We love FALL!

*** NOTE: while we are keeping up Zoë's blog still, we have expanded the Zych blog with the impending expanding family. Please bookmark our main blog and check here often. You can see the latest (ha ha... that means, whenever I manage to write anything) about Zoë and Bugaboo #2 (check soon for info about our ultrasound this week... Boy??? Girl???). The top tabs separate their separate blogs. ***

There are few times that we really enjoy living in Maryland and Fall is such a time. Almost every weekend there's something wonderful to experience-- apple picking, pumpkin patch complete with hayrides, lots of baking... and the sounds of music.

Many months ago, when we were in California, I introduced Zoë to one of my favorite movies of all time: The Sound of Music. Happily, Zoë also loved it and many of the songs stuck in her head... on repeat and only about five given words. It was first adorable, then made me cringe slightly, then... well, it was downright painful. But, I know that someday we will miss hearing this particular rendition. Enjoy the video!



Here's our album of Fall pictures, including Matt's birthday dinner where Zoë was the beautiful Indian waitress (and I was the Chef). Check back here soon, we will add the Halloween photos from this week, at least!

In honor of Nana

Blogs are not books and they don't usually have dedications, but permit me this once to dedicate our blog to Grandma Florence (Nana): To the classiest lady with her twinkling eyes and big heart full of love and life, we love you and miss you. Hope that your eternity is filled with joy and peace.

Here are some of our stories, of recent...
(Sorry: Because of the large number of videos & photos, the page is a bit slow...)

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"Energy"

I underestimated Zoë's sudden abilities on her bike and made the mistake of taking her out for a leisurely ride (not even wearing my sneakers or work out clothes!) I ended up sweaty and chasing her down the trail yelling "STAY TO THE RIGHT!" and "Red light. RED Light. RED LIGHT!!!!" (our code for stop NOW!)

Somewhere on the trail, she got very upset with my constant "advising". Um, that's my job, kid! To keep you safe. But there was pouting and some scolding: "I'm never going to talk to you again, Mom. Never, never, never. Then you can't tell me anything. Until my birthday. Don't talk to me till then." 

There wasn't much of a chance, anyway, since she rode off in a huff, me in chase once again... until we got to a bridge:  "Mommy, can we go that way?" So, back on track and on a road with fewer speeding, triathlon-types and then we suddenly were friends again. We both could relax on this smaller, friendlier trail. Suddenly, she stops and waits for me and then holds my hand and covers it with kisses all over and says: "You know how I yelled at you before? But I still love you and now I want to give you lots of kisses. Because I know you were being a good mommy. We are buddies, right?" True. The rest of our ride was peaceful.

Then we hit a big hill, she tells me: "Oh Wow! I just got some energy! I think it's because my food just broke down and got digested. You know, when it breaks down it gives you energy!"

 

Here's a 10 second video of her, before I worried that I will get too far behind (sorry for the shaking-- it's hard to run and video!)
For comparison, here she was a few months ago!    

 

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"Dance with abandon"

Sometimes it is the small stuff... today I caught Zoë dancing like she usually does, with utter abandon (and a lot of turns). Time for Kathak? 

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"Sheep and Wool Festival"

Who knew? Every May, all things sheep and lamb congregate about 20 miles from us in a "Sheep and Wool Festival". It's a rather strange hodge-podge of people and events, including the wrangling, showing, and sheering of sheep, ... eating, drinking and being entertained in with farm-fresh fare, ... but for knitters and yarn lovers, the best part is the showcasing of new yarns, wool, and fiber. We went with little expectations, and had some fun! 

Zoë got a sample bag of raw, shorn wool. This wool would get cleaned, washed and dried, before being made into yarn. We saw some people taking their cleaned wool and spinning it into the thin threads with would be mutliplied into thicker wool and then dyed, and then... made into something awesome, no doubt!

