Courtyard side of the apartment building.

Views from our balcony.  Left – view of DC.  (The tall spire in the background is the Washington Monument.)  Right – view of nearby Quincy Playfield.

Just so there’s a little something about the kiddos.  Here’s a recent pic of the “3 amigos” hanging out.  I wonder if they’ll continue this relationship: Cole oblivious to Zoe, Zoe watching over Cole like a mother hen, and Zeke wanting desperately to join in the fun.

Birth:

Cole was born by c-section 7 weeks early.  Check out the blog entry “Craziness Ensues” for more details.  Weight – 4 pounds, 6 ounces.  Length - 17.72 inches

After I was induced, Zoe was born vaginally and full term.  Weight – 6 pounds, 13 ounces.  Length – 19 inches long. 

1st month:

Most of Cole’s first month was spent in the NICU.  He came home when he was three weeks old, and after he dropped to 4 pounds, 1 ounce, he weighed 4 pounds, 15 ounces at the time of discharge.  After that, it was pretty much eat, sleep, poop, repeat.  1 month check-up stats: Weight – 6 pounds, 4.5 ounces.  Length - 18.5 inches.

Zoe came home after 3 days in the hospital and weighed around 6 pounds, 2 ounces.  She pretty much slept, pooped, and ate, but she did have a difficult time eating in the beginning.  1 month check-up stats: Weight – 7 pounds, 12 ounces.  Length – 20 inches.

2nd month:

Cole is now spending more time awake and will even stay awake between feedings occasionally.  He can hold his head up for short periods of time, can smile and coo, and he’s rolled from his tummy to his back once.   His little quirk: all of his “noises” - he bleets like a goat, trumpets like an elephant, and occasionally whinnies like a horse.  His favorite things: Halo sleep sack, being held, watching Zoe.  His least favorite things: the carseat and generally being strapped into something (swing, stroller, bouncy chair, etc).  2 month stats: Weight – 8 pounds, 14.5 ounces.  Length – 20.5 inches.

Ahhh, the 2nd month of Zoe’s life.  I don’t really remember the 2nd month of her life except the crying and lack of sleep (on all of our parts!).  I do remember that she had really good head control and was beginning to roll over at this point.  Her favorite things: the sling, the water fountain in our backyard, being outside in the scorching summer heat.  Her least favorite things: being on her back or not being held; cold air.  2-month stats: Weight - 9 pounds, 8.5 ounces.  Length – 21.5 inches.

With 2 kids under the age of 3 and one being an infant, Kirk and I did a lot of research and going back and forth on what type of stroller to purchase.  Here’s the winner: the Phil & Ted Sport Stroller.  It’s the footprint of a regular jogger, but 2 kids can ride.   Zoe’s seat is removeable.  Once Cole is able to sit, Zoe’s chair is removed and placed “underneath” Cole’s current seat.  Zoe’s seat then becomes Cole’s seat.   Here’s the configuration of an infant and toddler: Where’s Cole?Still no Cole!

 There he is!Zoe’s seat removed

  Where’s Zoe?

 Caught in the act of taking her picture (remind me to strangle Zeke one day)!  She usually sleeps ”upside-down” – with her head at the foot of her bed.

The weekend before Easter, we attempted to take part in the Queens University Easter Egg Hunt, but we arrived about 10 minutes too late.  Even though Zoe didn’t get a chance to find some eggs, she met Rex (the school’s mascot) as well as the Easter Bunny and had a little fun running around on the lawn.

Zoe and the Easter Bunny.

The following Sunday, Cole was discharged from the hospital – yipee!!  We have a video of us leaving the NICU and of Zoe meeting Cole for the first time, but I haven’t had a chance to look and edit it yet (Hmm, wonder why?).  Here’s a picture of us when we got home (not sure why, but we don’t have a pic of all 4 ouf us).

The week before Easter was Spring Break as well as crummy weather (boo, hiss), and Zoe was literally running up the walls.  So we invited a few of Zoe’s friends over for Easter egg dyeing, an Easter egg hunt, and a picnic lunch.  I think the kiddos had a great time, and Zoe burned some pent-up energy (although she got a massive sugar high from all the m&m’s)

 Ooohh!  Zoe found a pink egg!

  What a difference a year makes!  Where did our babies go?!

Mia, Kate, Zoe, and Aston pig out on M&Ms.

Kirk and Zoe pose before the Alston and Bird, LLP Corporate Cup Run.  Apparently, Zoe felt her tiger should go for the run as well.

 Zoe hangs out in her ride for the run.

 One of 1st warm Spring days, I filled up the water table outside and Zoe had a blast; the water table now has a beach added from her sand box complete with rocks that she’s found lying around in the yard.  She decided that the hat completed her outfit.

