More sauce please

Zoe is heavily motivated to eat in the presence of sauce... This started with a simple cup of our favorite anchoivy based ranch, which she also loves, and has now covered ketchup and other dressings. Tonight she stopped eating too soon, so we gave her a pile of dressing (Annie's Green Goddess), and she finished off her salmon and several more noodles.

(Did I mention I think this is a trait passed down thru the Gooch genes? Barton and Brooke are the same way).

eating with a fork!

Auntie Heather sent us home a bunch of little sets of plates and silverware.. so I set up Zoe with a little fork last night. She is a pro at using it.. she stabbed steak and pasta, and only a few times did she stick it on the fork and then in her mouth.
Very coordinated!
(I have video, I'll have to try to digitize at some point)

reprise of Thankgiving (in Utah)

Zoe had her 3rd thanksgiving of the year at her uncle Jeff and auntie Heather's house. There was a good crowd and Zoe's favorite item was Nana's cranberries.. she ate several spoonfuls, and only managed to partially wear it as a clothing color and hair gel.

The trip started with a night with Nana and Grandpa's.. I haven't seen her so wound up and excited in a long time. Nana pulled out a bunch of toys, and had them ready.. after a long airport day, Zoe was so excited to play with them.

The next day we went to The Pie.. the pizza place Bruce & I spent many days and nights at (closest place to get beer next to campus.. I'm sure Nana and Grandpa went there too during their college days). There she met up with Kristi (and two of her friends), as well as Rich, and Elaine. Then she spent the afternoon with Nana, and part of the time with Carrie and Rebecca while Mom and Dad tried to recruit Utah students. Zoe had a fabulous time.. she played with the new shoes Carrie gave her.. then we caught up with everyone of Paella (home-made by Carrie.. delicious).

Then Zoe found herself in the company of her cousins Brooke(5) and Barton (7) and her sister Rachelle (18)... She was soooo wound up, she didn't go to sleep until almost 11.. those 4 cousins sure have fun together, but it has to be acknowledged that Barton is Zoe's favorite. In the morning when she woke up and I brought her upstairs, Heather, Brooke, and Barton had a contest to see who Zoe would run to first.. they all tried various ploys.. but it was no contest from the start.. she runs to Barton, and sits in his lap... so cute.

We had a fabulous trip, and are now trying to figure out how long we are going back for x-mas.. I'm sure I'll have a few more stories from the trip to tell later. now I need to go put PJs on a cutie.

wiping hands, revisited

Zoe & I are trying to visit all of the parks in victoria, to find our favorite.. so went to a new one, after having gone to the beach and seeing that the play ground was full of large puddles... She played on the stairs, slide, tunnel, see-saw.. and then started playing in the wet sand.... but hated when it stuck to her hand, so of course, she wiped them on me.. then aftrer a while, she wiped them on her polar fleece, but then came to me to have me shake it off her shirt.

one more story of the day. We dropped Mischief off at the vet to get hydrated.. he is suffering from kidney failure... I was fine until Zoe cried when they took Mischief away. We will be picking him up tonight and then dropping him off tomorrow for another round.

I remembered a few things I needed to put down about Zoe:

She loves to peel onions.. that is what she is doing now.
but back to the thing I was trying to remember to write up...
When we were in Lynwood (suburb of Seattle) in our favorite mall.. Zoe was playing in the kid zone..(I'll put up so pics later).. she found a couple of boys, that came in two types.. all taller than her by at least a head. The first kind, she would come up to and hug, hard, while walking forward, until she tackled them. She even did this backwards (walking), and the kid ended up on top of her. I was laughing so hard.. crying really... it was too funny. The other kind of boy kids she antagonized into playing with her and we had to interfer a bit.. they got kind of rough. (one tried to walk on top of her.. I think he had a crush on her).

