Zoe, more than ever before, is like a little girlfriend. Yes, she is still very much like a kid who can misbehave or get irrationally upset at things (especially when tired!) but most of the time she\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s easy and fun to be around \u00e2\u20ac\u201c and very easy to talk to. She\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s my best shopping partner, play teacher, and all-around little buddy. So, what else?<\/p>\n
Interests:<\/strong> Her interests are similar to what they were at age 7 \u00e2\u20ac\u201c only amplified. She still loves playing make-believe: family, doctor office, restaurant and school, with the latter being her favorite. She\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s constantly holding classes for her family members, which includes coming up with a curriculum; turning her bedroom into a classroom (complete with chairs, whiteboard and various signs); and creating, assigning and grading worksheets and homework).\u00c2\u00a0 She also loves playing \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Mommy\u00e2\u20ac\u009d \u00e2\u20ac\u201c she often slips into my heels, throws a purse over her shoulder and announces that she is heading to work\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 She loves writing (lists, little stories, notes to herself, you name it), and has tons of little notebooks that serve as journals around the house. (Sample page from one of her diaries: Dear Diary. I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m excited for tomorrow. At Zachary\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s birthday we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re going mini golfing. Yea! Love, Zoe. PS. I love you Diary<\/em>!) Reading is also a passion: She grabs for a book first thing when she wakes up (Beverly Cleary’s Ramona series are a recent fave),\u00c2\u00a0and her nose is constantly in one of the rotating books in her reading collection. She\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s been known to devour full chapter books in one setting.<\/p>\n School life:<\/strong> I was curious how Zoe\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s transition to second grade would be, given how much she loved her first-grade teacher \u00e2\u20ac\u201c but so far, so good! She is close to both her general-studies teacher (who very much reminds me of Zoe\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s beloved pre-K teacher, Erica) and her Jewish studies teacher. During the recent parent-teacher conferences we heard that she\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a good student \u00e2\u20ac\u201c strong academically and also incredibly helpful to both the teachers and other students. As mentioned previously, she now has homework every night (versus once\/week in first grade), but she usually loves doing it. She was even excited when her teacher starting giving her extra challenge math homework each night (since she was getting through the regular lessons very quickly).<\/p>\n Social stuff:<\/strong> Though still friendly with boys, she seems to have closer friendships with girls these days \u00e2\u20ac\u201c in fact, she invited mostly girls to her birthday party (a craft party at Michael\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s) today. The exception to this, of course, is Zachary<\/a>, to whom she remains close.\u00c2\u00a0She recently bought a pair of matching bracelets (one pink, one purple). When I asked who she wanted to give the other one too, I half-expected her to say Avery, but she instead said Zachary (and gave it to him the next day). Speaking of Avery, Zoe remains close with her<\/a>. The girls definitely bicker more than they used to (we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re seeing some sibling rivalry) but for the most part they get along really well. When I picked them from school just the other afternoon, they were finishing up a clay project, and their PM-care teacher commented on what good collaborators and friends they are. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153You don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t see that with all siblings,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d she said. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Some of them do their own thing.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d We also like the way Zoe looks out for her sister – comforting her when she’s sad and making sure Avery has a good start to her day on those mornings that she insists on walking Avery to class<\/a> without us. (I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve been told by teacher- and parent-spies that once there, Zoe helps her get her bag in the cubby and gives her a kiss or hug before taking off). She also loves to teach Avery things and her relatively new thing is to lay in bed with her sister and read her chapter books.<\/p>\n Other stuff:<\/strong> She has taken a recent interest in (playing) volleyball, and her PE teacher reports that her running is very strong. (Perhaps track and field is in her future?) She still loves amusement parks and is fearless with most rides; she\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s now finally old enough to ride on the big ones with her dad (while Avery and I wait below). On weekends she\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s just as happy doing active things (or shopping\/running errands) as she is staying home and playing with her sister; one of her favorite local things to do is to go the West Portal Library. In terms of turning eight, one of the things she\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s most excited is that she doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t need a booster seat in the car anymore! Within the last year she started getting an allowance; related to that, she made a job board and gives herself checks for doing things around the house like emptying the dishwasher and putting away laundry. She loves it! Lastly, she remains a caring, level-headed little girl who often gives me advice or makes me think twice when I get stressed or upset over something small. I know it sounds silly, but there are many days when I feel like I learn as much from her as she learns from me!<\/p>\n -M<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Zoe, more than ever before, is like a little girlfriend. Yes, she is still very much like a kid who can misbehave or get irrationally upset at things (especially when tired!) but most of the time she\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s easy and fun to be around \u00e2\u20ac\u201c and very easy to talk to. She\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s my best shopping partner, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[111],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-21299","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-86-two-kids-oct-dec-14"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.zoe.browdy.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21299","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.zoe.browdy.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.zoe.browdy.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.zoe.browdy.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.zoe.browdy.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=21299"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"http:\/\/www.zoe.browdy.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21299\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":21302,"href":"http:\/\/www.zoe.browdy.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21299\/revisions\/21302"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.zoe.browdy.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=21299"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.zoe.browdy.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=21299"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.zoe.browdy.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=21299"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![walking Avery to class<\/a> without us. (I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve been told by teacher- and parent-spies that once there, Zoe helps her get her bag in the cubby and gives her a kiss or hug before taking off). She also loves to teach Avery things and her relatively new thing is to lay in bed with her sister and read her chapter books.<\/p>\nOther stuff:<\/strong> She has taken a recent interest in (playing) volleyball, and her PE teacher reports that her running is very strong. (Perhaps track and field is in her future?) She still loves amusement parks and is fearless with most rides; she\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s now finally old enough to ride on the big ones with her dad (while Avery and I wait below). On weekends she\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s just as happy doing active things (or shopping\/running errands) as she is staying home and playing with her sister; one of her favorite local things to do is to go the West Portal Library. In terms of turning eight, one of the things she\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s most excited is that she doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t need a booster seat in the car anymore! Within the last year she started getting an allowance; related to that, she made a job board and gives herself checks for doing things around the house like emptying the dishwasher and putting away laundry. She loves it! Lastly, she remains a caring, level-headed little girl who often gives me advice or makes me think twice when I get stressed or upset over something small. I know it sounds silly, but there are many days when I feel like I learn as much from her as she learns from me!<\/p>\n-M<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Zoe, more than ever before, is like a little girlfriend. Yes, she is still very much like a kid who can misbehave or get irrationally upset at things (especially when tired!) but most of the time she\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s easy and fun to be around \u00e2\u20ac\u201c and very easy to talk to. She\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s my best shopping partner, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[111],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-21299","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-86-two-kids-oct-dec-14"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.zoe.browdy.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21299","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.zoe.browdy.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.zoe.browdy.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.zoe.browdy.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.zoe.browdy.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=21299"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"http:\/\/www.zoe.browdy.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21299\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":21302,"href":"http:\/\/www.zoe.browdy.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21299\/revisions\/21302"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.zoe.browdy.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=21299"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.zoe.browdy.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=21299"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.zoe.browdy.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=21299"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}](\"http:\/\/www.zoe.browdy.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/08\/girls-walking-on-first-day.jpg){kind=link}