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"Ms. Nelson is Missing"

This is a favorite story that I remember from my childhood. One day, I heard Zoë telling "her students" this story. (Even funnier is that they learned the story from a tape-recording at school, so she says "beep, page X", since the recording has those markers). 

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 "Whooosh"

We went to a carnival fair with a set-up "moonbounce" (if you aren't in the know: these are all the rage in the toddler scene: giant inflatable jungle gyms). While Zoë has had lots of exposure now to them, there are times when she charges in and then requires a bit of help to climb to the top, still. In this particular one, the lady warned us that it's for 5+ and we might have to go in and bail her out. But ... tickle me pink -- Look at her go! 

Actually she climbed faster than I could react and video-- so I only have the part where she enjoys the slide back down, the prize for her efforts.

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"Living in the Moments"

In between school and the "have-to's", we manage some "want-to's". Know this quote?  

Step with care and great tact and remember that Life's a Great Balancing Act. 

-- Dr. Seuss

Three Little Pigs and Lunchboxes

This video needs no introduction. Okay... maybe a tiny introduction. In this video, Ms. Zoë relates the famous "Three Little Pigs" fairy tale with a slight variation. While lunchboxes are also rectangles, they may not be quite the same as bricks, structurally speaking. Even so... she's a natural story-teller and oh! so cute :) Enjoy!

Also, here are some photos from recent days, including visits from the fabulous Aria, her parents, and her grandparents (though I was not a very good photographer for their visit -- too busy enjoying, of course! So perhaps I will leave it to them to donate their photos please *hint, hint*!), ... cherry blossoms (barely caught those in our crazy Spring weather), ... and my trip to Monterey, CA for the HEAD meeting.

Zoe Town

Come visit Zoë Town, a magical world created by Miss Zoë Zych. In this exclusive video, she shares her vision for her special town. Come ride the trains! Shop at the one and only J-store! Meet the mayor-police-officer-chef! We welcome all visitors.

Fine print: Must bring your imagination. Food is available, but often takes days to arrive via Peapod--  a Giant Food Store food distribution vehicle. Town is liable to vanish at the end of play time, when we ALWAYS clean up our toys...

My Big Girl

Ten days ago, Zoë turned four, as predicted. So, as she, herself, proclaimed -- Zoë's now a "big girl".

Days leading up to this big deal, she started dressing herself and putting her dishes in the sink, and all these other big girl things. I think the biggest excitement for us was that this was the first birthday where she was fully excited and aware of the big day. The other years, the birthday was more about our excitement and marking her milestones, she probably barely noticed. But this time... she noticed! (and we benefitted -- mornings are so much easier when she can brush her teeth, get clothes on and put her own shoes on!)

Sure, I miss cute, cuddly, diapered baby Zoë with the giggles and wobbly steps, but there are plenty of rewards when I realize that she can be independent and do things by her "own self". It is hard not to get sentimental about her cute outfits that don't fit anymore, or see her cloth-bottomed shoes and finger-sized booties and remember her nearly featherweight snoozing warmth swaddled in my arms. But then, it is so much more satisfying to be needed these days for fun and play than for food, diaper-changing, and those basic needs. "Mommy, I NEED you! Come play with me."

Of course, such a momentous age as "4" needed to be celebrated in as many ways as possible. Zoë had a class party. Actually, it was a Valentine's Day party, but most of the kids now associate V-day with Zoë Day (true story: one of the kids went home and told their mother that they weren't allowed to say "Happy Valentine's Day" because Zoë wasn't there and it was her special day). They sang to her like 3 times, before Mommy finally appeared with the obligatory payesh (rice pudding).

Then there was the celebration at Frosting, the cupcake cafe. (In case you are concerned about the number of cupcakes consumed in these celebrations, please refer to the earlier posting about that impossibility of "too many cupcakes" because of the theory of Tummy Chambers.)

We opened presents and Zoë sported her new backpack around the apartment and we soon got started making the dollhouse sent by her grandparents (that's her screwing together the walls all by herself)! Other presents were also read, played with, and worn within 24 hours of being opened. She loved everything and got settled making her Thank you cards, which now are beautifully signed by her own signature. On her birthday, I received a beautiful present of her impressive artwork!
 

