Archive for the '43.Two kids-February 10' Category

Purim parade

Saturday, February 27th, 2010

Zoe’s school celebrated Purim yesterday, and the kids got to dress up, parade around and shake their groggers during a morning party. (It reminded me of the Halloween parades we used to have at my elementary school.) Zoe the cat was at the start of the processional, followed closely by one of her best friends, Leo (the monkey). Here’s a short clip.

-M

Flying solo

Saturday, February 27th, 2010

Q went out of town on business this week, which meant I had to fly solo for almost two full days. I wasn’t, of course, looking forward to having to “single parent” it – taking care of two kids can be challenging and exhausting even with both parents around! – but I wound up being pleasantly surprised by what transpired. First, the girls were great. They were easy to get ready both mornings, putting Zoe to bed (which sometimes can be difficult) was a breeze, and neither girl woke up in the night. There were a few challenging moments – like when Avery was crying from hunger, and I had to wait to feed her until Zoe (who was taking quite a long time) was done in the bathroom – but overall I don’t think it could have gone smoother.

This trip was quite the contrast to one of Q’s first post-Avery overnight ones, when both Avery and Zoe were upset at bedtime, and I didn’t know how to – or feel like I could – comfort both of them at the same time. (I remember bouncing a newborn Avery on the ball, trying to get her to stop crying while silently cursing Q for not being around to help.) Part of the reason it was so much better this time is that, of course, the girls are older and easier to manage. (It’s hard to deny that an 8-month-old is easier to care for than a newborn.) But it’s more than that: I also think Q and I have gotten this whole caring-for-two-kids thing down. I still wouldn’t categorize life with two as easy – but it is the new normal, and we’re better equipped now to handle certain things, like doing it alone or comforting two crying girls at the same time. (I wish I could go back to the “me” of seven and six months ago and give her some tips.) And I’m proud that something that once was incredibly difficult for me really isn’t so bad anymore!

-M

PS – Q, this isn’t an invitation for you to start leaving more often. I much prefer having you around. :)

Bye, bye Adidas

Friday, February 26th, 2010

I mentioned earlier my plan to take pictures of some of Avery’s cutest (and now too-small) outfits. Yesterday I had to get out the camera before saying good-bye to this classic outfit: a velvety tracksuit that Zoe wore to AllStar FanFest in 2007. Sadly, it’s now too snug around Avery’s tummy – but I’m packing it away with fond memories!

-M

Shapes

Thursday, February 25th, 2010

I mentioned the other day that Zoe recently started drawing shapes. Below is the picture that she put together and proudly presented to me and Q on Monday morning. As she pointed out – starting at the top and going going clockwise – there’s a circle, square, acorn, snake and oval. (Okay, okay, so acorns and snakes aren’t exactly shapes, but we were impressed nonetheless!)

-M

Two growing girls

Wednesday, February 24th, 2010

Every three months, on her quarter-birthday, we measure Zoe. Usually she’s the only one to get the honor, but this time around Avery wanted to join in on the fun… Only 15 inches to go until she catches up to her sister!

-M


Three year, three month update

Tuesday, February 23rd, 2010

It’s been great fun watching Zoe grow and mature these past few months. There was a big difference between 33 months and 36 months, but I think perhaps there was an even bigger one between the 3 year and 3 year, 3 month mark!

Preschool is playing big role in Zoe’s life; she’s excited about going, and she has learned a lot. I can always tell what they’re focusing on in class because she talks about it at home; one day, out of the blue, she started talking about shapes; on other days it was trees and snails she was talking about. She’ll often burst out with something I know she picked up from her teachers; she recently scolded me, for example, for not paying attention to her and said I needed to put my “listening ears” on. (That’s something they obviously do at school!)

Her school has sing-alongs on Mondays and gymnastics on Wednesdays (Zoe recently learned to do a somersault), and they do art projects (which are her favorite things to do, I think) almost every day. Throughout the year, they also teach a lot about Jewish culture and holidays: Zoe can now say and sing several blessings, including the hamotzi (blessing over the bread), and she can sing Happy Birthday in Hebrew. And during Hanukkah she would come home and report on how many candles needed to be lit that night.

