Several people have asked me recently if Zoe knows what’s going on with our family. Does she understand that a baby is on the way and that she’s about to become a big sister? I think she’s too young to really understand, I tell them, but we do our part to get her prepared. We have a few “big sister” books (like the one below) that we like to read with her, and I’m often pointing to my belly and reminding her that a baby is inside. (On more than one occasion, she’s given a nice big kiss to my stomach – which is so sweet.) What makes me laugh, though, is what happens when I ask her if she wants to say “hi” to the baby. Most of the time she just shakes her head and responds, “No, she’s sleeping.” I guess since she can’t hear or see the baby, she assumes she’s taking a snooze!

-M

Right after my last post about her sleep troubles, Q and I adopted a different tactic to keep Zoe in bed. Although the “silent-return-to-sleep” approach worked for awhile, Zoe started getting frustrated over being repeatedly put back in bed. (I think it was because she thought she was going to miss out on something now that we were awake.) It was Q’s idea, then, to “play possum” (and NOT get up to return her to bed) when she came to us in the middle of the night. The first few times we tried this she would come in our room, stand by our bed, and whimper or cry – and I found it extremely difficult to not respond. (I don’t think there’s anything more torturous than having to ignore your child’s cries, even if it’s for their own good.) Eventually, though, it sunk in that we were sleeping and that she should be, too; now, if she comes in at all, she’ll stand by our bed for a minute or two, listen to our “snores” and then turn around and head back to bed. (At 5 AM yesterday, for example, she came in and looked around for a minute or two – then went back to her room and slept until 7. And last night, she didn’t get out of bed at all.) We might still be losing a few minutes of sleep here and there, but I’ll take that small interruption over long middle-of-the-night battles any day!

-M

So I got a new phone today and I was checking out the 3.2 megapixel camera on it. Turns out it can take some pretty good pictures. This one has to be my new favorite.

Jon Q

Zoe’s friend Nicolas recently turned 2, and she celebrated with him yesterday morning at a nearby playground. The weather was gorgeous (high 60s and sunny), and Zoe had a lot of fun running around, eating cake and snuggling up to her dad and the Birthday Boy. Here she is…

-M

This blog’s faithful readers know that Q and I have spent a lot of time thinking and talking about platelets over the years – and now that I’m pregnant, the platelet watch is on again. (Visit here for background on why.) We’re always hoping for a nice, high count (anything above 50K, really), so you can imagine how happy we were to hear that my platelets were up to 92K as of yesterday. I’ve got a long way to go until the appearance of Poppy, I know, but my count keeps rising – and that’s certainly cause for excitement. Here’s hoping the counts continue moving in the right direction!

-M

For the past several weeks, Zoe has been resistant to leave Elena’s in the afternoons. Though she’s initially excited to see me (“Mommy!” she’ll yell when I walk through the door), she then typically runs in the opposite direction and squirms/wiggles away from me when I try to walk her out. Though I try not take this personally (I’m happy, after all, that she feels so at home with Elena and has so much fun with her friends there), I occasionally pine for the days in which I could just scoop up a smiling baby in my arms and walk out with her. And sometimes I wish she’d be as excited to see me as I am to see her.

But then the other afternoon, as we were heading home, I heard a small voice from the backseat say, “Mommy, I missed you today.” “You missed me?” I said, practically gulping back the tears. “Yes,” was her response. “I love you, Mommy.” And suddenly, the earlier squirming and struggling felt like no big deal…

-M

This is the age, I’m learning, where little kids really love to play pretend and use their imagination. As mentioned before, Zoe is often pretending to feed her animal friends – and some of her favorite things to serve are pizza and ice-cream. The first thing she wanted to do after getting home last night was make Play-Doh ice-cream, and she wasted no time preparing cones for herself and Panda. (As you’ll see from a previous post, she tends to serve up chocolate – which we long ago established was Panda’s favorite flavor.) Here are a few pics.

