Rollin', rollin', rollin'!

We had another milestone this weekend--Zoe rolled over from her stomach to her back! I heard her start crying as she woke up from a nap Saturday, and when I didn't go in right away she stopped. When I did go in to get her, she was on her back, looking up at me! I think she surprised herself enough that she stopped crying, plus she had a much better view of her room that way. She can get pretty far over on her side when she's lying on her back, too, so rolling the other way may be in the near future. I can hardly believe she's already so old and growing so much! I know it's cliche, but the time sure does fly.

Our other news this week is that Ziva got her first bladder infection. Not so exciting, I know. But it was almost a relief to me to at least figure it out. Starting the Friday before last, she started wetting her pants again every day, sometimes multiple times a day, and I was at my wit's end trying to figure out what could be causing it. Every one had their opinion--regressing is normal, she's doing it for attention, adjusting to school has been hard--none of which seemed to fit Ziva in our current circumstances. She wasn't trained until AFTER Zoe was born, she's been to school already for three years and acts like she owns the place (seriously, oh my!), and she still gets plenty of attention, or at least I think so. So when her teacher said she thought it might be an infection, I asked Ziva if it hurt to go potty and she said yes, so I scheduled a doctor appointment. Let me tell you, Ziva is one tough cookie. If "handling pain" were an Olympic sport, she would be a gold medalist. She hadn't complained about anything hurting until I asked her, and maybe it had been getting slowly worse, I don't know, but when we were at the doctor, she finally broke and was screaming just in dread of having to go, and refusing to drink water because she knew what would follow. So the sweet doctor determined she had all the other signs and we didn't need a urine sample, and prescribed antibiotics. And we are back in business. Ziva was allowed to wear a pull-up to school Friday, which she kept dry all day, and we had no accidents over the weekend, but did a little potty-training refresher course anyway. And she stayed dry all day today, at school and home...victory! I'm proud of her two-fold...I know how much those bladder infections can hurt so I'm pretty stinkin' impressed with her lack of complaining. And I'm proud she's using the potty again. It's the little things, right? :)

First day of school and 3 months

As if I weren't bad enough about blogging when I'm home for the summer, I'm sure you can tell that school has started from my silence. Yep, we're back at it, and it's going well. Ziva LOVES preschool, and came home the first two days spouting off verbatim what she'd learned. I'm so thankful she's already been at Rejoice for three years...it made this year an easy transition, which I realize and appreciate all the more when I hear there is still one little boy who cries all the time at school.

Zoe is also "at school" in the staff baby room. That baby room and the teachers, Donna and Angie (we miss Angie this year but it sounds like she's loving K4), have been one of the biggest blessings of all during my time at Rejoice so far. Zoe does great and is getting herself on a pretty good schedule. Donna reports just about every day that Zoe is happy all the time. She is just a joy!

Ziva's all ready for her first day of preschool!

September 1, 2011...Zoe is 3 months old, and that little lamb is looking smaller and smaller!

Hmm, another failed picture rotation....but still, check out that grin!

Are these girls sisters or what? It's Ziva and her mini-me!

Apparently I need to practice rotating pictures....I really do rotate them the right way before I put them on the blog, but I must be missing some secret step :)

Zoe is 2 months old

Hard to believe this little girl is already 9 weeks old! We had her 2 month check up on Monday, and she's doing great. The little trooper did well with her shots, and the only way I could tell it was affecting her was that she was extra sleepy. She weighs 11 lb, 10 oz, so that's about 2 more pounds in the last month! And she's 23 inches long....she's right around the 75th percentile for both her weight and height. She's outgrowing that lamb at a pretty fast clip!

Here's a smile we caught on camera...she's smiling, talking, and laughing a lot more now, so we're having lots of fun!

Killing bad guys

Ziva has been talking a lot lately about killing. She frequently makes comments about Daddy killing the bad guys at work, she talks about police and soldiers killing people, and occasionally she voices fear that someone will kill her. It has concerned me that my 3 year old is thinking about killing, and I wondered where in the world she's been getting such ideas, until a light bulb went off and it occurred to me--the only place Ziva hears about killing is in the Bible.

And it's had me thinking. These stories we read her, in any other context, I would probably shelter her from. But since they are in Scripture, we don't. We read them and talk about them, and even at this early age, try to teach her truth, even though it's hard. A lot of what Jesus taught was hard to hear, harder to live. Still is. But we can't gloss over it or leave it out because of that. It's there for a reason, and it's an important part of the puzzle, a very real aspect of the life of faith.

