The other afternoon, worn out from all our holiday activities, Q and I both wanted a nap. We put Avery down, got Zoe settled on the floor next to us, and hoped for the best. As I closed my eyes I heard Q tell Zoe, who had popped up and said she wasn’t tired, to go in her room and play quietly; when I woke up an hour later, everyone in the house was sleeping. I learned later that Zoe had indeed gone to her room (she told me she had played in her kitchen and read herself two books before putting herself down for a nap).

This might not like sound like a big deal – but, believe me, it was to us! Zoe has never before entertained herself while we were sleeping, and she has never before gone down for a nap on her own. It gives me hope for the future – showing me there will be a time when Q and I can nap or do stuff on her own while the older and more independent girls do their own thing. Talk about something to look forward to!

-M

Avery is quite used to having her picture taken – but only recently has she begun saying “cheese” whenever the camera comes out. And if you’re wondering where she learned to say it (and make the accompanying funny face), check out her sister, who also learned “cheese” at a young age, in the last photo.

-M

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As you could tell from the first picture in my last post, Zoe was a big help as we got ready for Thanksgiving dinner. She was so excited to be able to set the table, and I took a little video of her in action.

-M

We had a nice Thanksgiving at home, and we were lucky enough to be joined by both family (Dan and Jenny) and friends (Miles, Zander and their families.) I wouldn’t exactly call the holiday relaxing (though it was, I would argue, more mellow than you might expect from an event with five kids who are four or under), but I still think people – including the girls – enjoyed themselves.

-M

Setting the table:

Helping Daddy in the kitchen:

“Are they here yet?”

Ready for company:

Playing around:

Enjoying dinner with friends:

“Yum… Pie…”

“Is there something on my face?”

“I love Thanksgiving!”

Enjoying the Macy’s parade the day after:

There’s a lot of activity this morning – with Zoe (in her new apron) helping prepare various Thanksgiving dishes, and her sister buzzing around the house. We’re getting ready for dinner tonight; in the meantime, we wanted to wish everyone a very happy holiday!

-M

So, I think Zoe’s birthday was a big hit. She opened some presents in the morning, then brought birthday treats (zucchini muffins) and her new Toy Story lunchbox to school. I picked her up early so we could get our nails done (!), then the family went to Chuck E. Cheese for some pizza and games. Her birthday party (another joint one with her good friends Zander and Miles) is next weekend – but this was a good way to kick off the celebration!
-M

So if Zoe didn’t think her mom was crazy before, she surely does now. As I was reading her a book at bedtime tonight, I – much to her confusion – burst into tears. The reason for my outburst? The words in the book she (rather appropriately) chose, Sunrise, Sunset:

Is this the little girl I carried?
Is the little boy at play?
I don’t remember growing older.
When did they?

…

Sunrise, sunset,
Swiftly flow the days;
Seedlings turn overnight to sunflow’rs,
Blossoming even as we gaze.

I tried to explain to her that I wasn’t sad, exactly – just emotional that my little seedling was growing into a sunflower. I explained to her that I was thinking of four years ago tonight – how seeing her for the first time was the most amazing moment of my life. I know she didn’t really understand; she just looked at me with a blank expression and said, “I won’t choose that book again.”

It would be too obvious to write that I can’t believe how fast four years has gone, so I’ll skip that and other sentimental stuff and dive right into the good stuff…

Overall, Zoe is a fun and bubbly four-year-old (who, until today, loved to tell people she was “three-and-three-quarters”). Her teachers recently told us she spends a lot of time at school acting silly and jumping around – which sounded pretty accurate to us. She’s always running around the house, making up games, playing pretend (she likes being a doctor, a teacher or, in a recent development, a baby), or directing me or Q (or whomever else is around) to do certain things. “Okay, guys,” she’ll say before launching into her instructions.

She loves art (she’s constantly drawing or doing little craft projects, and when I ask her to tell me one thing she did at school that day, she usually answers, “Draw”) and music. She often comes home singing something she’s learned at school, and she has several non-kid favorites, like Black Eyed Peas’ Imma Be (to which we sing, “Zoe B”) and Sixpence None the Richer’s Kiss Me. (We recently started listening to the latter; her favorite line is “Kiss me down by the broken tree house,” and she told me one day, “My heart loves this song.”) She likes a lot of different games; she plays Candyland at home and school, for example, and she loves playing memory on our phones.

