teddy bears and toys...

Zoë now gets stars in her eyes when we get near the toy section in a store.. we went to Winners, the Canadian TJ Max, and Zoe had a ball piling up the toys she wanted or liked. Of course, her father is just as bad, and as a result, she now has 160 faux wood (foam) blocks... much fun to be had there. She also fell in love with a teddy bear as tall as her.. I couldn't resist.. it is a Russ. She carried it all over the store, when she tripped, she fell on it; She also laid down on it as if to sleep on her new pillow, she calls it "baby" which from her sounds like "dadee".. it was so cute... I'll get a picture. She carried it around the house tonight until she was banging into our front room chairs and now has a bruise on top of her bruise from last night.

Bath Time

In going thru this month's pics, I found some great bath time photos. Zoe loves her sponge, and loves to have it jammed all the way in her mouth, freeing up both hands.


She also loves to drink, from a cup, the sponge, and even the faucet.

zoë and isabella

Zoë spent the weekend playing with her new friend Isabella who lives in St. Louis (parents: Cindy Grimm and Bill Smart, both CS Professors). Initially, it was kind of a challenge for the parents to ensure nice playing, since Zoë's favorite position is standing up and patting Isabella's head, while Isabella preferred to sit; but by the end of the visit, they were trading favorite toys (mostly nicely); only when Isabella tried to take Zoë's binkie did Zoe strongly protest. They enjoyed splashing baths together and synchronized naps in the car too.


They look forward to their reunion at SIGGRAPH.

updates...visit to Redmond

Ummm.... unlimited free beverages...

Zoë has now attended another conference, with Rachel Gold (her best buddy) watching her... She cried every time Rachel went away, as she does with Bruce & I.


Pictured here is Zoe and Rachel.. and a computer.. which ended up with a missing key that Rachel carefully put back ;)

She has re-learned to roll-over, doing about 5 turns in a row like I remember doing down grassy hills as a kid. She also has learned to grab door frames or railings when needed to cross raised thresholds, or go upstairs. For about 2 weeks, she has refused to crawl, even when going up stairs where she will do it on 4 straightened limbs, just to freak me out I swear. No luck on the going down. She still believes either someone will catch her, or provide a hand when she needs it.

she now calls all animals "Molly".. so cute.

Almost saw Harry Potter

We (Zoë and I) almost saw Harry Potter tonight. Dad's idea... I wanted it to work, but knew it wouldn't. She wanted to play, march the isle, touch the little kids watching the show.. We lasted 1 hour, sitting on the floor of the front row, eating munchies, while she moved from carpeted area to slick cement, until she wasn't sure on her feet anymore.. then we came home. Leaving Bruce, Jan, Sven and Yolanda at the movies.

I just decided I'd rather see the movie for real, and Zoe wasn't going to sleep anytime soon. Ah well, worth a try.

New Word: Molly

Okay, I wasn't expecting this.. but Zoë's next word is "Molly".. the name of her kitty.

I was walking around the house with her on my hip, looking for her shoes, to go the grocery store, and I started calling out to the shoes, "Shoes, Where are you".. over and over, and Zoë suddenly said, "Molly" .. in her best kitty calling voice.. I thought, Bruce will never believe me. Upon finding her shoes, we went downstairs where Bruce was waiting, I told him and we asked Zoe to call Molly.. she did three times.. perfectly clear.

Words: Kittie and Baby

Zoë can now pretty clearly say what I recognize as "kitty" and "baby"... I've also heard her use "dada" to refer to Dad (and rarely to refer to other men); and of course "mama" when I'm out of ear shot and she screams for me. She also has said "doggy", as well as "bunny" and possibly "ducky", but far less often.

Back to "baby"... "baby" and the pointing gesture happen every morning when she wants to see the three 8x10 photos of her on my dresser.. she points to each of them in turn and looks with the wonder and happiness only a baby can have, as she gazes on her pictures.

I finally tried to hang the pictures up today.. but as it turns out, hammering scares the living daylights out of a little girl.. I got 5 nails in the wall, 3 while the screaming got progressively worse (yes, it takes a while to figure out an infant), and 2 while holding her (that I wouldn't recommend), she buried her head in my chest the whole time.

Babies everywhere

Zoë is close in age to several babies (with parents who are friends with her mom and dad); I thought I'd list them (and their links) so it will be easier for me to keep tabs on them. ;)

Panos Tzanetakis (August 6th)
Gabrielle Jarrett (August 22, 2006, 6lbs, 8oz)
Henry Benjamin Watson (Sept 5th, 7lbs 7oz,) (Same day as Zoë!)
Evan Weinstein (Sept 13th, 4pounds 9 ounces)
Eda Defne Memik (September 26)
Isabella Rae Smart (Nov 17th, 7lbs 12 oz)


(Note: If I get any of this info wrong, let me know.. I'm crawing my mail box and interpolating)

Here are some pics I took on 07.05.07 (yes, we've been experimenting with hair ties)

new babble

Zoë has found use of her tongue in her babbling, the result is very sweet:
(heard here only a small bit, but she added a clap too)




Walking around the room with a toy:



I put all of her toys in a bin... today she emptied it out and sat in it (on her own):



Watching cartoons:



oh, and a side effect of blogging with Zoë in the room, my "h" key is now tilted and partially broken.

Beach Babe

We took Zoe to the beach for the first time since she's started walking, and silly us, thinking she'd just like to play in the sand and find rocks and sticks... no.. she made a bee-line for the water. I barely had time to get her out of her pants and shoes/socks, not to mention removing my own shoes. Then I noticed her sleeves were getting very wet, so I started to take off her shirt, and noticed her onesie was also getting wet, so we stripped her down to her diaper.. She had such a ball playing in the ocean.. it was a sandy beach (Cadboro Bay), very shallow, full of seaweed.. lots of things to grab, and surprising warm for ocean water. When she started getting cold, we pulled her out, wrapped a diaperless baby in my sweater, and went to the car to change her (yes, she was screaming, a scream that roughly translates to "put me down"). I'll have to be more prepared in the future.. We spent another hour or so back higher on the beach, playing in the sand, where she proceeded to find all of the char'd logs.. she slept well on the way back from the beach. Of course, it all happened so fast, there are no pictures. Next time.