I think all those war stories, all the killing of the Old Testament, are visible, in-the-flesh reminders that the life of faith ultimately is a battle. No longer do we see God's people fighting against God's enemies, fighting for their home--at least not in the form of Jews fighting against Philistines, fighting for a piece of property. Today, Goliath comes in the form of "spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realm" (Eph. 6), all the more dangerous because unseen; the home we're fighting for is one we've not yet seen. And the not seeing makes it so hard for us to remember there's a war going on all around us. Perhaps the war scenes of the Old Testament are trying to remind us....this is happening right here, right now, all the time. Killing is still an important part of following God, but now it's putting to death self, killing the sinful nature, destroying anything that tries to turn my heart away from God toward something less, something empty. Now that's a concept that a 3 year old can't grasp...most adults still have a hard time with it too. So we continue to read the stories of battle and death and pray that what Ziva--what we all--take away from it is the knowledge that good must be fought for, in the world and in our own hearts. And victory is ours if we remain in Him.

A good night's sleep

Last night was Zoe's first night in her crib. We put her down and let her cry herself to sleep, which she did pretty quickly. She whimpered some off and on but finally settled into a good sleep. She woke up a couple times to eat but went straight back to sleep every time, and I felt like I got the most rest since we brought her home. Hopefully tonight will be a repeat! Here are a few pictures from this week...

I thought I rotated this one, but I guess it didn't take. Oh well. We have a picture of Zoe with this lamb her first few days at home, and they were the same size then. What a difference a month makes!

I think she looks like Grandma Ramirez in this one....what do you think?

Happy after nap time!

All dressed up in their red white and blue for the 4th!

Zoe has her eyes open more and more all the time, and she's so much fun. She's starting to "talk" and smile more...can't get enough!

Chunker - 1 month check up

Today was Zoe's one month check up, and she weighed in at 9 lb 2 oz! Our doctor laughed at how much she's gained...2 pounds in a little over 2 weeks! She's in the 45th percentile for both weight and height (21 inches), so she may not end up tall like Ziva, but time will tell. The best news is that I don't have to wake her up at night to eat anymore. I forgot to set an alarm last night anyway, and she slept 5 1/2 hours before waking up, so I'm hoping I can start getting a teeny bit more sleep. We'll see :)

24 days

First of all, let me say "Happy Birthday" to my brother Ross! I didn't get a chance to call him today, so this is my birthday shout out...we love you and can't wait to see you again! I will try to call you tomorrow :)

And since Zoe has yet to reach the one month mark, we're still counting by days, so today is 24. She is growing fast, and I can't wait to see what she weighs at her check up next Friday. Breastfeeding experiment #2 hasn't been as miserable a failure as it was the first time around with Ziva, but it has been a failure nevertheless. So I'm pumping again, which I said I wouldn't, but this way Zoe's still getting breastmilk, just in the bottle. And I'm pretty much guessing on how much I should give her, based on how often she gets hungry and how much she drinks, and she seems to be a bigger eater than I remember Ziva being. So we'll see in a week how she's packing on the pounds!

Overall she's a pretty easy baby....she still sleeps a lot, and sleeps pretty well at night, which is great. She's not usually too fussy, sometimes just for a while in the evening. Typically she's fussiest right at Ziva's bedtime, so my stress level is maxed out, but it's okay. At Ziva's 3 year check up, our pediatrician quoted a saying from Bill Cosby, something to the effect that you're not really a parent until you have more than one kid. I scoffed at it then....one is plenty of work! But oh man. It's kinda true. One to two has been challenging in some ways, but mostly ways I hadn't expected or thought about, which makes it seem harder than it probably is. Post-partum hormones probably also make everything seem harder than it actually is :) The biggest shock to my system is just not having Ziva as my baby anymore. Suddenly she's a BIG girl, and it's funny how my expectations of her changed so quickly. She's doing great and loves being a big sister, but I know it's hard on her sometimes, and that's hard on me. But just tonight I was praying and remembered that it's a really good thing for her to learn that it's not all about her, to learn to share and have to wait for things and think about someone else besides herself. Even if it's painful at times, those are great life lessons and if we could somehow go through this transition without her learning those things, she'd be missing out in the long run. And I will keep reminding myself of that, day after day. I will need it, I'm sure.

Vince with his girls on Father's Day...we got to go to church for the first time with all four of us.

How sweet is this?

We're seeing more and more alert time, and I've even gotten some coos and smiles in the last few days. I know it's early but I swear they're real smiles....

We had family over for Father's Day, and Uncle Nate was able to come meet Zoe for the first time. Ziva's looking very serious in her big sister role.

Already climbing over the couch :)