night terrors

Its been a week since we Zoe had night terrors.. for a while there, she was having them frequently.. three nights and one nap in a row.. the first time (during nap), she was screaming and blathering what sounded like about dinosaurs... The next time it happened, she seemed to be scared of the shadows on the wall.. even when I took her in my room ... when this happens, I don't think she is awake.. and she is inconsoleable.. but I couldn't just let her scream.. I tried to hold her.. it was scary. In the end, I switched her night light from being behind the chair (where it cast big shadows to a string of lights on her drapes which light up the whole room (now I think it is too bright, but I haven't found the right solution yet). I've been thinking about looking for one of those star chart lights.

Zoe nick names

I call Zoe a few things:

• pumpkin
• punky
• punky brewster
• princess,
  

and my favorite

• principessa (Italian for princess)..

she now calls me, "Mommy principessa"

more phrases

"Mommy, don't say that"

"Bate, Bate, Chocolathe"

"last book" (for every book we read before bedtime)

"I'm a boy" (when I put her in a blue shirt; I say, "You're a boy?" she answers "I'm a Zoe" or sometimes "I'm a girl")

Zoe the soccer player

One night, we played soccer in our backyard and was astounded by Zoe's ability to run and kick the ball, several times in a row.. she is really good! (hopefully some video will go here in the future)

Zoe the conversationalist

Zoe is quite the conversationalist.. here is a story and a few quips.

Sometimes, when Zoe wants to be part of the conversations, but doesn't have anything to say, she will just babble-speak at me, and I'll return the favor with more non-sense speech.. we babble back and forth.. so this is the lead into the next bit:

We were at the park; Zoe heard this woman zip off a sentence in Cantonese to her daughter (a little younger than Zoe).. Zoe right afterwards, did her babble talk.. mimicking the Cantonese speech pattern... I wasn't sure whether I should be embarrassed or proud.. ;)

Phrases heard from Zoe:

• Please
• Thank you
• Welcome
• How are you today (sometimes she will answer that question with "Fann-tastic")
• Be nice Mommy (when I do something disagreeable.. it is the phrase I used with Molly when she'd get nasty with the kittens)
• Bless you (when someone sneezes or coughs)

Happy 2nd Birthday Zoë!

Well, we've had two days of celebrating Zoe's birthday. and I think she enjoyed every minute of it (she is still down for a nap, since 1:30 and its 4:10.. almost 3 hours).

On her birthday, she woke up happy, we played in our room, then in the front room, then grabbed breakfast.. she picked soup.. handed it to me and said "twist mommy". It was zoo shaped noodles in tomato sauce, similar to the alphabet soup I usually feed her, so I was treated to a round of her singing the alphabet song.

so she is now 2 and can count to 15 in english, 10 in spanish. She pretty much knows the alphabet song (although I don't know if she knows each letter).. she can also sing "twinkle twinkle" "row row your boat", the chorus to "down by the bay", as well as "sunny days, taking the clouds away" (the seseme street song) and "rain rain go away". She is still in love with Dora and Diego, and can say a bunch of spanish words: up, down, hello, goodbye, open and close.. up and down are her current favorites, especially when we are walking in Downtown Victoria and she wants to get down and walk on her own.

I had to work part of the time on Friday, she was will Ally.. been a long time since they were together.. she didn't like it at first, but Ally and her spent 1.5 hours coloring with chalk.. Zoe's other favorite thing is coloring.. she'll spend at least 20 minutes with her coloring books, and really puts down color. We spend a lot of time drawing, especially when out at resturants.. I'm getting pretty good at Dora and Diego, Boots,.. the rest are coming along. She knows stars, triangle, circles, squares, diamond, and hearts and all her colors (although still occassionally switches black for white).

After dinner that night, she openned her gifts from Nana and Grammpa.. she loved them all.. magic wand, dora backpack, small dora lunch pack, doctor's kit, socks, small stuffed animal purses... she walked around with the backpack, lunch pack, dr. kit stethoscope and wand for at least an hour, and somewhere in the process found my crocs and walked in them too. (pics and video to go here)

The next morning she got up early.. 7am.. we started on the party cupcakes, ate breakfast (a cupcake! and some meat), then her dad took her on a mission to dispose of the garbage we can't get the darn trash guys to take.. that kept them away for at least an hour or more.. I was able to completely vacuum the house, finish cooking and ice'd about half the cupcakes.. I think my lady bug cupcakes turned out the best..there were a few others like lions, pandas, a cat... (pictures to go here)

The party went well.. Zoe fell asleep 20 minutes before it started (3:40) ;) and slept until about 5:15 (as soon as I had my dinner plate fixed but not sampled).. then she spent 1 hour attached to my hip.. then I pulled out cupcakes and she was finally on her own two feet.

