Ringing in the New Year : 2012

Happy New Year! What a year of change this past year has brought to us. What will the new year hold? First steps? First words? First birthday? Though Zoë has only been a part of our family for about 8 months now, it is hard to imagine what life was like before she came around. As you can see, Zoë is SUPER excited about 2012!

Our New Year's Eve festivities included "sleeping in" (more like going back to bed :), attending a birthday party of one of Zoë's friends, getting a treat at DQ, then enjoying a nice little party of our own after the little one went to bed. You can't go wrong with sparkling grape juice and bbq little smokies!

2011 ended with another first: the first boo-boo. :*( Thankfully, our neighbor Janelle was prepared with neosporin spray and a mini "Dora" bandaid. Bandaids really do make everything better! Mommy's New Year's resolution is to learn to think and see like a baby to better prevent and protect my sweet cheeks from harm. Gates are ordered and on their way! Now to figure out what to do with all those cords...

What does 2012 hold for the Poppen family? Well, at this point it seems as though we will be staying in Holland, Michigan one more year. Zac will graduate with a Master of Divinity on May 7th (Zoë's birthday!), then hopefully will continue at Western Theological Seminary for a year to complete a Master of Theology and prepare applications for a Ph.D. program. Otherwise, our prayer for this year is to become better listeners as we seek God's guidance in every aspect of our lives and for the life of our little one.

May the Lord bless you and keep you in this coming year; may he make his face shine upon you and give you peace!

Merry Christmas!

What a delight to share the joy of Christmas with our sweet Zoë! 

"Behold, a virgin will be with child, and will bring forth a son, and they will call his name Immanuel, which means, 'God with us.'" Matthew 1:23

"And the glory of the LORD will be revealed, and all flesh will see it together. For the mouth of the LORD has spoken it. O Zion, that brings good tidings, get up into the high mountain; O Jerusalem, that brings good tidings, lift up thy voice with strength; lift it up, be not afraid; say unto the cities of Judah, 'Behold your God!'"  Isaiah 40:5,9

"The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth." John 1:14

Wishing you all the love, peace and joy of Christ our Lord and Savior this Christmas Day! 

Giggles & Babbles

Time for some more home videos!

All I want for Christmas is...

My two front teeth! 

Here are the lovely toofers :)

(with a third one on the way...)

So I can wish you Merry Christmas!! 

Let It Snow!

We woke up this morning to a beautiful winter-wonderland! Our first true snow of the year. So, of course, Zoë and I had to go outside and play. 

 My little snow angel :)

Checkin' it out...

 It was a little chilly outside, so we brought the snow inside with us for a little "fun"

"Mommy, what is this stuff?? It's a little weird."

"Mommy this is cold! I don't think I like it..."

"MOMMY!!! I don't want to hold on to this anymore!!! Get it out of my hand!!!"

So, maybe mommy had a little more fun that Zoë did, but hey - we'll love having pictures that show the full range of her emotions. Don't worry, I put down the camera, helped her unclamp her hand, got her out of the highchair and blew warm air on her hands. She liked that very much! 

Happy winter!

What's that you said? Seven Months Already?!

Our little Sweet "P" is growing up so fast! Today marks 7 crazy-wonderful months of life. At Zoë's last appointment on November 27th, she weighed 15 lbs 12 oz, and was 27 1/2 inches tall. The pediatrician said he's never seen a baby her age with so much personality!

This past month has been filled with adorable babbling, silly giggles, sitting and rolling, messy food-faces, backwards wiggling, hanging upside-down and discovering more fun ways to interact with one another.

No crawling yet (thank you Jesus!), but this little girl can scooch herself backwards and in circles all around the living room. Zoë is a curious creature - already getting herself into things, like pulling on the cord for the blinds or trying to pullover my potted plant. Zoë also loves paper. Yes, paper. A crumpled up magazine page will keep her entertained for quite some time!

Those little hands have been very active, passing objects from one to the other and often holding two things at once. Today I even saw what may have been her first wave! As far as eating goes - there has been more "munch" and "mess" than actual eating, and Zoë's strong gag reflex is keeping her from learning the important skill of swallowing. So, for now she sticks to "lick-munch-suck-spit." But she does like the taste of things - apples especially, mango, pear, carrots and multi-grain cheerios.

Look at that big girl sitting up all by herself! 

Oh, and another thing that has been going on...teething! Nothing much to show yet, but there are two little pearly white peaks poking out from her bottom gum. It's been a week already without much progress and quite a bit of pain, but we are hoping that they will come in by Christmas. :)

Thankful for Family

Ready for takeoff! 

Last week our little family flew to Portland, Oregon to stay with my grandparents in the Dalles and then in a lodge full of wonderful relatives in Corbett for Thanksgiving. Zoë did alright on her first day of flying, though we had a few rough bouts.

Zoë and daddy playing at the airport 

in Dallas during our layover

There are three kinds of babies on airplanes: the perfect, silent and happy baby, the intermittently crying baby, and the screaming-bloody-murder baby. Can you guess which one Zoë is? Yep, that's right. She's a screamer. The flights home went much better, partially because they were in the early morning (vs. afternoon/evening) and partially because she got all her screaming out the night before. Ufta.

