Another month – and more changes. One of the biggest areas of development, as mentioned here before, is language. Zoe is constantly saying new words, repeating things she hears us saying, and uttering multiple-phrase sentences, like “Mommy purse” and “Daddy bye-bye.” When we ask her if she wants to do something (e.g. “Who wants a snack?”) it’s now customary for her for raise her hand and say “I do!” And one of her favorite words these days is “more” (pronounces like “mawww”) – which she says when she wants me to re-read a book or Q to play another game with her.

Speaking of playing, some of Zoe’s favorite activities are pushing along her baby stroller, playing with her little animal figurines, walking around in my or Q’s shoes, and jumping on our bed while singing “Ten Little Monkeys.” (This is also a favorite song for her to listen to in the car; as soon as I buckle her in, she usually says “mon-key” until I put on the CD.) She still loves books; some of her current favorites are those from the “Bright and Early Books” series – like The Eye Book, The Ear Book and (her most beloved) The Foot Book. (My mom saved these books from when my sister and I were little, so it makes me especially happy to see how much Zoe likes them.)

Zoe can walk up stairs on her own at this point (down is a different story, I think), and is able to get up and down furniture without incident. She’s often climbing on her little step-stool to look at her goldfish, and she loves feeding them their “cookies.”

Although we’re not pushing the toilet-training issue, Zoe has had some recent success with her new potty. (Might a life without diapers be within our grasp??)

This isn’t exactly new, but Zoe has been exhibiting some “terrible twos” behavior. A few days ago, for example, she was having so much fun “feeding” her little baby at Elena’s that she didn’t want to leave – and she cried and squirmed until Elena finally let her take the bottle home. Zoe is also known to get upset if her snacks aren’t served just right: one day she stomped her feet and pouted and refused to accept the half-piece of cheese I had given her – because she wanted an intact slice. She has also gotten angry in the past when her breakfast bar was broken. (I try putting the pieces together and explaining to her that they taste the same even broken, but there is no reasoning with her.) And as I’ve mentioned here before, we’ve been hearing an awful lot of the word “no” from her.

A few other random comments/stories:

-Zoe’s current food-obsession is goldfish; she’s constantly running up to us and asking for “fishies.”
-Her favorite song to sing (this month, anyway) is “Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star.”
-The morning after returning home from our recent trip, I asked Zoe, “who are we going to see today?” and she said, “Elena!”
-Q was sitting with Zoe one day and scratched his head; she promptly reached out her hand to scratch him in the same spot.
-A few nights ago, without prompting, Zoe started rubbing my toes and saying “tickle, tickle.” And last night, when she saw a red spot on my foot, she leaned down to kiss it. (She thought I was hurt, and she’s used to us kissing her when she gets a bump, scrape, etc.)

-M

This entry was posted on Saturday, August 23rd, 2008 at 7:00 am and is filed under 25.Twenty-one to 22 mos. 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.