apologies

I was sitting on the floor and Zoe put her little hand on my shoulder and said
"I love you mom."
"I love you too, Zoe!"
and then she looked me in the eye and said
"I made a mess. But it was just an accident."
"ohhh... okay..."
"How about a hug, mom?"

in the car

"Mom?"
"yes?"
"Can I drive?"
"Not right now."
"Um. But mom. I wanna drive. Can I drive?"
"No. Mommy's driving."
"okay."

Happy

Zoe has been watching School House Rock in the car whenever we go somewhere. She really likes "I'm Just a Bill" and she likes the multiplication songs. When we got home from the YMCA tonight she asked me to write certain numbers so that she could paint them. She requested 4, 8, 5, 16... I think she did a pretty good job of painting over them. Especially 5.

She has been drawing faces quite a bit. She'll say "I'll draw you mom!" and then she'll draw herself, too. Sometimes the eyes & nose are just little dots, but this particular face looks like an actual happy face! Good painting! She asked me to get her blocks. They were not in the same place where they have been for many months. She told me that they disappeared and that it was a mystery and that her blocks were in Constance's room. After Constance moved I put some of Zoe's toys in there thinking that it could be a play-room; but we just drag it all back out into the living room every day. Oh well. She likes to build this same "castle" over and over again.

all the colors

I am working on a yarn-dyeing project and Zoe is assisting. She is really interested in mixing the different colors. It's just food coloring and water.

Butterfly Princess Dinosaur Pajamas

She often goes in her room and closes the door and this is what dances out a few minutes later.

crown

Last week Zoe had her butterfly costume on and she told me that she couldn't find her crown and I told her that I didn't think she had one. She was disappointed. So we were at Joann's buying some food coloring and they have a bunch of $1 stuff to stare at while you are standing in line. Of course it's all pink and shiny and everything that little girls cannot resist while they are forced to stand in line next to their crafty-fabric-buying mothers. Zoe finds this crown and puts it on to the delight of all the women standing there and then she puts it up on the counter while I am buying the food coloring. It was only a dollar and it really is very shiny. I think we have the whole princess ensemble now.

argh

It has been a tough week. Zoe's painting tells a good story: layers of turmoil. There was a clear path at times, but mostly we just kept attempting to get through the day. Pete left for New York on Monday [with a fever and the flu for sure], I tried to go to work [and I did, three times], Zoe went to preschool completely hysterical and miserable. Yesterday she woke up with a fever so I had to cancel my job and stay home with a sick kid [another first!]. Today I feel like crap, too. Can't wait for tomorrow!

Sometimes though, Zoe picks out something awesome at the store: like pink, heart-shaped sunglasses and everything is okay again. She loves these. She spun the sunglass display around and then put these in the cart at Kohl's. She loves pink. In every way. She picks all of her pink things out of her pile of little toys and keeps them together in a collection. There is a pink wind-up dragonfly, a pink flower, a ring with a pink heart on it, and some other things....

During our sick day yesterday Zoe thought she wanted to play outside so we got all bundled up and just took a walk around the house. It's been a long time since we had even been in the backyard. Hey, look, you know it's Spring when the "pretty flowers" are blooming again. She picked all of the dandelions she could find and then we just sat on the porch in the sun for a few minutes.

We go way back.

zah things updated

I updated the ZAH Things blog this morning.

clothes

BTW - Zoe is a Size 4 now. She can wear a 3T, but any brand that runs a little short/small is tight on her. It's tricky to buy size 4 clothes I am noticing because it is the cross-over between "baby" and "little girl". So sometimes in stores there are not any 4T clothes, but then I realize that they are in a different section. Or they are in both sections. And sometimes 4T clothes for little girls are now just "extra small". She is probably taller than you think she is... I need to measure her again. I can tell that she has grown since her birthday. She really likes dresses and pink and purple.

Learning to Read?

I really think Zoe is learning to read. Well, I know she is. It still might be a year before she knows enough words to read one of her books, but it's very exciting to see that she understands what the alphabet does. She had Cat in the Hat sitting next to her bed yesterday and she pointed to each letter and said "C A T is cat." and I showed her that H A T is hat. Later I asked her to tell Daddy what the words on the book said. She was a little reluctant but when Pete said 'what's this word?' she said "cat" and he asked 'what's this word?' and she said "hat". She likes to say what the letters sound like, too. So she will just randomly say "mom! the letter S says sssssssss!" "the letter R says rrrrrrrrrr!"
I also noticed yesterday that when she plays with her Handy Manny toys she counts in Spanish. Handy Manny is bilingual, but Pete pointed out that Phillipe [the phillips screwdriver] only speaks Spanish, and Constance said that Zoe speaks Spanish for them "out of respect."

When we were driving home from pizza with Uncle Rick last night Pete said that he "had a gut bomb". It was soooo delicious [Portofino's Pizza] and we ate way too much. They do not deliver and we do not eat in restaurants very often, so it was a special treat. anyway. Zoe heard him and said "you have a gut bomb, dad?" and he said that his tummy hurt and Zoe told him "you need a doctor, dad." I hope that she continues to value doctors and is not afraid of them. I told Pete that we are going to encourage her to be one. Why not?

1st Day @ Preschool

Today will be our 3rd day at preschool. It's going well.She has never really spent the day both away from the house AND away from me so we are all really happy that she is excited to go to school and is willing to stay there until I pick her up. I know she likes playing with the other kids. The other Zoe is really interested in being friends with our Zoe. She's super cute.
This is Zoe's new butterfly lunchbox. She picked it out. They won't let kids eat anything that is remotely a snack. We can't even send juice or chocolate milk. So she is eating a little bit of turkey and a bite of a cheese stick and some raisins for lunch. I don't know what the other kids eat. sushi? hummus and celery sticks? quiche lorraine? It has changed the way she eats dinner. Now she is seriously hungry in the evening so it's a lot easier to get her to sit still and eat something with us.
I have orientation today for the school district. Perhaps I will find out how much they anticipate me working. Pete is going to New York [White Plaines] for 3 weeks on Monday. If you want to hop on a plane and come visit me - please do! We think that he will have quite a bit of out-of-town work for the next few months. Constance is moving out this weekend [Boooooo!] so I will have a very quiet house next week. It's a little scary.

Zoe had this beautiful art in her folder when I picked her up yesterday. She was very excited that she had used glue and had "shapes stuck on". She told me what all of the shapes are. "I see a pink rectangle! I see a green rain drop! I see a purple oval!"

Good Dancer

Pete is trying to play "happy birthday" on the piano while Zoe shows us her moves.

Happy Birthday Constance!

When Zoe woke up she came and told me that there were presents in the kitchen. I told her that they were for Constance because it was her birthday. It was so cute when Constance walked into the kitchen that morning and Zoe said "Happy Birthday, Constance. These presents are for you. Open them!"

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This morning on Team UmiZoomi a baby comet fell from space and they helped it find its mommy. I know these videos are really dark, but it was really early in the morning. Zoe is sitting on a chair, looking out the front window with her binoculars because, apparently, we don't have a telescope for her to use.

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