-M

Q often comments that he thinks Zoe is a bit of a tomboy- but I’m not so sure. After all, she does her fair share of girlie things – like this morning, when she watched me get ready and took a keen interest in my every move. “Eyes?” she asked as I removed the eyeshadow brush from my make-up bag. “Brush?” she asked as I put blush on my cheeks. “Mouth?” she asked as I began applying lip gloss. After I confirmed that I was, indeed, putting lip gloss on my mouth, she tilted her head and said, “Zoe have some?” “Oh, Zoe – this is just for Mommy,” I told her. “You’re too young for make-up.” The moment the words came out of my mouth, I couldn’t help but shake my head and smile. Just think how many times I’m going to have to say that over the next 10-12 years!!

-M

Time for another update – since we’ve seen even more changes since my last one in Jan.

Zoe continues to talk – a lot – and she’s getting easier to understand. She uses new words, including new Spanish ones, on a weekly basis, and she recently started using different verb tenses (e.g. “I running” and “You found it”). She likes to repeat things that we say, like “OMG,” which I occasionally say when I’m excited about something, and “good job,” which she says to us when she thinks we deserve praise. As mentioned before, she’ll occasionally blurt out things we’ve been saying to her for months – like the other day, when she looked up at me and said, “I Baby Boopersteins.” (This is a silly little nickname I have for her, and she looked so triumphant when she identified herself in that way.)

Zoe has never used a lot of “baby talk,” but she does have a handful of baby-words that make me smile. As example: a spoon is a “poon,” a sandwich is a “pamwich,” and excuse me comes out as “coo me.” Q thinks we should encourage her to use the correct words – he’s right, I suppose, but I just love hearing her pronounce them in this (adorable) way!

In terms of favorite activities, Zoe likes to read, color, paint, play with Play-Doh and stickers, eat (and feed others) make-believe food, and play “tent” (i.e. get under the covers in our bed) with her dad. She still loves palling around with her posse of stuffed animals: Big Dog and Panda are her most faithful companions, and she is often hugging, feeding or changing them – or putting them to sleep. (“Shhh,” she’ll say to us. “Big Doggie is sleeping.”) I also often catch Zoe cradling them with an “I love you” or “I miss you.” And she likes to get the ice-pack for Big Dog when he has bumped his head or has a “boo-boo” on his leg.

She still loves singing; for a long time a typical Zoe-concert would include (in this order) the ABC Song; Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star; and Happy Birthday. Recently though, she’s become fond of Bingo (which we often change to Mango, in honor of one of her friend’s little dogs) – and she often wanders through the house singing the “N-G-O” part. Another favorite song is Old McDonald Had a Farm, which she calls “Uncle Donald.”

As for big developments, there have been two recent ones. First, we moved her out of her crib in mid-Feb., and she slept in her “big girl” bed for the first time in mid-March. Perhaps not coincidentally, she started having some sleep issues (not wanting to go to bed at her normal bedtime, getting out of bed in the middle of the night), which we recently discussed here – and which we hope are on their way to being resolved! Another nighttime change: for the past few weeks, she has lost her interest in 99 Bottles of Beer, the bedtime song I’ve sang to her for months and months. These days the pre-bed must-have is a “Princess and Panda” story from her dad.

The other big development involves potty-training, which we’ve slowly started to do since the last update. Though still in diapers, she has graduated to pull-ups, and she seems to enjoy using the “big girl” toilet. (“I going!” she’ll say to us in excitement.) In the past week or so, she’s gotten good at telling us when she needs to go, versus us reminding her about going, so we might not be far away from a diaper-free household! (Well, at least until June.)

We’ve talked about it before, but Zoe’s “terrible twos” have been in full-swing lately. Though she is perfectly fine some (most, really) days, she’ll be completely grumpy, sassy and uncooperative on others. Lucky for us, Zoe usually knows when she’s misbehaving and, after a quick talk, will deliver a “sorry, Mommy/Daddy” and a hug. And it’s hard to stay angry when she wraps her little arms around you!

-M