Zoe often says sweet and loving things to her family – and it seems to be rubbing off on her sister. The other morning, Avery was lying in bed with us when Zoe walked in; as soon as Zoe climbed up to join us, Avery crawled over to her, gave her a kiss and said, “Love you.” (Q commented that this was the first he has heard Avery say that to Zoe, unprompted.) Then, when we got home from school yesterday afternoon Avery told me, “I missed you, Mommy.” This is something I often tell the girls, but it was nice to have it said to me!
I asked Zoe the other day what the best thing about being a kid was. Her answer surprised me: “That I get to play a mom and be a mom.” When I asked if she wanted to be a mom (for real) in the future, she told me yes, and then: “I want to get married to Leo someday. He might want a baby, and boys can’t have babies, so we’ll get married.”
I knew Avery was a fan of airplanes – she gets excited and calls out “Airplane, airplane!” whenever she sees one - but I didn’t realize how much she liked flying. Yesterday, though, after we arrived home from dropping off Angela at the airport, Avery started crying. “Wanna go on an airplane!” she said, with her lower lip quivering and big tears rolling down her cheeks. Apparently, when we told her we were going to the airport, she thought we were the ones leaving!
Angela wasn’t our only weekend visitor; on Saturday Q’s Uncle Craig came to San Francisco to spend time with us. It was a cold and rainy day, but Craig, Q and Zoe braved the elements and headed to Golden Gate Park for a Chinese New Year celebration (notice Zoe’s green dragon, which was made in honor of the Year of the Dragon) and a visit to the Japanese Tea Garden. I was told they had a blast…
I’m several weeks late on this (I forgot all about it and re-discovered it this morning) - but I thought this video of Zoe was too entertaining to not post. Someone likes Hanukkah!
This week marks a milestone of sorts: Avery (who turns two years, seven months today) is now the age that Zoe was when Avery was born. It’s a difficult thing for me to wrap my head around: Though I remember like it was yesterday when Zoe walked into our hospital room in her Big Sister shirt, carrying four pink balloons (and later, holding her sister), in my mind she was somehow older, taller, and more mature than Avery is now. And I can’t imagine having a demanding newborn at home - not when Avery still needs us so much (“C’mon,” she’ll say to us, grabbing and pulling on our index finger) and still does things like put her hands up, look at me with big eyes and say, “Baby up, Mommy.”
Avery may be an active, verbal and now potty-trained (yea!) preschooler, but – either because of birth order or personality, or both - I still consider her my baby. (Then again, I suppose I always will.)
Zoe and Avery are usually quite talkative on our way home from school, and my head sometimes hurts when both of them talk, loudly, over one another. To remedy the situation I recently taught Avery to use “Excuse me” if she wanted to say something when someone else was talking. She quickly learned the phrase, but it hasn’t helped much. Now instead of hearing lots of whines and ”Mommy!”s from the backseat, I hear countless times, “Coob me, Mommy. Coob me!”
For the last several years (dating back to when Zoe was younger than Avery), Q’s birthday has meant a trip to the track – and Golden Gate Fields was our destination this afternoon. “I’m sorry you didn’t win, since you were the birthday boy,” the ever-thoughtful Zoe told her dad on our way home – but Q actually did win several times. And all of us had a fun time placing bets, watching the horses and hanging out with friends.
While doing research for my otherblog (which, because I helped create it just before Avery was born, I consider my “work baby”), I often come across tidbits that have more relevance to my personal life. A study I read about this week, for example, was about new moms who blog – and it found that blogging was linked to improved well-being and health among the women. Eighty-six percent of those in the study said they blog in order to “stay in touch with friends and family” (that sounds familiar!) and the study author suspects doing so helps the women feel connected and supported during what can be an isolating and tough time.
For me, five-plus years after starting this thing, I can’t really imagine life without it. Posting quickly became part of my daily routine, and the blog, in turn, wound up serving not only as a bridge to loved ones far away, but also as a journal, a confidante, and (perhaps most significant to my kids someday) a rich family archive. Writing in it has saved my sanity countless times, and reading old entries has brought me out of a dark mood more than once; though I probably can’t be called a new mom anymore (something that is simultaneously a badge of honor and a little sad), blogging still helps my well-being!
You may have noticed in a previously posted picture Zoe’s (new) pink, shiny cowboy boots. They’re fun and a little silly – and she loves them. (They are, in fact, the only item of clothing she has ever asked for.) They make me smile, too, but boy – to me, she looks like a much older girl in them.
Remember when I talked about a baby being a potty-training present for Avery? As it turns out, there is a baby coming to the family - just from someone else’s belly (and not for several months). We recently found out that Aunt Jenny is having a baby, and we are all so excited! Congratulations, Jenny and Dan!
