Zoe kicked off the holiday by hosting a little Halloween party this morning. She and her friends ran around, showed off their costumes, and even did a little early-day trick-or-treating. Here are a few pics.

-M

I came across a New York Times blog entry on Daylight Saving Time yesterday, and it made me laugh. Referring to the “falling back” of the clocks, the blogger wrote, “I [used to] look forward to it all year, and distinctly remember my horror during my first changeover as a new parent, when my gift turned on me.” She went on to explain that for most adults, switching back to standard time means an extra hour of sleep. But for a parent, he/she is bound to hear very early in the morning “the sounds of a wide awake young one in the other room. Instead of an extra hour of sleep, parents of young children get an hour less. The clock says 5 a.m., the baby says ‘woohoo, it feels like 6!’ Then, in the evening, they start sleepily fussing a full hour before it is time to go to bed.”

Though a wonderful thing in general, parenting definitely takes some things away from you – and the enjoyment of the fall-back is one of them! I know I’ll be thinking of this on Sun. morning, when a little girl starts talking around 5 or 5:30 AM. (Yawn.)

-M

I didn’t mention earlier that Zoe experienced another first on Saturday: face painting! We stopped at a little Halloween carnival in West Portal on our way home from the UCSF party, and they were offering face painting for kids. Zoe chose a little flower for her cheek, and her grandpa later snapped a photo of the results.

-M

It was a busy Saturday for “Princess” Zoe and the family. We first played around at a pumpkin patch near our house, then headed to a Halloween party/patient reunion at UCSF, where Zoe decorated pumpkins, made crafts, played games – and won lots of prizes. That night, Q and I went to a wedding, and Zoe got to stay home and play more with Grandma and Grandpa. I wound up getting sick on Sunday, but it was certainly a fun start of the weekend!

-M

Zoe’s Grandma and Grandpa arrived from Madison last night, and Zoe got to spend the whole day with them. Among the items on their itinerary: enjoying the tent with Grandma, running around the house with Grandpa and playing in the backyard. Here are a few pics.

-M

I recently made Zoe’s two-year appointment at the doctor’s, and I told the receptionist that I couldn’t believe I was doing it. How can Zoe be close to two already?!

I guess I shouldn’t be that surprised about Zoe’s age, because she continues acting more and more like a big girl each month. She can say more things than ever before, and she has a greater awareness of things around her. She now understands the concept of self; she started answering “Zoe” when asked “What’s your name?” about a month ago. (And now she often points to herself, Q and me and says, “Zoe, Daddy, Mommy” – just in case we’ve forgotten who we are.) She now says “yes” (instead of just “yeh”) and the word “sure,” so it’s now common for her to say, “Yes, sure!” when asked to do something. She recently said “fun!” (when doing something enjoyable) for the first time, and she also says “funny” when something makes her laugh. And she’s getting better at telling us how she’s feeling/what she needs; just the other night, when she was sick, she was able to tell me, “My tummy hurts.”

Although she makes a few stumbles, she can almost count 1-10 on her own. She also almost has the alphabet down; for the past week or so she has spent lots of time singing that song and also “Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star.”

Although she’s known colors for awhile, she used a color as an adjective (“pink hat,” she pointed out) for the first time a few weeks ago. She also continues pointing out objects (e.g. “Daddy’s shoe”), and she has started to identify location (e.g. “It’s up there”). Just last week, when playing with my necklace, she said, “I like it” – which marked the first time she used the word “I.” She also said one night, “Daddy coming,” which was the first time she used that tense of a verb.

As mentioned last month, she’s getting more sophisticated at remembering things. We recently started playing a new game where we count how many “doggies” and “choo-choos” we see on our way to and from Elena’s. After only a day or two, Zoe got in her carseat and said, “Doggies and choo-choos, Mommy” (knowing what we were about to count). And she is able to report to her dad what we saw – e.g. “two doggies” – later that day.

When it comes to play, Zoe still likes to color, run around the house with her baby stroller, change the diapers of her dolls and stuffed animals, and play music on various instruments. At the playground, she loves to climb on the structures and go down the slide. And playing in the sand is still a favorite activity.

Zoe, like other little kids, still has her quirks. Among them: she’ll only drink her milk warm (30 seconds in the microwave). She still has a love for wet washcloths and wipes, and she often carries them around the house and wipes off things. And, strangely, she gets upset whenever I put my hair back in a ponytail in the morning. Without fail, she runs into the bathroom, says “off, off, off” and pulls out whatever is in my hair.

I’ve felt bad in the past that Zoe wasn’t as affectionate as I assumed other kids were. That’s all changed lately, though, as Zoe is constantly running up to us and giving big hugs and kisses. We also recently taught her to “butterfly” kiss and “eskimo” kiss, which she really loves.

