Our friends just sent two more pictures from Halloween, and I couldn’t resist making a post. These come from early Fri. afternoon, after the other kids at Zoe’s get-together had headed home for naps. Zoe and her friend Jack hung out a bit on their own- running around the house and snacking – and I think they make a pretty cute duo.

-M

The anniversary date has come and gone, but I want to acknowledge the start-date of this little blog. A little over two years ago (10.26.06), Q wrote our first entry – and we’ve been diligently posting ever since. Those early entries are so much fun to read; we were fairly clueless about what we were in for, and my posts – which often focused on my fear of labor – feel a bit like therapy sessions.

I’m not sure how many people visit the site on a regular basis, but I’m glad at least a few of you have stuck by us. It’s been a pretty amazing/crazy/whirlwind-ish two years, and it’s been fun sharing it all. I wonder what the next two years will bring – ?

-M

After a quick nap yesterday afternoon, Zoe was ready to continue with the festivities. Her dad came home early so the three of us could go trick-or-treating in the neighborhood; then Zoe helped give away candy at our house and hung out with Dan, Jenny, Fink and Roopa before bed. All in all it was a great day: the rain stayed away, Zoe’s costume change was a big hit (though people kept calling her a bumblebee or butterfly), and Zoe had a very full bag of candy by the of the night!

-M

Zoe kicked off the holiday by hosting a little Halloween party this morning. She and her friends ran around, showed off their costumes, and even did a little early-day trick-or-treating. Here are a few pics.

-M

I came across a New York Times blog entry on Daylight Saving Time yesterday, and it made me laugh. Referring to the “falling back” of the clocks, the blogger wrote, “I [used to] look forward to it all year, and distinctly remember my horror during my first changeover as a new parent, when my gift turned on me.” She went on to explain that for most adults, switching back to standard time means an extra hour of sleep. But for a parent, he/she is bound to hear very early in the morning “the sounds of a wide awake young one in the other room. Instead of an extra hour of sleep, parents of young children get an hour less. The clock says 5 a.m., the baby says ‘woohoo, it feels like 6!’ Then, in the evening, they start sleepily fussing a full hour before it is time to go to bed.”

Though a wonderful thing in general, parenting definitely takes some things away from you – and the enjoyment of the fall-back is one of them! I know I’ll be thinking of this on Sun. morning, when a little girl starts talking around 5 or 5:30 AM. (Yawn.)

-M

I didn’t mention earlier that Zoe experienced another first on Saturday: face painting! We stopped at a little Halloween carnival in West Portal on our way home from the UCSF party, and they were offering face painting for kids. Zoe chose a little flower for her cheek, and her grandpa later snapped a photo of the results.

-M

It was a busy Saturday for “Princess” Zoe and the family. We first played around at a pumpkin patch near our house, then headed to a Halloween party/patient reunion at UCSF, where Zoe decorated pumpkins, made crafts, played games – and won lots of prizes. That night, Q and I went to a wedding, and Zoe got to stay home and play more with Grandma and Grandpa. I wound up getting sick on Sunday, but it was certainly a fun start of the weekend!

-M

Zoe’s Grandma and Grandpa arrived from Madison last night, and Zoe got to spend the whole day with them. Among the items on their itinerary: enjoying the tent with Grandma, running around the house with Grandpa and playing in the backyard. Here are a few pics.

-M

I recently made Zoe’s two-year appointment at the doctor’s, and I told the receptionist that I couldn’t believe I was doing it. How can Zoe be close to two already?!

I guess I shouldn’t be that surprised about Zoe’s age, because she continues acting more and more like a big girl each month. She can say more things than ever before, and she has a greater awareness of things around her. She now understands the concept of self; she started answering “Zoe” when asked “What’s your name?” about a month ago. (And now she often points to herself, Q and me and says, “Zoe, Daddy, Mommy” – just in case we’ve forgotten who we are.) She now says “yes” (instead of just “yeh”) and the word “sure,” so it’s now common for her to say, “Yes, sure!” when asked to do something. She recently said “fun!” (when doing something enjoyable) for the first time, and she also says “funny” when something makes her laugh. And she’s getting better at telling us how she’s feeling/what she needs; just the other night, when she was sick, she was able to tell me, “My tummy hurts.”

Although she makes a few stumbles, she can almost count 1-10 on her own. She also almost has the alphabet down; for the past week or so she has spent lots of time singing that song and also “Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star.”

Although she’s known colors for awhile, she used a color as an adjective (“pink hat,” she pointed out) for the first time a few weeks ago. She also continues pointing out objects (e.g. “Daddy’s shoe”), and she has started to identify location (e.g. “It’s up there”). Just last week, when playing with my necklace, she said, “I like it” – which marked the first time she used the word “I.” She also said one night, “Daddy coming,” which was the first time she used that tense of a verb.

As mentioned last month, she’s getting more sophisticated at remembering things. We recently started playing a new game where we count how many “doggies” and “choo-choos” we see on our way to and from Elena’s. After only a day or two, Zoe got in her carseat and said, “Doggies and choo-choos, Mommy” (knowing what we were about to count). And she is able to report to her dad what we saw – e.g. “two doggies” – later that day.

When it comes to play, Zoe still likes to color, run around the house with her baby stroller, change the diapers of her dolls and stuffed animals, and play music on various instruments. At the playground, she loves to climb on the structures and go down the slide. And playing in the sand is still a favorite activity.

Zoe, like other little kids, still has her quirks. Among them: she’ll only drink her milk warm (30 seconds in the microwave). She still has a love for wet washcloths and wipes, and she often carries them around the house and wipes off things. And, strangely, she gets upset whenever I put my hair back in a ponytail in the morning. Without fail, she runs into the bathroom, says “off, off, off” and pulls out whatever is in my hair.

I’ve felt bad in the past that Zoe wasn’t as affectionate as I assumed other kids were. That’s all changed lately, though, as Zoe is constantly running up to us and giving big hugs and kisses. We also recently taught her to “butterfly” kiss and “eskimo” kiss, which she really loves.

Though she has her “terrible (almost) two” flare-ups, she’s usually pretty cheerful – constantly bouncing and jumping and laughing. And she’s always making us smile. A recent funny story: I was hugging Zoe when she pointed to my chin, made a very serious face and said “Mommy boo-boo?” She was referring to a pimple that had recently developed, and I couldn’t help but laugh. (Thanks for pointing it out, Zoe!)

-M