No Finn!: Oh No, not Weeeee

Zoe and Finn were watching iPad video (Toy Story 3) and it was near the end and Finn was saying "Weeee..." like when you go down a slide. Zoe grabbed Finn with hands on either side of his checks and made him look at her and said, "No Finn, that is no Weeee, that is Oh No!.. that is not a slide".. (the characters were heading to their doom down to an incinerator).

Finn said "Oh No! Oh Shoot" and 10 seconds later "Weeeeee"

Marry him...

At dinner tonight Zoe started in on something about wanting " to find a prince, some one who she loved, who she could kiss....  Mom what's his name, you know the boy I like at school?". Yep, couldn't remember the name of her future husband.... "Carter"

Fav Summer picture

fav July Pics

(See Zoe's blog for fav August pics)

preschool and kissing boys

We went to Zoe's preschool family picnic last night.. it was nice.. met up with some friends who I didn't realize Zoe would be at the same school with, made new friends with Zoe's new friend Asha's mom (a MS student in Linguisitics).. It will be fun to meet up with these like minded folks at future events. One notable part of the evening was Zoe and her friend on the swings, of course Zoe wasn't much for moving, but Asha asked Zoe if she'd be giving Carter (the cute boy) who was waiting a turn. Zoe said no, she was waiting to give him a kiss (and then puckered up)!

Tonight I was praising her for going to school so easily this morning (she was geniunely excited) and for taking a bath and washing her hair (finally!, she has been averaging less than 1 a week.. I sponge bathe her a lot) ... and she mentioned kissing boys again in addition to playing with her other friends.

she is 4 going on 16. Another of todays quotables:

"Mom, can you please change Finn in the other room, not my room, I need to change my clothes"

"Mom, can you please keep your voice down, I'm reading."

The little things

I've been thinking about all the small things a out Zoe that I don't write up:

Last week she experimented for two days with wearing two different colored shoes , one ruby, one silver... The same size and style

Today she choose fingernail polish... Red, pink, purple, two green

She picks put her own clothes..always.. Still wearing summer... Today shorts and shirt, all pink.
She loves to perform on stage...sings, dances.. Makes up her own songs, pulling together things from books and movies.

She can latch onto whole lines from a book.. But has yet to learn anyones name at her preschool... Well except Amber. .. Also the name of an adult friend of ours

She loves a good snuggle 

She loves to play big sister

She loves to go to our work... Feels left out... Bruce went to work one night after dinner ... She was very upset

The new thing Zoe is really looking forward to these days is the pick up by me and my bike... Her ride in the chariot ...a bike trailer... She says it is the most fun ever.

First week of 4year old preschool

Zoe's first day of preschool at her new school Arbutus Grove children's center was a bit rough... Perhaps harder on me than her.  We got to school at 9... We took a self guided tour... She started clinging to me hard... Both arms wrapped around min arm... We finally saw everything and went to her classroom.. She watched from a tight bundle in my arms ... I gave her a silver heart locket and told her if she ever missed me just to hold on to it.  We also repeated our new mantra from llama llama red pajama..."mama llama is always near, even if she isn't right here"
I finally decided it wasn't going to get any better, so I got up to go.. They took her to the window to say goodbye.. It was awful... She was staring out the window... Not really looking at me.. It was like the look that the cat gives on Shrek... I cried for an hour... Then went to a meeting...came back and noticed that I missed two calls.. Redialed and it was her school.  Of course I assumed the worst.. Started grabbing my jacket, purse keys, and it was Cindy her teacher.. Calling to say although Zoe sat by herself on the carpet she did join in shortly and all was going well.  Zoe was happy when I picked her up.. She had a great day.  Her favorite part of her day was playing outside.

Wednesday morning we had to wake her up at 9 ... She didn't sleep well last night.. So she was sleeping in. Generally I hate waking her up and almost never do, but she woke up easily, was happy to go to school.. We both dropped her off and she was happy to be going to school. Day two went seamlessly.

Day three was fine... She told me she cried at one point and missed me.. But grabbed the locket and it helped.

Day four was awful hard again in the morning... Daddy dropped her off and zoe had tears on the way out. But she recovered. One thing the teacher did tell us is that a girl called her "garbage" and they all had a conversation on nice words. Tonight Daddy taught her "I know you are but what am I"... Ughhhh.. Hope that does not backfire.

First day of 4year old preschool

Zoe's first day of preschool at her new school Arbutus Grove children's center was a bit rough... Perhaps harder on me than her.  We got to school at 9... We took a self guided tour... She started clinging to me hard... Both arms wrapped around min arm... We finally saw everything and went to her classroom.. She watched from a tight bundle in my arms ... I gave her a silver heart locket and told her if she ever missed me just to hold on to it.  We also repeated our new mantra from llama llama red pajama..."mama llama is always near, even if she isn't right here"
I finally decided it wasn't going to get any better, so I got up to go.. They took her to the window to say goodbye.. It was awful... She was staring out the window... Not really looking at me.. It was like the look that the cat gives on Shrek... I cried for an hour... Then went to a meeting...came back and noticed that I missed two calls.. Redialed and it was her school.  Of course I assumed the worst.. Started grabbing my jacket, purse keys, and it was Cindy her teacher.. Calling to say although Zoe sat by herself on the carpet she did join in shortly and all was going well.  Zoe was happy when I picked her up.. She had a great day.  Her favorite part of her day was playing outside.