Then we celebrated with all her friends at BounceU, a giant warehouse of inflatable slides, gym and climbing, and ate pizza and cake. I think even Zoë was then all birthday'ed out... until she began discussing her plans for her NEXT birthday. That's it -- she's hooked. It's official now: she's a BIG girl. Our little big girl :)

Vignettes from the Week

Before these stories fall out of my brain, I had to jot down these amusing anecdotes --

Traffic Light Greetings

Zoë: Daddy?

Daddy: Yes, Zoë.

Z: You know what Mommy does?

D: Hmm?

Z: Sometimes when we are going to school and we stop at a traffic light, Mommy looks at me in the mirror and says "Hi, Zoë". Then I say: "Hi, Mommy".  Isn't that nice?

(You never know what these kids notice and appreciate. It made me smile to know what such a simple gesture, practically an involuntary one, was observed and made some impression... makes me wonder about those not-so-good things that I do that might also get noticed. Hmmm...).

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Tummy Chambers

We are out for cupcakes. While we wait for Daddy to join us, I find a couple of clementines in my purse. I peel one and offer some to Zoë. She eats a few segments and hands back the rest and says:

Z: No more, Mommy, I'm full. 

Mommy: But what are you going to do? Aren't we are going to have cupcakes?

Z: No problem, Mommy. See? My belly has different parts. One part is for bananas, one part is for oranges and one part is for cupcakes. The banana part is empty now, but the oranges part is all full. But don't worry -- there's always room in the cupcake part for more cupcakes. 

She's my daughter, alright -- always ready with some excellent justification for eating the sweet stuff.

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The Lost Sock

When we were in Hawaii, I got Zoë some Hello Kitty socks, for our hike. It turns out that these are now her absolute favorite socks. One day, as I was folding the laundry, I discovered that I was missing one of the socks.

I told Zoë: Oh no! I think the laundry machine ate your sock. We'll save the other just in case the partner shows up later, but I think it might be lost. 

Zoë looked sad. The next day, as soon as I saw her after school, she ran over with great excitement and this news:

Z: Mommy, Mommy, Mommy! I found the sock! It was stuck to my blanket! (Then, sheepishly) Actually, I didn't find the sock. Ryanne did. (Pause... then, suddenly brightening) You know why? Ryanne's four years old. So her eyes are bigger than mine. That's why she can see things better and find things like my sock. When I am four, I will be able to see better and find things too!

Remember when you looked forward to aging?

Thanksgiving

We had our mini-family Thanksgiving, complete with turkey, stuffing, pie, and platters of food, properly enjoyed, yet still languishing in our fridge (HOORAY! Megan's on her way right now to help us eat the leftovers and adding some variety with her special Thanksgiving dishes!). While we spent Thursday cooking and tackling dishes after dishes, we did talk a lot about the things we are thankful for. I was impressed with Zoë's attention to detail in her Thanks:

• I am thankful that we went to IKEA and Mommy made me a dresser and a nice room. 
• I am thankful for having the best Mommy and Daddy (awwww...) and I want to be best buddies forever.
• I am thankful for my teacher and friends
• I am thankful for Choo choo baby and my toys 

We decided to put these phrases on scraps of paper. Our poor pepper tree which lost its leaves, mainly in Hurricane Sandy, and bore us several nice peppers served as the base of our Thankfulness tree. We restored its splendor with fresh new leaves of gratitude and love. It was a really fun project and I think we will make it our Thanksgiving tradition -- the Thankfulness Tree.
Since we are never here for the Holidays, the Christmas tree tradition may just morph into this new version? Not quite the same, though. Hmmm...