All parents talk about how smart their kid is.. this next part is one of those stories. Of course we went to the book store and found lots of books. On the ferry on the way back we were going through one large board books of animals I found has these "find the matching image" pages.. she can do it.. cats, bunnies, I said "find the donkey" and she did.. I can only think of one other book that I even mentioned donkey.. didn't know she knew that one.

updates

well.. its been so long since I've posted.. I'm not sure what to post to catch up. Zoe is now playing with her Nanny, while I'm working from home (yes, even then I sometimes I just need a little break to think about her)... her other front tooth is almost broken through.

darn.. now I have to go to a meeting.. more postings later.. hopefully with pics!

more Teeth!

Zoe has more teeth coming in.. her top right front and next right tooth have broken through (less pain then the ones below; we only notice when she is excessively whiny, especially when eating or chewing on toys). the other two on the left side can't be far behind.

Shoes!

Here is a picture from 11.02.07.. Zoe loves to play with Crayons..

Zoe was fitted for her first real pair of shoes... at StrideRite in Bellevue. She is a size 5.5... I picked out two shoes for her to try on, the first my favorite (and most expensive) brown with pink flowers, and shoe laces (who would have thunk they still used those!).. and another pair with velcro.. well I tried on the first, had her run around. Then I tried to take off the first and well.. she screamed! I put on the next and she screamed louder... I put on the first, and she was off and running.. yes.. well that is the pair we bought. If you goggle for "toddler stride rite Kaylie Lace Stage 3" you can see a picture of the shoe; we decided that she will wear them 'til them don't fit and then we will sell them at the used kid-stuff store.

Arrgghh! Pirate Princess

Zoe was a very cute Pirate for Halloween (she's now been to two parties dressed up as a pirate, and actually, she found her pants this morning is wearing them now!)







On Halloween she went reverse trick-or-treating (gave out candy) at my office. Then we went home and went to one house of the street (Cindy gave her a really cute light up bag).. then off to Panos' house for party with 6 other 1 yr olds. One mother told me she was a leader.. I was telling Auntie Carrie about it and she asked me why.. I couldn't answer.. I talked to Bruce about it and he said it was because Zoe dictated what toys got played with, and she would never let one of those boys (yes, all of them were boys) take toys away from her.. she would also play with something, give it up to another toddler, then take it back.

We gave her candy the day after Halloween (Betty across the street bought her a special trick or treating white chocolate on a stick ghost).. she stayed up 2 hours past her bed time.. at 10pm I finally gave her some warm milk and she finally gave up on the playing. I guess sugar after dinner really is bad.

I really need to get that internal2digital voice recorder.. I always am composing blogs in my head, but you can imagine how chasing after a 14 month old (tomorrow!) keeps one from a computer.

Let's see.. some remembrances of this week:

Zoe loves to get dressed up and play with that baby in the mirror.. typical dress up items include Mom's shoes (which are generally more frustrating than fun); Mom's head bands (she looks so darn cute!); Mom's sequin belt. Did I mention the Mardi Gras beads? also a major favorite accessory

She has really taken to climbing.. with one leg up, she can be on the fireplace shelf (which she is clearly not supposed to do). She loves to climb on this tote we have in the front room and has now decided she can stand on it. Did I already post the part about her with the Nanny, and while the Nanny was cleaning her high chair tray, she houdinni'd into the high chair and giggled with glee? She also likes to try to get up on the dining room chairs, and table if she can get away with it.
Last night (whiel we were having a diner party), she paraded back and forth on the middle step (20ft long?) of our sunken front room.. of course, she fell off once.. in between it and the chair.. ugh!

At night she gets "organized" and likes to play with her puzzles.. stacking blocks, and then puts them (mostly) away.

She also seems to under stand "put it back where you got it" and "not ours". Did I tell you the onion story? Zoe loves to play with the contents of the onion and potatoe shelf...I was telling her to put the onion back where she got it from, (as she was busily pulling off little bits of onion skin) and she proceeded to pick up all of the pieces and try to put them back on the onion.

Zoe has also figured out how to very quickly remove her diaper.. she only (and everytime) does this when she doesn't also have pants on.. so now both operations have to happen very quickly (one babysitter wasn't fast enough).