A Day-in-the-Life

One of the benefits of being a stay-at-home-dad is the random socializing with everyone who wants to comment on Zoe’s cuteness. It helps that Zoe is so charming. I can always count on her to give a big hello or blow a kiss to that cute girl in the coffee shop. Then all the ‘Oh, she’s so cute’ and ‘How old is she?’ and ‘Now I know where she gets her good looks and muscles from’ start. However, Zoe does not discriminate and will just as quickly charm the two hundred pound mustachioed lady wearing the purple tutu. Since Zoe’s conversational skills end at ‘hi’ and I’m too polite to turn my back on anyone, I often get drawn into long, nonlinear conversations, often involving cats and/or Jesus. I’m afraid that once Zoe starts talking, she will take to inviting these ‘creative’ people home for dinner.

Zoe has a large bag with big Lego-like building blocks. There are five different colors and ten shapes. Zoe likes to empty the entire bag on the floor and connect a series of these blocks. However, she will only stack the same color and shape block. As she builds she will say, “More,” and it is my job to find more of the pieces she is using. If I hand her a piece that is a different color or shape, she will abandon the stack she is working on and start a new stack. I will often build something alongside her that uses various shapes and colors, as an example of the possibilities, but she more often seems baffled at my creations and will quickly disassemble them. No, not OCD (commonly characterized by obsessive, distressing, intrusive thoughts) or OCPD (stress perfectionism above all else, and feeling anxious when they perceive that things are not "right"). She is simply meticulous and perfectionistic. Here are a few people throughout history who have shared this trait; Albert Einstein, Leonardo da Vinci and Shakespeare. I bet now you’re impressed?

Zoe will eat food scavenged from our floor, food found in the crevices of her car seat, or food picked up off the ground at the playground, but she will not eat something carefully prepared and placed in front of her. I think I’m going to try hiding broccoli amongst her toys and sprinkling fruits and other vegetables around at the playground as an experiment. Maybe she only like’s foods that have ‘marinated’ for a few days, or have had all the moisture pressed out of them by the bottom of someone’s shoe? It’s the same when she is sharing snacks with her friend Tallulah. They will consume each others snacks but reject their own. Actually, Tallulah’s mom always packs better snack anyway; I just pack a few goldfish into to the back to make it look like I prepared.

Recent photos: http://picasaweb.google.com/dbglass/ZoeMichel20thMonth
Buy the book at http://blurb.com/bookstore/detail/193034

‘Mama’ is not an Answer

Zoe loves books. If you are playing with her she will just as often bring you a book to read as some toy. However, Zoe is not the gentlest when it comes to books (or anything) and her attention span is that of a nineteen month old, so we are limited to short, board books. We have a fairly large library of this type of book, but she has her favorites and we have our favorites, which means that the same books get read over and over and over (and over and over). In fact, I think between Alison and I we have read Goodnight Moon about five hundred times. Okay, maybe I’m exaggerating by a hundred or so, but during a recent reading of Goodnight Moon I found myself thinking about something completely unrelated. I had memorized the book and was no longer actually reading it. The year before Zoe was born my New Year resolution was to read a book a week for the entire year (I fell short by two books, although I should get extra credit for Don DeLillo’s 800 page Underworld). I now read up to a dozen books a day, but oddly don’t seem to get the same satisfaction. I’m looking forward to Zoe being old enough for chapter books, although I do realize that bedtime story reading time will become exponentially longer, and the books might turn out to be equally tedious. Maybe I should introduce her to video games instead?

In an attempt to give Zoe some autonomy we have started to give her choices. For example, I might ask her to choose which shoes she would like to wear, or if she wants to stay upstairs with Mommy or go downstairs with Daddy. I believe asking her to make her own decisions helps her develop language and cognitive skills. However, she more often than not will just answer with a ‘yah’ to both sides of the questions. But even more irritatingly she will respond with a non sequitur, such as, “Mama.”
• Dad: “Zoe, do you want Some Cheerios in your snack cup?”
• Zoe: “Mama.”
• Dad: “Zoe, do you want any Cheerios?”
• Zoe: “Mama.”
• Dad: “Okay, should we go outside and blow some bubbles?”
• Zoe: “Mama.”
If you’ve ever watched the Simpson’s you may recall the image of Homer throttling Bart. Not that I would ever hurt one hair on Zoe’s angelic head, but by the end of the day I have heard ‘Mama’ in response to enough questions that I envy Homer’s repercussionless ability to vent.

Last year Alison, Zoe and I participated in the Kaiser Permanente (Alison’s employer) sponsored, Strides Against Breast Cancer walk. When the flyer came out for this years walk we were surprised to see Zoe prominently featured. This was the flyer that was distributed to all Northern California Kaisers. Click here to see this portend of Zoe’s future as a star of stage and screen.