Speaking of traditions and gratitude, we have been trying this new thing at dinner time: "Happies and Sads". Every day we each share our best and worst part of the day. It's a lot of fun to hear Zoë's assessment -- they are always more thoughtful than I would have imagined. It is nice to hear her appreciate the big and small in her life -- from playing outside, to reading with Mommy, or sitting in Daddy's lap for dinner... and also interesting to hear what upsets her -- someone pushed someone else at school, or hurt someone's feelings ... I guess this growing awareness offers the surest signs about how she is maturing.  Of course, she is growing and saying smarter things, but somehow it is the emotional growth that amazes me.

Zoë and I had a wonderful Friday (alas! Daddy had to work this day). We went to the pottery store and painted some gifts for her teachers. We will have to wait until next week to pick them up and see the finished product (stay tuned!). Then we went to cash in on Zoë's reward jar. Since she was such a great kid this past week, she got to have her nails painted! We went to the nail salon (yes, it couldn't simply be that Mommy painted her nails) next to Ballet class and Zoe chose a bright orange nail polish, that I'm sure only can look good on a little kid after all. Then a hot cocoa at Praline cafe. Then? A trip to the library for a fresh set of books! In Zoës words (well, paraphrased from Eloise, which was from our last library run): "Quite a day!" followed by a 2.5 hour nap. Whew!

I think we have a few more fun plans for this weekend. But I am especially excited to shop for Eddie with Zoë, a little boy that we are buying gifts for the Holidays, through a volunteer gift-giving program, the Angel Tree, at Zoe's school.

We are gearing up for the holidays -- the travel, the gifts, the plans. Oh! The fun...

Whoooooo is this?

Today, Zoë had a Costume Party/Bring your Friend to class in ballet. Zoë was a proud owl (an Owl Mama, in her words). We took lots of pictures in her natural habitat (that would be her room, of course). In true nesting temperament, yesterday we couldn't get her to leave the house because she loves to play teacher and exist in her imaginary world... at home. Park? What toddler can resist that temptation? Apparently, Zoë can! Well... this might be a good thing because of Frankenstorm.

What is Frankenstorm? Well, life in Washington D.C. continues to be exciting. For the third time since we lived here, we are expecting a hurricane to hit us. This one is stranger because... Whhhooooo has ever heard of a Halloween Hurricane? I thought tropical storms and hurricanes were summer phenomena? Yes, and because of that anomaly, this storm is behaving strangely, getting sucked back on land from the low pressures caused by cold weather above the middle of U.S. Poor Sandy is most confused which way to turn. In any case, we are prepared with water, food, flashlights, batteries, charged phones and tons of projects. Hopefully our little owl will not mind staying cooped (ha! pun sort of intended) up inside till Sandy passes through.

The good news? In the spirit of spookiness and forecasted gloom and doom, I've been making special treats. In truth, they are supposed to be for the school Halloween party (but who knows what will be by then) and I am justifying spending my Sunday afternoon in the kitchen as "preparing for food shortages in the storm".  Here are pictures of my creations -- yummy pretzel & chocolate spider webs and my pumpkin pie rice krispie treats.

More updates later. Till then, in case you miss us (we're fine-- Stop worrying!!! :) ), here are some photos to browse...

"Fall"-ing behind

It is officially Fall. How do we know? The leaves are all sorts of pretty colors, the temperatures have fallen below freezing once or twice, the closet switch to Winter clothes is complete, and we have now been apple picking TWICE -- once with Zoë's class (Mommy came too!) and the other with her family! This week Zoë will be taking another fieldtrip to the Pumpkin patch!

It has been busy with birthday parties and Fall-themed outings (this weekend, we went on a beautiful hike in the woods near the Potomac and saw mushrooms, fallen leaves, feathers, acorns, and even a horse up close!) On top of that, Zoë has been learning a lot in ballet class -- see her video here or in the links below!



Our photos are all here -- please feel free to browse.


