February 2010

Dear Zoe,

I am so proud of you. I got you some snowpants in the fall because playing in the snow is one of life's greatest pleasures as a child. I made the mistake of trying to get you to put them on when you were on the crabby side one day and you decided that snowpants suck. In some ways I guess they do, but without them you are LOST.

Michael Holloway sent me a cartoon about this very thing:



Anyway, you refused to wear the snowpants for quite some time. I would try and get you to come out with me and Josie and Jack but you would stand in the doorway and freak out because you wanted to come out but would not put your snowpants on.

Somehow, I convinced you to put them on (this probably involved bribery - but I'm not above the stuff) and voila! You LOVE them. You even wear them inside the house sometimes. I don't care so much about that - however I do care that we played outside in the snow the other day for HOURS. We built a snowperson (that is what we call them in this family - don't even try for 'snowman'), we made snow angels and did some sledding. You were in total snow heaven with your tiny little snowpants on.








In other news, you have picked up some hilarious phrases. You say things like, "Oh my god! That's weird." and "It's probly in my room." When I asked you when something will happen you usually say, "At 2:45."

We frequently have exchanges like this:

You: "Mama, you want my 'nana?" (banana)
Me: "No, thanks."
You: "You HAVE TO WANT IT."

That is so Bauer-Greene. We love to try and MAKE people want things they may or may not want. It is TOTALLY FUTILE, but it's sort of fun to try. So keep it up, it makes me laugh.

When your uncle Colin was little and nursing he used to say, "Nurse-side other side" when he wanted to switch sides. You used to say, "Lulla bit, please." (for 'other breast, please - I think) Then you started saying, "Other switch, please." Now you hilariously just say, "I want THAT ONE" or "That side please!" It's cute and you're always very polite.

You have gotten very into watching TV, which has its advantages and disadvantages, obviously. You watch Dora and Kai-Lan so you are learning words in Spanish and Chinese. I can help you with the Spanish, but the Chinese is lost on me. Grandpa in Chinese is "Ye Ye" - which sounds remarkably similar to Lil Jon saying "YEAH!" (if you don't know what I'm talking about, google it - you'll understand). I'm only going to be steering you in the wrong direction, my love, and for that I apologize.

You don't seem to understand that you can't just watch TV all the time or whenever you want. If I say no, you absolutely lose it and scream, "BUT I WANT MY KAI-LAN!"

It's adorable how you say "my Kai-Lan" - you do that for everyone else in your life, too. You say, "I'm going to play with my friend, Josie" or "I'm going to see my Layna" or "I want to bid-chat my Aunt Jess!" (I want to video chat). There just has never been anything more endearing. Well, maybe there has, since almost everything you do is endearing, but this has to be up there.

You are very independent, Zoe B. "I do it MYself!" is something I hear a lot of these days. Emphasis on the MY in myself. If you want me to do it for you, you'll say "You do it. You do it YOURself."


I love you, sweet pea. You are the BOMB DIGGITY. (I know, I'm lame. Sorry.)

Love,
Mama

science experiment

Zoe B in 2010

Dear 2 years and 1 month Zoe,

Well, here we are in a new decade. I can't BELIEVE it's 2010. You, oddly, don't seem to care.

December was a crazy, over-the-top Santa Dora Nochebuena reindeer snowperson Christmas extravaganza. I don't know who the hell seriously uses the word extravaganza, but here it really does seem fitting.

You were so completely captured by the magic of Christmas that I almost started believing in Santa Claus again myself. Seeing how entranced you were with it all made me want to kick all of the bah-humbuggers in the balls.



We went to the mall with Liz and Gabby to sort of passively check out Santa Claus. You were totally into the idea that he was there, but of course did not want to sit in his lap. And you kept telling me for days later that you saw Santa and, "I not sit in his lap." Your Dad took you to Blockbuster to pick up some Christmas movies and he said that when you got back in the car you said, "I not see him!" I guess you figured Santa would be at Blockbuster with the Christmas movies. If only, kid. If only.

The best part of Christmas for me was you and how into it you were, but I was also totally over the moon about my family coming into town. Aunt Jess came and stayed an entire week (unheard of!), and Mom, Phil and Colin drove all the way here from Michigan. We all got along swimmingly and no one puked. We had SO.MUCH.FUN. It even snowed. A ton. It really was one of the best Christmases of my life. Cue violins.








Now it's January and it has been RIDICULOUSLY cold (a few days ago it was -2) so we've been home a lot. The big kids were off school for three whole weeks. Let's just say you watched a lot of Dora. But it's cozy and warm in our house and snowy and cold outside, sort of how winter is supposed to be.

You are like a little sponge, Bean. This morning your dad and I were wrestling and being the huge dorks that we are and he pulled my pants down. Of course, I shouted, "Don't!" And you said, "Don't pull-ah Mama's pants down!" I said, "Oh, it's ok, he's just messin' around." Your Dad started tickling you and smoochin' on you later in the day and you said, "Stop it! I don't want to mess around!"

This evening when were driving home from having dinner out with Grandma Jackie and Grandpa Russell we were all singing in the car trying to keep you awake. You were singing You Are My Sunshine and I melted into a puddle on the seat.

You are my shun-shine, my little shun-shine
You make me happy, and skies are great
You'll never know, dear, so much I love you
Please don't take my little shun-shine away

I think I was still ON the seat, just in complete liquid form.

I love you so much it HURTS sometimes, kid. You are my little shun-shine.

