So, I have to interrupt my Hawaii posts to wish a Happy New Year to Q’s family – and to share a few photos from this morning. Q and Zoe rushed off to services nice and early today, but only after they posed for a picture and Zoe helped fix her dad’s tie. I’m clearly biased, but aren’t they cute together??

-M

We’re back from our trip to Hawaii. Like most other tropical vacations, it was relaxing and fun – and it went by way too fast. (I must admit, though, that it’s good to be home. And Zoe was practically giddy with excitement when she saw her bed, doggie and baby last night.)

As indicated below, most of our days were all about relaxing. We did go on one adventure (a day-trip to Hana, which I’ll blog about later), but the rest of the time was spent fairly close to home. Our home-base was a 2-bedroom condo right on Kaanapali Beach, and we did a lot of lounging there or at the adjacent Marriott, which had a big, pirate-themed kids’ pool that Zoe loved splashing around in. We also spent quite a bit of time shopping and strolling around at Whaler’s Village (a fun outdoor mall about 5 minutes from our place), and we couldn’t leave without visiting Lahaina, site to one of the largest banyan trees in the country.

We have tons of pics, and I thought I’d start with a few from our first days there. More soon…

-M

Our most important thing to pack:

“Cheese” at the Kahuli Airport:

Hula Girl:

View from our condo:

Frolicking in our front lawn:

Down the slide with Pop Pop:

Enjoying a fry (or two) with Safta:

Hugs!

Relaxing in the sand:

Family pic under the big banyan tree:

We haven’t had a chance to get on the computer much this week (it is vacation-time, after all), but I wanted to quickly post an update. We arrived in Maui to a beautiful rainbow on Sun. afternoon, and our days since then have been full of swimming, sunning, shopping and exploring. It took Zoe a few days to get used to the new time zone (she woke up at 4 AM on Monday and 5 AM on Tuesday), and she’s been a bit scared of the waves and ocean – but other than that, things have been very smooth. And relaxing.

Next on the agenda: wedding-related festivities for me and Q (we’re here for our good friend Fink’s wedding) and more hanging out with Safta and Pop Pop for Zoe. We’ll have lots more to post later.

-M

What a fun age! Zoe continues to get bigger (34 lbs, 34 inches at last count) and become more and more like a little person.

The most major changes we’ve seen lately involve her communication skills; she’s constantly talking, and her sentences are getting longer and more complex. She recently learned to express what she wants (“I want a banana” was her first such sentence), and she often – without being asked – describes items she sees around the house (e.g. “Daddy shirt”). She has been saying “please” for a few months now, and we recently taught her to say “thank you,” which she often says without being prompted. A few other word-related things:

-When she wakes up in the morning, she usually calls out “Daddy/mommy, where are you?” And the first thing she says when we pick her up is, “I want milk.”
-She’s often saying to us, “I want mon-kee” or “I want ba-bee,” which means she wants to see her favorite Playhouse Disney characters on the TV or computer.
-Any time I sneeze she’ll say, “bless you, Mommy.” (This started a few weeks ago – after hearing us say “bless you” after every one of her sneezes for the past 21+ months!)
-She constantly says “hi” and “bye” to things – she likes, for example, greeting the birds outside her window. (And when they’re not there, she usually says, “birdies, where are you?” or “birdies night-night.”) The other day as we were walking through the garage, she waved and said “bye, stroller” to the pink stroller sitting there.
-She said, “I love you, Mommy,” for one of the first times the other the day.

Words aren’t the only things Zoe has been learning. She’s beginning to get a grasp on numbers: a few weeks ago she said “two doggies” when looking at a picture, and now she routinely points out when there is two of something. She’s more skilled at puzzles and shape-related activities than before, and she is also gaining an understanding of colors. (Every time we ask her the color of something, she answers yellow, purple or, occasionally, green, which makes us chuckle. It’s good she gets the concept of color, and we know she’ll get them all right eventually.)

Like other kids her age, Zoe is very much into imitating people around her. She repeats many of the words she hears me and Q say, and she has also started following our actions. The other day, Q was standing with his arms crossed; Zoe saw him and promptly positioned her arms in the same way. And she often “folds” and then carries around her little towels – probably because she sees me doing laundry.

She has a good memory for things. Zoe often sees Aunt Sandy’s dog, Coco, on Skype – so now she’ll sometimes point to the computer and say, “Co-co!” As mentioned before, after sitting in the stairway and waiting for her dad just one time (with Safta), she now routinely sits on those stairs and chants her dad’s name.

In terms of playtime, one of her new favorite things is Play-Doh. (She often asks for “pizza” when she wants to play, because she uses Play-Doh to “bake” at Elena’s.) She also recently started playing the “laundry” game, where she takes a stack of washcloths, unfolds each one and hands them to me to fold again. (Let’s just say that she enjoys that game more than I do.) She also loves caring for (feeding, wiping, changing diaper, etc.) her baby and her new doggie, which Q got for her on Labor Day weekend. (She loves that dog and sleeps with it every night.)

We’ve mentioned it before, but Zoe can be temperamental. And (like other toddlers), she has shown a recent fondness for throwing food on the floor. Whenever she does this (or other “naughty” things) she knows to say “sorry” and kiss her mom or dad; it’s hard to stay angry/irritated when you see her little face coming towards you!

-M

Zoe has seen the beach before, and she has done plenty of swimming (in pools), but she’s never splashed around in the ocean. (We live in Northern California, after all – only surfers go in the water here.) That will change soon, though, as we’re heading to Maui today. The trip marks not only Zoe’s first dip in the Pacific, but also her first plane ride over the Pacific. And Q and I are also pretty excited to return to the state where we honeymooned four years ago.

