OK, so I was so focused on getting all those photos uploaded I forgot to actually note any milestones.  I guess I gotta jot them down somewhere or I'll forget and I blog in lieu of scrapbooking so here goes.  Zoey's a chatterbox these days and pretty easy going.  She's an awesome "Big Stister" as she calls herself.  They're on to their 2nd cold in 3 weeks and the pediatrician offered to prescribe us a bubble to live in for a while.  I'm glad she has a sense of humor because I'm to tired to have one myself.  Milo can sit up solo if you prop him up just the right way but it's short lived because he's gotta be working on more important skills.  He isn't crawling per se...but he can get around.  Hmmm, not much else.  Next post will have Halloween pictures! 

 
Can you believe I'm almost 6 months old?
  
These are the pics we had done for Milo's 5 months and Zoey's 2 1/2.  The photographer wants to use Zoey to his advertising.  She was a maniac during these pics (and I thougth she'd sit and hold her baby bro...but was brought to my senses as he rolled off her lap and bumped his head on the floor).  I was sweating bullets even with Jean's help (Thanks MIL).  The girl can't take a bad picture.


Look, I'm on my phone in the car just like Mom & Dad...well, mostly like Dad. 


This is Milo's first time on the swings.

 
Check out the lower lip in this photo.  Hilarious!  This is a gal who plays hard.

 
And we suspect this is how viruses find their way into our house.  The outdoor mall has this water feature for kids to play in.  Mind you, the water is merely recirculated and in no way is it treated with chemicals to decrease the bioburden...Zoey drinks it when she can get away with it.  Ewwwww!  Gross!  But she has a great time and if we manage to escape the parasites it was time well spent.

 
Gotta love the Jumperoo!
 
Hey!  I'm a happy guy tonight! Big (loud and crazy) Sis is sleeping and I have the parents all to myself!


I LOVE this picture of my little tri-pod nugget!

 
At the "crack of dark" (as my CHP buddy Chris calls it) at Casa de Lopez.  Zoey loves this swing for the great tunes it provides us during every waking hour.  I bought it for the MP3 player hook-up but she knows how to by-pass it so go figure?!  I guess it's a cheesy rendition of "Oh Susanna" for me all day!  Notice Milo is propped up on either side by Zoey's buddies...Lambie and Ruff.

 
Uh, this is where you all are supposed to comment that she looks so much like me!  LOL


Kudos to Zoey...she held him up and didn't dump him.  After I took him off she mentioned how heavy he was.  Uh, don't I know it?!


What a pose!

I love this picture...looks posed but it's a candid.  Good job on picking the photographer Kev & Kris.  I like this one because Kevin looks like he's watching the scene in the background...uh, the groom isn't supposed to be in the background though is he?


OK, so the quality is terrible but it's because the originals were printed on linen photopaper (probably to keep people like me from scanning the pictures).  I'm still waiting on all the pictures that Judy took...and I know she got some great ones.  Am I going to have to come out there to AZ to get them or what?  )  And I know Kevin and Kris were worried about me and my stress level, but I'd love to re-live this wedding! 
Here's the whole Janis/Lopez/Grigsby/Mac Nichol mess of us with the new Mrs. Janis.    Thanks for being patient with the little ones while they took this picture. 


Uh, you two really do look related...are you sure they approved your marriage license?  Regardless, you both look amazing in this picture!

 
And there SHOULD be pictures of Vince...but unfortunately he didn't get to participate in much of anything...poor guy!
  
The wedding party...damn, we look good!

 
Very handsome!
 
Can't beleive we made it down the aisle...almost perfect until I parked my frozen, stressed booty next to Kurt instead of on the bride's side.  I'll never live that oops down in my head!  My story is that my sub-conscience did it on purpose because I didn't want to serve as "The Windbreaker" for the bridal party.

   
Love the candids.  "Milo the Charmer", "Zoey the Difficult" with "Lisa the Stressball" and "Princess Kristin".