Though she has her “terrible (almost) two” flare-ups, she’s usually pretty cheerful – constantly bouncing and jumping and laughing. And she’s always making us smile. A recent funny story: I was hugging Zoe when she pointed to my chin, made a very serious face and said “Mommy boo-boo?” She was referring to a pimple that had recently developed, and I couldn’t help but laugh. (Thanks for pointing it out, Zoe!)

-M

The pictures below never made it on the site, and I thought they were good ones to share. Zoe seems to do her best posing when she’s wearing white!

-M

Zoe got bit by a little stomach bug last night. (She’s not 100%, but she’s doing a lot better today.) It’s never fun when your kid is sick, but on the plus side, it usually leads to lots of snuggling and quiet moments. Here are Zoe and Q sharing one such moment.

-M

We took the Muni yesterday afternoon, and during our ride we struck up a conversation with a friendly four-year-old girl. She was standing next to Zoe (well, smooshed up against her actually; it was a packed train) and at one point looked up at me and said, “She’s cute.” She then asked all sorts of questions about Zoe, and the two of them played together for the next four or five stops. When the train reached West Portal, we said our good-byes to the girl, who proceeded to smile and wave at us as the train rolled out of the station and down the street. Tears sprang to my eyes as we waved back and watched the tiny face pressed up against the window; I couldn’t help but think of how sweet and innocent little kids are. This young girl will probably never see Zoe again, but she said good-bye as if they were lifelong friends – and it was just such a sweet gesture. She’s probably long since forgotten Zoe, but I don’t think I’ll forget her.

-M

Today, the three of us met friends downtown at the San Francisco Family Fest. (It was the perfect weather for this kind of thing: sunny and about 70 degrees.) Zoe did lots of running around and playing and also got to color, make crafts and rock-climb (probably her favorite thing). Other highlights: meeting a very tall man and dancing on-stage with the Alphabet Rockers! We’ll have to head back next year, for sure.

-M

Zoe has been doing a lot of singing lately, and her two favorite tunes are the Alphabet Song and Twinkle Twinkle Little Star. The other day, while lounging around, she sang a bit of a hybrid – and I grabbed the camera. Check her out below.

-M

Like a lot of other kids, Zoe showed an early interest in laundry. Lately, though, she’s been expressing a fondness for the laundry basket; one of her favorite things to do is climb in the basket and pretend it’s a boat or train. (It’s become a good excuse for us to sing “Row, row, row the boat.”) Check her out in all her basket-glory below.

-M

For the past two mornings we’ve gotten a 4:45 AM wake-up call in the form of Zoe’s cries. I’m not sure what was bothering her (teeth? tummy? other?); I just know that she didn’t want to be in her crib, and she didn’t want to be alone. Yesterday the two of us were able to get a bit of sleep by lying together on the floor, but this morning was trickier. My rocking/bouncing/singing efforts weren’t initially successful, and I felt myself become increasingly stressed as her big eyes stayed wide open. (She’s never going to fall asleep! She’ll be so crabby today! I’m going have a terrible day because I’m so tired!) Eventually, though, Zoe’s eyes did close, and something occurred to me as I sat rocking in the dark: getting to hold your daughter, while listening to the (sweet) sounds of her breathing, is really not the worst thing in the world. I might be tired today, but at least I got some quiet, sweet moments out of it.

(But with that said, I do hope she sleeps well tonight!)

-M

It’s not often that Daddy gets to spend the day with Zoe all by himself, but yesterday was one of those days. Zoe and I had the day off for Columbus Day, but Mommy had to go into work. We spent the morning getting ready and having breakfast. Then Zoe hopped in the stroller and we went off to the “choo choo” (or the Muni). Zoe loves watching the Munis drive by and rarely gets to go on one. We took the L Muni to the end of the line and made our way to the zoo! Zoe ran around, watched grizzlies eat fish, monkeys get fed, giraffe’s snack on branches, and penguins swim around. The best part was that halfway through, her uncle Dan showed up since he also had the day off! Needless to say, Zoe was pretty worn out and slept for close to 3 hours (her normal nap is 1.5 hours). Afterwards, she ran around the house with Uncle Dan and waited for Mommy to come home.

I know she had a good time because today she woke up talking about monkeys, giraffes and penguins. She’s also been sticking out her tongue like the giraffe did. Check out the pictures below…

Jon Q

Waiting for the grizzlies to eat:

Look, they’re pink too!

That’s a big tongue:

Faster, faster…

Swan rides:

Getting a ride from Uncle Dan at the petting zoo:

Spider Girl:

Every morning when I was little, my mom would stand at our family-room window and wave to me and my sister as we headed off to school with my dad. I’ve been reminded of this a lot lately, since I’m now the one doing the waving. Q takes Zoe to Elena’s every Tuesday (my telecommute day), and I always wave down from our window as they zoom away. Zoe started waving back about a month ago (at first, she would just sort of stare up at me), and seeing her little hand and big smile is a really sweet way to start the morning.

-M