We’ll try to post pictures when we’re away. Until then: Aloha!

-M

When Zoe and I get together with our friends on Fridays, we’re usually at an outside spot. The kids need plenty of room to run around – and the thought of three toddlers in one confined space is pretty scary. Yesterday, though, my friend Susan decided to brave it by hosting a playgroup. The kids were really well-behaved, and they didn’t create *too* big of a mess. Here are a few pics.

-M

Waiting for Miles:

Checking out Zander’s chair:

Sitting – but only for a second:

Zoe might enjoy a good game of football, but she also has her girlie side. Q’s mom recently sent a box of purses to the house (thank you!), and Zoe spent a good chunk of time this weekend playing around with the different bags. One of the purses is about as big as she is, but that didn’t stop her from carting it around.

We’ve already established her love for shoes; it only makes sense that handbags are a favorite thing too!

-M

“Cheese!”

“Better put the purse here, like Mommy does.”

The scene at our house yesterday was pretty typical of a football Sunday – with Q in his red-and-gold and Zoe cuddled up besides him, watching the game. Zoe might grow up to hate football, in an act of rebellion against her parents, but so far she seems to be a fan. (And she especially likes it when her dad reads to her during the commercials.)

-M

So, we’ve been loving watching Zoe’s hair grow longer and curlier – but it recently occurred to me that a trim might not be a bad idea. (Poor Zoe is often pushing the bangs from her eyes.) Q has been going to his stylist for years, and when we found out she cuts babies’ hair too, it seemed like a no-brainer for her to cut Zoe’s.

Zoe often looks like a little girl (versus baby) to me – but she’s never looked as big as when she sat in the stylist’s chair, wrapped in an adult gown. She seemed a bit uncertain at first, but she didn’t squirm or get upset – she just sat there patiently. Q and I had so much fun watching and laughing and snapping photos, and my only regret is that we didn’t have our real camera with this. (Luckily, my Treo produced pretty good pics.)

We have a lot more haircuts to look forward to – and eventually Zoe will be old enough to enjoy pedicure and spa appointments with her mom. I can hardly wait!

-M

Her first haircut! Her hair was getting a little long and since Daddy was getting a haircut we thought it would be a perfect time for Zoe. She sat patiently waiting for Daddy to finish and then jumped up on the chair like a pro. She didn’t cry and fuss once, she just sat there and had fun. Check her out below…

Jon Q

One of my favorite things about Zoe these days is that she’s constantly learning and saying new things. She seems to pick up things overnight; almost every day we’re treated to a word or phrase that she had never before said. (“Did you teach her that?” Q and I often find ourselves asking one another.) Her sentences have started getting longer, also; the other day, for example, she said “I want a banana.” And one of her favorite things to call out is, “Mommy/Daddy, where are you?” (Needless to say, she likes it when we’re around.)

As a parent, it’s great fun to hear these new words on a daily basis, and it’s particularly rewarding to actually understand what could otherwise be dismissed as jibberish. Zoe kept asking for something over and over the other morning, and Q and I were quite relieved when we finally figured out that what she wanted was stickers. And just yesterday, when I put her down for a nap she repeated the same (hard-to-understand) sentence over and over until I figured out what she was asking for. “Oh, you want me to read the bumble-bee book?” I asked her (after inquiring about a few other things), and she nodded in a victorious manner. She was probably thinking, “finally!” but I was pretty proud of myself for finally figuring it out.

-M

Zoe and I took advantage of our Friday together by strolling through the neighborhood and playing at the West Portal Playground. We also met up with Susan and Zander, who really made Zoe laugh at one point. See below!

-M

Last Friday afternoon, Q’s mom and Zoe sat on the steps leading to our garage, waiting for Q to get home and chanting “Dad-dee! Dad-dee!” (Zoe loves it when Q gets home in the evening – she always makes a mad dash to the door to greet him.) Flash-forward to yesterday afternoon, when Zoe, who was on her way upstairs with me, suddenly stopped and plunked herself down on a middle step. I wasn’t sure what she was doing at first, until she started saying, “Dad-dee, Dad-dee.” She was obviously thinking of her time with Safta – and thinking that Q was on his way home. I had to gentily explain that Daddy wouldn’t be home for a few hours and walk her upstairs; then I made a mental note to blog about this sweet moment!

-M

I often go on lunch-time strolls at Stanford Shopping Center (probably the best outdoor mall in the country, IMO) – an especially nice activity on warm, sunny days like yesterday. I usually see lots of moms and little kids, and yesterday one such duo caught my eye. The mom was relaxing on a bench and enjoying a snack while her little girl (probably about a year old) was snoozing in her little pink stroller. I watched the sleeping blond girl for a few seconds and immediately thought of (what else?) Zoe. At that moment, I so wished she was there with me, in her own pink stroller – kicking her legs, soaking up the sun and pointing out “doggies,” “birdies” and “babies” (her favorite things to spot).

I love my job, my schedule and (especially) my alone-time, but there are times when I wish every day was Friday – my Zoe Day!

-M

One of the highlights from Safta’s visit was a trip to Wine Country. Zoe took a quick snooze while others did some wine tasting; then we all picnicked at V. Sattui (our favorite winery) and did some shopping at the Napa Outlets. Some of our favorite pictures are below.

-M

A drink for the road:

Enjoying the sun with Safta:

Sneaking around the store:

Taking a shopping break with Jenny:

“Time for night-night!”