Zoey

Valentine baby. Age 4 today. Nick name "Curley" because of those wild locks of blonde hair. Lookin' a bit like Shirley Temple nowadays. Zoey means "life" which is the perfect name for this little girl because she is indeed full of life. She may be more full of life than anyone I know. Her middle name is Anne, named after mom Chrisy Ann, grandma Sherry Ann, great-grandma Ann Marie, and Aunt Lori Ann. We added the "e" because it seemed to work better with the way we spelled Zoey.

I think Zoey's birth says a lot about her personality. It was joyously complicated. She started out in the correct position, they started the drugs to induce labor, and then she decided to turn around into the breech position! They had to stop the induction and call a specialist to hand-turn her back into the correct position. Zoey's heart rate was all over the place while she was in the womb. Finally, she came out but she wasn't breathing. She was purple and had apparently wrapped her cord around her neck. No time for niceities or for dad to cut the cord, they rushed her over to the resuscitation table. It was the longest four minutes of my life. When she drew her first breath and started crying, it was the single most miraculously joyous moment of my life. Anyway, all I can say is that I really relate to the song that Sting wrote about his daughter wherein he sings: "She can be all four seasons in one day."

Zoey loves for me to tuck her in at night and she asks for some soft tickling on her back then she says, "Daddy, tickle me all of the days, okay?" She loves to pick out her own clothes. In fact, just like her mother before her, she wants to do everything herself! And, as a good friend of mine just helped me to realize, if you inquire, "Would you like me to help you with that?" before actually doing something for her, you'll avoid a lot of meltdowns. She loves to eat macaroni-and-cheese although "mack-a-wronegie" is her name for it. If you get her angry, she'll look very mad, cross her arms and say, "You hurt my heart!" Currently, she likes to watch the DVD, "Annie" over and over. Her favorite book is "Guess How Much I Love You" about Little Nutbrown Hare and his daddy. She even tries to jump like the hare to show me how much she loves me. She's in constant competition with her big brothers. Ask her why she's so cute and she'll tell you, "Because Jesus make me like this." Happy Birthday my first daughter!