Five-and-a-half-year update
Little kids, I discovered some time ago, are really into the quarter- and half-year marks, and so Zoe’s very proud that she is officially 5.5! (“Aren’t you going to wish me Happy Half-Birthday?” was the first thing she asked me this morning.) I’ll use a few categories to summarize what she’s like these days…
Interests: Zoe loves playing make-believe games and is especially fond of playing school, doctor’s office and swim class. (She’s usually the teacher/doctor, and Avery, Hippo and I are the students/patients.) She likes setting up elaborate birthday parties – usually for Hippo – and inviting the whole family to join. She loves doing crafts: She’s often sitting at her little table coming up with some sort of new project to work on. She likes drawing and cutting and generally creating; her teachers say at school she’s very fond of (and good at) sewing. She recently became very into Star Wars – she has spent hours poring over books about the various characters, and she has already asked to be Darth Vader for the next Halloween and Purim. (She also has a Star Wars calendar hung up near her bed.) She is very into math – I recently bought her a sparkly purple calculator –and we often do addition and subtraction flash cards together. She’s always been a fan of school, and she has said numerous times that she wants to learn Hebrew and Spanish (the two languages they offer) when she heads to elementary school later this year.
Temperament: Zoe remains a (relatively) mellow, independent and mature girl. She’s totally the big sister: the one who plays by the rules and tries to do the “right†thing. She gets frustrated with Avery at times but is for the most part extremely patient and caring. (She has put her sister to bed or down for a nap on occasion, and the girls often play a game in which Zoe is Avery’s mom and she takes care of her.) She often looks out for Avery, and she has been very helpful with her sister’s speech issues – often translating for her (“Mom – she said she wants the scissors,†she told me just yesterday morning) and helping her with her words. Zoe can be grumpy and she has the occasional meltdown – but it’s usually when she’s tired and she can usually be calmed down. And she has been known to calm me down, too – reminding me, for example, to not get upset over traffic in the car. “Try to think of bad words in your head and not say them out loud,†she told me recently. “Or think of something that makes you happy. Like me, as a baby.†At the same time, she can also be very silly and bouncy – like when she’s dancing around, playing “Monster” or singing along to her Justin Bieber toothbrush.
Other stuff: Hippo has got some competition: Q recently won Zoe a stuffed purple elephant, and Zoe is now very attached to “Luna.” (She actually took her to school today for “share time.”) While she took the occasional weekend nap as recently as a few months ago, her napping days are now well behind her. Her bedtime routine continues to be pretty mellow: She watches a show (it was Imagination Movers for a long time; over the last few months Dinosaur Train and, more recently, Doc McStuffins have become her favorites), then gets a kiss and some water (and usually a book) from one of us. She had her first sleepover last month! (And she’s having another tonight.) She is still planning to marry Leo (her friend from way back in her first year of preschool) and just the other day she said she is going to stay in San Francisco forever – but if she leaves, it will be for Phoenix.
-M