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...)