Zoë has been saying lots of smart and funny things. Unfortunately, I can't think of any examples now. She pays attention in sometimes shocking ways. Like the other day, we were listening to the radio on the way to school and I was only half listening and talking to Zoë about her upcoming trip to the fire station that day. We were both pretty tired since this fieldtrip meant getting up extra early. Suddenly the radio said something about cuts at the fire station. So I told Zoë: "Hey, they are talking about fire stations! And you will be going to one today. Cool!" and she calmly responded, "Yes, Mommy, but the ones they were talking about are in Chicago. Don't worry, they aren't going to cut anything here in Maryland." I was pretty impressed that she had the context of the news report and knew that the situation in Chicago does not affect that in Maryland, etc.

There have been other similar funny, but impressive stories. Especially now that there is so much in the news about the election, she seems to pipe in her two cents. The other day we were also discussing how we should vote on a Maryland bill to allow casino gaming. Zoë decided it was a bad idea and she gave her reasons. I forgot her reasons, but I was convinced. Zoë for President! :)
  

Settling...back from vacation

We returned last night from our vacation: San Diego, Hawaii (Oahu) and San Francisco Bay Area. The house is a little quiet and we are jet-lagged, cranky, and struggling to reinstate routine. But it does help to look at our photos and remember the good times (and silly ones, too). You can see our whole album of August from here, ending with the photos from our vacation (Baby Aria -- you are here too!) :


In addition, we have three videos of Zoë being Zoë: singing, dancing, and being entertaining.




Today, Zoe made a nice big tower and castle. She built a very thoughtful structure of stairs "so that the Prince could go out... you know, to go to the market to buy food or something." Ah... precious. I find it endearing that in Zoë's imaginary world, the Prince still has to leave (via most fantastic staircases, I might add) to do his shopping. I suppose even the truly exceptional have to return to the mundane sometimes... off to unpacking!

visit to National Gallery of Art in D.C.

This week's Mom+Zoë fieldtrip was to National Gallery of Art. As last week, the outing was as much a part of the learning experience as the museum -- bus+ metro+ walking (sans stroller this time) in humid hot hot HOT weather. We arrived at the museum soon after they opened (and were still quite empty-- yay!) and headed straight for the potty. I was nervous as Zoë said she needed the potty as we arrived on the metro... finding another potty seemed as lengthy a process as booking it to the museum -- which took begging, bribing, and arm pulling to make in ~15 minutes (not that it was more than 4 blocks away!) Toddlers are fast when it comes to evading grown-ups, but extremely slow when there's a goal destination. Anyway... no accidents! Whew...

Once we got settled, I asked Zoë what she wanted to see. Let's back up a second. So earlier this week, I had already decided on this fieldtrip and was preparing for our visit. I figured even if we got in an hour of random cultural immersion, it would be better than not. But I did research the best way to introduce art to a toddler. There are sites upon sites of activities to do in museums with 5+ but very little suggested for 3 year olds. At that age, art is what they do themselves. But we wanted to go to the museum. So frustrated, I forged on ahead on my own path. We will call it the Basu-Zych technique. I threw whatever art I had on hand at home over the course of the day, tried not to push... but we leafed through some art books that I had on Van Gogh, da Vinci, Frida Kahlo and other women painters, some other special stuff from the internet. A few seemed to make an impression on her:

• Vermeer's Girl Writing a Letter (shown on left)-- I have a print in my bedroom and she remembered that. So when we saw this one in a book, she ran over to the room to point it out.  

• Van Gogh's room -- she has this in a children's book that Ninamashi gave her and when she saw in another book, it was a fun matching game. 
• Mary Cassatt's Children Playing at the Beach (shown at right with Zoë) -- another one in the children's book and also in a book I had of women painters.

• Frida Kahlo's self portrait (shown on right) with the thorn necklace -- this one fascinated Zoë : "Why does she have a necklace that is cutting her? Who gave it to her? I like the necklace but why is it hurting her? Why did she draw this if it hurts her? "... so we made up some stories and I tried to impress on her that that's the power of art... nobody knows the answers and the viewer can make up her own story! 