Zoe’s favorite things to do at home are similar to what I reported last time. She plays make-believe a lot; most of the time, her imaginary friends are kids from school, but sometimes Dora and Boots come by for a play-date too. She also loves playing school, telling stories (as seen here), cooking and playing “Happy Birthday” (by making “cakes” – usually out of toilet paper or tissues – and having us blow out the candles), and pretending she’s a doctor. She also talks about being sick (even when she’s not) and asks to go to the doctor a lot; I guess she’s a big fan of Dr. Fernandez, and the “boy doctor” she recently saw.

In terms of skills, Zoe can identify all the letters of the alphabet and can almost spell her sister’s name. (She’s had Zoe down for awhile – it helps that it’s short!) She now knows her shapes, as mentioned above; just yesterday, she surprised me and Q by drawing (for one of the first times) rather accurate-looking circles, squares and ovals. She has also started to do some simple math problems (if there are four objects and we take two away, she knows there are two left, etc.).

Her speech gets better as she gets older, but she still mispronounces a few words. For a long time, Dr. Fernandez was “Dr. Nandez.” Beautiful comes out as “booty-full,” and excused comes out as “accused.” (We recently taught her to ask nicely to leave the dinner table; now every night we hear, “Can I be ACCUSED?”)

Zoe still has a bit of a bossy personality – she likes to take charge when possible, and she always tries to negotiate things with us. “I have an idea,” she’ll say, before launching into a plan that will allow her to watch another show, get a treat, stay up later, etc. As example, just this weekend, Q bought a cookie and told her she could have one bite now and the rest after her nap. “How about I have a bite now, a bite when I get home and the rest after my nap?” she said. “Would that be a good idea?” (On a funny note, before Zoe was even born, I wondered if she would wind up with this type of personality.)

As for bedtime, her ritual has been the same for some time now: she usually watches a 20-min. show to unwind and then gets a book, story and song. She started having some rough nights (tantruming and refusing to go to bed) about a month ago, and we tried different tactics to make the nights better – with varying degrees of success. A few weeks ago we started giving her “thumbs up” and “thumbs down” based on her behavior, and there’s a funny story related to this. I was having a bad day and snapped at her recently, and she told me, “I don’t like it when you talk to me like that, Mommy. Thumbs down.” (After I told her I was sorry, though, I got a thumbs up.)

Zoe still loves playing and cuddling with her sister, but recently (within the past few weeks) she has started taking toys away from her when Avery’s playing with them. She usually gives them back and says “sorry” (after I ask her to) but I suspect this is the just start of that form of sibling rivalry!

And speaking of Avery, Zoe very much likes to give us little reports on what she’s up to. She looked into Avery’s room and told me recently, “Avery’s crawling around in her crib.” She always tells us when Avery’s crying (often she’ll hear her cries before I do!) and one morning she yelled to us from her room that Avery was awake. “Is somebody going to get her?” she called out.

She can be very sweet – she’s known to come up to us and give us a kiss for no reason. And I like when she gets happy and excited about the simplest of things. Recently, when packing Zoe’s lunch, I asked if she wanted some ranch dressing for her carrots. “Oh, that would be very, very nice,” she said excitedly. “Thank you!” (Comments like that make otherwise mundane tasks/moments special.)

And, lastly, some stats. She was recently weighed and measured, and she comes in at 41 lbs and 41 inches. That puts her in the 96th percentile for weight and 97th for height. No wonder she’s wearing some 5T clothing!

-M

Curlylocks, part III

Monday, February 22nd, 2010

Speaking of curls, and as mentioned when she was very small, Avery’s hair curls up when it’s wet. (And now that she has a bit more hair, it’s a lot more noticeable.) Zoe’s did the same thing as a baby, so it wouldn’t surprise me if Avery looks like this five or six months from now!

-M

Curlylocks, part II

Sunday, February 21st, 2010

Zoe’s back from her hair-cut (only her third ever), and I’m happy to report that her long curls are still there! It also made me happy how much fun she seemed to have during the cut; she wasn’t nervous or uncertain – despite not having seen her stylist, Jenny, in many months – and she even stopped to pose for the camera. Here are a few pics.

-M

Curlylocks

Saturday, February 20th, 2010

Zoe’s off to get a hair-cut this morning. Though her signature locks aren’t going anywhere, I thought I’d post a quick picture before she loses any length… This is the longest – and curliest – her hair has ever been!