Cole’s Entrance into the Big, Wide, World:

  At around 24 weeks of my pregnancy, I was diagnosed with placenta previa.  Basically, Cole’s placenta attached to the lower part of my uterus instead of the upper part and ended up covering the entrance to the birth canal.  No biggie – I was going to schedule a c-section a few weeks early so there wouldn’t be any complications, and the doctors said to expect spontaneous bleeding as I got closer to my due date.  With every bleed (I had 2 after I was diagnosed.), I called the doctor and then went to the hospital to make sure everything was A-OK.  The 1st one was scary (Kirk and I were in DC at the time), but after 6 hours of IV fluids and strict instructions to stay off my feet, we were allowed back to the hotel.  The 2nd one happened around 3:30am on Mar. 13th.  I called the MD, who then said call for an ambulance, which I did.  After being admitted into the hospital, I was told that I would be staying until at least Mon because the MD wanted to do a couple of steroid injections to help speed up Cole’s development, just in case.  Everything was honky-dory; the MD was allowing me to get up to use the bathroom, and they were getting ready to take me off the monitors and send me to the special maternal care ward when I started bleeding again, but this time, it was coupled with regular uterine contractions.  The nurse gave me terbutyline to help slow the contractions down, but I started bleeding again (it’s now around 12am, Mar 14th.)  The MD said enough is enough and decided to do an emergency c-section.  By the time the nurse called Kirk (he was at home to get some good sleep and to help with Zoe), it took the MD 30 minutes to bring Cole into the world.  Here are some pics of Cole’s first few weeks:

Cole weighed 3 pounds, 13 ounces at birth.  Because he was 7 weeks early, he had to have some help breathing (contraption around his head) with bubble CPAP for about 48 hours, received his fluids by an IV for about a week, and hung out in an incubator for about a week and a half.

  Yeah!! No more CPAP.  The white “stickers” are leads for his heart monitor; the “heart sticker” is to  make sure his bed stays warm enough, the tube coming out of his mouth is a feeding tube, and the white wire coming out of his umbilical stump is his IV.

Amy holds Cole for the first time.

 Proud parents.  Cole is no longer in the incubator!  He also is taking all of his feedings from a bottle or the breast, and only has his heart rate monitor and pulse oximeter leads.

Uncle Corey meets Cole for the 1st time.

Here are some pictures that Kirk took of Zoe and me:

After her nap yesterday, Zoe decided that she didn’t want to put her jeans back on (I had her layered with some baby leg warmers instead of purchasing snow pants for her to wear once or twice.), and both Kirk and I thought she looked like she was getting ready to go jazzercise.  Here are a couple of pictures:

 Her leg warmers actually go all the way to her thighs, but she decided they were more comfortable in true leg warmer style.

Holy cow!  The last  “milestone” update I did was back in August!!  It seems like yesterday, but in reality, it’s been 6 months since I really mentioned all the cool things Zoe is doing these days.  Here’s the latest:

Communication:  This is probably the biggest change since August.  Zoe is now saying all sorts of words and phrases(but she usually needs a translator).  Her main words: Daddy, Mommy, Ollie, Zeke, cheese, hot dog (dot dog), strawberries (straw), blueberries, grapes (ape), banana (nana), pizza, chips (4-letter s-word), cheerios (cheer), oatmeal, grits (4-letter s-word), french toast (sah toe), shoes, socks, shirt (used for all clothing), hat (dat), slide, sleep, bear, baby, duck, bye-bye, hi, boo, airplane (sane), ball (dall), truck (specific sound, but I can’t phonetically spell it), fork (4-letter s-word), spoon (poon), plate (bate), bowl, cup (sup), up, down, chair, yellow (ye-yo), blue (bu), green (seen), red, pink (pinx), black (back), purple (puple), pasta (pah),  jump (sump), run (un, un, un), bee, Maisie (ze-ze), Kate (date), Mia, Aston (astah), Grace (bace), Kissha (seshah), bus, Gus (us),  Anna, Jack (shack), please (seese), thank you (dank you), pat, love (uv), more, milk (I think it sounds like nilk), water (wah-wah), juice (uce), outside, ride (ide), color (yeyoe-bu), bird, giraffe (raffe), elmo (ya-ya), big bird, Abbey, fish (shah), train (choo-choo).  Her main phrases: All done shirt, shoes, socks, etc (especially if you’re wearing a hoodie or a coat); get down; bear, baby, (anything that is lying down) sleep; this way (dis way); this car (dis sah); pizza, yeah!; bye-bye (and a person’s name); yellow duck (yeyoe duck); yellow bus (yeyoe bus); one more (un ore with 1 finger held up to her mouth), pooh bear.  Animal sounds: Zoe generally uses the animal sound for the name of the specific animal with the only exceptions being bear and duck.  Dog (Uff-uff); Cat (e-ow); Lion or tiger (she roars); Sheep (baa-baa); mouse (eek-eek); horse, zebra, or seahorse (used to be a good neigh, but has now changed to a high pitched squeal); pig (enh, enh); squirrel (similar to the mouse and pig sound); bird (sweet, sweet); elephant (purse your lips together and blow like you’re going to blow through a trumpet mouthpiece); monkey (similar to squirrel sound); snake (sssss…); bunny (enh, enh while moving her arm up and down in the air); panda bear (sounds like baby).  I think I’m missing some, but I think you get the picture.

