Zoë Calamity: The last word in little girls.

It’s been pretty hot the last couple of days so we decided to spend an afternoon at the pool. Zoë’s is such an excellent little swimmer now. She’s at the point where she can swim across the width of the pool, popping her head up to take breaths along the way. We overheard 2 other parents saying “look at that little girl swimming” to their children.

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This is absolutely what I live for

Yesterday was Miss Zoe’s birthday, and she celebrated in style. (And will be continuing to celebrate through the rest of this week.)
She woke up to balloons from her daddy (bliss, in her world)
and one of them even *gasp* sings, making it the coolest balloon ever.

She tore into her presents- although her technique was more like that of Bert on A Sesame Street Christmas(go to 6:56, you’ll see what I mean) – and was enraptured with her “shorts and a Wall-E shirt to go with them!!” (pajamas) from Tiny:

She insisted on wearing the shirt on our adventures for the day, and then had to wear it to bed too. Hopefully she’ll let me take it off of her this morning.

She also got an Einsteins music set, full of percussion-y goodness, and a Word World Barn playset.

Then she got to open her presents from her grandma and grandaddy and Aunt Hayden, which she was very excited about.

After playing for a while we headed out on our adventure of the day, Marine World!

Zoe really wasn’t sure about the whole prospect as we entered the park underneath all of the huge roller coasters and people screaming, but once we got into the African animal area, she hit her stride, going on rides with her daddy and looking at animals.

We went to the Shouka the Orca show (which also featured dolphins), and even though Z wanted to leave part way through to go on more rides, she later referenced it as her favorite part of the day. (These pictures are kind of wonky, but it was hard getting a good angle while holding Tiny.)

The park has a Thomas the Train area, and luckily we went on a “Zoe loves Thomas the Train day” (she goes back and forth on the issue) and she had a fantastic time riding on Thomas the train and Harold (?) the helicopter and Bertie the bus. The whole time she kept saying how much her friends Grant and Kellen would love to be there, because “they LOVE Thomas momma”.

A few rides later and it was time for us to go, much to her chagrin. But before we left she played a game of strength (one of those where you hit the thing with a mallet and try to hit the bell) and she won a kitty on a leash who has been named Oobadoop.

She crashed on the way home, and really, you can’t ask for a better end of an adventure than that.

And then there was cake:


Some quick Zoe’s 3 stats:
She’s 39 (ish) inches tall
She’s 29 (ish) pounds
She can pretty reliably pee on the potty
She loves to swim, run, jump, dance, sing
She has an insane vocabulary and a pretty funny repertoire of idioms
She has, on any given day, 6-7 imaginary friends (little buddies)
She’s got a green thumb- her 4 plants are growing like weeds! (And no, they’re not weeds.)
She adores her little sister, as long as she’s not trying to play with her toys.

Now, some answers from her:
Favorite shows: Word World, Wow Wow Wubbzy, Little Einsteins, Micky Mouse Clubhouse
Favorite movie: Wall-E
Favorite book: Cars (no, she has never seen the movie)
Best friend: Ben
Favorite song to listen to: Go Speed Racer by Ali Dee and the Dekompressors
Favorite song to sing: Bathtub (which is a song she wrote, the lyrics are: “bathtub, bathtub, bathtub, bathtub, bathtub, bathtub, truck!)
Favorite thing to do: Go for a hike. “Where?” In the woods, I’m not scared of monsters. (Just for the record, she has never been on a hike.)
Favorite color: Blue
Favorite food: strawberries
Favorite toy: dolls. actuoo (actually) princesses.

Zoe has been saying her own nightly prayers for a while now, but after reading a book during Sacrament Meeting about Choosing the Right, she’s been extra dilligent about saying her “own prays”. Tonight I reminded her that the book included a family saying a family prayer in addition to the little girl saying her own prayer, and she decided we should say a family prayer.

So Bruce and I went into her room (Audrey was asleep already) and we all knelt down and I asked her who should say the family prayer. She proclaimed that she would say it, and I fully expected to hear her nightly prayer, which I expected she would then say again for her “own” prayer.

Instead, this is what we heard, as B and I listened in partial shock, partial dying of adorableness:

“Heavenly Fathen, thank you for this day, blessing I can be too-geger (together) with my family, blessing we can sleep well, in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.”

