Mommy Found a New Online Toy

It's called Yearbook Yourself. (Thanks Heather). Go ahead and try it out - too funny. Here is Mommy through the years LOL:

These photos span how Mommy would look in a school yearbook from 1952 through 2000 - surprisingly, some of them look a lot like some old pictures of her in the 80s and 90s. Click a year below to match them up or try and guess!

1. 1952, 2. 1958, 3. 1960, 4. 1962, 5. 1964, 6. 1966, 7. 1968, 8. 1970, 9. 1974, 10. 1982, 11. 1984, 12. 1990, 13. 1994, 14. 1996, 15. 1998, 16. 2000

It's Official, I'm Getting a Baby SISTER!

We all went to Mommy's ultrasound yesterday and the technician confirmed she could see the sex of the baby. BUT, she was not allowed to tell us. So, Mommy found out at 11:30am today when she called the doctor's office for the "official" results - it's a GIRL! Everything looks healthy and normal too - that was the only thing we wanted - healthy! Yeah, a little sister for me. Now we have to figure out a name as we already knew a boy would be Xander Yates Zimmerman following the XYZ pattern. Mommy, being from a family of 2 girls, says that sisters DO NOT like to be the same and we should NOT choose another XYZ combination. So, the name hunt begins...

May I introduce you to my little sister, Baby Girl Zimmerman at 20 weeks in utero:

Rockin' on Guitar with Daddy

Here I am this morning, Wednesday 11/12/08 playing some mean guitar with Daddy. He is the coolest!

Herbie and Me

Oh how I love my cat, Herbie. He is such a pal. According to my parents, he sure does put up with a lot. Here are some shots taken on Monday 11/10/08 showing just how much I love this guy:

PS - I don't think we ever shared this with all of you, but our other dear cat, Annie, passed away naturally last month. We sure will miss her :-( You can see shots of her here, here, here, here, and here.

Some Videos of Me at Play

Just a few videos taken recently of me playing. First, on Wednesday 11/5/08 Daddy videoed one of our favorite games "Little Xia Sat on a Wall". He's been playing this with me for a long time. He used to gently lower me over the arm of the couch when I was much smaller. Then he started giving me little pushes when I got bigger. Now, I take the plunge backwards all by myself:



Next, on Friday 11/7/08 Mommy and I had some fun playing on my empty Oatmeal container drum set:



Lastly, Daddy and I went to the Green Dragon farmer's market on Friday 11/7/08 and found a mini laughing bag sized just for me. I love it!

Back to Swimming

Well, the YWCA where I used to have my swimming lessons is STILL having problems with their pool. It has been almost a year now. Mommy found another class in the area and it's actually at the high school I'll be attending WAY in the future. What's nice is it's on Wednesday evenings, so she can actually take me to this one.

Here we are on Wednesday 11/5/08 before the start of class. It's a big class with kids aged 6 months to 36 months so I don't get that great individual attention I got from Miss Chris at the Y, but we still have fun:

Here I am practicing getting out of the pool, I don't really like the walls too much, but Mommy tries:

Next I practice on my back:



And then on my belly:



Making progress. My only complaint is that the water is a bit on the chilly side, but I still have a lot of fun!

I'm Twenty-Two Months Old!

That's 1 year and 10 months for those math-challenged :-) I'm inching towards that 2 year milestone. To show you that getting this monthly shot is becoming more and more difficult each month, I would like to share with you the entire photo shoot from Wednesday 11/5/08.

So Daddy pulls out the quilt, grabs the camera, tells me where to lay down and asks me nicely to put my legs out nice and straight to show off how tall I'm getting, here's my response:

Okay, 2nd try... not quite right:

Let's give it a 3rd shot... I'm getting closer:

Okay, now I'm just getting silly:

Rolling, rolling, every time Daddy tries to straighten me out... and how the heck did I do that with my foot?!:

Ahhh, the money shot:

I think this photo shoot tells you exactly how close to 2 I am!!

Bye Bye Oil Heat!!!

Mommy and Daddy took the plunge and got rid of our old Oil Tank and Boiler and converted to a Gas Boiler. Major expense, but with the price of oil, it had to be done! Plus, that boiler was as old as the house and not efficient at all. Now we have a nice, clean efficient boiler. While they were at it, they had the old broken water softener system that has never worked removed and had a new one of those put in too. According to Mommy she has new skin and hair because of it!!

Some photos from the process on Monday 11/3/08 and Tuesday 11/4/08. Here I am standing by the old oil tank:

And here is the ghost image left behind due to an unpainted area of the wall once it was hauled out:
Here I am standing next to the old, noisy, boiler:

And here's a shot of the old thing being torn apart, yucky:

Here's an up close shot of the new water softening system to the left and new gas boiler to right - ahhhh, how nice:

And a full shot of it all, cover is off of the boiler, but you can see what an improvement - we're all very excited and toasty warm for A LOT less money, plus our skin is softer, hair less frizzy and lime deposits will soon be a part of history!! (No, I really don't know what I'm talking about, but Mommy and Daddy are really into this big change).

Daddy Turned me into an Animated Gif

Here's 2 pictures taken from my October 5, 2008 21 month photo session. Daddy turned them into an animated gif - How fun!!