Love,
Mama

I KNOW, I KNOW

I know Zoe's letter this month is late. Pretty soon you're all going to start getting on my case about it so I'm going to beat you to the punch.

See, I started this new blog OVER HERE. I'm trying to post every single day, as well as generate READERS. This stuff takes time, so it's been, you know, taking up my time.

I promise I'll get Zoe's super Christmas extravaganza letter up this weekend.

Thanks for your patience.

Christmas 2009 in pictures

CLICK TO ENLARGE

practice for college applications

How the heck is my child old enough to sit and do this?

Happy Birthday, Zoe B!

You're 2 years old, I can't believe it.

Here you are two years ago...


...and one year ago...


...and now! Crazy!



Last night we had your birthday party. We had your grandparents over (minus G'ma Patty, the Michigan Grandma who was busy in the snow up there), a bunch of friends and their kids. You were totally into it - we'd celebrated my birthday last month and I guess you took notes because you knew just what to do. You clapped along as we sang Happy Birthday and you blew your candles out like you'd been doing for at least a decade. I'm glad you're getting the message that birthdays are a big deal. We celebrate the crap out of birthdays in this family, kid.






One of your favorite presents was a box of plastic princess shoes (for the love of God!) from your friend Gabby. They have inspired you to take up tap dancing. See below. [*requires sound*]



In November we took a short little trip to Omaha, Nebraska. I never in my life thought I'd type that sentence. But I wanted a little weekend trip that would get us out of town but without having to go to far and people kept saying Omaha was great, so I decided to give it a try. Who knows, the midwest is full of surprises. And crazy religious people. But that's beside the point.

The zoo in Omaha was actually really pretty incredible. The weather was an astounding 60 degrees and sunny and you were really excited to see all of the animals - your favorite being a tiny little gorilla baby who was being held by one of the zookeepers. He was even wearing a baby diaper. You were VERY intrigued.



You are talking up a storm and you're very articulate. Today Jack came up to your Dad and said, "Zoe can almost say dictionary!"

The other day you were sitting at the table with your little rubber stamps and ink pad and you couldn't get the monkey the right way up and you said, "Oh shoot! What the heck?!?" You have also started saying, "What the?!?" and if someone corrects you (you said Happy Halloween-days instead of Happy Holidays, for example), you say, "Oh, Happy Holidays, that's right!" I knew once you started talking you'd bring the awesome. And boy, do you ever.

And...best of all, you have started to say "I love you, Mama" without me even MAKING you do it! Or even asking nicely. It is the best thing on EARTH. The absolute BEST THING.

I love you, Beanie. You'll never understand how much. Maybe when you have a child of your own...but I doubt it. Because I love you more than anyone has EVER loved anyone or ever will. So take that.

Mama

I CAN COUNT!

23 months and counting....

Dear Zoe B,

Last week you turned the big ole 23 months - I hope you enjoy the last weeks of your 2nd year and prepare yourself for your third. I think it's going to blow your mind. Or at least it will blow mine.

I mentioned in my last post that I thought September would be known as the month you learned to accessorize. If in September you LEARNED to accessorize, in October you took that knowledge and RAN. You don't mess around. You even accessorized the hell out of your Halloween costume.




Speaking of Halloween....I was optimistic early in the month when you graciously agreed to try on several costumes and told me specifically that of the two you tried on (monkey and butterfly) that you preferred the monkey. I became less optimistic when, after purchasing the monkey costume, you refused to put it on and told everyone you were going to be a butterfly. You refused to put the costume on for the Kindermusik Halloween party and then flat out refused to go to Kindermusik at all. My hopes for Halloween began to plummet. But - somehow on the day before Halloween when it was time to go Trick-or-Treating at your Dad's office, it all came together for you. All along the costume just needed something...it wasn't complete and therefore you didn't want to wear it. It needed....flair.




With your pink boots and your mardi gras necklaces and your Hello Kitty sunglasses, the monkey costume was perfect. And you ROCKED IT. And my shy girl TRICK or TREATED! You didn't say anything, but you knew what you were doing and you collected that candy very diligently. I was so proud.

Earlier in the month we went and visited Grandma Patty, Uncle Colin and Sammy in Michigan. I was terrified of the flights because our experience flying with you to NYC in June all but made me take an oath that I'd never fly with anyone under 4 again. But you were like a different kid this time. What a difference 4 months makes in the life of a toddler. You had your own seat and you played with your Dora and Diego sticker books and drank your juice and were an all-around star traveler. Nice work, dude.

You had a great time with your Grandma and Sam and Uncle Colin even built some train tracks with you when he wasn't sleeping or....sleeping. We played outside and went to the pumpkin patch and you helped Grandma make blueberry muffins and took Sam for walks. Holy crap do you love Sam. Just don't get any ideas, we are NOT getting a dog. Never in a hundred million years. Just don't quote me on that because I never thought in a hundred million years your Grandma would get a dog and look at the current state of affairs at HER house. Hmmm.




And in our daily lives we are still enjoying hanging with Grandpa, GabbyYiz, and you are totally enamored with your brother and sister. Not long ago when we were driving to their school to pick them up, you started singing, "Jack and Jo Jo love me!"
I almost crashed into a field of goats it was so cute.

I am, as ever, completely and totally head over heels for you, kid. Don't ever question it.

Love,
Mama

P.S.
I just told you it's time for lunch and you said, "Nooooooo! I don't like food!"