely need to get to bed soon after when she goes to bed.

Zola is "talking" more and more. A few times a day, she gets in a mood where she is "possessed", and screams and yells like crazy! It's not an upset noise, but rather her experimenting with her voice. She has said things that could pass for "ma, ma" and "I love you", but nothing super obvious or clear.

Zola is interacting more with the cats and dog, and they are interacting more with her. Nimbo likes to give Zola little kisses on the lips. Zola loves trying to grab the cats. Unfortunately, it's not a nice gentle stroke, but a rough grab, where she'll pull a nice clump of hair out of the cats.

Zola is now turning over from her back to her stomach, and vice versa. She is scooting a little, but not really crawling yet.

Peekaboo!

Zola loves her Jumperoo

Zola goes crazy when Daddy tries to kiss her

Cute pic of Zola and Daddy

Another cute pic of Zola and Daddy

Yummy Carrots

Yummy Carrots

Zola and Cabbage Patch doll both waving at the camera

Cool sunglasses and headband thanks to Todd's parents

Since Mommy and Daddy drink Diet Pepsi, naturally Zola is interested in it too

Four Months Old

Zola is up to four months now! She is undergoing rapid changes now. Pretty much every day I notice something new.

Zola is expressing quite a bit of interest in food lately. She stares down our food and drink. We've given her little nibbles of things and she doesn't protest. Pretty soon we'll have to either start feeding her some food, or stop eating in front of her so she doesn't get mad out of jealousy.

She also seems to be teething. She has really started chewing on things all the time. There's basically no time when there isn't something in her mouth. She even chews her tongue, which looks really funny.

Zola has started protesting when we take a toy away, or when she drops a toy. Of course, we don't take away a toy just out of spite; usually, it's to hand her a different toy because the first one is dripping in drool. She is really good at picking up toys, putting them back down, and switching between hands. She also can take a pacifier out of her mouth and put it back in. Zola is increasingly reaching out for things she wants: a toy, a bottle, daddy's nose, etc.

Zola is still very long and slender for her age. We go into the doctor this week to get better measurements, and unfortunately for more shots. She still has a mark from her shots a few months ago. Zola is still very slow on the hair growth. There's some hair, but not much. She probably inherited this from mommy and daddy, who both were bald babies.

Zola is still unbelievably smiley. I can turn her crying into a smile within five seconds by singing. She also is laughing more and more, sometimes really loudly.

Here are a few of my favorite pictures from the last month:

Zola cuddling up with daddy on the couch

Zola loves playing with toys while on the bumbo

The mosquito, one of Zola's friends

Zola smiling wide at her friend Wrangell. He's several months older than Zola.

Wrangell having a taste of Zola's head

At Forest Fair

Mommy put a bow in Zola's hair even though there's still very little of it

The fingers rarely leave her mouth

Three Months Old

Zola just turned three months old on June 30. Almost time for college! Zola is really changing fast now. She is laughing out loud and squealing in delight, and smiling all the time, even when she's crying sometimes. Although Zola is still calm when breastfeeding, her disposition while bottle feeding has changed, which makes things more interesting for me. She moves around a lot while bottle feeding; her mouth is a moving target.

Zola is really getting vocal lately. She's trying to talk often, and she's usually trying to say "I love you" because that's what we say to her all the time. It does sound vaguely like "I love you", but not enough to officially call it her first words yet. I tried to get her to say "weather", but so far she's not as interested in saying that.

Zola enjoys playing around in her Jumperoo and Bumbo. She can sort of turn herself over. She isn't sleeping though the whole night yet; she still gets up once and sometimes twice, but at least she does sleep about four or five hours straight.

Probably her most distinguishing trait is how cute she is. I know parents are supposed to think their own baby is the cutest in the world, but Zola really is! In Wal-mart today, I saw another baby and thought how ugly that baby looked compared to Zola. But then again, people in Wal-mart generally look funny anyway. Zola's smile is just so amazingly cute. She often curls up her hands under her chin while smiling. I try to imitate Zola's smiles, but mine are nowhere near as cute.

Anyways, here are some of my favorite pics/videos from the 3rd month.

This is my personal favorite Zola picture at this moment

Cute

Daddy loves taking Zola for walks with Nimbo in the Moby wrap

Not that Zola needs sunglasses...they just look cute on her

Nimbo loves licking Zola

The Jumperoo!

This was actually Zola's first time really laughing out loud (at least for Daddy)!

Playing on the Bed in a Hotel Room

Grandma and Zola

Grandma and Zola

Grandma and Zola