So with this preparation, Zoë asked to see Frida Kahlo and the necklace painting. I was really impressed that she remembered this since Tuesday's art lesson. See? Looks like random exposure does work! Sadly, this one isn't at the National Gallery, but may be at another museum (we will try to hunt it down-- future project). We did see lots of sculptures (and paintings) of Degas' ballerinas that Zoë enjoyed posing with.

We also saw the Vermeer Girl's series: Girl Writing a Letter, Girl with Red Hat, Girl with Flute. We also had a lot of fun making faces at Honore Daumier's caricature sculptures (one shown on left)--  "What an ugly nose! Can you look like that guy?" (As a bonus, we got some passersby to laugh... or look at us horrified. I forget. Probably both...), and tried to guess what made Rodin's Age of Bronze sculpture (at right) look so forlorn -- our best guess is that he missed the bus.

Eventually, we headed upstairs for Impressionism (my favorite! It isn't a successful trip to the art museum unless you see Impressionists :) ) I am sad we missed the Van Gogh room. Zoë enjoyed posing with her favorites. We saw Renoir, Monet, Pisarro, Seurat, Cassatt, Childe Hassam,  ... and then hit Zoë's limit at ~45 minutes. Perfect timing for lunch!

Daddy met us at the cafeteria. Food. Home. Sleep. That's what I call a success!

Butterflies, Giraffe Bones, Gems and more!

Wow! We are doing so much and having so much fun, I can't keep up. That's a good thing. So... three years into living in D.C. and we just became members of the Smithsonian. Yay!

Let me back up a bit. Today, we spent the morning at the Natural History Museum. We woke up early and headed out with Daddy, taking the bus and the train. Then Mommy and I waited in the balmy summer heat for the museum to open FOR ONE HOUR (Mommy's face leaked about a gallon of sweat, because it doesn't take much effort to sweat buckets in this weather-- walking several blocks with a stroller was sufficient... anyway...).  We did sit outside in the Butterfly Habitat Garden but alas! It was too hot even for the butterflies. The only ones we saw were those on the signs (sad face). At 10AM on the dot we and 8 other people entered the museum and had the whole place to ourselves!

Look closely on my pants!

My pet butterfly

We bought a membership and then got tickets to the Butterfly Pavilion, where hundreds of butterflies live and explore their guests. You see this one? The Owl butterfly found Mommy's pants irresistible and remained with me our whole time in there (actually, I am pretty sure it wanted to come home with me too, but the nice people in the museum had to gently brush it back into their special room)!

We also checked out the giraffe, gray whale, snake (that was really cool!)  and giant turtle bones (ok, on our way to the bathroom AND BACK! Two times, so that counts!) and the gem exhibit, which included some Earth and Space Science like about earthquakes, volcanoes and plate techtonics -- isn't it cool how science is so interconnected?
 Zoë ran out of patience here (at about 11:30) so we flew through these exhibits at warp speed (stopping only to buy a bag of "tumbled stones". What? No dinosaurs??? Alas, the fear of toddler meltdown precluded that option).

Then, museum food lunch and heading back home in the heat, exhausted. But the best part? Meeting Daddy on the way to the train for a shared cupcake (and coffee for Mommy, boy was that important!) Whew (... leaving out details of missing the bus, escaping exhaustion-late-nap-related tantrum...). This afternoon we have plans to read the book "Feathers" by Lois Ehlert, which includes a recipe (?) for making bird-feeders. It does seem it would be easier to bring the Nature to us *wink*.
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From earlier in the week and last week:

• Video of Zoë climbing the ropes in the park -- we took a nature hike that ended in the park. Zoë's turn to work out, Mom's was pushing the stroller and it's occupants up the hill!

• Baking Cookies! Yummy...
• Read a great article about this family that introduced math stories and puzzles in place of bedtime stories. What a cool idea! You can read more here: Bedtime Math -- I joined the email list so we can also try that some of the time. (After all ... books are important too! Just can't break that habit...)