Zoe the artist

The thing Zoe loves now more than any activity is drawing. About a month ago she painted her first complete scene. Now most of her drawings are people... Her and me, her and her friends, her and the rest of the family..girls most often have eye lashes, a crown with jewels. One recent picture had been filled in, most are outlines. On two separate instances I have seen her get so frustrated that I had to remove her from the area after she crinkled up the paper and snapped all the crayons on reach in half. She is her own worst critic... But in general she draws with such intent, and concentration... I admire her artistic style. She will add repeated strokes to further define pieces... The occasional curly-cue... Buttons on dresses

Pictures to be posted soon.

Comb

Zoe.. Or I mean Daffidil (that is who she is for tonight)... Was working with her Dad on brushing out her hair after bath and she asked him for a comb... All I hear is "no...a comb...okay, I will go draw you a picture". ... And she did .. To be posted soon.

Zoe is learning to brush out her hair... And it is the upmost important thing for her bangs to be exactly right,... A thing only acheived with a comb. She does this every night and every morning.

Expectations

Bruce: Zoë, what are you doing?

Zoë: Picking my nose.

Bruce: Oh, and how is that working out?

Zoë: Better than I ever expected.

update

Zoe is quite the character.. singer... playwright ...
she is also very sincere, a joker, and mischievous

One morning her dad was still in bed, not feeling well... she checked on him before we headed out the door for school and told him he needed a stuffie to hold onto and some hot water... she went and found one of her tea cup (blue plastic with embedded flowers) filled it up and grabbed a stuffed monkey. She brought it all the way downstairs to the guest room where Bruce was and watched him drink it.

Tonight Finn was crying because Zoe elbowed him in the eye (fighting over viewing the iPad).. and I told her to fix it. She came back a few minutes later with "a funny face" she drew on paper (I thought it was a rather scary face).

The mischievous side of Zoe enjoys that spitting thing that kids do with their tongue that adults hate... She loves to do this up close and personal.... as well as gargling her milk at the dinner table.

Every night this week, after bath I've been introduced to someone not Zoe... last night she was a sea monster that had "replaced your daughter"... she would ask me a bunch of questions about "my daughter"... "oh is this her Pajamas?" "Does you daughter have you brush her teeth?"... and kept saying things like "why am I in this skin of this girl", pinching herself... Past nights it has been much simpler, and her name is something like "Alinia".. but it varies every night. The last couple she knew I'd never remember the name so she'd add, "but you can just call me sweetie if you can't remember my name".

Also, now every book is like "Princess Rosebud".. she talks to all of the characters, we don't really read the stories, but the characters (ie me) tell her things in first person and ask her questions about her day, her life, etc.

Zoe's drawings in the last month have gone from a girl, a rainbow, and flowers to having houses, girls with crowns, necklaces, pink lips and most recently fingers. "Look mom, I've figured out how to draw hands"
(I have lots of pictures to put up)

tonight she watched an episode of Jimmy Neutron who went to Egypt.. it had a scene with mummies coming after the kids.. that freaked Zoe out.. she kept saying she'd never go to Egypt.. I finally had her dump all her mummy thoughts into a jewelry box, we shut it quick and I flushed the thoughts down the sink.. I hope it works!

Related: the last couple of months she's been asking to "watch scary shows" with dad... they love Scooby-Do

Zoe on birthdays... a performance

Zoe offered her dad and I her view on birthdays.. as a musical performance... it is long... wow... it is all her, all improvised... I laughed so hard (to myself), that I cried..

favorite things

About a year ago, I adjusted a side panel of Zoe's blog to contain:

"A few of my favorite things

Favorite place to go: "To a beach"
Favorite tv show: Backyardigans, Wonderpets; OLD: Diego, followed by Dora the Explorer
Favorite toy: Playdoh; OLD: Diego/Dora legos
Favorite animal: Kittens Night-Night and Cowboy, and even Mol-Mol
Favorite book: Currently loves "Little Bunny"; OLD: "Ee-ps" (Itsy-bitsy spider), Anything by Sandra Boynton; Anything ABCs
Favorite Food: Red Peppers eaten whole, Meat, carrots in the grocery store
Favorite Snack: Popcicles; OLD: Raisins (craissons too) Fishes or apples or grapes"

and now I'd update it to be:


Favorite place to go: "To a beach".. i think this is still true.. but with the weather and my water born babies, we haven't been to the beach in so long...
Favorite tv show: something new.. like Cat and the hat...
Favorite movie: Swan Princess (she knows all the songs)
Favorite toy: art.. anything with drawing/ creating
Favorite animal: still her kittens...
Favorite book: Princess Rosebud's how to be a real princess
Favorite Food: PB&J, cheese sandwiches
Favorite Snack: Popcicles; gum, anything with sugar or chocolate (oh and according to her, gum does not have sugar and is not candy)

night time reading

We always read 3 stories before bed... and with Zoe for the last month, this has been a bit of fun... a running monologue from her the entire time... such that we've stopped reading the stories and we just tell them.. or interact with them. Her favorite story is How to be a Princess (staring Princess Rosebud, who is Zoe's best friend...). Zoe interacts with her like they are sisters... it is great (I read as if I was channeling Princess Rosebud)... She told Princess Rosebud today that she wants to dream of a being a mermaid and having a boyfriend...

when will my prince come?

Zoe's thoughts last week were completely on that of her prince...

Bruce came in after putting the trash out and had met a new neighbor with a 4 year old boy and a 2 year old girl... He told Zoe that they would come over for brunch one weekend. To which Zoe had a lot of questions:

Z: Is he handsome?
Z: Will he be my prince?

later that night the conversation kept going as if it had never stopped:

Z: Is he stupid?
[Mom and Dad beam.. oh good.. she isn't all about the superficial...]

And while I was putting her bed, the conversation continued like this:

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Z: When will I meet my prince? oh, I must meet my prince. I hope he comes soon. Can we go meet with him?

M: I don't know where he lives, but Dad and I will find out.

Z: Lets do that tomorrow.

[Go to **]