I Won a Blog Award!

Thanks to Heather for giving this blog for the I Love Your Blog award! That was very nice of you :-) Since any award needs an acceptance speech, it has come in the form of a list of questions for this one. As a recipient of this award, I must answer the following questions with one word only. So here we go...

1. where is your cell phone? cell phone? I have an Elmo phone... (sorry I know, too many words)
2. where is dh? husband? not yet...
3. your hair color? brunette
4. your mother? work
5. your father? home (with me!)
6. your favorite thing? TheDaddyRamp
7. your dream last night? Elmo
8. your dream/goal? Diaperless
9. the room you're in? Living Room
10. your hobby? Coloring
11. your fear? Blenders
12. where do you want to be in six years? 2nd grade
13. where were you last night? home
14. what you're not? high strung
15. one of your wish list items? Tricycle
16. where you grew up? here
17. the last thing you did? Pattycake
18. what are you wearing? Cheerleader costume (going to show it off to Great Grandmom today)
19. your tv? on
20. your pet? Herbie (cat)
21. your computer? don't touch
22. your mood? Great
23. missing someone? Mommy
24. your car? small
25. something you're not wearing? socks
26. favorite store? That Fish Place
27. your summer? Fun
28. love someone? Family
29. your favorite color? Red
30. when is the last time you laughed? Now
31. last time you cried? Now

i nominate the following bloggers for this award...
1. The Catholics Next Door (Greg and Jennifer)
2. Lori the Library Trainer
3. Expecting Dad

instructions for the recipients...
-display your award
-link back to the person who gave it to you
-nominate at least three other blogs
-put links to those blogs on yours
-leave a message on the blogs of people you have nominated
-enjoy your award

Susquehannock 2008

My, my how time does fly. I feel like I just wrote about this picnic and yet it's already been a whole year (see last year's post here - I sure have grown!). Once again, the Zimmerman's held their yearly gathering at Susquehannock Park. It was a little colder this year, but we still had fun.

I had a lot of fun digging with a stick on some old tree stumps. Here I am standing on one:

And here I am digging with my cousin Allie - we found lots of worms and I even picked one up - eeewww, squishy:

Daddy's cousin Nate is holding a stick bug (my cousin Katelyn found it but she didn't want to pick it up - I wonder why?):

Then we walked out to the overlook. It was kind of cloudy and there weren't many hawks this year, but I had fun running down hills and sprinkling gravel all over the place. Here's Daddy and Grammy and Great Grandmom:

Here's a nice family portrait with the view behind us:

More of the view plus I'm being pretty funny:

Here's a little movie of me and Daddy with the view, but I just wanted to get down and back to sprinkling gravel everywhere:



A very nice shot of Grammy and Great Grandmom:

Here I am trying to give a stick to Dash, he just won't cooperate!



And just as we were going to pack up the car and go home, Mommy put my hat on Daddy - and he decided to be very silly about it:

What a nice way to spend a cool, fall day!

Fingerpainting 101

Mommy and I had some messy fun on Sunday morning 11/2/08. We broke out some fingerpaints and got busy.

At first it was just playing in the paints with my hands:



You can really make some cool designs with this stuff:



Then, I got tired of painting on paper and paper plates and began experimenting with body painting - especially my toes:



Needless to say, I was promptly put into a bathtub at the end of the fun, but I love baths too - so a wonderful Sunday morning!

All Saints Day 2008

We Catholics celebrate All Saints Day on November 1. My church invited all of us little kids to dress up as our favorite saint and we got to process behind the priest into the church at the Vigil Mass that day. Afterwards, we had a great pizza party with games and all kinds of fun stuff. Mommy decided to dress me up as St. Therese of Lisieux - the Little Flower:

There were lots of other saints:

And games like Fishers of Men where you fished for a saint card and got a prize:

And throw the lillies into the sacred heart of Jesus:


The lines were long, a prize won every time!


Hey, can I take this off yet?

My friend Angie was Blessed Kateri Tekakwitha - Beth made her costume and she has a nice post about the party here.

Here's a video of all of the fun:



And finally, when it was all over I got to take my costume off and go play some hopscotch out in the school play yard area:

Halloween 2008 - the Year of the Cheerleader

We found the cutest cheerleading outfit at a big consignment sale here last month. We also found a pair of saddle shoes. Spent about $2.50 for the whole deal and found some pompoms at a Dollar Store. Hence, I was a cheerleader this Halloween. It's funny cause Mommy always says I'll probably turn out to be a cheerleader/homecoming queen - the exact opposite of her high school days, and that she won't know how to deal with me. Turns out I seem to be quite a natural in a cheerleader outfit.

Here are some pics in my outfit:


And a movie clip of my cheering abilities:



And then Daddy and I as we were all on our way out for Trick or Treating in the neighborhood:

Daddy carved some nice pumpkins - an evil one:

and a happy one with one tooth (did have two, but there was a slicing error in the carving process...)

And here I am giving Mommy some attitude as she tries to video me walking to the next trick or treat spot. Come on Mom, get the camera out of my face, there's candy to acquire!



Lastly, I was left with some funny hair after taking those piggy tails out!

Happy Halloween!