The ladybug cupcakes left quite a smile on the kids:




All the little ones (4 of them: Jeremy, Panos, Zoe and Rosemary) played in the yard, when they started to fight over balls, I brought out the tents and tunnels.. should have done that sooner.. they had a ball. But then everyone got tired, and the party thinned out fast.

After everyone left, we opened gifts...She was spoiled by gifts (even though I put a "no presents necessary".. we are surrounded by very thoughtful people)...
In no particular order:
From James and Julie and Liam: wood fruit and veggies that can be "cut" (un velco-d) a part with a toy knife (very cool!)
From Tiffany Panos George: Terry hot pink dress (like to go over a swimsuit?) and Wood play house.. so cute.. I got Zoe unwrapping it on video.. I can't remember what she said, but it was darn cute.
From Ray, Lynn, Derek, Kate: softest little kitty stuffed animal... she calls him "night-night".. he is just like our Midnight, but has white paws.
From Alexandra and family: lovely gap green dress and tank top
From Shawn & Brian: Headband of roses and a flower wand (great addition to our dress-up box!)
From Shona and Paul: Activity Apron (could you imagine if I can get her to paint or, hey, even do dishes!)
From Jeremy, Rebecca and George: Music set (2 "bracelets" with bells, tamborine, xylaphone)

From us she received a Dora counting game, new crayons, coloring books (she picked out, you guessed it, Dora), new sand toys, Dora socks, Dora Shoes

It was a very happy day, she is a very happy, smart, active, talkative, two year old.

Oh, and she learned, one day before her birthday, to say "No" to any question we ask her, regardless of having thought about it.. I guess she really is two!

making funny faces

Zoe's new thing is making "funny faces".. she puts a couple fingers on each side and pulls her cheeks out... and says, "Mommy, I'm making funny faces."
(picture as soon as I can capture it!)

quote from Zoe this moring

Looking at her fingers, she says, "Mommy, I have two owies. Gosh!"

I love you so much

Zoe and I were at the mall, buying her a new pair of shoes.. it was our best trip yet.. I used the stroller and the DVD player, and was able to try on shoes.. of course she eventually got tired of sitting, got down, and found her own selection of shoes.. another pair of princess sandals, but it worked out well, she now has a new pair of Dora shoes she finally wore last night with pride (she is already a size 7!). After shoe shopping, we went the food court for a quick bite.. she sat in a chair by herself, and half way through just jumped into my arms and said "I love you so much" and gave me the biggest hug.. very sweet.

Amen Caiman!

I remember a story I was telling Bruce from our visit to Utah: we'd say a prayer at meals with Nana and Grammpa, and then everyone would say "Amen".. Zoe thought we were saying "Caiman" an animal she has learned about from "Go Diego Go".. anytime she sees an alligator, she says Caiman... so now I think, great, Zoe thinks we pray to an alligator ;)

201th post! and am I due

I have a lot of things to post on..

Saturday we went to the beach about 5pm with Tiffany, George and Panos. It was kind of cool out, nice to sit in the sun, but the added bonus is after a year and half here, we finally saw Orcas off the coast.. there were about 8 sail boats sailing in circles and a bunch of splashed, fins and blows that we could see from Willows beach.. the whales were another point away, but it was amazing how much we could see (and of course, the binoculars were not in the car).

On Sunday, we went to the Saanich fair (I always sing the "We went to the animal fair, all the birds and beasts were there" in my head when ever I think of our trip)... Everyone on the island was there, it took about 30 minutes to even park. It had a midway, a bunch of rides, food, and all the things I associate with my memories of the Utah state fair (without the quilts!). First thing we put Zoe on the Merry-Go-Round.. thinking she'd love it.. I stood next to her on the horse that went up and down, she stayed on 2 turns around before insisting "all done".. so I just held her and onto a pole...and we waved to Daddy. I was quite dizzy when we got off ;) Next we looked around, found a bouncy slide she went down twice, she had a great time. That was pretty much it for the rides that looked Zoe appropriate. Then we went to find food, but decided to wait and went to find animals.. we saw donkeys, huge pigs which started oinking and scared Zoe (she clung to Daddy pretty good), we found a play area sponsored by the local milk company and then cows.. she got to pet the ear of a lovely Gernsey.. and then we say baby cows. We we got to the sheep, several of them were noted as being "naked" and some were "earing pajamas". She fell asleep in our arms and slept about 1.5 hours between us walking to the car and getting home.