Earlier this month, the four of went to an event at AT&T Park – something we’re still thinking about. Fink recently sent along some of the professional photos from our day, and I thought I’d post a few here.

-M

Zoe was so tired from our festivities on Saturday that I wound up carrying her to the car. (Believe me – this wasn’t an easy task.) “Zoe, how did you get so big?” I asked her, as my arms began to throb. Her simple answer? “I growed.”

-M

Avery was a bit hesitant at the start of the fair yesterday, but after some warming up she spent a lot of time in one of the toddler bouncy houses. She’s not doing terribly much in the video below – but you can tell she’s enjoying herself. And watching her touch the face of the little boy at the :20 mark is pretty funny. (Hm – wonder where she learned that from??)

-M

At Zoe’s swim class yesterday morning, someone commented how quiet San Francisco is on holiday weekends; most people leave the city in search of warm weather. She was right – and we were in that category when we headed across the bridge for the Bay Area KidFest. The weather actually wasn’t that warm – but, still, a kid-centric fair was the perfect thing to kick off our weekend.

-M

As Zoe was leaving to go on a walk with Q this afternoon, Avery ran up to her and said, “Bye, bye, Sisser. I lull-loo.” Avery regularly says or waves good-bye to her sister these days, but I don’t remember her telling her that she loves her before. It was very sweet, and Zoe thought so, too: She wound up hugging Avery about five times (“Last hug, Avery,” she kept saying) before leaving.

-M

It’s tough to get a good picture of two kids, but every once in awhile – like shortly after we brought Avery home and took this photo – you wind up with an instant classic. Here’s the latest in that category, taken during an impromptu crawl-under-the-table game last week.

-M

At bedtime the other night, to delay the inevitable, Zoe asked me to read yet another book. I told her no, but she kept asking – and at one point she batted her eyes and said, “Read another one to me, Mommy, because you’re so nice.” It’s the first time she has used that line (how do kids learn that stuff?) and I had to laugh. Let the emotional manipulation begin!

-M

Zoe was quite excited about turning four-and-a-half yesterday, and in honor of the day I surprised her with a little treat. Needless to say, she was also a big fan of her birthday-cake “lollipop.” (Thanks, Starbucks!)

-M

When I picked up Zoe from school on Friday, she was laughing and joking with one of her little classmates. As I watched the two of them through the window I couldn’t help but think how *big* Zoe looked and acted – it was if I was picking up a teenager! Indeed, she is way more mature than ever before.

Among Zoe’s favorite things these past few months: playing school (she’s always the teacher, of course), playing with or throwing Hippo elaborate birthday parties, drawing (“I’m going to be an artist,” she often tells us), making houses and other objects with her ABC/123 Lego set, playing hide-and-seek (often with her sister), dancing and performing little schools (which she also does at school), filling up and running around the house with bags, and being “swung” (I take her arms, Q takes her legs) into bed at night. She is very social – “Will you play with me?” she often asks me or Q – but she has also become more interested in being by herself at times. (“I need alone time,” she’ll declare, before instructing people – especially Avery – to knock before entering her room.)

In terms of skills and developmental stuff, she has been able to write letters and her first and last name for some time now, and she can also spell/write numerous short words (e.g. cat, dog, love) and the names of family members and some friends. She’s always coming home from school with little pieces of paper (often party invitations) containing the names of her family: Mommy, Daddy, Avery, Zoe and (of course) Hippo. For the past several months, she has asked the meaning of words that she hears and doesn’t yet know. (“Mommy, what does ‘layering’ mean?”) In terms of her own words, she still mispronounces a few: yellow is (still) “lellow,” feet are “feets,” hospital is “hostelbull,” remember is “revember” and instead of saying “that’s where it is,” she’ll say “that’s where it bees.” She still likes math problems – she can do simple division and multiplication problems and she recently got down the concept of half (i.e. half of 10 is 5).

Some other milestones: She gave up sucking her thumb during the daytime at the beginning of the year (though she is having a tougher time giving it up at bedtime). And she officially gave up her daily nap in late March, though she still naps occasionally on the weekends.

In terms of personality, she is normally pretty happy and well-mannered. She has emerged as a bit of rule-follower (much like her mom!) – she’ll usually wait for me or Q to give the okay when she asks for something, for example. (“Did you say yes, Mommy?” she’ll ask me, and she often ask if it’s okay if she sucks her thumb – since she knows she’s not supposed to.) She is also really loving, often telling me, Q or Avery out of the blue that she loves us or saying things like “I’m going to love you forever,” or “I want to be with you always.” And she’s also sentimental – feeling sad after we get home from a trip, for example, and saying she wants to go back.

She is not, of course, an angel – she can be sassy and mean at times and though her tantrums are less frequent than they used to be, they do still happen. (She had one of her worst episodes ever just last month.) But yet, her bad moods (usually) don’t last long. You can often rationalize with her to calm her down and she’s known to do “do-overs” and apologize fairly soon after getting upset. “I love you all the time – even when I don’t listen to you,” she recently told me, after an awful blow-up.

As written here before, she’s a good big sister, looking out for Avery, comforting her at times (“Are you okay, sweetie?”) and alerting me or Q if she is upset or needs something. (“Avery’s awake – she’s crying!” she’ll tell us after her sister’s naptime.) She is quite patient with her – rarely getting that upset when Avery, for example, knocks down her toys. (When it kept happening one recent day, she just said, “Again??!”) But like any sister she does get irritated at times – usually lashing out by squeezing Avery’s face (something she knows that Avery dislikes). She also made me laugh last week when she said she didn’t want to take a bath with Avery that night, per me. “She is annoying to me,” she said.

