Zoe Update

It's been awhile since I've done one of these. I no longer count months the way I did during her first year, so I don't have regular reminders to write about Zoe these days. She will be two years old in two months. I can't believe the time has gone by so quickly.


Last month the three of us volunteered at an Austin Marathon water stop. Zoe would randomly shout out, "go!" to the runners and made quite a few people laugh. She was fascinated by the runners drinking the water from cups, then throwing them to the side. She has been mimicking this action at home, unfortunately. The volunteers would crush the thrown cups so they wouldn't blow away if we didn't have time to reach down and pick them up before the next wave of runners. Zoe got a big kick out of going around and stomping on cups.

Also last month the three of us went to Mount Bonnell (Zoe's first time). There was a couple making out and as we walked by. Zoe said, "who's that?" They laughed.


She's talking a lot more these days. She repeats a lot of words, but randomly. For instance, the other day Nate was saying something about being happy, and Zoe kept saying "hop-eee." Her repetitions are close to the word, but sometimes she's tough to understand. Another anecdote: this past Saturday afternoon she and I were watching a movie and sitting next to each other. She pulled my hair and I asked her to stop it. She got a mischievous glint in her eye and kept pulling my hair, repeating, "Stop it. Stop it." She seemed a little evil. Nate thinks this is his genetic influence.

She seems more self-conscious. She doesn't bust out dancing in public the way she used to.

At the playground she always goes for the biggest slide. Whatever the big kids are doing, that's what she wants to do. She has no fear.

Her hair is getting loooong. Her hair used to be really curly but now the length/weight are pulling some of the curls down. And I keep wondering if I should give her bangs to keep the hair out of her face, but I don't think she'd sit still long enough for us to get a presentable haircut.

She has a temper. With the daylight savings time shift, we've had a couple of rough nights. Last night she had a particularly tough time going down. She was in bed for at least an hour and just couldn't fall asleep. At a certain point, she got up and headed toward the bedroom door and opened it. I stayed in bed. She turned and looked at me because she wanted me to come with her. I said, "No, mommy is going to sleep." Then she got really mad and either said "go" or "no" and very clearly gestured for me to get up.

She looooves dogs and cats, but especially cats. When she sees them on our neighborhood walks, she will say "meowww" as we go by. In her books, she points at animals (like lions, bears, frogs, monkeys--oohoohawwawww, etc.) and then makes their equivalent noises. The elephant is particularly funny (she does a trunk motion with her arm). She is scared of chickens if they get too close to her in real life but she likes ducks.

She hates dresses. The last two times I've tried to put a dress on her, she started crying and trying to take them off. I know that at a certain point I refused to wear dresses, but I think I was five or six, not a few months shy of two! I think Zoe is my karma.

Every time we drive by Zilker Park and she sees the playground, she whines. She has started whining more in general. If we ask her if she's hungry, thirsty, ready to go to bed, etc. she says, "yeah," but in this very funny voice that sounds like she's about to cry.


She's tall enough to reach most of the doorknobs in the apartment. We're trying to remember to lock the front door (she can't reach the locks yet) so we don't end up on the news as the parents of a toddler found wandering alone on the street. She's a lot more confident in general. She climbs stairs very well on her own and likes to climb and jump off everything.

Her favorite show is WordWorld. Sometimes she will walk over to the TV and hit it, and yes, whine. That is her signal that she wants to watch an episode. We are heading into the terrible twos, I guess, though so far they are mostly amusing.

Update to the update: I thought of a couple of other things since writing this.

If you help her with something, Zoe will say thank you. Only it sounds like, "tii-tu."

I am working on potty (mouth) training. I still say way too many curse words around Zoe, though I really do try to restrain myself. Today I was changing her pull-ups and she'd had a leak. I said, "crap." She spent the next half hour saying, "Drap. Drap!" Good lesson for me.

Speaking of potty training, she's getting there. She's been using the potty since early December. She uses it several times a day. Sometimes she tells you she wants to go; other times I just guess, put her on the potty, and I'm right (or wrong). I tried the whole put panties on instead of pull-ups for a weekend. The thought being that once she knows she's wet, she'll get uncomfortable and make the whole mind-potty connection. But what kept happening was that she'd pee or poop on the floor because she didn't want to stop playing to go to the potty. Being wet/dirty did not bother her in the slightest, which led me to think she isn't ready for that next step. And since she's not even two, that is fine with me. Plus, poop on the floor? Drap.