As mentioned here before, she and her sister have gotten a lot more interactive. (When I used to ask what her favorite thing was about Avery, she would say her ears. The other day I asked and she told me, “Playing with her.”) She’s still a really good big sister, updating us on things related to Avery (“Daddy, she’s crying,” or “Avery’s quiet!”) and putting up (for the most part) with Avery when she tries to take her things. She does get frustrated, of course (we’ve had to do quite a few reminders about not pushing), and she now often tells me to “Save my spot” when she gets up to leave something she’s been doing. I know what she really means is, “Don’t let Avery take my place!”

She’s generally a happy, easy girl – and also fairly polite. She routinely says “thank you” or “please” at the appropriate times, and I always have to fight back a laugh when she says “no thanks” when we ask her to do something (e.g. clean up) that she doesn’t want to. I want her to listen, of course, but it’s difficult getting angry when she’s so polite about *not* listening!

With that said, she doesn’t always listen (do any four-year-olds?), and she has her difficult moments. “Stop doing that!” “You’re a bad guy,” or “I’m not going to be your friend!” she’ll yell out when particularly upset. There are times, too, when she reminds me of a teen-ager: “Fine!” she’ll say or “I already told you!” I’m not a huge fan of her outbursts, but earlier this fall, she had a tantrum-y moment that actually made me laugh: She was acting out and I commented to her, “Oh, I get it – you’re tired.” “No, I’m not tired! You don’t get it!” she yelled back at me.

Speaking of bad moods, we’ve had our ups and downs with bedtime; luckily, we’re in good phase right now. For many, many months she wouldn’t go to bed before hearing a book, a story and a song, but we slowly got her out of that (rigid) routine. (Now she’s more flexible about what is being done at bedtime, and who puts her to bed.) She also started sleeping with her stuffed hippopotamus, who took the place of her past bedtime partners – her brown dog, panda, and white bear. (And, interestingly, she likes to pretend that the hippo’s gender changes. “Today he’s a boy but tomorrow he’s a girl,” she’ll tell me.)

There have been two big developments since her last update: She has practically given up her nap (she’ll nap maybe one or two times a week), and she’s in a new class at preschool. She went from being one of the oldest to one of the youngest in her class, but the transition has been fairly smooth. She has made a few new friends, and she picks up new things (words, stories, ideas, etc.) a lot faster than she did last year. Whenever she tells us something new and we ask where she learned it, she’ll say “My own self,” or “My mind” – which makes me laugh.

A few random things: She recently started calling people “silly” a lot. (“That’s not right, silly,” she’ll say.) She’s very into secrets; “Don’t tell Daddy, but…” she’ll say before whispering something in my ear. She calls the weekends “Family Time.” Since meeting her cousins at Dan and Jenny’s wedding, she’s been talking about them non-stop. Starting a few weeks ago (totally out of the blue), she began insisting that she pick out her own clothes each day. (Lucky for us, given what’s in her wardrobe, her favorite colors remain pink and purple.)

And a few stories: Watching me put on my contacts one day, Zoe said, “When I grow up I want to put those ‘tings’ in my eyes, too.” When she was sick a few weeks ago, I slept on her bedroom floor; when she woke up and saw my lying there, the first thing she said was, “I love you.” Around the same time she was “reading” a Disney book to me. One side was Beauty and the Beast and the other was Cinderella, and she asked, “Do you want the story about the girl and the hippopotamus, or the girl dancing with Daddy?”

-M

On the way home from school this afternoon, I asked Zoe if she was excited for her birthday tomorrow. She was. When I asked what she was going to do, she said, “When I wake up in the morning, the first thing I’m doing to do is draw a heart.” Thinking that was a curious answer, I asked her why and was told it was because she didn’t know how to draw one today. Ah. “But you’ll be able to do it tomorrow, when you’re four?” I asked. “Yes,” she replied.

The power of four!

-M

Zoe’s birthday is fast approaching, and she and the other November birthdays were honored at school on Friday. I was there to join in the singing of Happy Birthday/Yom Holedet Sameach, and to take a few pics.

-M

I wrote not long ago that it seems like we have a different girl at home. Indeed, Avery is more bubbly, energetic and curious than ever.

