Zoë Calamity: The last word in little girls.

… read! She read her first book today, followed by two more. They’re beginning reader books, but books nonetheless! We’ve been doing“reading lessons” for almost 2 weeks, and she’s just soaking it in.  Go Zoe!

…write! Along with reading, we’re working on writing, and she’s doing really well. She really enjoys practicing writing her letters.

… do yoga! I got a kids yoga DVD for her, and this is what she surprised us with yesterday:

…swim! She’s started swimming lessons again, and is working on the elementary backstroke and the regular forward stroke. (She’s used to swimming without using her arms.) She’s working hard and getting better and better!

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.”

Zoe now has a big girl bed.

The world as we know it might be over. We’ll let you know.

Zoe has undergone a vocabulary explosion in the last weeks, and she now says:

Hi

Hello (which comes out “hewwo!” – hilarious)

Bye

Momma

Daddy (also daddo, dada)

Grandma- “Ama”

KyKy- her cousin, who she adores

Auntie

Cat

Kitty

Puppy

Dog (although she usually doesn’t say it, she usually makes a blowing motion, which is her version of “ruff ruff”)

Raisin (“raiseee”)

Carrot (I can’t write the pronunciation because I can’t actually remember right now how she says it, but its consistent)

Cracker

Cheese, please, keys, (which all sound very similar)

Purple (this one is actually amazingly well ennunciated)

Blue (“goo” or “Boo”, depending on the day)

Yellow (“ello”

George (“gorge”) as in Curious George
Shoes

Socks

pants

eyes

nose

necklace (that one’s new today)

Jack (her little friend, also new today)

Bubbles (also very clearly ennunciated)

Coat, cold, clothes (all sound somewhat like “Cou” but have slight differences)

Minnie Mouse (“Mee Mou.. sss”)

Ernie- “ermie”

Elmo

That way (always said emphatically- “AT WAY!”)

Go

No

Yes

Stinky (She loves to run up to things, like walls or windows or garage doors and yell “Tinky!” and crack up)
Yucky

Up (means up, or out, as in, get me out of here)

Breakfast (“Brefass”, means cereal or, in the morning means, I want to leave my room and go out in the living room)

Water (“Wawa”)

Baby

Car

Egg

Banana (I can’t even begin to write how she says this, but it’s hilarious)

Apple

Tree

Bus – Sometimes this is also signified by moving her arms around to indicate the wheels on the bus

Beep- Sometimes she says it, sometimes she does the horn sign from the wheels on the bus song. Her usage of the word usually indicates an alarm of some kind that she hears.

Tickle- “ticka ticka”

Meow- “neeowww”

House

Thank you

Please

Ball

Glasses (“gasses”)

Then there are the “Zoe language” words, sounds that either bear no resemblance to the word she means, but are consistent; or motions, like sign language.

Monkey- “E, e, e” like the sound a monkey makes

Lion – a lion’s roar

Snake- “Ssss”

Frog- a big ribbitty kind of sound, except if it was done by someone who couldn’t say ribbitt
Alphabet- “Eeees”. When you ask her to say the alphabet, it goes something like “E,o, e, o, s, o ,e, o” so Eees means alphabet. It also specifically means she wants to listen to the They Might Be Giants Here Come the ABC’s CD.
Pirates, and/ or Backyardigans- “Arrr!” Any Backyardigan’s item or show is designated by the “Arr!” sound, as they have a pirate song that she loves. It’s highly amusing when she uses the sound to indicate the Backyardigan’s super spy book she has. Because apparently spies are also pirates.

Train- “Choo choo”

Stars- wiggles her hands above her head

Airplane- points up, sometimes in conjunction with the word “Daddy!”. (B went on a trip and when she would ask for him I would remind her he went on an airplane- it was easier than explaining the concept of Texas- and now she thinks he rides around on planes all day.)

