Budding Artist

Like many three year old kids, Zoe loves to paint. L.O.V.E.S. I.T.! So, in addition to using water colors at home at every opportunity, she has been going to an art class once a week. Below are a few favorites. I am missing her octopus which I really like because Scott is hogging it at his office. Also missing are free hand drawings of stick people because I have no photos of them.

Two bunnies under a rainbow:

A starry night sky:

A vase of flowers:

Fish under water:

One of my favorites, a birds nest: 

Mia 15 Months Old

Mia, today you are 15 months old. This month your vocabulary has really started to take off, you are more sure on your feet, and you continue to be quite active and social. You also broke the 20 pound mark so we get to move you in to the next size car seat!

Some favorite words (understandable by us but perhaps not all) include: shoe, socks, duck, agua-first Spanish word, nose, milk, more and dog. You are also quite good at the pointing game and can identify most face features and follow simple instructions. This month you also surprised us by adding one fun element to your bed time routine: you sit on a little potty while Zoe goes on her toilet. You also started brushing your teeth this month. I bet chomping on the toothbrush feels good since you have your molars coming in.

You love to play hide and go seek and look for any opportunity to climb high or in to a small space, including lockers at the pool. 

This was the month of first pony ride too. I'm not sure how thrilled you were with being on a pony though. You love to flip through books and will often go immediately in to the office pick up a book and sit in your chair. You can entertain yourself for a long time this way. You are also very at home in the water. Bath time is a source of great fun, as are your weekly trips to the pool.

You still enjoy two naps a day, but I can tell that one of them will be going away soon. You are ready to really play and engage the day for longer now. Helen is your chief play mate. Lucky for you, she is just as happy to play in mud. 

You and Zoe are very close. 

You both really enjoy reading, playing in the water and sand, swinging at the playground, and rough housing together. And, when ever you hurt yourself (with or without Zoe's help), Zoe is the first to want to rub your head or help you find a band-aid.

Happy 15 months Mia! You are an enthusiastic, lively and loving little girl, and I'm looking forward to another fun month ahead! 

I love you. mom

Zoe Speak

During a play session...

Dad: Zoe, may I please have a pretend sip of your drink?

Zoe: No daddy because there are pretend germs on it.

Silent Saturday

Dude!

Zoe has lots of loving friends and family members. She talks about them often, especially before bed. We feel so lucky to have all of you in our lives. 

But, can you please fess up? Which one of you taught Zoe to say the word "Dude!"

This has become a regular in her vocabulary in the past week and it's weird.  As in, "Can we play for 5 more minutes, dude?"

Let them eat cake

Zoe (hollering from upstairs down to me in the basement):  Ma! (imagine the voice of a 60 year old New York city cab driver)

Mom: No response

Zoe: Mom! (like a civilized three-year-old)

Mom: Yes Zoe?

Zoe (in excited desperate voice, still bellowing from upstairs):  Mommy, can we have a cake?Mom, we need to make a cake. Mom, we need to have a cake for your birthday party. Mom, we're going to have a cake. Mom, can I have a piece of cake?....

Ten minutes prior in an undisclosed location, Scott and Zoe sit together. 

Scott: Zoe, next week is mom's birthday. Let's have a surprise party for her. 

Zoe: Ok, ok!

Scott: Now, Zoe, this is just between you and me and Mia. If it's a surprise for mommy, we can't tell her just yet.

Zoe: Ok, ok! Can we have cake? 

Pals

In the past few days, Zoe and Mia are playing together in a whole new way. 

From watching her sister, I gather, Mia has picked up hide-and-go-seek. They have been hiding together and taking turns hiding. I don't know if it's possible for little girls to squeal louder than they do when they are "found." 

They are chasing each other. Surprisingly, this is really reciprocal. Mia can run and she is prone to stand up and run after and tag Zoe. They often both fall down and giggle.

They are playing a tickle game of sorts where Zoe will wiggle her fingers and say "tickle, tickle, tickle" and Mia will respond by tilting her head back to expose her neck, repeating her version of "tickle, tickle, tickle" while Zoe tickles her neck. 

They like to take turns lining up (in a line of one) before jumping on the mini-trampoline.

They play under the kitchen table. Zoe thinks up elaborate plots, and Mia is happy to go along and move from under one chair to the other. I have yet to figure this game out.

Mia now likes to sit on her little toilet next to Zoe on the big toilet before bath so that they can use the bathroom at the same time. It's quite a sight.

And, of course, bath time is all about squeals and giggles and splashing.

Silent Sunday

Cherry Blossoms, April 2009

Cognitive Complexity

Zoe is starting to realize that she can have silent thoughts in her head. Now, she's learning how to talk about those thoughts in a way that makes sense to her. I can tell that there have been mornings when she's woken up after having a dream, but hadn't been fully able to articulate that she had a dream or how to talk about it. She had also been puzzled recently when I suggested she count in her head. Then, realizing this didn't make sense to her, I explained how she can count quietly without talking, and I've seen her practicing.  Then earlier today, I asked her if she had any thoughts about what she wanted to do this afternoon. She replied, "There is something on my head for a playdate." Closer...she was thinking about a playdate. Later, we asked her if she was ready to leave the dinner table and she said, "No, I'm thinking."

Her long-term memory is also much longer than I anticipated. Zoe has always picked out her bedtime books. Around the time she was potty training, nearly 1.5 years ago, one of her favorite books was called "The Grapes of Math" by Greg Tang. She liked a little poem in it about schools of fish. The book was in bed with her one night when she had an accident and we ended up replacing it.  So, fast forward a year and a half. Tonight, Zoe was looking for a book at bedtime and couldn't find what she was looking for. "Daddy, I want to read the book that starts out with a school of fish; the one that I peed on." Whoa! Good memory! 

Rhyming is now a favorite past time in our house. On any car ride, Zoe will try to notice something out of the window and make up a rhyme. Regardless of the outcome, she'll announce "that's a rhyme."