Time to break out the half-cupcake today, in celebration of Zoe’s half-birthday.

Though it can be a bit trying at times (see below about tantrums), this is generally a sweet age. Zoe is always making us smile and laugh – especially when she’s imitating us or commenting that something is “so cute.” (Her “Oh my gosh” line is one we now hear quite frequently.) She often gives us compliments (“Pretty shirt, Daddy!”), and tells us, out of the blue, that she misses or loves us. She’s recently become quite affectionate in the mornings (she routinely climbs into bed with us and plants a bunch of kisses on our cheeks), and she is also terribly sweet with her friends – both live and stuffed. She gives a hello and good-bye hug each day to her best friend at Elena’s (a little girl named Brianna who calls Zoe “Bobee”), and she’s often cradling her stuffed animals or dolls and putting them to bed (“Shhh,” she’ll tell us, “they’re sleeping”). This past week, she also started calling Panda “Sweetie Pie” – which made us smile.

Zoe has been a bit more clingy than she used to be – occasionally getting upset when I drop her off at Elena’s or when Q and I leave her to go out. Then again, sometimes she surprises me – like the other night when I was getting ready to have dinner with a friend. “Where are you going?” she asked me when she saw me putting on make-up. She was quiet for a minute after I told her, and I thought she was going to be upset – but then she said, “Okay. I’m going to stay here with Daddy.”

In terms of play, Zoe still likes reading, coloring and painting, pushing around her friends (especially Panda) in the stroller and playing pretend. She’s often making and serving us ice cream or tea, and her new favorite game is “salon” where one of us (usually her dad) pretends to wash and dry her hair. She also loves talking on the phone, and – as displayed in this video – she always has lengthy, life-like conversations.

Zoe is showing an early interest in fashion, which of course makes me proud. Though she hasn’t yet demanded to pick out her own clothes, she does like commenting on patterns (“That’s stripes,” “That’s polka-dots”) and colors (almost every morning she tells me the color of my pajamas) – and she always points out when something matches. (The other day she got really excited when we both had on jean jackets. “My jacket blue, your jacket blue!” she said.)

As for developmental milestones, she can spell her name, identify most of the letters in the alphabet and count on her own to about 12. She can put on most of her bottom-half clothes (underwear, pants, socks, shoes) on her own, but she still needs help with her shirts. She’s not completely potty-trained yet, but I blame that mostly on laziness on her parents’ part!

Another big development (which we’ve documented here): she recently got a new bedroom. She knows that she moved to accommodate “Baby Sister,” about whom she talks all the time – and we’ve had fewer problems getting her to bed since the move.

Zoe still has tantrums – her biggest meltdown ever actually just occurred last weekend – but her outburts aren’t that frequent, and they’re never (knock on wood) in public. I also felt a bit better when a friend told me that his daughter (who is around the same age as Zoe) recently behaved as if the world was going to end when she was refused a second banana. Zoe isn’t the only sometimes-irrational 2-year-old out there!

The next time I write one of these updates, things will be very different in our lives – not only will Zoe be older, but she’ll (officially) be a big sister. It’s difficult to imagine how things will be, but you’ll be the first people we’ll report to!

-M

This entry was posted on Saturday, May 23rd, 2009 at 7:00 am and is filed under 34.Two and a half years. 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.