snow = winter (part 1)

Which means that I better get with the program and summarize the rest of our Fall :) The days are going by so fast that I didn't realize it's December and I blinked and then we are now halfway through this month! The good news is that December means the holidays and that means visiting California-- we are so excited! YAY...

But hurry hurry... what happened in October and November?

Well... in October, we played with pumpkins and had Halloween and Nina and Boris came to visit. Zoë was the moon for Halloween and Mama made her costume (with Zoë's help!) We practiced wearing the costume and that was good because she was so happy and comfortable in her costume during the Halloween parade at school. But, on Halloween... somehow we got off schedule and Zoë fell asleep when it was time to trick or treat! Then she awoke ready to go out at 9pm... when only the older kids were out. It was fun to surprise the homes when we rang the doorbell, the people would expect a grown up kid and be mildly shocked that a little toddler (cute as can be, might I brag) was there requesting a "treat"! It was, in fact, a fun little "trick" for us :).

We also had a nice trip to the pumpkin farm and took a haystack ride on the tractor to the pumpkin patch to pick out our pumpkins and then of course... carved them into sppooooooky Mr. P. Umkers.

We had several other fun adventures like saying "au revoir" to Rinka and Rumadida, and wearing cute boots, and watching the leaves change color, and eating Butternut Squash risotto, and ... well, you can check out our pictures here for a summary of October, 2010.

And though we have no visual record of this (shock!) we went to the Jon Stewart and Steven Colbert rally in D.C. with Nina and Boris and showed our support for sanity. Zoë slept.

A Father's Day Story.

I know! It is a real rare occurrence that I post twice in a month! But... in honor of Father's Day and as a gift to our fathers near and far, here are some Zoë-isms.

First, Zoë loves our balcony (our oasis, we call it!), where she likes to run around, blow bubbles and look at the moon. Here are several videos:

Saying Sayonara to the moon with a special bedtime dance--


Encore!


Blowing Bubbles with Daddy (the long version!)


More blowing bubbles with Daddy (but shorter...)(the long version!)


And we end with a short story about Zoë and her daddy. After a long day of park, shopping, cupcakes, and running around, we still have grocery shopping to do but Zoë is cranky and in desperate need of a "serious" (i.e., not in the carseat or stroller and uninterrupted) nap. So Matt (aka Daddy) drops Zoë and me home and goes to the store (across the street and visible from our 9th floor windows). After entering the home, Zoë grows concerned: "Daddy?" I explain that Daddy is at to the store and when she awakes from nap, Daddy would be home. She goes to her favorite place, the window seat (that is only a few inches off the floor, and therefore only a "seat" to Zoë) where she likes to sit and look out the window. But she keeps repeating "Daddy? Daddy? Daddy!! DADDYYYY!" She begins to grow hysterical-- banging on the window with her little palms and yelling "DDDAAAAAADDDDYYYYYYYY!!!!!" so loud that I am convinced he can hear from the store. At first I let her scream, thinking it is her way of getting out that last ounce of energy before crashing to slumber. But not so... after around 5-10 minutes of intensifying concern for her father, I decide it was time to call Daddy on the phone and make sure he is ok (did Zoë have some premonition?!) and hope that his voice could calm Zoë down. Daddy talks to Zoë on the phone. After the niceties, Zoë reveals her cause of concern: "Nana! Nana!" (her favorite food, of course, is banana and we did tell her that we ran out and would get this from the store). So she needs to remind her father of this important grocery item! Zoë settles down and takes her nap, and when Daddy returns and she wakes up, she happily eats her banana.

Hours pass. We are making dinner and we hear "Daddy!!! DADDY!!!! DAAAADDDDYYY!!!" -- Zoë is back to slamming the window and yelling. "But I am here", says Daddy. Zoë smiles and shakes her head and returns to her new pastime-- "DAAAAAADDDDYYYYYYY!!!!"

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See? Daddies are indeed very important! For coming home, for getting bananas, for blowing bubbles and ... just because.

Happy Fathers Day.