Life continues at its regular hectic pace and Zoë continues to grow, both physically and mentally. She's moving into 18 months and is just shy of 3 feet tall now. Her vocabulary seems to increase almost daily and she is definitely starting to pick up on new modes of thought.
An example: She has figured out when Dad is messing with her. She has a toy that involves five little doors that pop open when switches or buttons are activated. These doors contain little plastic animals. By holding down the button on the lion I can prevent her from properly closing the door. It just won't latch. She figured out that I was doing something pretty quickly, as it was only that door that won't stay shut, and only when she tries to shut it. Every time I shut it, it stays shut. I got some wonderful looks from her over that one. Looks, I might add, that came straight from my playbook. Zoë pretty much has Jen's overall look, though her facial expressions are all mine.
Summer has been quite hot down here, but in the last week or two the temperatures have mellowed so we've started taking Zoë to a local park to play. She LOVES the swings. Put her in a swing and push her as high as you can, but you'd better not stop. She gets immediately cranky when the swing stops a swingin'. Of course she has managed to try a few new things at the park including a spinny seat thing, which prompted her discovery of the concept of dizziness. I can't help but feel a little mean for sending that girl's head spinning, but hey, you've got to learn it sometime. Best to do it with adults around, I suppose.
We took Zoë to visit her great grandma over Labor Day weekend. Grandpa Whitner was there as well and we spent a nice weekend playing at the pool and spending time with family.
Zoë proved to have a bit of a death wish at the pool. We've taken her swimming many times in the past. She loves the water and usually hops right into her floaty and enjoys the surf. Unfortunately, we forgot her floaty back home and she had to content herself with being dragged around the pool by the two of us.
At some point I was in the water at the midpoint between the shallow and deep end, and Jen was on the edge of the pool following Zoë around. Zoë typically likes to walk around the pool and check out everything. However, this time she decided to just throw herself in, mindless of the fact that she doesn't know how to swim. I heard her hit the water and immediately dived. I managed to catch her about 4 feet down and brought her back up. She found this hilarious and just laughed and laughed at her brush with mortality. Soon she was attempting to throw herself in any chance she got. We ended up having to suspend all pool activities for the remainder of the visit. (Even after running out to buy some new flotation devices.)
She also has a new habit that she's picked up on her own. She likes to pretend she's a cat. She will frequently throw herself face first into her food and crawl around making meow noises. This lead to her acting the part in front of grandma. Note how she's not satisfied where Jen puts the raisins and will move them before eating. I promise, we did NOT teach her this...
We've decided that we're going to get her into swimming lessons next summer. We'd also like to enroll her in some sort of music program in the future, as she has a strong love for it. This is evidenced by her nightly dancing and hooting to the songs of the Mickey Mouse Clubhouse. A show, I might add, that we can sing all the songs to and pretty much know all the plots for.
As always, click the pics for a closer look.
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