-M

Eight-month update

Friday, February 19th, 2010

A lot of changes since last month – mostly because Avery is now zipping around. (When I last wrote an update, Avery was merely rocking back and forth, like she was about to take off.) She actually did take off on Jan. 26, and these days it’s her backside – like below – that we tend to see most often. Avery has gotten really fast these past few weeks, and she’s constantly crawling over to, and grabbing, things of interest. We have to watch her very carefully, because many times it’s things she shouldn’t play with (like our shoes!) that she’s most interested in.

Speaking of things of interest, some of her favorite toys include a set of Munchkin stacking cups, the stacking rings pictured last month, and a vtech singing telephone. (She likes pressing the buttons.) She’s also fond of round things; she’s often crawling over to the dresser drawers in her room or ours and trying to twist the knobs.

Avery has pretty good hand-eye coordination and has become adept at picking up very small objects. (This comes in handy, of course, when she’s munching on Cheerios and “puffs” – two recent additions to her diet.) And a related cute story: when we were sitting together one morning, she began trying to pick off the polka-dots from my pajamas. She eventually gave up, but it was fun to watch her try.

In terms of personality, she’s still a fairly mellow and happy baby. (When she’s not sick or teething, she’s very smiley.) She doesn’t complain a lot, though she makes it obvious when she’s hungry or thirsty. (And when it’s more solids that she wants, she usually hits her highchair with both hands until she gets some.) Though Zoe is a good big sister overall, she has been known to take away a toy or two from Avery, and Avery doesn’t really complain (yet). She usually just looks around or makes her way to another object of interest.

Avery still likes to hug, but not as much as she used to. (She’d rather, understandably, zip around.) But when she is in your arms, watch out. She loves pulling hair, like most kids her age, but also pinch. As much as I love cuddling with her, it’s sometimes a painful endeavor.

Another development: Avery (suddenly) became a consistent sleeper. While she used to be more of a cat-napper, she now takes longer naps at set times: usually 9-10:30 AM, 1-3 PM and 6-7 PM. The only bad thing (and unlike her sister): she usually needs to be in her crib to sleep. She’s just not much of a carseat or stroller napper, so we’ve had to adjust our schedules accordingly.

We haven’t had an official weigh-in in awhile, but she’s got to be over 20 pounds at this point. Most of her clothes are 12-month or even (sniff, sniff) 18-month… How did my baby grow so quickly?

-M

A buggy house

Thursday, February 18th, 2010

I’ve blogged quite a bit about our various illnesses these past few months, and now we’ve got another man – er, girl – down. Zoe has had a nasty little bug for the past few days; though she’s a lot better now, she had a few rough nights and has had to miss several days of school. Dr. Fernandez commented yesterday that we’ve been to her office a lot lately – it seems like every month, one of the girls is sick – but I’m hoping all these bugs will disappear as winter melts into spring. Keep your fingers crossed for us!

-M

Future Olympian?

Tuesday, February 16th, 2010

I’ve always been a big fan of the Winter Olympics, and yesterday afternoon Zoe snuggled up to me on the couch as I watched the pairs’ short program. “Will you take me there?” she inquired at one point. “To the ice-rink, so you can skate? Sure,” I told her. “Can I skate with that boy?” she asked as one of the Russian pairs came on the ice. “I’ll be nice to him!”

Sounds like someone might be asking for skating lessons (and/or a playdate with a cute Russian boy!) in the future.

-M

Happy Valentine’s Day!

Sunday, February 14th, 2010

So, it proved challenging this year to get our customary girl(s)-with-roses Valentine’s Day photo. (Zoe kept putting the rose in front of her face; Avery kept lunging for and/or trying to eat the flower.) The girls had fun during our photo shoot, though, and we did manage to get a few fun rose-less shots. (And if you want to see Zoe’s past V-day photos, they can be found here and here.)

Have a great day, everybody!

-M

Girls day!

Friday, February 12th, 2010

Zoe’s school was closed today, and the three of us spent our “girls day” making white-and-pink cupcakes and hanging out at our friend Zander’s house. Zander and Zoe made some Valentine’s, but Zoe was most interested in running around with – and hugging – her good buddy. As for little Avery, she was just content to sit around and smile.

-M

Bye, bye butterfly

Thursday, February 11th, 2010

Along with packing away toys, as mentioned below, I’m also constantly packing away little outfits. (Avery is just growing so fast!) Some of them are especially cute, so I decided to start snapping pictures of my favorites – like this Zutano butterfly one. (I liked it on Zoe, too.) And while I had the camera out, I also took a video of Avery crawling – to show how fast she’s getting!

-M