2. She has added "Show you" to her "Come here" and hand gesture.
3. Whenever I ask her, "What did you do today?", no matter what we actually did, she says, "Ani, Akes (Alex), and Vanessa." Ani and Alex are her buddies and Vanessa is their mommy - my buddy. Yesterday, she also started talking about Ani's face-painting - which in fact happened over a month ago, but was very traumatizing for Zoe. She mentioned that Ani (who is older than Zoe; she just turned four) got her face painted, that they looked at it in the mirror, that it was flowers, and that it hurt Ani. I have been trying to convince her for this entire month that it did not, in fact, hurt Ani, and that Ani wanted her face to be painted, but I don't think I'm getting anywhere.
4. She calls (and has called for many months now) her magna-doodle-thing her "idea." Which is a good name for it.
5. She's full of complimentary speech lately. When Jason finishes vacuuming, she says, "Good job, Daddy," or "Nice job cleaning." She also tells me I've done a good job of various things - putting on her diaper, preparing her Cheerios and milk. She follows up suggested (by me or her) activities with "That'd be fun," or "Let's do that." When she mentions seeing Daddy, she always includes the phrase, "So happy to see you."
6. When she was missing Daddy the last few days, she spoke about sharing a pop with him. "We'll see Daddy tomorrow, Zoe." "See him? Share pop? Share green pop with Daddy?"
7. She played Curious George games on the computer with her Zeyda on Monday, and then on Wednesday, asked to play again. "Play Zeyda? Curious George on computer? Play nicely?" She also observed that Esmerelda and Quasimodo on the cover of her Hunchback of Notre Dame book were "sharing nicely."
8. She identified a coloring book picture of Esmerelda as me. :-) She also, about a month or so ago, identified the picture of Snow White on the cover of a coloring book as Grandma Lisa.
9. She LOVES the over-the-top girly things that her grandfather and her Zii Tara (her Zii Tara who chose Zii because it felt more gender-neutral) buy her.
10. She continues to say of various clothing items, "Oh, cute," and "Beau-ful dress!" She and I shared an Elle magazine today; quite a momentous occasion. She expressed extremely strong opinions on various items of clothing, good and bad, and not always but sometimes in agreement with my opinions. (In other words, she was neither agreeing with me blindly nor just saying "No" for the sake of it.) She also pointed to a drawing of a woman in a hair ad and said, "Beau-ful woman."
10a. Aunt Kate tells me that when she had Zoe helping her pick out an outfit for work, Zoe rejected a skirt of hers that I, also, do not like.
11. She does say "No" a lot now, in this very dramatic fashion, a very long, "Noooo!" with her head bent forward and her lips in a big pout.
12. When she likes something you've suggested, she says, "Oh, yeeeeaaaaah," or "Ummmmmmm . . . . sure!"
13. All the dancing and jumping she does is so damn cute I can't even explain.
14. She says, "Good girl" to dogs (even male dogs) and humans.
15. Friday night, when we got in to Newark at 1:30 in the morning, she was asleep on my shoulder. When we tried to put her in the car seat, she wailed and wailed and wailed for about five minutes, and then suddenly looked up and said, "I see moon?" Then she jabbered happily for the whole way home about the moon and other things she could see. (Then she jumped on the beds when we got home, and stayed up until 3-f-ing-30 in the morning. Which means so did I. One day, I'll be sad when all she does is sleep all day and not hang out with me, right?)
16. This is a little sweet and a little sad - a few times this weekend, she's thrown absolute fits at being put in the car. When I finally get her in, I put my hand on her cheek to comfort her. This is having an increasingly quick effect. She even sometimes holds my hand there, to keep it in place. The first time I noticed she really liked it was when I did try to take my hand away, and she grabbed it and put it back. Then I noticed when she got nervous on the Ferris wheel on Saturday (she does not really like rides yet) that she was holding her own hand to her cheek to comfort herself.
17. She's using the words "gibbous" and "crescent" to describe the moon. Not always accurately, but still, that's awesome.
18. When we disagree on a point - like whether the moon is gibbous or crescent, or whether the shirt is orange or purple, or whether Sparky is a boy or a girl, she is quite adamant in her opinions and does not back down. You say willful and stubborn, I say strong-minded and confident.
19. She LOVED her first sight of the ocean. She was cautious at first, but very, very interested, and soon was having a ball, splashing around, pointing at the waves and shouting, "You! You! You!" and being tossed up and down over the waves by her Aunt Kate. Also she enjoyed throwing sand on her Aunt Kate.
20. I knew she was a Jersey girl at heart - she ate better pizza in Ocean City than I've ever seen her eat anything before, and she was very eager for it even before she got her share. Also, she has a shirt that says "Jersey Girls don't pump gas!" and she insisted on keeping her "Jersey Girl" shirt on for quite a while. (She also insisted on keeping this casino bead necklace on much of the last few days.)
21. For a not-yet-two-year-old, she's really doing well with "Please," "Thank you" (or "Thanks") and "Your welcome." I think I've even heard an "Excuse me."
22. Of course she's got the concept of "My turn!" and "For Zoe!" pretty down, too. And she's started being picky about what foods are in what location on her plate.
23. Even when she's watching a movie or something, she looks so intent and interested. I rarely see that slack-jawed absorbing-mindless-media look in her face; she's always studying, responding, and commenting on what she sees.
I could go on all night. What am I supposed to do? She is the cutest, sweetest, smartest, most awesome baby ever.
