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)
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.
We stayed at the Candy Cane Inn, a nice little hotel (with a 7-11 next door to supply milk and slurpees!) on the corner of the Disneyland block. It was about a 5 minute walk to the front gate which was a nice little stroll and helped build Zoë’s excitement.
The game plan was to start our Disney trip with the “Princess Lunch” at Aeriel’s Grotto in California Adventure. While waiting for our seating, Z saw a ride off in the distance with some silver age looking “space ships” flying around in a circle. When I asked her if she wanted to ride in them after lunch, she had a look of “are you serious” on her face and said “sure!”. Getting into the lunch was the real start of Z’s day. She was so incredibly excited to see all the princesses as they came around and met with her. I thought she was going to explode when Cindrella came out. For those with girls, the Princess Lunch is definitely a must.
After lunch, we headed over to the “space ships” (the Golden Zephyr). I was unsure as to how Z would do with the ride since well, she’s never been on an amuzement park ride before. I was really happy to see that she absolutely loved it.
After this, we headed over to the main park. Standing at the beginning of Main Street was Captain Hook. Z was excited to see a pirate and was happy to have a picture taken with him.
Her first rides in Disneyland were Dumbo and the Teacups. These became the staple of her Disney experience. She absolutely loved them. On Dumbo she loved being able to go up and down. In the Tea Cups she wanted to “spin fast!”. I love that my daughter likes the rides that spin around and go high in the sky.
The next stage of our journey took us to Toon Town. The best Disney moment happened here. She saw Minnie Mouse and Goofy standing around meeting people and she took off like a shot running towards them.
There was a somewhat loud and obnoxious family a few people ahead of us and so the character handler told the folks in line to try to limit it to 2 pictures per family. When Zoë got to the front of the line, I think that rule got tossed aside. While each character signed Z’s book, the other would play around with her. Z was in absolute heaven.
Goofy actually drew a picture of his face in Z’s book and when he handed the book to Minnie he kinda struck a “ha-ha, top that!” pose. It was pretty funny. It was really great to see the characters going out of their way to make her day.
From here, she had some fun exploring Minnie’s and Mickey’s houses. She was a little confused that she couldn’t pick up the props in the house, but liked exploring.
By now it was getting close to dinner. We asked Z what she wanted and she said “quesadilla”. As Maryanne pointed out, there is no place to get one in the park. We ended up eating at the one “Mexican” place in the park, over in Frontierland. It was actually really nice. The food was good and it was practically empty. With the sun on it’s way down, we got to relax in the courtyard and have a quiet (something rare in the park) meal. Next it was on to Pirates. We hit the ride just right. We walked straight in and hopped in our boat. Z didn’t quiet know what to think about this ride. The drops at the beginning threw her off a little, but she warmed up to the ride with the help of Maryanne’s excited pointers of “look Zoë, pirates!”.
It was dark when we got out and there was a Dixieland jazz band playing, so Zoë danced to the music a little and they threw her a necklace that she ended up wearing the rest of her trip. By this time we were all getting a little tired, so it was back to Fantasyland for Dumbo, Teacups and Carousel and then back to the hotel.
Zoë was really tired and wanted to go “to my own home”, but eventually calmed down and was excited to sleep in a grown up bed for the night.
Zoe and I sat down this morning for a little interview about her experience at Disneyland.
Momma: What was your favorite ride at Disneyland?
Zoe: The teacups
M: Who did you go with?
Z:Tiki tiki tiki. They’e the tiki tiki tea cups
M: Who did you ride on them with?
Z: Daddy. Momma, please give me a sticker and I put it on Minnie. (She puts a sticker on her baby Minnie stuffed animal that “appeared” on her stroller.)
M: Hey, who is that Minnie? where did she come from?
Z: She just be magic
M: What do you mean?
Z: Where she come from?
M: She just showed up on your stroller, didn’t she?
Z: Yes.
M: Who did you meet at Disneyland?
Z: Mickey. Mickey club house. Maybe that must be his house.
M: Who else?
Z: Minnie
M: Who else?
Z: Ana
M: You did see ana! Why was she there?
Z: Them just be magic! And I say aaaah! to her.
M: Why were they there? Was it someone’s birthday?
Z: Yeah! Jack’s birthday.
M: How old was he?
Z: 3
M: And we got to see him on his birthday?
Z: Yeah
M: What did we do with them?
Z: Walk with them and go to jungle cruise. We went on cars and went all around and I went “uh, ouchie!”
M: Did you?
Z: Yes (I have no idea what she’s talking about here.)
M: What else did we do with them?
Z: We went on dumbo with them. That was a ride. we went on the merry go round. It goes round and round and round. And then you push a little line and go out of that place.
M: Where did we stay?
Z: In the candy cane inn.
M: Good remembering! Did you sleep in a crib?
Z: No! In a big girl bed.
M: Was it enormous?
Z: Yes.
M: What did you wear when we went to Disneyland?
Z: A Snow White costume. No, not Snow White, a Cinderella costume.
Zoë’s first day at Disneyland has been a blast. She got to meet lots of princesses and see some of her favorite characters. We’re all worn out from such a busy day, so a full report will have to come later. Here’s a teaser pic:
…and haven’t updated in forever! Well, we’re all heading down to Disneyland tomorrow, so we should have plenty of stuff to update soon. With pictures!!
