"Baby No Problem!"

So tired now, but must record this down before I forget. This morning, Zoe woke up on the wrong side of the bed. She was cranky, whinny and all in all bad society. While getting breakfast ready for her, she started to fall apart. Being somewhat shorter on patience than usual myself, I carried her to her room, set her down, gave her her security blanket and told her sternly that she can very well feel cross but she can act it out in her room and to come out only when she is done with being cranky. I think she didn't like being in her room all by herself with no audience. She came toddling out soon after. Knowing that she was in the puppy house with me, she went to Dennis and declared, "baby, no problem!" Quite naturally, we all had a great laugh over it.

The Big Day, Part 1

We're still recovering from Zoe's busy birthday weekend. We'll post photos soon, but in the meantime here's a video of "Happy Birthday to You."

Firsts

One day, a long time from now, Zoe can boast that she had her first coffee even before she turned two. A couple of days ago, Aug 27 to be specific, Zoe stole a sip (or sips) from my "doppio over ice in a grande cup with two packs of raw sugar and a good splash of half and half." She has, heretofore, never shown any interest in drinking my coffee and so I never thought much about leaving my coffee on the coffee table. Imagine my surprise when I came back into the room to find Zoe leaning over the table and sipping coffee through the green straw. The little girl liked the drink. She threw a big fit when I said she can't drink that and took it away from her.

And talk about firsts, Zoe received her first flower (from a man) on her second birthday. It was a rose from Uncle Paul.

Pictures taken over this summer

Sea World

I should have posted this much earlier. We brought our Sea World pass a little over a week ago. So far, we have visited three times. Zoe is fascinated by the Mantatees, the Walrus, the whales and the dolphins.

La Milpa Organica

The three squash that Marguerite gave us for our "weeding" effort.

Zoe and I visited La Milpa Organica Farm this morning. I learned about La Milpa last week by pure serendipity - I was reading some stranger's blog and link following link, I stumbled upon La Milpa. Imagine my surprise when I discovered that it was in our own backyard, but five miles north of us! Because it sounded just so wonderful, and because it seemed like they take volunteers and because I am immensely interested in vegetable gardening, I looked forward to visiting it.

I'm glad I did. Zoe did too, I'm sure.

Coming into the farm, we met a very kind young man - Raul - who gave Zoe and I a little walking tour of the farm. Then, after I expressed my interest in vegetable gardening and how I know nearly nothing about it, he introduced me to the owner and a few other people about. Then, he handed me some tools, showed me a bed that needed weeding and trusted Zoe and I to do it. Imagine that!

For an hour, while I dug and prodded the soil for the long, green weeds, Zoe played about me. Sometimes she helped, other times she mimicked what I was doing, except that the weeds had nothing to fear from her. We were not in want of company. In the time that we were there, we met Emily, Marguerite, and Marabel. Emily is young, and no more than twenty-five. She translated for me what Marguerite had to say about squash blossoms. When Emily took off, conversation eased off between Marguerite and I because her English is just as limited as my Spanish is. Still, it was very convivial. This was the classic commune I read about. Happy workers who live off the land, interesting houses with interesting artwork about, welcoming to people and children all alike.

It certainly lifted my spirits! It is not just the working (since it was really minimal). Seeing all that green, row after orderly row of growing, healthy green was very satisfying and centering. It made me think of Isak Dinesen description of her coffee farm:

"In the wildness and irregularity of the country, a piece of land laid out and planted according to rule, looked very well. Later on, when I few in Africa, and became familiar with the appearance of my farm from the air, I was filled with admiration for my coffee-plantation, that lay quite bright green in the grey-green land, and I realized how keenly the human mind yearns for geometrical figures. All the country round Nairobi, particularly to the North of the town, is laid out in a similar way, and here lives a people, who are constantly thinking and talking of planting, pruning or picking coffee, and who lie at night and meditate upon improvements to their coffee-factories."

I can't wait to go back there.

Sorely Disappointed

In our house hunting journey, I've reached that part where I think it more a trial than a journey. We have seen - or I should say I have seen - more than a hundred houses now and yet our first matrimonial home elude us. Not that we haven't seen anything that we like. We have put in two bids unsuccessfully. One of them for a house that we both loved (thus far the only one that is so out of the hundred and more that we have seen). The unsuccessful bids rankled because we could have them. Why didn't we go as far as we could have? Then, recently, we had to contend with diminishing supply and increasing prices. I fretted that we lost our chance to buy a good house in a location that we want and that is affordable to our means. Then, last week, lo and behold, I saw two houses that have great potential. Unfortunately, they weren't perfect. Dennis didn't love one of them (the one I could envision Zoe playing happily in the garden). The other meant a much longer commute for Dennis. But the price - the price!!! - was so good. I guess so good that both houses received bids and accepted them within two days.

I feel tremendously vexed by all this. I have managed to allay my nesting instinct for a while now. These days, they are out in hot fury. I'm going to vent right here: I want our house NOW!!!

Oh So Excited

Zoe doesn't know that her birthday is coming soon. But we do and we are - or I should say I am in particular - very excited about it. Two years!!! I lived every day of the last two years and yet, except for the fact that I have this little bundle of energy and personality as evidence for it, I find it hard to believe that we have been parents for just about two years now. It is just so fun now too, now that Zoe's ability to communicate with us has reached that point where she can mostly tell us what she wants and what fascinates her. It is so fun to to watch her catch on, see, process and adapt for herself new knowledge everyday.

And I enjoy the little moments we have. Yesterday, when we were at Kate Sessions Park, we strolled down the hill hand in hand. Zoe was clearly enjoying the view, as I was. And she was thrilled too to be holding my hand, as shown by the beaming wide smile she had on her face. With her other free hand, she pointed to things she saw. "Ocean!" "Boat!" And I thought, "ah, memory, serve me well, let me remember this moment years from now, when I am old and she is grown. Let the memory of this wash over me so that I may feel the happiness of it again and again."

Talk about happiness, we hope the gift we have for Zoe - a very large dollhouse - would bring her lots of happiness (and any hours of entertainment). It arrived two weeks ago to much anticipation. Dennis assembled it that very evening and it is taking a lot of will power for me to not show it to her. But I mustn't spoil her birthday surprise must I?

Oh, so excited!!

Skills

Zoe is constantly expanding her skill set. In this video, you may be catching a glimpse of a future women's soccer star:



Here, we see the next Julia Child:

Lavender

Two Videos

Jackie reads "The Snowy Day" to Zoe.



Zoe encounters ladybugs.

Big Bear Camping

Zoe has grown! She used to be so small relative to the baby carrier. Now, when we load her in, her feet touch the ground.



Zoe looks cool in her sunglasses. She finally accepts us putting them on her.





Zoe plays in front of our tent at the Hanna Flats Campground.



Matching Crocs on Jackie and Zoe. This photo was taken first thing in the morning, so Zoe was a little crabby.

Ladybugs!

All the things I have to say!

Zoe's language skills is growing in leaps and bounds. It's not just her vocabulary that is growing. Somehow or other, she's figuring out grammatical construction too. For example, she responded to my question of "which one do you want" with "I want that one." She didn't say "Baby want that" or "Linghui want that." She used the pronoun "I." I was impressed.

I think she delights in expressing herself too. For example, she spat out a mouthful of corn earlier this evening at dinner. She looked down and declared, as if I was the one who made the mess, "Why did you do that?!?" Then, still looking down, she confessed "I made a mess!"

Soon after, she asked for ice cream. We told her she had to wait. Her response? "10 minutes!!"