That's Odd....

Zoe is an odd kid. Maybe I should call her "unique" or "independent" or "quirky" or something slightly more PC or whatever, but the truth is she's just odd. There's no getting around it. How do I express in words how truly odd she is? I don't know, but I'll try. And maybe I'll throw in some pictures too.

Zoe LOVES to play by herself. Sometimes she tells me (or James) to go in the other room if we try and play with her. Seriously.

About one minute ago she came upstairs, went in the bathroom, grabbed our squirt bottle and said (mostly to herself), "Squirt bottle's going to go play with those jingle bells." Then she headed back downstairs. She is meticulous in using the words the, those, that, and these in front of her objects. "Let's go watch that robot movie," "Want the swimmings." Please don't ask what a swimming is. I don't think there is any way to explain.

She is absolutely OBSESSED with the movie Wall-e. It is the only full-length film she will watch. We attempted Kung-fu Panda a few days ago and she wouldn't even come downstairs. When she did, she stayed in the kitchen until we turned it off. We watch Wall-e every day while Owen takes his am nap. The rest of the day she runs around the house shouting "Wall-e," "Evah," and mumbling things about the Axiom, spaceships, and robots.

Zoe is still enthralled by her large collection of plastic bugs, snakes, frogs, and dinosaurs. She will pick out a couple of favorites every few days and they become inseparable. She calls them her "friends" and carries them around everywhere. If I ask her or tell her anything she echoes it to her toys - "Do you want a sandwich Zoe?" "Do you want a sandwich snake?" It's incredibly endearing yet absolutely annoying to me as she never actually answers my questions. Is it healthy for a 2 and a half year old girl to sleep with praying mantises? I guess we'll find out.

Zoe has absolutely NO social skills. Her first reaction to other people is to be slightly scared and then to ignore them completely. One day I picked her up from nursery and the teachers were so excited because she actually spoke. Meanwhile at home she talks non-stop. To herself or her toys, mostly, but nonstop nonetheless.

Zoe shows no interest in potty training. She could walk around in a poopy diaper all day and not care. Recently I've been trying to encourage her and while she is intrigued by the concept of underwear, she flips out if I try and get her to sit on the toilet. Almost as much as she continues to flip out over the vacuum.

The list goes on. She loves to jump and sing. She has several Dr. Seuss books memorized. She wouldn't drink juice to save her life. Every day she comes up with new ways to be weird. But every day I find new reasons to love her.

Quotable Quotes

The first 2 weeks in our house have flown by. Having 2 separate sets of guests definitely helped. My parents came for nearly a week and brought some of my things that had been cluttering up their own house. Now they can clutter up our house! Actually, I am so grateful that they came. Among my many treasures were a day bed (to accommodate any guests *hint hint*), a nuggle-sized table and chairs, my cedar chest that my dad made for me, and various keepsakes from my youth. It's all just a drop in the bucket compared to the amount of my crap they still have at their house, but it's a pretty good start.

Shortly after they left, my niece and her friend - I kid you not her name is Deshka - came for a couple days for a snowboarding trip to Park City. My niece is only 5 years younger than I am so it was fun to hang out and catch up when she wasn't busy with the Provo singles scene. And it was great to break in our "guest room."

The biggest addition to our family lately has been Zoe's vocabulary. She is seriously starting to master the art of the sentence, with such phrases as "Turn the light on/off" and "I want it." She has also mastered the tantrum that more often than not follows "I want it" with any sort of delay or refusal at whatever she has requested. She also picks out the most important nouns and verbs from what we say and repeats them back to us. Her new best friend is definitely Dora the Explorer, and so she has learned such helpful words like : flashlight, rope, froggy pond, Swiper, Tico, Isa, backpack, map, etc.

If repeating everything we say isn't enough, Zoe has started to make up her own words for things, completely unprompted. While giving her a bath a few nights ago, she simple started saying "nanum" and then laughing hysterically. For the next half hour that was all she did - say nanum and crack up. As the days have gone by I think I've figured out a pretty accurate definition for the new word - Nanum: v, to lay down on one's stomach in the bath tub and drink of the water therein. What, do you have a better word for that? I didn't think so.