Zoe's 9th month

Time for another photo-report, isn't it?

Well, our baby Zoe is now fully independent little person (or so she thinks anyways:) She can crawl around the house all on her own and faster than you can blink! In the past month she also learned how to stand up using support and now she stands up anywhere where there is something to hold on to-coffee table is the favorite, couch, high chair, anyone's leg, Meeshka (if he lets her), etc.
Her area of reach has vastly expanded since last month and now includes all low surfaces and shelves around the hohuse. Zoe likes to grab every object she can reach and throw it on the floor to get acquainted. Sometimes, when there is nothing new and interesting on the table, Zoe doesn't even bother to grab the objects- she just performs a generous swipe with her hand across the coffee table, sending an avalanche of table-top objects on the floor:) Way to keep her parents in check to keep her house in order!

It is now a rare scene to witness Zoe quietly sitting on her play blanket and playing with a toy:


Most of the times she seems to be on some mission:
such as:
...the phone cord needs to be traced to its origin:
...the rug needs to be checked and rearranged:
...the shelves in daddy's office need to be organized better:

Some of Zoe's favorite toys include a box of tissue (which she now can grab off the coffee table by herself!) and any shoes (especially if they have laces!):
She also likes to watch her new Baby Eistein videos- she has seen baby Bach and baby Bethoven so far. We don't let her watch it for too long of course, even though there is no need for the time limit yet- it keeps her attention for about 5 minutes at a time:

Since Zoe loves music, on her 8th Month birthday we tried introducing a home made percussions set to her- a bunch of stainless steel bowls and a wooden spoon.
Zoe tried the drum set but after the spoon flew out of her hands a few times......
She decided that banging on things with her hands is much easier and that this wasn't her type of music anyways... but she did like the pretty little girl that was looking at her from every bowl :)
..but then she saw an unattended slipper left by the couch, and hurried to examine it.


Now that she is so independent, Zoe also started helping her Daddy with his computer work...
...as well as makes sure that his desk is well organized and random CDs are not laying around:

Zoe also helps her mama play daddy in chess, before she goes to bed:
And here she is telling daddy he is in Check!

And finally, Zoe always gives enough attention to her loyal guard and friend- Meeshka!
Meeshka loves her and listens to everything she has to tell him:
And sometimes, if we ask him nicely, he doesn't mind it when Zoe tries to go Meeshka-back riding:
But most of the time, he is a little scared of Zoe and runs away from her, although she is just trying to play with him! He just doesn't seem to like the "let's pull this pretty fluffy tail" game.
But Zoe doesn't give up- she chases after Meeshka all over the house and doesn't get upset when he moves right before she gets to him:

Zoe's 8th month

Another month slipped away and it's hard to believe that a month ago Zoe was just starting to crawl and learning to sit up. So much has changed in just a few weeks that have gone by. Here are some highlights:

For her 7th month birthday Zoe got a cool new toy- springy door bouncer! It was love at first hop! She loves to jump in it, making funny little noises as she jumps and spinning around when she wants to check out what's going on in the other room.



We try to introduce something new to her on every month birthday- this time she got to play with new shape and texture- grapes!!!





Zoe did squash a few on aunt Ashley's lap, but her aunt didn't mind :)
Now grapes are one of Zoe's favorite things to play with- She even pretends to eat them-- she will hold one grape in her fist, stick the whole fist in her little mouth and (without letting go of the grape) starts "chewing" and making uhm-uhm-nyam noises- really cute and funny :)
Whenever I need to distract Zoe (as when I need to sneak in a few spoons of kasha, as of recently)- putting a bundle of grapes in front of her so far have worked 99% of the time :)




The big accomplishment of the month was learning how to sit up on her own!
It was really exciting to see Zoe figure it out. I was lucky to have the camera handy when Zoe did it for the first time! Here it is:




She was crawling towards a toy when she decided to take a break and stopped. She contemplated what she should do next for a few seconds and then...





....she folded one leg and sat up!
It looked so easy and natural as though she's always been able to do it.








Over the next couple of weeks Zoe continued working on her sitting up skill tirelessly, and when that was perfected, she moved on to learning a new technique for moving around: Meeshka-back riding:)


The next exciting event of the month was attending little Angus' 3-year old birthday party. The party was at the pool so of course Zoe loved it!! She showed all the kids there what a skilled swimmer and diver she is!


And here she is swimming with "uncle" Owen:
This was a great birthday party- not only did Zoe get to swim and play in the water, she also met a real Clemson Tiger!!!!

And finally, the big adventure of the month for baby Zoe was her first long-distance trip- she took her parents along and went to visit friends in New York City!!
The flight time was great- Zoe wasn't scared a bit, she played the entire time enjoying full and undivided attention of mommy and daddy. When the flight was over she collected a few complements on what a well-behaved baby she is from several passengers. Of course she was well behaved- she was in a great mood knowing that she is going to one of the funnest cities on the planet!

In New York Zoe got to meet family friends Vladimir and Anastasia and hang out with them. She also made a short day-trip to New Haven (Connecticut) where her mommy will be going to Yale soon- she must not have been very impressed as she slept most of the way (in her defense it was brrreally cold and gray there.
But her favorite part of the New York trip was the Sunday afternoon she spent hanging out in downtown Manhattan with her parents and their friend Vladimir.

First she ate lunch at an Italian restaurant where she tasted some Italian bread

After the dinner, we went for a short stroll outside.


















It was very cold that day, and although Zoe was warm in her pink bunting, she was happy when we got to the nearby cafe-bar, where she shed her fuzzy "space suit" and could move and wiggle around freely again.



We stopped by a nearby bar where a friend of a friend was bar-tending that evening. ( I have to admit that the no-smoking in bars and restaurants law in New York makes all the places much more baby-friendly :)

Baby Zoe got bored with dull adult-conversation topics and ventured to explore the bar counter. As it was early Sunday evening and the bar was mostly empty at that time, the bartender let her explore the counter top and kindly picked up the avalanche of toys that somehow kept shooting behind the bar.
Baby Zoe got bored with dull adult-conversation topics and ventured to explore the bar counter.



All in all this was a great trip- the entire family really enjoyed it.

Zoe was so full of all the new impressions that she happily slept on the plane the whole way back to Charlotte.

Although she had great time in New York City, Zoe was also happy to get back to her warm home state, after all-she is a little southern girl right now. Snow is nice, but not as nice as a warm sunny day -the kind you spend playing at the park.
Here's Zoe and her new friend Anya (a Latvian/Estonian girl, only 3 days older than Zoe!), at a park close to our home, just a few days after our New York trip.

Will be back soon!