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
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