Y'ALL, IT HAS BEEN A HOT MINUTE. I feel like I disappeared for a bit which turned out to be two months and we are in the last month of the year...how?!?! It feels wonderful to finally be able to do some writing, but let me tell you what a rare opportunity this is to me lately. My sweet Zoe, who has always been a hardcore mama's girl from the beginning, has become even more (yes, apparently this is possible) recently. This could be a whole another separate post, but long story short, she has been a velcro (or koala)-child since our big move in August and has become even more so these past few weeks for unknown reasons - we are talking things like holding hands while eating and sleeping; sitting on my lap to eat, laying with her until she falls asleep; waking every two hours through the night looking for me or to join her parents' bed, etc. Independent play is generally out the window...So, I am practically at her service 24 hours a day LOL.
So...where do I even begin? It seems anti-climatic to do an October and November review since we are only less than ONE WEEK away from Christmas (again, how?!). Our new house is in full festivity mode right now as we have family members from Z's side joining us this holiday. Zoe has been loving all the attention from auntie and uncle from Seattle and grandma Beh. As a result, this has given me some much-needed alone time every now and then, which is what I'm doing right now.
To circle back to October, the absolute highlight, of course, was my family visiting TX. It was a long-awaited reunion since COVID interrupted our plans to see each other more frequently. My parents haven't had seen Zoe since she was 4 months old (October 2019) so you can only imagine how much anticipation it was building up. My mom and brother stayed with us for almost a month while my dad joined us toward the end of their stay.
We were very fortunate that Zoe recognized them fairly quickly upon their reunion, thanks to the frequent video calls we did throughout the pandemic.
Sending them off is always bittersweet, especially for me, but we had a wonderful time catching up and having Zoe bond with my parents. I'm so glad it finally happened, and I can't wait to see their relationship continue to grow.
Since their departure, we kept ourselves busy between several holidays (Halloween and Thanksgiving) and hanging out with friends. We got to enjoy several Halloween-related activities - from Zoe's school hosting a truck-a-treat to going on trick-or-treating in our new neighborhood. We also went to our first Boo at the Zoo at Ft. Worth Zoo (also our first trip to that zoo). She dressed up as a panda princess to show her love for pandas.
During the workweek, she and I spend time exploring many places in the DFW area. We particularly like going to the Playhouse Museum as well as the duck pond at Trinity Park. And, thanks to TX's mild fall/winter weather, we enjoy going to different parks including the Bowman Springs Park that's close to our house. On weekends, I feel like we go furniture shopping all the time LOL.
For Thanksgiving, we attended a Friendsgiving and then had our own little Thanksgiving dinner. I love having the extra counter space and double oven in our new house - it made cooking so much more enjoyable!
As we approach Christmas, we attended our first Parade of Lights in Ft. Worth and Zoe absolutely loved watching the marching bands and dancers. We look forward to checking out some of the holiday lights around town these next couple of weeks.
We also got our very first Christmas tree this year. Neither of us grew up necessarily celebrating Christmas. Although this is not a religious celebration for us, we like the spirit that this holiday brings and wanted to provide that memory for Zoe. Ours is the Sonoma Slim® Pencil Christmas Tree | Balsam Hill.
The other highlight this month was my friend/former co-worker from St. Louis visiting us for the weekend! She graciously made the travel here to take our annual family photos and catch up. It was the sweetest thing she could do as a friend, and I was so appreciative of that gesture. I didn't realize how much I had missed my friends since moving again. She really refueled my soul, and it makes me want to put more effort into staying in touch with my friends.
So, this is what we have been up to for the last two months. We have been enjoying our new house and making it our "home". Zoe has passed her survival swim class and is now on practice sessions twice a week and continues to love going to her preschool three days a week. Z had a very short downtime from his new job and is now really in full swing with his new practice. He is loving what he does and works hard to grow his practice. For me, I am now fully settled as a stay-at-home parent although I am still figuring out my "routine" sometimes.
Z's family is staying around for another week (2 weeks for my MIL) so we plan on spending all the time with them. I am also super behind but still plan to send out holiday cards once I get photos back from Sherry - I got some sneak peeks already and they look amazing! In case I don't get a chance to write again this year, I do wish everyone happy holidays and a happy new year!
Cheers,
Wonjee
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