Reaching for the Stars (and knocking them off the shelf)

A while back I scavenged a tiny rocking chair from our neighbors trash. I assumed it was trash, although I suppose our neighbor could have been loading her car and I just timed my walk-by just right. It’s a cute chair, made with bright colors, sturdy enough that Zoe shouldn’t fall over too easily, and light enough that she won’t get hurt when it does fall on top of her. Unfortunately it was custom made for one of her children and has the name Eli painted on the mesh seatback. Alison suggested I paint over it or try to sand it off, but I don’t think that would work on this material. I suggested we rename Zoe Eli, but she just ignored me (I suggested it a second time, just in case she didn’t hear me, but she ignored me the second time as well). I’m not too worried. When we take all the cute photos of Zoe sitting on it, her body will obscure the name anyway. And we can place a tiny little throw over the back when people come to visit. Zoe has learned to climb on and off the chair by herself and this weeks picture is of her on the chair reading a book. I swear it is not staged.

Now that Zoe is standing (and almost but not quite walking) on her own I will start marking her height against a doorway, just as every parent for the last two hundred years has done. For now I track her growth by what she is able to reach. For example, our dining room table usually has a few placemats, a pile of newspapers, a smattering of mail, some… well, lots of stuff. The table was the one place where we could put things, since the coffee table is now entirely off limits. Now, however, she is reaching over the edge of the dining table and grabbing anything she can reach, more often just pulling it down on her head, which requires not only that I pick up a pile of spilled mail from the floor but that I also that I comfort her because it landed on her head. I’ve politely asked her not to pull the things off the table but she just ignores me, something I suspect I should just get used to.

Zoe grabbing and wanting things has become epidemic. She points at everything and grunts, even when there is nothing there. She does this so frequently that I swear she is seeing things that no one else does. If you’ve seen The Sixth Sense you will understand my concern. In the meantime, I’ve been slowly adding cabinet locks, moving items further out of reach and out of sight, and basically creating that barren, modern look in our house that oddly enough I’ve always desired. That is except for the very colorful spread of toys that covers a third of our floors and all the chachkas that are crammed onto high shelves.

I’m excited to introduce the all-new URL address for this blog, www.lifewithzoe.com (you should have been automatically redirected there). Now it will be so much easier to tell all your friends where to find us. Yay. Clapping.

See photos of Zoe at http://picasaweb.google.com/dbglass