ZAH Things is updated tonight.

pumpkin patch

carrot

So we are in a store and Zoe says "look, a carrot!" and I look out the window and see a parking lot and an auto parts store and I just kind of quietly look back at her and think that she is a weird kid. She senses my disbelief and says "it's a cloud carrot" so I look again, this time at the sky, and yep - there was a cloud carrot:

tower

I have built a tower like this a few times for Zoe and today she built this one all by herself! MagnaTiles are so awesome. Thanks Grandpa! Zoe is going to be a geometry expert.

chrysalis, really?

I don't need any more proof that Zoe hears, sees and remembers everything she hears and sees on television. That is why, if she is awake, nobody is allowed to watch anything on tv that is not preschool friendly. Yes, tv will rot your brain and turn little kids into gun-wielding psychopaths. But I know that it can also educate if used correctly.

I have some plant/leaves painted on Zoe's bathroom wall. While she was taking her bath she pushed a hanging towel out of the way and said "look, a chrysalis." She learned this from a Wonder Pets episode where an inchworm was upset because its caterpillar friend was all wrapped up and he didn't understand why until Lenny the guinea pig explained what a chrysalis was. I have to admit that this is also how mommy learned what a chrysalis is [it's a pupa - supa dupa!].

puzzle flying away

Zoe loves to pretend that things are flying away. I can understand everything she is saying, can you? I don't have any idea what she sounds like to someone who doesn't hear her every day. She says that the puzzle piece is in the wind and then it lands "on the top" and then she says that she broke it. She asks "what shape?" and answers her question "a puzzle". Then she looks for it and says "there it is. it's really high" "how we going to get down?" "I know - a hand" and then her hand jumps up to get it. When she tries to put the piece in the wrong way she says "no" and then "I fixed it."

puzzle time

new paint!

Uncle Dougie sent a big box of paint. Pete opened the box for Zoe and she ran out of the room and came back with her palette. Today I drew her a Halloween picture. I usually squeeze the paint out for her but she wanted to do it herself today and she did an amazing job! I'm so glad I was video-ing this because I love it when she decides that her paintbrush is too small. This is just a small example of what I believe is the key to success in life: options. It is impossible to choose something when you don't know that it exists.

Zoe told me twice today that she needed to potty and has had no accidents and no diaper changes! So fantastic!

Uncle Dougie also sent a 30-piece puzzle that is a picture of a barnyard. We've had the puzzle for a few days and I think we've put it together no less than 20 times. I help Zoe get the edge pieces sorted out and the first few times I talked to her about how the pictures match. Now she has it all memorized and she says "where's the horse? here's the horse. where does it go? right here. I did it!" Now she also knows what hay bales and wagon wheels are.

This morning she was making this really weird noise and I asked her what she was doing and she said "I'm an elephant!" and then she tried to stretch her head out in front of her and she said "I'm a giraffe!" and then she was a monkey [eeh eeh ah ah] and a kitty and a dog and a lion and a dinosaur.

Pete still has his old skateboard in the garage and Zoe is adamant about trying to ride it whenever she is allowed in the garage. Yesterday Pete got her to balance on it correctly by spreading her feet apart and bending her knees a little and then she rode it around the driveway by holding onto Pete with just one hand. He is dying to take her snowboarding. And since kid's start skiing at age 3 here she might just get to go this winter. It sounds dangerous, right, but then when you are laying on the side of a mountain thinking about how bad your legs hurt and a dozen 3-year olds blaze past your head it makes you wish that you had learned how to do more things when you were bendy and had a low center of gravity.

I made some ghosts and paper chains for our front porch and we put up a black light so they glow at night. Zoe has watched me cut all of the ghosts out. I was surprised when I was hanging them up and she said "look, decorations!" in her little voice. Such a big word. And this morning I opened up the curtains by the front door and she saw them again and said "look, it's a party!" and then she asked where the cake and candles were.

new toys!

Zoe got a lot of new toys in the mail in the past week. She is in heaven. There are so many fun things for us to do in the house now. I will try to post pictures & video of her playing with everything as I can. Sometimes the video upload just doesn't work, and then suddenly - like right now - it will.

Grandpa sent these MagnaTiles. They are plastic shapes that have magnets all around the edges so you can build 3D objects. I made these "tents" for Zoe. She ran out of the room to get a "hammer" and fix them. She has been watching Handy Manny - he speaks Spanish and his talking tools can fix everything [if they work as a team, of course]. She saw one episode of Handy Manny a couple of days ago and now she is totally uninterested in UmiZoomi.

magna tiles

a game sort of

Zoe was using her flashlight to look for ghosts but she determined that we didn't have any. And then she made up this little game for a minute.

painting

Last night Zoe had to put her swimsuit on. And then she wanted to paint.

geocache Oct 2

We went about 30 minutes North to Snohomish [also where the pumpkin patches are] and found a couple of geocaches on Saturday. I found a lot of weird mushrooms and a giant slug. Zoe found some fishing line in a bush and a rock. And she pretended to catch a fish by holding a little stick in the lake.