The Zoe Chronicles - 16 months and the best yet!

Dear Zoe,
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Last week you turned 16 months and it was the best month yet! (Have I said that before, it sounds familiar). You are such a happy baby and you are loving the walking thing. You still need to be carrying something whilst walking, but a couple of times, I've convinced you to carry a handbag with stuff in it rather than carrying the stuff. The handbag came complete with a ball, a stuffed animal, and an Oroton credit card. You stylish gal.
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You are getting very good at feeding yourself. The only downside is that you won't let us feed you at all… not one little bit. This means that we now feed you breakfast practically naked (you, not us) because rice puffs and milk or oatmeal is very messy if you're not experienced eaters like a 10 year old.
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I weaned you last month, and I think it was harder on me than it was you. A couple times you've reached down my shirt looking for something when you were having your bottle of milk, but you may have gotten that trick from your dad. Hard to say. But the cute thing is that you are copying things that we do. Like, you make sure to test your bedtime bottle of warm milk on your hand. You’ve seen us do it, and since you have an aversion to hot things (see next story), you want to make sure (and make sure, and make sure, and make sure) that it's a good temperature.
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You love warning us of hot things. Everything in the kitchen is hot. You'll stick out your hand and say "haaaaaaahhhhhh" (like HOT). The microwave. The oven. Grandma's coffee. Mom's tea. The kettle. When you walk through the kitchen, you'll say "haaaaaahhhhh" to everything! You'll even be in another room and if you hear the kettle you'll stick out your hand and say "haaaaaaahhhhhh".
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We've taken you for many bike rides in the trailer and you love it. Actually, you love everything. It's hard to think of anything that gets you upset these days. Unless of course your breakfast, morning tea, elevenses, lunch, snacks, or dinner are even remotely delayed. You still enjoy food and as long as it's not hot, you'll probably eat it.
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You're having a blast with Grandma (and now Grandpa has arrived too!) and I can clearly see that you have formed a special bond. I love that my parents and daddy's parents came over to hang out with you. What a special time, we'll be reminding you and telling you stories for years!
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In the new year, daddy will be staying home with you. I am jealous, since I think you're more fun than a ferris wheel ride with Jim Carrey. But, I'll get over it. Right now everything's about daddy anyways, so you've broken me in gently.
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You make us laugh so much, and the motto "I CAN'T STAND IT!" still applies. You do the funniest things and you are so entertaining.
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We love you and think you're hilarious.

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Thanks for all the hugs and kisses this month,
Mommy and Daddy

Some Holiday Fun

So, Linda (a colleage and good mate of mine) and I were shopping in Myer (a department store like the Bay back home) for some Christmas goodies. In the decoration section, we bumped into our other colleague Antonio. I've never mentioned Antonio before, but he's the joker of the bunch. A "fart machine" actually appeared under our desk at one point ... need I say more? Anyhoo, he was looking to buy a tree. We said our how-do-you-dos and we went off to purchase the Christmas crackers, and he went the other way towards the fir trees. As we were leaving the store, I was all "Omigod, we should PAGE Antonio!" and Linda was all "to HOSERY".

So, within seconds, the announcement was made "Attention, Would Myer Customer Antonio Santoro please go to Hosery on the ground floor." We cracked it.

We had such innocent intentions. We thought Antonio-the-joker would get a kick out of this. Little did we know that this little prank would exceed our expectations. What are the chances that as the announcement was made, not one, but TWO of Antonio's old colleagues were also in the store AND HAD HIS MOBILE PHONE NUMBER. They kept calling him and laughing. Antonio was in line to ask a question about some fake fir tree but since the impatient brought-in-for-christmas sales lady kept getting annoyed by his phone ring-ringing, in his fluster he bought the 9 foot tree (that consequently didn't fit in his house).

What are the chances? 1 in 43244453. Precisely priceless.
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