Don’t panic. We did NOT get a puppy. (this note is for me)

But Zoe did have another adventure, with a puppy to boot. You’re probably familiar with SXSW (affectionately called “South By”), a huge film, music and interactive festival that happens every year in Austin, TX and draws over 20,000 people. This year our company attended the trade show, and since it spans about a week AND Bart’s sister and brother-in-law live in Austin, we brought the whole family!

In fact, Bart’s parents drove in from Minnesota, so we had a full house at Andrea & Ben’s lovely home in Austin (thank you!!), and Zoe met her new best friend, Luna. As you might guess, Zoe spent most of the time following Luna around the house with open arms, asking for “kisses”. As you may also guess, Luna was quite liberal with her “kisses” around any mealtime, when Zoe’s tiny fingers got “kissed” repeatedly (especially if there was peanut butter involved).

She also loved to climb into Luna’s bed, which as you can see Luna tolerated but did not embrace (Video Part II), and anywhere Luna was, Zoe was not far behind. I have to say, even with all the excitement of the Luna/Zoe love and the fact that we had 6 adults, a child and a puppy toy in one house for a week, everything went really well. We’re SO thankful that Bart’s family spent 5 long days keeping Zoe busy (thanks again!): feeding, changing diapers, entertaining, and showering her with love :)

The only hiccup we ran into happened 2 days before we left. Believe it or not, she BONKED HER HEAD AGAIN! Yep. She tripped on a pillow and fell into a side table. It’s amazing how quickly a bump will swell on a kid’s head. It’s also amazing how instantly powerless and guilty you feel as a parent trying to console that child and talk them into putting ice on that bump. (TRICK: We made a warm bottle of milk, put her in my lap and daddy held the ice pack. It worked.)

So, according to my friend Bardo’s theory, this bonk should have wiped out her “genius”. Apparently there’s a Gilligan’s Island episode where Gilligan gets hit in the head, becomes really smart, then gets hit again and well, returns to “Gilligan”. In trying to find that episode I found several Gilligan’s Island episodes that involved head bonking. One about temporary amnesia, with lots of head bonks for the whole cast; one where Gilligan gets hit and his tooth fillings become a radio receiver; one where Gilligan gets hit on the head then sees everything upside down.

Makes you wonder what all these head bonks are doing to Zoe, right?! Poor thing.

Anyway, as far as we know, she’s AOK and smarter than ever. I have several other posts to share about how she’s “progressing”, but for now, we’re just excited to have had a terrific trip to Austin with family. One adventure at a time.

OH, almost forgot. Zoe had her first interaction with a celebrity! Billy Gibbons from ZZ Top was standing in the curbside checkin line with us, talked to Zoe and gave her the picture below. He was really nice, ended up on our plane and was flying coach (though he was named 2012 Texas State Musician). That’s pretty cool.