Moving on to better things...

Awaiting us in Oregon were several very excited family members who had never met Zoë or had not seen her for 5 months: Lola (my mom), Oma and Opa (my grandparents), Uncles Judah, Kenny and Corby (my brothers), and many Great Aunts, Great Uncles and cousins! Zoë was full of life as always, giggling and wiggling and scooching, and l-o-v-i-n-g all the attention!

Zoë with Lola (Tagalog for "Grandma")

Zoë showing off her new favorite activity,

 "the gallop" to Sumiko, my Grandma's neighbor

 and long time family friend

 Auntie Nancy showing Zoë how to walk

 Being adored by her cousins Rachel and Anna

Checkin' out cousin Wesley's cool game

 while being held by cousin Michaela

Conversing with Uncle Corby and soon-to-be Aunt Mary

Playin' piano with Uncle Kenny

Four generations of the Farner family tree!

Oma and Opa - Zoë's only living Great Grandparents

(and she is currently the only Great Grandchild!)

Happy Thanksgiving everyone! 

Zoë tried the sweet potatoes but wasn't too thrilled. 

Oh well. More for mommy.

Chillin' with Uncle Judah (a.k.a "the baby whisperer")

And the day after Thanksgiving is...Christmas! 

We like to hit up all the holidays at once.

 Here Zoë is showing off her Christmas 

colors with Auntie Heidi

My mom looks far too good to be a grandma

Practicing for future piggy-back rides on Uncle Corby

What a good lookin' bunch! 

The Farner Clan

I am so thankful for such a beautiful and loving family, and that we were able to introduce our little bundle of life to them all. I just wish we lived a little (a lot!) closer!

Happy Half-Birthday, Zo-Zo!

Wow! 6 months already? Yes, it's true - some days (and nights!) seemed to drag on forever, but overall time has passed quickly. Zoë has grown and changed; we have grown and changed. The last six months have been the most wonderful and most difficult, most life-giving and most exhausting.

Through it all, Zoë has taught us that we are inadequate in and of ourselves, we love conditionally, we are self-centered and lack self-control, and that I in particular turn into an erupting volcano of not-niceness when sleep-deprived. We need God desperately and are fully dependent on Him, just as this little one is fully dependent on us, and we need His grace every day to help us to be the parents to Zoë that he desires us to be.

Zac and I just began reading Gary Thomas' "Sacred Parenting" last night and wish we had started several months ago. If you are a parent or will be one, you need to check this out! The premise is "how raising children shapes our souls":

"Christian parenting is truly a sacred journey. 

It invites us to purify ourselves, to use the process 

of raising kids to perfect holiness [in ourselves], 

and to do this consistently, every day, 

out of reverence for God."

Enough about us! 
Here's what Zoë has been up to this past month :

-  Rolled over! I can't keep her on her back longer than a second anymore!

- Learned the "inchworm scooch" to move in circles on her tummy

- Passed objects from one hand to the other

- Played with banana and avocado on her tray...and maybe licked some off her fingers. She does love to lick apples, though!

- Had a sinus infection, diarrhea for 2+ weeks 4-5 times a day, then caught a cold

- Learned to play games with mommy, like "Where's Zoë?...There she is!" when putting her clothes on, and a version of hide-n-seek.

- Learned how to take her pacifier out and hold it...but not to put it back in.

- Lost pacifier privileges during the night after a rough couple of weeks of waking up every hour, and now she sleeps M-U-C-H better. Hopefully she will continue to do so!

- Started showing signs of separation anxiety (oh no!)

- Learned to shake her head side to side (as if saying no). This has become her #1 method for escaping medicine and the boogie-syringe. But she also does it just for kicks.

- Giggled, giggled and giggled some more! We love the giggles.

- Became more articulate and varied in her babbling and squealing

- Is very close to being able to sit up all by herself without toppling over

- Is starting to understand patterns and has learned to expect certain events

- Turned pages in board books (well, mostly. She turns it halfway, then tries to stick it in her mouth)

Special thanks to Brooke Ann Hill Photography for the wonderful family pictures!

Talk it Up!

Here is a little taste of Zoë's progression of cooing & babbling from 3 months until now (almost 6 months!). Enjoy!

Rolling-Rolling-Rolling...

Well, not sequentially (though we have heard that is coming soon), but Zoë did discover how to roll from her back to her tummy a few days ago and has kept rollin' ever since! No more of this boring lying-on-her-back business; Zoë is ready to take on the world from a different viewpoint.

Next step: the army crawl...and we got a little taste of that today. Yikes! Mommy better get her running shoes on!

Cute Lil' Pumpkin

Before Zoë was born, we were loaned a box full of girl clothes, including this pumpkin costume. Can you believe that it just happened to be her perfect size almost six months later? Just in time for Halloween to show our lil' pumpkin off at our church's "Trunk or Treat."Definitely the cutest pumpkin I've ever seen!