Recent photos: http://picasaweb.google.com/dbglass/ZoeMichel19thMonth
Buy the book at http://blurb.com/bookstore/detail/193034

A Walk in the Park

Our house sits on the border of John Hinkel Park, a 4.9-acre hilly and wooded area that was donated to the city in 1918. There are a number of crumbling trails winding through the hills, an aging outdoor amphitheatre built into the hillside, a deteriorating redwood clubhouse, and a somewhat forlorn playground consisting of a few swings, an ancient metal slide and an old-fashioned style seesaw. We’ve lived in our home for four years and have only walked through the park a handful of times. But recently I have started spending more time there, mostly on weekends while Alison is napping. On hot days it’s pleasantly shaded. This morning there was a chill in the air that I equate with East Coast fall days, so the park today seemed even more tranquil than usual, and perhaps a bit nostalgic. And although Zoe is not quite old enough to really enjoy the winding, crisscrossing paths, she still enjoys climbing on the benches dotting the paths and she particularly likes the old, metal slide. Except for the weekend theatre company that arrives each summer, the park doesn’t get a lot of use and it is not rare that we will wander through and don’t run into anyone. Alison and I sometimes talk about moving back to the East Coast, or even moving closer to the hospital where she works, but I think living near this park makes our current home unique, and should we stay I hope it is someplace that Zoe will eventually enjoy as much as I do.

Zoe's favorite song these days is the toilet paper song. You see, in a hopeful and ultimately premeditated spurt of optimism (and misread signs) we purchased a child’s potty. We chose a model that voices encouragement through song and positive reinforcement for performing various potty tasks. On one side of the ‘tank’ there is a spindle that is supposed to resemble a roll of bath tissue. Spin it and the toilet will say various things, one of which is the toilet paper song. It goes something like this. “Toilet-paper, toilet-paper, on a roll, next to me, I can take a few squares, maybe one or two squares, how about three? Hurray for me!” Zoe will give the roll a spin than do a little jig along with the music. Fortunately she seems to have abandoned the real toilet paper or this singing one. Unfortunately, the few times I have attempted to sit her on this potty she has locked all her joints into a rigid board and yelled, “No!” In an unrelated piece of developmental news she can now use a spoon to get liquid from a soup bowl to her mouth most of the time (although the space between the bowl and her mouth also gets its share).

Recent photos: http://picasaweb.google.com/dbglass/ZoeMichel19thMonth
Buy the book at http://blurb.com/bookstore/detail/193034

Cute Things She Does

Zoe speaks almost non-stop now. If you ask her a question she will either give a long response or answer, Yah.” This morning I asked her what she was playing with. This was her answer. “Esht ma beya yash la ma eshya et ah,” or something to that affect. She is also a pro with ‘Bye’. If she sees a plane flying overhead or a bus drive by she will yell Bye a few times and wave. When mom leaves in the morning she will yell ‘Bye’. If we are in the kitchen and she walks into the living room she will yell ‘Bye’. The Yah is less accurate. If I ask her if she wants some juice she will answer ‘Yah’. But if I ask her if she would like to be devoured by tigers she will also answer ‘Yah’. This works in my favor as I may ask her if she wants to play quietly in the corner while I watch the baseball game, and she will most often answer ‘Yah’. Of course asking and receiving are two different animals.

Zoe has unique 'forbidden' radar, a sixth sense, if you will. It works by quickly identifying things that she should not get in to or do. Here are some examples. She will be playing quietly by herself and I'll open a cabinet with a child lock. Suddenly she is there next to me trying to push me aside so she can get into it. Or I'll put something that needs to go downstairs on the other side if the gate, on the top step. A moment later she is on her stomach reaching through, trying to grab it. Likewise when I empty dishwasher. If I open the door she will suddenly appear in the kitchen. I am then forced to grab one item at a time, close the dishwasher door, and put that item away. Then repeat the process until the it’s empty. If there is one square foot of mud in a football field she will find it. If there is a pen near the edge of a table, she will grab it. If I put my glasses down on the coffee table she will instantly know it, even if she is asleep. I, on the other hand, will spend an hour trying to remember where I put my glasses.

A couple of weeks ago I mentioned that Zoe threw up on the plane ride back from Boston. Well, Alison has a theory that has been tested twice. On the last two occasions Zoe was given a new book she has thrown up shortly after being read this book for the first time. This morning, on the way out for coffee, we stopped at a bookshop and I bought her a new book. If she throws up tonight I will ban all new children’s books from the house.

Recent photos: http://picasaweb.google.com/dbglass/ZoeMichel19thMonth
Buy the book at http://blurb.com/bookstore/detail/193034