 
The parents (left to right): Mom, Ken, Judy & Dad

 
Ah, the wedding was beautiful...I still can't get over my screw-up of walking down the aisle and parking myself and Zoey next to Kurt.  I was so confused when he gave me that "what-are-you-doing-on-this-side?" look.  Honestly, I was so relieved that I got Zoey to walk so nicely the whole way (and I didn't fall out of my dress, if you know what I mean) that the natural order of wedding things never dawned on me. 

Zoey was NOT her most charming self for the duration of the trip but she definitely acted according to her age and out-of-comfort-zone...2ish says it all.  Milo was a charmer. 

Thankfully, Zoey's back to her usual energetic, friendly, independant self and Milo is...still a charmer!  Oh, and he's gone from being my "10lb sack-o-potatos" (since he was always sacked out over my shoulder) to my "lil nugget"...soon to be my "14lb butterball" I'm sure.

I was really stressed about making the trip and I know Kev and Kris were worried about me but would gladly do it again! I wouldn't have missed the wedding for anything.  More pics to be posted as soon as I get them.   
Sorry Charlie, Zoey has kissed her 2nd boy already!  Isaac was a sweetheart and definitely helped by playing with Zoey.  That's Isaac's mom in the background.  I wish I could remember what Isaac said after the kiss.  I think Zoey said something like "that was fun, huh?" and he said that it wasn't really too much fun for him. 

Sorry Vince wasn't in this photo...he's taking it.  See what I meant in the previous paragraph about falling out of the dress?  At least it was easy to breastfeed in...and that's exactly why I bought it.  That's a very difficult criteria to shop for in a formal, let me tell you!
 
Hmmm...That looks interesting.  What's Zoey playing with?  Can I join her?
 
See Milo...this is how it works.
 
Oooh cool, thanks for the demo on how this thing works, Big Sis!  We're back to using the floor gym that Gramma Cheryl bought for Zoey.  It's nice to get a so much use out of a toy.
 
Baseball?  Uh, am I really supposed to know what that is yet?
 
I haven't a clue but I've been told that I'm a Brewer's fan already!  And I'm excited about that!
 
"Wanna hold 'The Milo'!!"
 
Hanging out together...She gets upset if I take him away after I've let him sit with her...unless he cries then she's happy to be relieved of him.  She's really stoked if he can hang out and watch Curious George with her for a while.  I'm just REALLY hoping this sibling thing goes more smoothly for me than it did my Mom and Dad.  Can't imagine how hellish that must've been from a parent's perspective...I only know how miserable it was from mine (at the time) but worth it since I consider Kev to be my best friend now...just like Dad and Aunt Marianne used to tell us we would be.
 
What a cutie!  Gotta love the drool on the right side picture.  He's 3 months old here.

Below is a day in the life of Zoey (at least while Milo naps and I have the foresight/energy to grab the camera).  I tested out my knee repair surgery showing Zoey how to run through the sprinkler.
  

This is a LONG post with way too many pictures.  All videos are posted on the other blog.
Now that there are two to keep track of I can't just go by Zoey Time (ZT) anymore.  And she is sure aware of that these days.  She's been really great with him so far though.  She only hit him twice in the very beginning but since then she makes an extra effort to be gentle...as gentle as a toddler wtih no concept of her own strength can be.  Zoey's  ackowledgement of Milo consists of: "Milo OUT!", "Milo's paci", Milo-Dadda OUT!", "Little Brother", "Nah, Nyah" (to imitate his crying - see videos on casadelopez.blogspot.com) and she kisses him a lot...oh, and she tries to touch his eyeballs.  Poor lil guy!  If you hear her singing "Shake the baby now!" don't take it literally...she's trying to sing "Shake it up baby now!". 

  
But even though Milo was still only a couple weeks old we managed a trip to the fair.  Zoey had a terrible time as you can see.  Thanks for joining us Allison & Ever!

 
  
Some pics of the little man. 

 
 
Playing catch with grandpa.


"Soccer-Bowling" with grandpa as the designated pin setter.

 
Aw, the poor dejected oldest kid.  You'd think no one ever plays with her anymore looking at this pose.