This morning we had to wake her up at 9 ... She didn't sleep well last night.. So she was sleeping in. Generally I hate waking her up and almost never do, but she woke up easily, was happy to go to school.. We both dropped her off and she was happy to be going to school. Day two went seamlessly.

Birthday Tutu-Tea party

Today we had Zoe's birthday tutu-tea party with her friends Emily and Ana... Tyler also came, as well as Finn. It started out as a Fairy party, but because she'd only wear her ballet stuff, I decided to have everyone else wear the same. The party went as I expected.. I set up nice dishes and crystal and silver for all the stuff.. served Fruit kabobs (made from grapes, marshmellow, one strawberry, and heart shaped apples on the top like wands), cream cheese and jelly sandwiches, pink rice crispie treats, and pinkalicious cupcakes (mini and large) topped with Jelly Bellies. The kids got anxious to play everywhere but had to wait it out a little to let Finn sleep.. Finally when he woke, they ran around, found the table and wanted Tea. To get the tea ready, I had them pretend to have tea at the mini trampoline with a tea set (Erica, Emily's mom was a big help here).. then they got up for tea.. all of them had two cubes of sugar and milk in their decaf raspberry white tea.. ate the tops of the cup-cakes (just the frosting and candy please) and ate the fruit. No one touched the rice crispies ;) They ate fast and were off to play again. The three girls got on fabulously well.. played well together.. switching rooms at a whim. At some point Zoe and Emily striped down, took turns pee-ing, and then got into new ballet costumes (Zoe shared hers)... After Ana left, Zoe and Emily where stuck together (literally).. hugging and tackling.. they get along so well.. true friendship... and giggled themselves into a dither. It was the right size of party.. went fast, I didn't do any of the games or activities I planned (and it was a rainy day so we were inside the whole time), but I know they loved every minute of it.. Zoe fell asleep with no stories tonight.

Pics up soon.

trip to Utah

We had a really good trip to Utah... started out at the Gooches and Zoe and Brooke started where they left off.. playing together in the doll house, or playing separately in the same room. Sometimes Brooke would school Zoe (ie limit the play), but Zoe was a good guest. She latched on to a few toys which we had to return at the end of the trip (notably a toy barbie fan). She loved the Barbie toy house. Auntie Heather taught Zoe the Barbie world song (shown via YouTube.. the Sims 2 version)... to which Zoe would wear her Barbie outfit (binkini top, short sleeve shirt).. and dance like a professional MTV dancer...
When not in her Barbie outfit, she wore ballet clothes.. I knew I didn't need to bring all those clothes.. she didn't touch anything but swim suits, her favorite short sleeve skirt and the ballet outfits.
Finn was pretty easy on the plane (thanks to iPad with vids).. but spent a bit of time playing with the window shade.. upon lift off he looked out the window and proclaimed: "Bubbles!" (the clouds)
Finn had a good time playing beside the girls.. doing what they were doing. His favorite thing at the Gooches was their white board to which he begged all the time "Color!!"
At the Gooches the kids went to their first funeral.. thankfully a closed casket.. and they didn't know what they were doing.. except having to be quiet (which other people said they did quite well.. at the time I didn't feel they were especially quiet)
The kids loved being at Nana's and Grandpa's.. Grandpa was especially entertaining.. playing the "Where is my binkie game".. to which Zoe would get involved at saving Finn's binkie.. it never got old.. but did get kind of rowdy. One of the first things the kids did was play with the bubbles Nana bought.. and then the playground.. loving every minute of it.
Both were quite spoiled, especially the birthday girl who got a fabulous cake and oh so many presents. Both kids were good with Aunts and Uncles.. especially Zoe who wasn't too shy to give hugs (except around the Great-Grandmas).. Finn kept a bit of distance, but would give snuggles if I was holding him.

Probably the best thing to come of the visit was the bonding between the two.. Zoe and Finn. Finn has been quite the parrot of Zoe, but now they play and tease each other all day. They are learning to play with one another and it is more positive than adversarial. Last night as I was putting them both to bed, Finn fell asleep during the lullabye.. Zoe was still chatty.. so we talked a little and she said; "I want you to put Finn on my otherside (her in the middle).. " I was stunned... "why?" I asked.. "So I can snuggle him".. a major turning point. (of course I didn't move him, but that the idea was hers still made me wonder if I heard correctly. )