Things Zoe Does That Are Cute

First of all, I think we can add "Don't touch!" and "Thank you!" to the list. And I think we may have successfully changed "Shit" to "Shoot." Which could be a whole post in and of itself, about how I don't want to be the kind of mother who cares if my daughter uses curse words, but I also don't want to be the kind of mother that gets a reputation in the kindergarten for teaching her daughter to curse. But that's neither here nor there.

And now, for posterity . . .

Zoe makes out with me. I'm serious. She puts her mouth on mine for several seconds at a time, and sometimes moves her head back and forth. It's pretty funny.

Zoe plays "Mine!" It seemed that it would be foolish of me, when I noticed that during a play date she was grabbing things out of the other children's hands and saying, "Me!" to first teach her that it's "Mine," not "Me," and second, to engage her in a game wherein she grabs a book or something of mine and says, "Mine!" so I grab it back and say "Mine!" and we do this for a little while. But I think it was not foolish. For one thing, I did not encourage her to do this with her friends here; at that point, I instructed her to share. For another, she now almost exclusively does this as a game with me, and means to do it as a game. She sort of wants the book, but mostly she wants to grab it back and forth with me. How do I know? Because she keeps doing it - once she has the book, she again declares "Mine," and then holds it so that I can easily grab it back. And she's almost entirely stopped doing this with objects we genuinely don't want her to have, like the remote, because it doesn't produce the game - if she grabs it and says, "Mine!" we grab it back and say, "No, it isn't," and put it out of her reach.

Zoe loves her sleeping Daddy. When Daddy is asleep, Zoe climbs on top of him and gives him lots of kisses. Sometimes, she gives his arm or back or head long, gentle pats and says "Nice!" Sometimes she cuddles up into his arm and rests her head on her shoulder. Okay, so sometimes she starts smacking him and pulling at the hair on his head, arms, and legs. But the other stuff is pretty adorable.

Zoe reads like we do. She'll take a book, either one of hers or one of mine, and sit on the chair or couch, not on our laps, like a big girl, open it, and start "reading" - babbling and pointing to the words like she knows. Or she'll just silently examine the pages and flip through them carefully - even if it's one of my books, with no pictures. If she does this in bed, she'll also pull the covers up over her legs and make herself extra-comfy against the pillows.

Zoe blows raspberries on our bellies. She's been doing this for a long time now, maybe eight or nine months. It's even cuter now because she says "Belly!" and then does it.

Zoe announces when she's going to hurt me. You may have read in my previous post that she says "Oof" and "Ow." It should be noted that she does not say these things when she is hurt. She does these things when she's about to hurt me. She says "Ow!" when she's about to pinch me or pull my hair, and "Oof" when she's about to jump on top of me. Let it never be said the girl doesn't understand context.

Zoe likes to help. As I said before, she likes to wipe up her messes. She also likes to sweep and swiffer (but not vacuum, understandably). And she likes to do things for us that we ordinarily do for her. Like brush our teeth or our hair. Or feed us. I can barely get through a meal these days without her grabbing my fork and directing my food into my mouth. Oh, and she also helps make the bed by tucking the sheets in. And, as many of you know, she helped me cook for Thanksgiving by throwing spinach in the pot and then stirring it with the wooden spoon. She also helpfully shouts "No!" and "Down!" at Beaches.

Zoe likes to call her "Uh Mo." This whole week, she's been picking up the phone, handing it to us, and demanding "Uh Mo." Today when we called him, she then snatched the phone from me and walked around with it up to her ear, telling him very important things that, sadly, only she understands.

Zoe remembers. Yesterday when we went to the doctor's office, she started screaming the minute we entered the room. Then again when Jay (the guy who gives the shots) entered the room. It was awful. But, less awfully and more adorably, last week at Hebrew School, we went outside to say hello to Dr. Levin, who is the mother of one of my kids. While we were out there, a doggie passed by and Zoe got very excited and made many comments about the presence of a doggie. Later, when we went out to walk to our car, we passed by the same spot, where there was no longer a doggie, but she pointed to the spot and said "Doggie!" and went through her usual panting and woofing routine.

Well, that's just a smattering of adorable things she does. I'll try to keep updating this.