Phone- “hewwo!” or hello

Sleep- a snoring sound, accompanied by a tilt of the head. This never means that she wants to sleep, but rather that she wants B to go lay down and pretend to sleep so that she can “wake him up” and he’ll chase and tickle her
Other random accomplishments/developments:

Even though she can only say blue and purple, she can pretty consistently point out all the different colors.

She can point out the letters “O”, “e” and “s”, and say their names. (All she needs is Z and she’s got her name down!)

As we’ve been reading the last couple days, I’ll leave words out of the sentence that I know she can pronounce to see if she remembers how the books go, and she’s been blowing me away. Some of the words she’s getting from the pictures, but most she’s remembering. Yay!

She’s throwing and kicking balls with much more dexterity than she previously had been.

When we’re outside, she notices cats, dogs, and birds- sometimes indicating that she hears, rather than sees, the birds. She likes to watch ants, and is skittish of rolypoly bugs. She loves pointing out airplanes and trains when she hears/sees them.

She’s figured out how to use the key fob to open the gates around the apartment building (when she can reach the sensor), but she hasn’t yet figured out how to get to the gate quick enough to actually open it.

She just started putting a possessive S on words, indicating something is momma’s or daddy’s. The s comes after a pause and is very deliberate, and therefore, very funny.

She also referred to herself as “me” today. She still can’t say Zoe, but Z is a hard letter to say!

I think that’s it for now. I’m sure there will be more tomorrow!

Today I was carrying Zoe and she had her mouth open, and I caught a flash of white toward the back of her mouth. I thought, that couldn’t possibly be a tooth, she still has one in the front that hasn’t come in yet. I tried to get her to open her mouth again all day, and finally when I was brushing her teeth I got a good look. And there it was, a tooth! I called B in to see, and in the course of him trying to get a look, we realized that she has another tooth on the other side, as well as the one in the front that we’d been waiting for. 3 teeth that just snuck up on us! Sneaks! This explains why she’s been so persnickety lately about me brushing her teeth, and why her mood has improved drastically over the last couple days. Hooray for teeth!

PS, they’re not molars, they’re the 3rd teeth back.

Zoe is busy pushing a metal garbage can around the apartment, using it as a stability ensuring device. She hasn’t yet fallen on her head. The garbage can contains a toy truck and 2 crackers, that I probably won’t let her eat, but that if she did, would most likely be fine because I SCRUBBED that garbage can while she was taking a nap, and I don’t think metal holds germs when drowned in burning hot water and soap, but who knows?

She also has a new tooth (upper left) which finally poked through, and ended the stream of whiny-ness that went on for days and days.

And now she’s trying to reach her daddy’s mouse, and who knows what havok she’s got planned for his computer, so I better go.

Zoe’s been progressing at a stunning rate, doing things almost daily that just shock and amaze us. Last night she walked (Yes, WALKED!) 4 steps from the table to B’s computer chair, and then did it again, and again. Two or so days ago, she was listening to a toy her grandma got her and sang along to the end of the song, saying “hello, goodbye” pretty clearly. Today we went swimming, and she started paddling her arms (she already kicks her feet) and really wanted me to just let go so she could go. I wasn’t quite ready to do that, but she sure was! This morning I said (not figuring anything would come of it) “Why don’t you put your spoons in your backpack?”. A few seconds later she brought the backpack over to me, with about 4 plastic spoons in it. She just blows me away. Right now she’s protesting taking a nap, and is very sad that I won’t come get her. I’ll probably give in in just about a second, I’m kind of a sucker that way.

Here’s a slide show of Zoë’s first birthday! Either click on the slide show or follow this link to browse through and see them in a larger format.

You might notice a couple pictures with her “ugly doll”. M took that picture so we would have a nice comparison of how much she’s grown in the last year.

Compare this:
297

With this:

She’s come a long way!

Just in time for Zo’s birthday, she has two new teeth! Her two upper center teeth (whatever you call those) have come bursting through, complete with crankiness and fever. But she’s really handling it all like a champ. And she’s so cute I can just barely stand it.