Zoë Calamity: The last word in little girls.

Yesterday Zoe was supposed to be taking a nap, but had been singing and playing in her bed for about an hour instead. I heard her say, “Momma, I need help!” so I went in to see what was going on, and when she saw me come in she stood up and proudly proclaimed, “Momma, I naked!”.  And indeed, she had managed to take her shirt off, and was very pleased with herself. All I could do was laugh, and when she asked to get out of bed, I figured she’d earned it.

Z has been doing a wonderful job picking up manners. She is very quick to say “please” and “thank you” and is always gracious when receiving gifts or help. Last week, however, she completely floored us.

I had got her out bed around 7 or so and we sat around playing until it got a little closer to 8 and I needed to get ready for work. I said “Zoë, so you want to go see mommy?” she excitedly said “oh, yeah!” like I had just reminded her that Maryanne existed. We walked into our room and Z, upon seeing Maryanne asleep, looked back with a hesitant expression on her face. I said, “go ahead” and she slowly walked over to Maryanne’s side of the bed.

In a sweet little voice she said, “excuse me….excuse me, momma”.

Maryanne said it was one of the best wakeups ever.

I’m kinda partial to the mornings when my door busts open and I hear Z scream “Daddy!!”, but to each his own.

Usually we are firm believers in letting a sleepy Zoë lie, but M was able to grab these great shots while Z was past due getting up from a nap.

Just in case you were wondering…

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!

Still no bottle, sippycups rule the day.

I just looked over at Zoe, who was looking at me deviously from the table. All the blueberries on her plate were gone, which seemed unlikely, so on a hunch I looked down her shirt. No blueberries, but a baby carrot. When I found it she grinned at me, a sure indication that it’s placement was no accident. Now she has another carrot down there, and some goldfish. Who am I to judge her artistic expression?

(Apparently she actually ate the blueberries; I haven’t found them anywhere else.)

When I was about 20 months old, I threw my binky (we called them “dummys”) in the toilet. My mom took the opportunity to say it was gone forever, and take advantage of the fact that, as I was 20 months old, I wouldn’t necessarily figure out that I owned more than one dummy. (She reports that she then ran around the house like a crazy person trying to find all the dummys and hide them.) Hence my days of dummys were over.

I mention this because Zoe threw her bottle away today. She finished the milk she was drinking and was standing near the trash can and just put the bottle right in it. So what did I do? Followed my mom’s example, of course. Her bottle is gone, (although it’s really hiding in a cupboard- I’m not stupid, nor am I that wasteful- a binky yes, but not a bottle) and now she only gets sippy cups. We went through the rest of the evening with no meltdown over it, so we’ll see what happens tomorrow when it really sinks in. I’m not looking forward to the early morning when she usually wakes up, has a bottle, and goes back to bed for a couple hours- I have the feeling the sippy cup might not go over so well. But, all things must come to an end. (I’m not sure if I’m referring to the bottle or me getting a couple extra hours of sleep. I hope it’s the bottle. I like to sleep.)

Like mother, like daughter, I guess.

The UPS man just stopped by, and he took a while as he had 3 packages to drop off and hadn’t really planned ahead. Zoe wandered over to the door and watched him, and when he finished she looked right at him and said, clear as day, “Thank you!”. He looked at her, surprised, and said “you’re welcome”. I asked her if she could tell him “bye” and she did. What a smartie pants!

Of course, now she’s closed herself in the front closet, but at least she’s smart enough to knock to let me know she wants to get out.

Click on any of the pictures to see a larger version. For more pics from this month, check out this album

For the last week or so, we’ve been working on Zoe’s tendency to scream at me when she wants my attention. We’ve been practicing saying “mama” and things have been going quite well. (This has also included me singing “You say mama, and I say Zoe, and you say Mama, mama I need help” to the tune of the Diego theme very very loudly to combat the screaming. )

This morning, I woke up to hear a little voice calling “mama” from her room (instead of the fussing I usually hear), and when I went in and sat by her crib, she smiled at me and said “boo!”. I almost died.

She’s talking more, and can say cheese, please, keys (she’s big on words that end in ese), apple, fish, dog, cup, cold, water (although she doesn’t say it often). She also tries really really hard to say banana and Angelina (as in Angelina Ballerina), with hilarious results as she contorts her tongue around.

She’s developing into a fantastic and highly amusing dancer, swinging her arms while she twists her booty all around and grins. It’s great stuff.

She’s also discovered that she can stand on one of her bins and reach the kitchen light, so that turns on and off pretty constantly throughout the day.

Her favorite song is “A pirate says Arr” from the Backyardigans soundtrack, she’s thrilled whenever I turn it on for her, and she highly enjoys the other Backyardigans songs as well. Great to dance to.

I think that’s it for now, I’m sure there’s more cuteness to come shortly.