December

December was an interesting month for our family. Ryan got deployed for Hurricane Sandy Relief on November 10. He was gone until December 20! I was doing a lot of single-mom'ing it. Thankfully, family lives here, and they helped me to not feel as lonely while he was away. That being said, it was obviously very busy. Since I wasn't hanging out with him at night, I had time to make a lot of Christmas gifts and even some decorations for the house. We kept busy and missed him a lot, and we're very thankful he got to be home with us for Christmas. It was a big answer to prayer.

Here's what Zooey was up to:
~ After not being into coloring as much, she resumed her love for it. She started coloring people, mostly circles, sometimes with dots for eyes. She likes to draw Mommy, Daddy & Zooey.
~ She had a lot of speech and language growth this month. The SLP who is her BSF leader and her SLP at school noticed a big change this month with lots more language and better pronunciation. She started using 5-6 word sentences more frequently.
~ The SLP also noticed she's gotten much more purposeful in her play. I noticed this, too. She's very imaginitive and has a definite focus and goal in what she's doing.
~ She loves the fingerplays she's learning at BSF and wants to sing them all the time.
~ When I took her to see Santa, she told me she was going to ask Santa for a kiss from Daddy and for Daddy to come home. :)
~ Christmas was so much different for her this year. She knew just what to do and loved opening gifts and playing with them. She liked to say, "Ho Ho Ho! Merry Christmas!" Like any kid, she also grabbed a couple of my gifts and tore into them, as well. :)

I thought a lot about gratitude and living every moment to it's fullest this month. I sat watching the news about the tragedy this month in Newtown, CT. I bawled. I could not wrap my head around how someone could do something so senseless...so evil...to little children. My heart wrenches in grief for those poor parents (& siblings & other family members) every time I think about it.

Some days, I am not very patient with Zooey. I yell. I get mad about stupid things that Ryan's (normal, healthy) response to is: "She's three." I rush her out the door to get places in the morning and I sometimes rush her down to bed at night, so I can have some "me" time. I do not wish to make these people's pain all about me, but I have to say, since this is Zooey's monthly update, I have a fresh appreciation for all those little things that drive me nuts. For HER and who she is. These days, I have snuggled her a little longer, tried to laugh when things don't go exactly the way my control-freak mind thinks they should and tried to let her be three.

God, have mercy on those poor families back east. Comfort them today, tomorrow and in all the minutes and seconds they're going to endure from here on out without their sweet babies.