We got a new computer and I'm realizing now that all of our other photos are on my laptop, and I'm too tired at the moment to transfer them here, but I'll get some of her birthday-xmas photos uploaded one of these days.
We went to Zoe's 2 year check-up and she is about 34" tall and I think she weighs 29 pounds. She was 31" tall when I measured her in September, so she grew quite a bit in just 3 months. She fits all of her 2T/24month clothes and her feet grew a size bigger [6 1/2 - 7 now] so I ordered a new pair of ladybug rainboots that finally arrived today. She is still in the 50th percentile for height & weight, so she's still small, but at the same time so much bigger.
She talks all day long, but I think I'm the only person who can really understand what she's saying because I'm used to her language. I'm trying to teach her sentences, and today she managed "want toy" which is SO much better than the alternative when she points and says "this this this this this" and gets frustrated because I don't know what she's talking about. The words that she knows she does say really clearly like "juice" and "fruit" and "boots" and "egg" and "book". There are other things that I understand like "flurfly" [butterfly] and "iraf" [giraffe]. Everything that comes out of the oven that is baked is a "cookie! yum! yum!"
She seems to know most of the alphabet and likes to yell out the letters she sees on signs when we're in the car. We are working on counting and numbers. She knows what the number 2 is and sometimes 8. She counts stuff everyday, but so far it's always "one, two, six, nine, ten!" We're working on colors, too, but it's kind of a complex idea I guess. So when I ask which cup is red, she looks at me like I'm asking which cup is also a monkey. She also knows a lot of shapes: heart, star, triangle, square, circle, oval, moon, rectangle, cloud. She can say all of these words. I made a pie crust last week and when I cut out the dough she yelled "circle!" it was really exciting. I make a point of telling her what everything is when we're outside or at the grocery store, etc. She remembers more than I realize. We were outside when it was dark [5pm?] and she pointed up at the sky and said "Look! The moon!" so now I try to take her outside whenever it's not rainy or too cloudy so we can look at the stars and the moon each night. We talk about the weather a lot, so she says "oh no, it's raining."
She doesn't mind playing alone but when she gets bored or lonely she'll come take my hand and say "come on" and have me sit on the couch so she can sit on my lap or she'll lead me to her room and hand me a book to read. It will be really nice next year when she's 3 and she can finally start one of the preschool programs I've read so much about.
She is super happy most of the time and loves to dance and sing. There are 2 different shows that we watch that have wiggle dances, so that's a big hit. We do a lot of wiggling and tickling and bouncing and spinning and climbing throughout the day. She has a lot of toys, and they all get played with at some point each day. I make the mistake of thinking that she has outgrown something so I put it away to be sold/donated and she knows immediately that it's missing and suddenly it's the most fun thing ever when I get it back out for her.
I think that's about it for now.
Pete was able to take some time off of work this week so went went to Portland Thursday & Friday to see Nana Jo and Aunt Annie. While we were there we went to the Japanese Garden and the Portland Children's Museum. They were both amazing places to see. The Japanese Garden is the most authentic & beautiful garden outside of Japan, according to a Japanese emperor. I cannot wait to go back and see how it changes throughout the year. They also have lots of events that teach you about this type of gardening, papermaking [!], tea ceremonies, etc. We got a membership. I took tons of pictures that I will put into a slideshow for you. 