She’s really fun to be around. She almost always has a smile on her face and, like mentioned recently, she often enters a room with a happy “hi-yee.” She also started running up to people with unsolicited hugs recently; just before typing this, for example, she saw Q in the kitchen and ran up to him with a “Dad-dee” and a big squeeze to his legs.

I still wouldn’t call her a big talker, but she has a bunch of new words in her vocabulary. The most common ones: “hi,” “no, no, no,” “bye,” and “good night” – with the latter two always accompanied by a big wave. (She understands when we’re about to leave in the morning or heading to bed, and she’ll wave and give a huge smile to whomever she’s leaving behind.) And she still says “thank you” (which comes out as “duh-duh”) when we hand her something.

Even when not talking, she’s really good at getting across what she wants – by pointing, shaking her head, leading us to an object of interest or saying “hummm” or “mummm” (her way of saying “mine,” I guess). And she continues to understand and follow certain directives. Just yesterday she put my pajamas in the hamper after being asked, and she recently ran into her bedroom and grabbed her box of wipes when I said she needed to be changed.

Up until a few days ago, if I asked Avery where her nose was, she would point to my nose and laugh. But she surprised me and actually pointed to hers just yesterday. She knows her belly button, too; now we have to work on other body parts!

In terms of favorite activities, she still likes playing with her tea set and her sister’s kitchen toys. She also enjoys a refrigerator magnet set that plays the ABCs; because of it (and perhaps the fact that I sing that and Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star to her every night), she’s often singing the alphabet song. And she’s surprisingly in tune!

Avery spends a lot of time sitting at the table at her room, pretending to eat, and she also recently started to stand on the chairs. (It’s a real no-no and she knows it; she always shoots me a mischievous I’m-not-supposed-to-be-doing-this look and smile.) She likes climbing on other things, too – like the couch, the bathroom stool and Zoe’s bed. She also likes going through the house and closing doors and playing peek-a-boo through the window between our room and hers.

As mentioned earlier, she’s becoming more and more interactive – and loving – with her sister. She now often goes up to her sister for hugs and kisses, comforts her when she’s upset about something, and brings Zoe’s stuffed hippo or blanket to her when she sees them lying around.

She’s still a bit shy/tentative around new people – or people she hasn’t seen in awhile – but it seems like that’s slowly changing. She had no problem being with new people on Halloween, for example, and she has warmed up to some people she sees fairly regularly. (“Oh, she gave me a smile!” one of the teachers at Zoe’s school, who sees Avery several times a week, recently said.)

Within the last month, she went from two naps to one at home. (She hasn’t slept in the morning at Elena’s for months). She’ll now go to sleep anywhere between 11:30 and 1:30 and sleep from 1-3 hours, and she goes down for the night at 7. (It doesn’t take much to get her to sleep – usually just a bounce and a song or two.)

As for physical stuff, her description is the exact same as Zoe’s at this age:

Her hair is getting curlier, her eyes remain a blue-ish grey… and she looks more like a little girl each day.

Showers are in tomorrow’s forecast, but there’s one person who won’t mind. Zoe recently got new raingear, and she relishes the opportunity to wear it around!

-M

The older Zoe gets (four next week!), the more girl-bonding the two of us seem to do. After her swim class on Sunday, for example, we grabbed brunch together (her: bagel and cream cheese, me: breakfast burrito and chai), went shoe-shopping (she helped me choose among two pairs of boots) and then stopped at a farmer’s market before heading home. It was pretty much the perfect morning (it didn’t hurt that it was so warm and sunny out), and Zoe felt more like a little friend than a daughter.

I never really day-dreamed about having a daughter (I wasn’t, after all, even sure I wanted kids!), but if I had, I know that Sunday was exactly what I would have pictured.

-M

A few weeks ago it was Zoe who was sick; tonight it was Avery’s turn to feel under the weather. The only good thing about having a not-well baby? Being able to snuggle with her.

-M

It’s unseasonably warm here (77 degrees in the city!), and we dressed both girls in summery attire today. As I struggled to zip the back of Avery’s dress, it occurred to me that this would be the last time she’d wear it – and I figured it was a good time to take a “good-bye” picture. (I’ve always liked her in this outfit.) I’m not too sad about it, though; Zoe had the dress in a larger size – so Avery will get to wear it again some day!

-M