 
The baby doll from Gramma Cheryl.  Zoey calls it "Baby Milo".

 
Goin' swimmin'!

 
Thanks for the complete set, Allison!

 
This is THE midwife, Karni holding Milo at our 5 week check up.

  
She's not just the Big Sister...but now she have a Big Girl bed (sort of).  Now if she'd only use the toilet!

   
Her first time holding Milo.

  
  
Visiting with Grandpa & Judy

THE WIGGLES!!!!



Well, we haven't taken many pictures this month, but we did go to see the Wiggles.  Above is my friend Allison with her daughter Ever.  Ever is a HUGE Wiggles Fan and it was all we could do to keep Ever from throwing her diaper (panties) on stage!  Zoey used to love the Wiggles (for over a year) but she was not feeling too good.  Turns out she had Haemophilous Influenza B (did I spell that right?) and I'm pretty sure she was vaccinated for this so what's up with that?  Yeah, real nice Mom!  Take your sick kid to a concert to share the germs.  Honestly, I thought she was just teething because she did get some (or all) of her 2 yr. molars.  So, the expression you see on the picture below isn't boredom or apathy...Better not be, those darn tickets and back stage passes were not cheap.



Well, at least one out of three and a half Lopezes enjoyed the show...Me! I know all the songs!  Doesn't Vince look thrilled?



Our Tuesday playdate at Charlie's House.



Charlie's Angel?  They've kissed a few times before but this is THE best photo.  There's one of them in the past and it looks like they're mauling each other.  This one has the perfect head tilt and look at that pucker!  They even gave us sound effects.

These ultrasounds were done at 37.5 weeks.



That's a tongue and some very chubby looking cheeks.



And a smile or laugh?



That's his arm and wrist crossing his chin.

Here I am (with a very sick Zoey, more on that above) at 37 weeks pregnant.  I feel a bit bigger than I did the first time around...definitely more tired.  Thanks again, Becky for the great pictures!

    

 
Zoey says, "Paint Momma."  I say, "OK."  This worked a lot better in practice than it did on picture day.  Usually she'll try to taste her work but, as I said, she was not her usual self that day.

 

T minus one month until the BIG 2.0!  Wow, poor baby has little idea of what, or rather who, will be coming along shortly after that milestone.  Still no name for the little dude and I don't really think we're much closer to a decision.  Not too many pictures since last post on www.casadelopez.blogspot.com was so late.  I'll start with some new (from Uncle Kevin & Aunt Kris) pictures from our trip to Florida for a belated Christmas.

 
This was Zoey at Sea World...the whole day!

 
All the new toys:  Playing golf Gramma and Ken watching, on the train with the token photo of Uncle Kevin's feet, and below playing Super Mario Cart with Aunt Kristin.  Thanks for the noisy toys!



Then, as promised, little dude in progress finally posed for some pictures.  Kinda smiling in a few, sucking on his lower lip in another.  This was at 28 weeks.  He definitely seems a little chubbier (based on his cheeks and my belly) than his big sister.


On February 2nd (29 weeks pregnant) I ran a 5K.  It was my first "race" and I fully intended to just walk it but once I pinned that number over my belly I became obsessed with actually passing people.  I'm hooked!  At least it's cheaper and safer than horses, right?  I'm proud to say that I kept up a nice 10 minute mile pace...LA Marathon, here I come?  Maybe March 2009?



See this cutie? This morning she was trying to open a box and was having some difficulty.  I heard her calmly venting her frustration from down the hall as she clearly said, "Oh, Damnit! Oh, Damnit!" over and over again with a sing-song, sighing inflection.  Vince just laughed but I can see us being kicked out of our play groups for bad language...hey, some kids might not even talk that much yet and she's already graduated to the proper use of mild profanity.  What parent could be prouder?  I'm totally kidding, BTW...about being proud.  Guess we've gotta do a better job of watching our own mouths.

 

 
And this California girl finally got to see some rain...OK, it was just sprinkles but she finally got to use the rain gear that Uncle Kevin bought for her.