And no, that’s not a typo, she pronounces it “Fathen”.

Too awesome? Too awesome.

And just for the record, this is her nightly prayer:
“Heavenly Fathen, thank you for this day, blessing I can sleep well and Tiny too, in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.”

Cross posted on Momma’s site.

Cross posted on Z’s blog.

Today in the car, Z and I had the following conversation, with Bruce getting in the car and joining part way through. Imagine me trying really hard not to crack up the whole time.

Z: Momma, there’s something in my nose!
M: What is it?
Z: I think it’s a nose nut.
M: A nose nut?
Z: Yeah.
M: How did it get in there?
Z: It got on a nut airplane and flew to my nose.
M: Really? I had no idea they could do that.
Z: Yeah. They go in every kind of girl’s noses. And then fingers come and get them out.
M: And how do they feel about that?
Z: Well….. they’re angry.
M:What do you do with a nose nut after you take it out of your nose?
Z: Put it in my pocket. I keep it in my pocket. Then it is happy.
B: Wasn’t it happy in your nose?
Z: Yes.
B: Then why did you take it out?
Z: So I have more air in my nose.

And there you have it.

Here’s a little snapshot- or 15- of what Z is up to these days.

She’s turning 3 in 75 days. Doesn’t she look grown up?

Her hair is crazy long and goes really funny curly when it’s been up in puff balls:

She loves going to Starbucks. Her regular order is a vanilla scone and chocolate milk, but she’ll go with a croissant too.

She still enjoys playing in the baby pool, but is wary of the big pool. Swimming lessons ahead. (editor’s note: she knows how to swim, she just forgot about it over the winter -the daddy)

She loves the play ground:

More to come later.

Zoe’s newest passion is Kai Lan, as in Ni Hao Kai Lan. On the show, there’s always a lesson that’s sung to the same kind of tune each episode.  For example: “If you’re trying something new, and it’s really hard to do, just…. take… it… slow!” or “If you make something new, and a friend copies you, that just means that they really… like it.. too!”.

So today at lunch, I sang Zoe a song along the same lines about eating her lunch.

She said: ” No mama, this is the pizza song. ‘If you have some pizza, you say I eat it!’. She followed that up with, “If you don’t have no pizza, you say, Waaaaaah! I want pizza!’ ”

Wherein she clearly and succinctly captures the pathos of her generation. I’m impressed.

1) So, as a follow up to the last post, today Zoe was playing and I heard her say “double crack!”. I asked, “Zoe, did you just say crack?”. In complete innocence she looked up and said, “No, I say double crack”.  What can you say to that?

2) She just came out of her room riding her huge giraffe stuffed animal that is almost as tall as she is. When I say riding, I mean hopping, because she was straddling it and hopping along with it underneath her, saying “hop. hop. hop” as she went. As she got out to me she said, “See momma? This is my giraffe hopper 3000″. Thank you Wubbzy for introducing the idea of inventions ending in 3000.

3) She just came out again with a stroller full of animals who she introduced as Chips the monkey, Siachips the penguin, Bindas the baby, Bobos the dog, Diadas the gorilla and another name I didn’t catch. Surprisingly, none of them were named Sookie, which is the name she usually goes for.  Now she’s in her room repeating the name Siachips over and over.  It’s eeriely reminiscent of the Asimov story Zero Hour, where the kids are all friends with an alien invader that all of their parents assume is just an imaginary friend……

Little Miss Zoë was just sent to bed without reading time because she used a bad word that she learned from her potty mouthed mother.

What word, you ask?
“Crack”

That’s right, “crack”. She overheard Maryanne say “crap” and started imitating it. Maryanne was trying to get Zoë out of the tub and Z looked at her and with a snarl said “CRACK”!

Pretty funny stuff.

She actually has a history with this. When we told her that she shouldn’t say “crack”, she made up her own word “robock” that she used instead. It’s interesting to see these formative years of vulgarity.

So far Zoë knows 3 types of music: church music, yazz (jazz) and rockenroll. She’s a big fan of Santana. Although, she may think he is related to Santa.

Zoë (in a dramatic drawl): Mommy….I’m sad
Maryanne: It’s ok baby, just don’t make a big deal about it