More Words

Dear Zoe,

Daddy and I are now jotting down words and things on a notepad on the fridge whenever something strikes us... or when we remember something you've done in the past. It is just so fun to experience new things with you.

When something has been too hard for you to pick up you've always made sure to show us how you struggle. Exaggerating your lift and grunting, even if you were only pretending to try so hard. Now you've added the word heavy... only you say "heaby". You'll pull and pull, then look at us and just say "oh, heaby" and keep trying until we help.

Along with "heaby" you also learned to say "reach it". You do your same struggle... but with arms in the sky. Usually it's about something on a high shelf, or the kitchen counter. Anything too high for you to get. You just stretch and stretch and finally say "reach it, reach it". I have a very hard time not giving you something when you make such an effort. Luckily it's usually something of yours that you want.

Grammy recently gave you some stickers. Oh were they fun. You were so excited and told everyone who would listen "my stee-kahs". Now I just love to give you sheets of stickers so I can hear you say "yeah, stee-kahs!"

A favorite "game" of yours has been to pretend to sleep. The first time you did it you were on Daddy's and my bed. You put your head on the pillow, motioned for help with the covers, looked at me and said "sleepies" and closed your eyes and started to snore. It was so funny. It made you giggle so much when I did "sleepies" with you. Since that first time it has become a rather regular game. Sometimes on our bed, sometimes on the couch with a pillow and blanket. Sometimes in random places. Always you will announce "sleepies" and then close your eyes and snore. You also expect us to join you. We have to lay down, pull up the covers, close our eyes, and snore. At that point you'll always yell "ee up Mommy!" or "ee up Daddy!" Your version of "get up!"

The newest thing you do to me is ask if you should eat something. You'll hold up whatever it is and ask "Eat it?" And then you wait for my response. Usually whatever you find is food. Something you've had for snack. A cheerio, a golf fish, a piece of cracker. You're pretty good about responding to my answer too. I'll say "yes" if it's something you just ate... and you pop it in your mouth. I'll say "no" if I have no idea how old or where something came from. When I say "no" I'll usually offer you something else and you accept it as a fair trade. Occasionally you're not too happy about giving something up though. The most recent "eat it?" upset was a boogie (eeww). Finger in the nose, boogie out. You looked at it, looked at me and asked "eat it?" I guess you expected a "yes"... because when I said "no" and took it with a tissue you had a regular meltdown. I have to say, I was quite impressed that at 23 months old you thought to ask before just popping it in your mouth (again, eeww)!

Love you bunches,
Mommy