Seems crazy that Zoe came into our lives seven years ago.

Seven. Wow.

I try to capture the girls’ personalities through my daily stories on the blog, so I’m hopeful faithful readers have a sense of what Zoe is like these days. But my updates (written monthly for the first two years of her life) are tradition – so here goes.

Interests: As has been the case for several years now, Zoe loves playing pretend – usually teaching school or opening and working at a restaurant or store or library. Give her an empty room and a few random household items, and she’ll create her own little kingdom – I know, because we’ve done it. (Our breakfast nook remains empty since the remodel.) And speaking of places, several months ago she converted a little toy chest in her bedroom into her desk, where she sits and does her “work.” She has been using my old little (dying!) pink Netbook for awhile now; you can often find her at the desk, typing away, researching such things as American Dolls and “unicorn poop” cookies (seriously!). New since a year ago: Reading. She loves it, and since about the end of kindergarten she has read at least a book a day. She graduated out of readers and into chapter books sometime over the last year and now routinely reads books from series like The Rainbow Fairies. We often make frequent trips to the library.

School life: I wrote here before that her adjustment to first grade was a little bumpy – at school she was great, but she would come home and melt down from exhaustion. That didn’t last long, thankfully, and now there’s nothing but positive things to say about it. She loves her class and teacher, and we got a nice report during our recent parent-teacher conference; she’s excelling in every area (reading at a second-grade level), and – perhaps most importantly – she’s happy. Her teacher reports that she periodically hears a deep, jovial laugh – and when she looks up, it’s always Zoe. While still close to some of her friends from last year, other relationships have developed – and her teachers say she plays with both girls and boys. And, not surprisingly given what we know about Zoe: Apparently she’s a real helper to her classmates. One of the boys she sits next to speaks Russian and sometimes needs extra help reading; Zoe will often lean over to help him with a word or two. When Zoe was Student of the Week, the other children all wrote down what they appreciated out of Zoe; the majority of them said they appreciated how much she helped them, or how she was like a little mom.

Temperament: I can quote myself from last year: “We sometimes call Zoe ‘Little Mommy,’ because she is fairly responsible for her age and is often nurturing and looking out for others.” She hasn’t changed in this regard one bit. Unless tired, she’s always willing to give me us a hand (she has made dinner for and “babysat” her sister on more than one occasion, and she recently asked me to teach her how to do laundry), and she is quick to comfort me if she thinks I’m tired or down.  She is  independent and also serious at times (“I have a lot of work to do when I get home today, Mommy,” she’ll tell me when I pick her up from school). With that said, she has a silly side; she loves putting on fun music and dancing around in Avery’s room, and she’s always bouncing around when with her good friends at school or on a play date.

Other stuff: She’s up to 61 pounds and 51.5 inches. She has lost four teeth; her two bottom ones have come in, but she still has a huge empty space on the top. Every night at bedtime, she asks for the song she’s heard since she was a baby – and just a few weeks she asked if I would bounce her to sleep. (I happily said yes.) Hippo remains her faithful sleeping companion. She still misses and talks about (though less than last year) her pre-K teacher, Erica. She sometimes amazes me with her grasp of people and the maturity in which she handles situations: Recently a friend of hers was picking on her at school, and after describing to me what happened she said she  wanted to resolve the situation by having a one-on-one play date with him. “If I just tell him how what he does makes me feel, I bet he’ll stop,” she said confidently. “He just doesn’t know.”

And a note to end on: I love this picture of Zoe from last summer, which I think really captures her essence. With her purse and crossed legs she seems so much older – but her laugh gives away the fact that she’s still a little girl.

-M

This entry was posted on Saturday, November 23rd, 2013 at 7:38 am and is filed under 82. Two kids-Oct-Dec13. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.