Something to place in the hard-to-believe category: Zoe is six years old today! A lot has happened in the last six months, with the biggest being her saying good-bye to preschool and hello to kindergarten. Here’s a bit more about what she’s like now.

Interests: Just like at her last update, Zoe loves playing make-believe games – particularly school and doctor’s office. Her new thing is to play PE (I love that she loves gym class) or pretend she’s Mr. Ferris, her kindergarten teacher. She loves performing, doing science experiments and also arts-and-crafts activities like drawing, painting, creating things out of scrap materials, and hand-stitching little things at school. She has been asking for a sewing machine for some time – so as a surprise, we got her a little one for her birthday. (Shhhh, she hasn’t opened it yet.) She still loves Star Wars (hence the recent themed birthday party), and she has gotten very into making Star Wars figures with LEGOS. Of course many of her activities, at least those at home, involve her sister.

School life: Her adjustment to kindergarten was fairly smooth – perhaps because she was already familiar with the building (which is attached to the preschool) and/or many of the kids that go there with her (1/3 of the incoming kindergarteners are from her old school). I’m convinced that her experience at summer camp also helped instill her with some pre-kindergarten confidence. Her best buddy remains Zachary, but she has developed new friendships as well. (The other day, we got an e-mail from the mom of a boy in her class asking if we could set up a playdate – because her son talks about her all the time. That made me so happy!) She really loves (real) school and is constantly coming home telling us stories or spitting out words she learned in class. She is showing a greater interest in reading and can read/spell more words (especially “sight words”) than ever before. The other day she asked if she could get a “word board” in her bedroom (like at school), and I was so proud when she wrote “Fenics” for Phoenix earlier this week. Her teachers have been working with the kids on sounding out words, and she did this one her own. Not perfect, but close!

Temperament: We sometimes call Zoe “Little Mommy,” because she is fairly responsible for her age and is often nurturing and looking out for others. (The other night I was sad about something and she ran over to ask if I was okay, and she also instructed Avery to come give me a hug. And then there’s that card she made for me a few months ago.) She sometimes says things that I do and she seems to share some of my characteristics – which was evident a few weeks ago when she came home from school and said she wanted to pack her lunch and pick out her clothes for the next day. “I just want to be really efficient – in case we don’t have much time in the morning,” she told me. While her mellow ways continue, she does still have the occasional meltdown – usually when overtired – and she can be sassy at times. She sometimes ignores me when I ask her to do something, which can lead to unpleasant exchanges between the two of us. And I should point out that though it’s easy to forget, she is still very much a little girl in need of TLC. She’s so tired after school on some days that she throws her arms around my waist and tells me, “I want Mommy.” And she still often wants to hear the “Good Night” song that I’ve been singing to her since she was a baby.

Other stuff: After months (more than a year?) of asking for a short hair cut, she finally got one – and we all love it! We took a break from swim class when she started school, but she has really gotten quite good in the pool. She is nuts about her new cousin Isaac; the other day when we were out and about and he was at our house she must have asked 10 times if we were going to be home in time to see him. (We were.) She loves her fish Talia and is often inquiring about when we might get another pet; she wants a dog. She remains tall for her age; as of a few months ago she was 55 pounds and just over 48 inches. The bad thing about the latter? She’s now too tall to go to one of her favorite spots, Hop-n-Play. (sigh) Because of her age and her temperament she often feels like a little girlfriend to me, and we both enjoy our adventures together. After we spent the day hanging out and shopping with Angela recently, Zoe told her, “I had the best day ever!”

-M

This entry was posted on Friday, November 23rd, 2012 at 11:00 am and is filed under 77.Two kids-November 12. 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.