Motor skills:  Zoe’s gross motor skills have definitely slowed down.  She continues to perfect her jumping and is able to jump with a 2-footed take off and landing, but it’s inconsistent.  She can step down a 2″  to 4″ step independently but prefers to “slide” down stairs if there is more than one step.  She can step up stairs with one-hand-held, but she prefers to climb up on her hands and feet.   She is able to kick and throw a ball, stand on 1 foot for 1-2 seconds, attempts to catch a ball, and walk on a balance beam with 1-hand-held.  I also think that she is part monkey; the girl can hoist herself up onto just about anything she sets her mind to (a little scary at times — we once found her standing on top of the breakfast table).  As far as fine motor skills go, she loves to color and is now trying to draw circles, but really likes to scribble (mostly horizontal).  She is able to do simple shape puzzles by herself and loves to build towers with various types of blocks (wood, duplo, bristle, etc).

Self-help: Takes off shoes, socks, shirts, hats, and unzippered coats independently.  Can put on hats independently.  Will help to put on shirts, pants, shoes, socks, and coats.  (Zoe loves to put on my shirts that are in the laundry and wear them as dresses.)  Can eat with a spoon pretty proficiently and will eat with a fork (takes a while with the whole stabbing thing), but she prefers to eat with her fingers.  Will drink from an open cup if she’s sitting in her high chair.

Cognitive: Zoe loves to please, and one of her favorite things to do is to help.  She loves to give you the dogs’ bowls when they’re all done eating, close the dishwasher (whether we’re done or not), pull the laundry out of the dryer, and wash her bathtime coloring board.  She’s also beginning to really play pretend: she feeds her baby or bear, puts them to bed (puts a blanket over them with their head sticking out, and then gives them a pat), and probably our favorite: she will woof while crawling on her hands and knees, pretending to be a dog.  She’s also imitating “grown-up” activities: sweeping, wiping the table, mowing the grass, and cooking.  Primarily at meal time, we’re beginning to give her choices (such as oatmeal versus cereal, or water versus milk).  And, she can point to the colors red, orange, yellow, green, blue, purple, pink, and black; she will verbally tell you the correct color about 75% of the time for yellow, blue, red, green, and pink.  We are beginning to see some signs of some feistiness (it’s about time!) – she continues to hit both Mommy and Daddy (usually when she’s tired), and she’s now pulling on the dogs’ fur – sooo… we are now doing time outs, and unbelievably, they work!!  (Thank you Betsey and Denise for your great ideas!) 

We are still doing the tooth count because, well, she doesn’t have all that many.  You can now clearly see 5 teeth (3 upper and 2 bottom); she now has the upper tooth on the left (between the front tooth and eye tooth) and all four molars (but you can’t really see these because they’re just now poking through her gums).  I think she may be trying to cut a couple of more teeth because she’s really chewing on her fingers, but I can never really tell.  

 All in all, the last 6 months have been an absolute blast.  I can’t wait to see what Zoe has in store for us in the upcoming months!!

Zoe, age 18 months, shows off the “outfit” of the day.

Inauguration Day/Snow Day: On Inauguration Day, we woke up to around 2 inches of snow.  (I know for a lot of you that’s just a dusting, but here in the Carolinas, it’s definitely a snow day.)  I had a feeling that it wouldn’t be around by the afternoon, so I bundled Zoe up and let her check out her 1st snow.  Needless to say, she didn’t really enjoy it; first, her mittens are too big so they kept falling off; second, her coat prevented her from moving as easily as she likes, and if you put the 2 together, it meant that whenever she fell, she couldn’t get up, which made her mad.  Oh well, maybe next year will be better.

