Hello!

I am officially starting work on Monday! I went to the Y's New Employee Orientation yesterday and it was awesome. I think that this company is a really good fit for me. There is lots of room for opportunity & personal growth and a genuine commitment to taking care of kids and our community. I will be working at Zoe's school for awhile, I think with the 2 & 3 year olds.

I have some great pictures of Zoe on my phone that I will make time to share with you... We haven't done too much lately. It is still very cold, super rainy, and suddenly snowy at times. We have been to the Children's Museum a couple of times and we went bowling for the 1st time. I took Zoe for her first "real" haircut at a salon on Tuesday. The stylist was fantastic and Zoe had a really good time. Her hair is the same, just a little shorter and it's all finally even across the back. We went to see The Lorax last weekend and it was GREAT! I read the book [thanks, Aunt Tammy!] to Zoe the day before we went and she really understood the story and was sad when all of the trees were chopped down.

She asks to do all sorts of things, and some of them I try to accomodate. She wants to go to a farm and milk a cow and help a farmer with the chickens and ride a tractor. She wants to go to a fire station and slide down a pole and rescue a cat from a tree. She wants to ride in a rocketship and go to the moon. She wants a dog with a spot on it that she can play fetch with. She wants a pirate costume.

She was stretching a rubber band out with her fingers into a tall, thin triangle and she said "look, it's the Eiffel Tower!"

She said that she loves rainbows because they have all of her favorite colors.

She asked me for some Banana-dryl [Benadryl] for a bug bite on her leg.

She loves to give gifts and make cards for other people. She also loves to get them in the mail - everything that you send is much appreciated.

She notices everything. She forgets nothing.

She noticed that I was wearing different shoes when I picked her up from school than I had on in the morning. Anytime I hang a new shirt up in her closet she will pick it out and put it on. She always knows when something is missing, one of her books, a small toy. She compliments my new earrings, my new socks, my nail polish.

She has lots of friends at school: Wyatt, Madeline, Amelia, Zoe W, Sam. She misses the kids from her 3 year old classroom and her teachers, too. In her class now they do lots of science experiments and writing and make music.

She loves to dance and play music and listen to music. I would like to enroll her in a ballet class. I found out that as a Y employee I will also get disounted classes, and I have some "Y Bucks" that I can use for this, too - so hopefully we can do that soon. She also has invented some Kung Fu moves, it's really impressive.

So Much Art

Zoe draws every day. If she has time before school she will do a drawing - today she drew elephant footprints. She will draw at school and have several pictures to bring home. She draws every afternoon when we get home and will keep drawing until bedtime. I am showing her how to draw things by breaking them down into shapes - there are a couple here that look like unicorns - she did those by herself. She draws lots and lots and lots of portraits of me, Pete & herself. We are always smiling and holding hands and sitting on rainbows or something.
She loves to add stickers and the jewels & googly eyes from grandpa.
She knows how to mix paint colors and is always asking what will happen if she mixes blue and orange or brown and pink...
She can certainly write her name, but it is usually backwards EOZ. She can write MOM and DAD also without any help.

end of february

Zoe put on her "princess" nightgown and her Minnie Mouse hat

Rowan's 4th birthday!

Zoe tucked herself into our bed [and tucked her animals in next to her, too]