In closing, I often tease Zoe by telling her how little she is. “No, I’m a big girl!” she’ll say in an insulted tone, and she likes to reminds me that she’s the biggest (i.e. tallest) in her class. Indeed, at her official half-year measurement this morning, she came in at 45 inches.

-M

We’re big fans of Lemos Farm, the site of Zoe’s second birthday party and a place we visit around Halloween each year. This morning we joined most of Zoe’s class for a birthday party there (her classmate Jayden is turning five), and the girls had a blast running around and going on various rides.

On an interesting note, when asked about it, Zoe had no recollection of being there for her own party two-and-half years ago. That made me sort of sad (it was so much fun!) – but on the plus side, it takes the pressure off as we plan Avery’s second. (She probably won’t remember it, anyway!)

-M

The girls and I were hanging out, drawing and playing with stickers, in Avery’s room yesterday – and I reached over to give Avery a squeeze and a few kisses. (She looked so cute – such a big girl, doing the same things that Zoe and I were doing.) Clearly not wanting to be bothered, she wrinkled up her nose and said, “No kissie! No kissie!” It’s the first time she’s said that, and I had to laugh. And then I kissed her again.

-M

Zoe has always been a good helper with Avery-related things: bringing diapers and wipes to us, informing us when Avery is crying or upset about something, and, more recently, reading books and singing to her sister at bedtime. But here’s a first: Zoe changed Avery’s diaper – with little assistance – the other night. She asked us if she could (why not, we thought), and Avery was more than game.

I’m not sure how many diaper-changing sessions are in store for Zoe – we’ll likely potty-train Avery over the next few months – but at least she can say that she did it once!

-M

We’ve got a talker! Avery continues to chat away in her own (sometimes-difficult-to-understand) language, but she also says plenty of real words and phrases now. Shortly after our last update she said for the first time, “What happened?” and that’s something we now hear a lot of. She’ll also say “O-kay?” when she thinks someone is hurt or upset, “and “Where go?” when she can’t find something. Other things we hear a lot of: “Hot?” “Sit down!” and “Kay!” (Just two days ago, she started a new game: Repeatedly closing the door to Zoe’s room after saying, “Bye, kay??” to the people inside. ) And she often points to people’s shoes and coats and says who they belong to (“Daddy’s shoes!”).

She is better at asking for things – “Want milk” and “Want book” are frequent demands (the latter always at bedtime) – and when I put her to bed one night last week she told me (for the first time) “Want to play.” She often asks to be held, and her “Up, please” comes out sounding like “Uppie.”

She’s getting good at identifying objects in her favorite books (she’s especially fond of pointing out a baby’s teeth) and she made me laugh recently by calling a monkey “Mommy.” (Um – is she trying to tell me something?) She has some of her colors down; she has known yellow for awhile and just this morning asked for the blue balloon. In terms of identifying other things, she recently started – proudly – saying “Talia” in reference to one of her little friends. And we recently discovered that she calls herself “Baby” instead of “Avery.”

She has a playful and (mostly) happy personality, though she can be naughty. (She loves playfully slapping faces, as example, and she laughs as we remind her to be gentle.) She could spend hours (and has!) playing with toy kitchens, food and dishes; she’s always making “tea” and handing us little cups and spoons. (“Here, mama.”) She still sings a lot: Happy Birthday and Baa, Baa Black Sheep are current favorites, and she has a little song (“Bye, bye, caca”) for whenever I change her diaper.

She still has her diva-like moments, of course, and she has a high-pitch squeal for use when she’s upset. She is still shy around new people, and she often freezes when scared or upset. She can also be very sensitive: Uncle Dan recently told her – very nicely – not to do something, and Avery immediately stopped what she was doing and just stood there. For almost five minutes.

She has shown an early interest in cleanliness and hygiene: She loves brushing her teeth and showing people the results, and if something spills or she sees something on the floor, she’ll point and say, “Oh, oh, oh!” until we clean it up.

Playing with and mimicking her sister continue to be among her favorite things. She always greets Zoe with an enthusiastic “Sis-ser!” and whenever I pick her up first in the afternoons, she asks where Zoe is. She doesn’t always get along perfectly with her, of course – and if Zoe mistreats her (usually by squeezing her face), she’ll come up to me or Q, complaining, pointing to Zoe and reenacting the crime. I can also report that she and Zoe had their first real, backseat fight (i.e. squealing match) a few weeks ago; they were fighting over a bag.

Other things: Her (curly) hair continues to grow, and her eyes remain a grayish blue. She recently started sleeping with and taking on car rides her beloved baby, and just in the last week or so she has adopted a polka-dot blanket of Zoe’s as one of her favorite things.

And a closing thought: I can’t believe my “baby” is almost two!!

-M

Safta treated us to cherry pie the other night, and PopPop encouraged Zoe to try some with a little ice cream. Needless to say, both she and Avery were big fans…

-M

Over the weekend, I read a magazine article during which kids shared their favorite gifts. Then the following conversation happened.

M: “Zoe, what’s the best gift you’ve ever gotten?”
Z (thinks for a few seconds): “My feet.”
M: “Oh. Who got them for you?”
Z: “God.”

-M