1. WAS YOUR FIRST PREGNANCY PLANNED? Yes
2. WERE YOU MARRIED AT THE TIME? Yes
3. WHAT WERE YOUR REACTIONS? Thrilled beyond belief. I think I did a little jump for joy.
4. HOW OLD WERE YOU? 31
5. HOW DID YOU FIND OUT YOU WERE PREGNANT? Took a pregnancy test at home while Kirk was out of town.
6. WHO DID YOU TELL FIRST? Technically, the dogs. (see #6) Kirk – I told him I had a surprise for him, but when he got home, I “pretended” that I forgot, let him mow the lawn and take a shower. He asked about the surprise, which was a book for expecting dads.
7. DID YOU WANT TO FIND OUT THE SEX? No
8.DUE DATE? June 18th
9.DID YOU HAVE MORNING SICKNESS? Not really. I think I can count on one hand the number of times I got sick.
10.WHAT DID YOU CRAVE? Never really craved anything, but I really didn’t want anything that had Asian flavor to it.
11. WHO/WHAT IRRITATED YOU THE MOST? I loved being pregnant and didn’t mind the aches, heartburn, sleepless nights, yucky clothes, etc. But I did not like going to the OB twice a week during my last month of pregnancy for non-stress testing.
12. WHAT WAS YOUR FIRST CHILD’S SEX? Girl
13. DID YOU WISH YOU HAD THE OPPOSITE SEX OF WHAT YOU WERE GETTING? It didn’t really matter, but I slightly preferred a girl.
14. HOW MANY POUNDS DID YOU GAIN? 22 pounds.
15. DID YOU HAVE A BABY SHOWER? Yes
16. WAS IT A SURPRISE OR DID YOU KNOW? Planned
17.DID YOU HAVE ANY COMPLICATIONS DURING YOUR PREGNANCY? At our 20 week ultrasound, Zoe had a choroid plexus cyst still present (normal in development, but is generally gone by the ultrasound — it went away eventually).  Received another ultrasound a month later and found out I had low amniotic fluid levels — had to take it easy, receive a couple more ultrasounds, do non-stress testing, and the OB didn’t want me to go past my due date.
18. WHERE DID YOU GIVE BIRTH? Presbyterian Main, Charlotte, NC
19. HOW MANY HOURS WERE YOU IN LABOR? About 8 1/2 hours. I was induced at 7am Friday morning, and Zoe was born around 3:45pm Friday afternoon
20. WHO DROVE YOU TO THE HOSPITAL? Kirk
21. WHO WATCHED YOU GIVE BIRTH? Kirk (and the nurses/doc)
22. WAS IT NATURAL OR C-SECTION? Natural
23. DID YOU TAKE MEDICINE TO EASE THE PAIN? Except for the pitocin and IV fluids, it was au naturelle.
24. HOW MUCH DID YOUR CHILD WEIGH? 6lbs, 12oz
25. WHEN WAS YOUR CHILD ACTUALLY BORN? June 15, 2007
26. WHAT DID YOU NAME YOUR CHILD? Zoe Scarlett Bradley
27. HOW OLD IS YOUR FIRST BORN TODAY? 19 months

We hope everyone had a wonderful holiday season and that your new year is well under way.  We had a busy couple of weeks, and it’s taken me awhile to get back into the swing of things…so here is everything that went on during Christmas and New Year’s.

Christmas, Part I (Christmas Eve and Christmas Day): The actual day (and the couple surrounding it) was spent with my family in the bustling metropolis of Rocky Mount.  Zoe did a great job entertaining everyone, including some of the neighbors who stopped by to visit, and I think we all had a lot of fun.  Santa brought her a rocking horse and a Tickle Me Elmo, which she loved and still does, although now she tries to have her animals ride the rocking horse and Elmo goes to “sleep” a lot.  The other gifts she thoroughly enjoys is her baby doll stroller from Gramma Joanie and Papa Joe and her “life-size” Winnie-the-Pooh from her Uncle Corey.  Here are a couple of videos from Christmas.

Christmas, Part II (Also Known As New Year’s Eve and Day): New Year’s Eve and Day were spent with Kirk’s family in Asheville.  We (Kirk and me) spent New Year’s Eve on the town with Kirk’s brother, Kyle, and his wife, Melanie, while Grandmommy and Granddaddy listened to their grandbabies sleep.  We opened presents on New Year’s Day and then watched Clemson lose (yet, again) in the Gator Bowl to Nebraska.  The rest of the time was spent hanging out with each other.  Zoe had a grand time with all of her gifts, especially the baby doll and kitchen playset from Grandmommy and Granddaddy, and she also loves the book of nursery rhymes from Uncle Kyle, Aunt Melanie, Reese, and Davis.  I think my favorite part of the weekend was not just hanging out with everyone but also watching Zoe crack up while chasing Cooper (the dog) and listening to Zoe ask for Reese (“Beese”) and Cooper (“Cooh-pear,” sounds like pooh bear).