I’m nearly a month overdue, but I wanted to give an update on the little munchkin, now that she is officially two years old. My delay in this post is partially due to the fact that we’ve essentially been celebrating Mike and Zoe’s birthday for the last month with out-of-town guests. Their actual birthday was on the low-key side, and we mainly celebrated Mike turning 35 with Heather and a few friends here in Portland. We did, however, give Zoe’s birthday gift, which was a Skuut balance bike. After always going after the display bikes at the toy store, she was so excited to have her own bike, right up to the point she realized her feet don’t quite touch the ground and therefore needs one of us to push her around. Fun over. Onto the next thing. Ah well, we’ll just wait a couple of months.

Wai-gong and Wai-puo (Grandma and Grandpa Wang) flew out the following weekend, just in time for the birthday party we threw for Zoe. We invited a few friends and their tots to come play with us in the park nearby our house. After days of solid rain, the ground was quite squishy, but we did luck out with full sun and warm temps. The kids didn’t seem to mind, and Zoe made out like a bandit with all the new toys everyone gave her.

Her two-year checkup was rather uneventful. As usual, she was at the top of the charts with her height (35 inches: 75%-tile), weight (30 lbs: 75%-tile), and head circumference (50 cm: 100%-tile). She also scored high on the questionnaire they have us fill out to gauge her development. No red flags, and just two vaccinations. And we don’t go back again for another year.

Last weekend we had Grandpa Bill and Grandma Ann visiting us for another birthday and Father’s Day celebration. They last saw Zoe in December, so they noticed quite a change in her. Though she can still be difficult to understand at times, they really were able to interact with her this time, and she immediate felt comfortable enough to boss them around! She had a great time getting them to sing songs and play legos with her.

In the meantime, she has turned into quite the entertainer. She loves having people over, whether it’s to stay with us for a few days or just to enjoy a nice dinner on the patio. I’ve noticed she’d rather stay at home now or go for a walk (usually to New Seasons), but she just screams with giddiness once she sees someone walking up our drive to the door. She still enjoys her days at school, but it does take some coaxing to get her in the car. So if you are in the Portland area, swing by, stop in and say hi. Zoe might just become your best friend.

We met up with Teresa and Iris yesterday for REI’s big sale. At one point both girls decided to lie down on the floor, and the next thing I know, the pair were showing us their bellies. I guess it was belly time!

She doesn’t know she is turning two soon, and yet she knows she’s not a baby anymore. For the past few days she has been telling people, even random strangers, “I big girl!” I have to admit, she’s growing into her own person more and more each day. Her sentences are clearer and longer, she refuses help for tasks she knows she can do, and last night she said bye to her crib. After spending over a week sleeping in a toddler aerobed, we decided she was ready to move out of the crib, so we converted it to the toddler bed. We had to work out a few
kinks but she seemed very happy in her new bed. Today’s nap went smoothly, and she knocked on the door
from the inside when she woke up and quietly waited for me to get her. I think about all the sleep issues we battled, and I’m amazed by how far we’ve come. But in many ways it’s bittersweet. I guess my baby is growing up.

For a few weeks now Zoe has been singing the alphabet, but up until recently, she sang many of the letters in random order. Now she knows sections of it, like a-b-c-d and l-m-n-o-p. She doesn’t recognize letters, but we just haven’t been showing her what each one looks like. She also counts up to three (I’d say five if she didnt always skip four) and it’s amusing to watch her try to get the right number of fingers to move when she counts (she can’t move the middle finger independently so she needs her other hand to help). But Zoe is most consistent with colors. She know pink, yellow, green, brown, black, and blue. Red is confused for pink, and I’m not sure she understands that orange is a color too. But the next time you see her, as long as you don’t have orange hair, she’s likely to say your hair color correctly. And no, blondes do not have yellow hair.

Zoe’s friend Iris and her family invited us over yesterday to celebrate Iris’ 2nd birthday. We each enjoyed an afternoon of good food, good company, and good fun. I forgot to bring my camera (I really need to work on that), but I managed to capture a few moments with the trusty ol’ iPhone.

Mmmmm…cupcakes

Zoe is done with the frosting, so she tried to trade with Mike for a fresh, uneaten one.

The birthday girl

I think Zoe wanted the tutu

Aunt Heather wanted to get some plants for her apartment, so last weekend we went over to Portland Nursery. Heather and I wandered around and had left Mike and Zoe back near the entrance. When they eventually caught up, I found Zoe happily riding on one of the wagons people use for plants. We eventually did load the cart up, but Zoe insisted on squishing anyway.

Aunt Heather moved to Portland last weekend, so we’ve enjoyed seeing her everyday this past week. Every morning Zoe asked for Heather and her dogs and has been having so much fun with her. The photo was taken at dinner at the McMenamins near our house.

We recently came home from our trip to Taiwan. We spent 10 days traveling about the island and visiting family. Zoe met her great-grandparents (my maternal grandparents), her great uncle and aunt, and many, many other family members for the first time. The attention was overwhelming for her, and that surprised me a bit, but she seemed to enjoy the trip, especially being with my parents. I think the best part for her was definitely the parks and sandboxes, two things we certainly did not need to travel halfway around the globe for, but she was quite the trooper, especially with our schedule constantly changing. She also handled the flight better than I could have asked for, but of course, she is still getting over the jet-lag (we all are).

I’ve posted a few pictures here, but there are many more on my Picasa album

I now understand why people with children often address their spouses as “Mom/Dad” instead of using their first names. The last couple of weeks, every now and then, Zoe will say “Mike” to get her dad’s attention. And Mike always responds with “Zoe, I’m papa.” I find it endlessly amusing, but I know that Mike is not so much.

These days, Zoe entertains herself with imanginative or pretend play. She takes her baby blankets and “tucks” her stuffed animals in to sleep. Then she pats them to sleep with a loud shushing sound. Occasionally I find it disturbing that she always covers their heads with the blanket, but then I realized that I did that to her when she was an infant to help her fall asleep for naps. Of course, I always too the blanket off once she was sleeping, but how would she know that?

She also loves to pretend cook with the cookware set my mom got her. She’s always making delicious imaginary meals for us to sit down and enjoy. I decided a play kitchen would be an appropriate accessory to her love of cooking, but since I have rather picky standards that our budget doesn’t allow, I opted to go down the DIY route. I scoured Ohdeedoh and ikeahacker for ideas and drew up the “perfect” plans. I didn’t take my perfectionist nature into account, so it took much longer than I anticipated with only building 2/3 of what I originally wanted. Nonetheless, Zoe was all smiles the morning I revealed her new toy to her. Sadly, I didn’t get a picture of that.