Just Zoe and Mommy
Today is Memorial Day, and Zoe and I have spent the day at home, but had a wonderful time. We were supposed to go to Pennsylvania with John’s family, but Zoe threw up in the car before we left Montclair, so we stayed at home while everyone else went. It was nice to get a little solo time with Zoe, and with a little imagination I could almost envision what life would be like without her younger sisters, who I have avoided talking about all day.
After we were dropped off, we spent four hours at home in the living room resting and then playing on the couch. It is surprising that this was so much fun because I usually consider being stuck at home to be a form of imprisonment, due to the seemingly neverending mess, laundry to be done, work waiting upstairs and lack of change in scenery. (Working at home is a contributing factor, because you never really leave.) Freed from the need to be productive, with taking care of Zoe as my only job for the day, it was relaxing and fun to be with her without taking care of the needs of the other girls.
After some morning rest, we hung out on the couch as she generously shared her Honey-Nut Cheerios with me. The crunching sound prompted a long discussion of Caramel, the guinea pig at school and what she likes to eat. Next she decided to dress me in blankets, uses part of the doctor’s kit to strap a blue band around my wrist. I brought out a new big-girl kitchen puzzle, which she had fun taking apart but not putting back together. After about four hours of nothing-in-particular, we went for a stroll on a mission to get some Goldfish and we succeeded! (The day was productive afterall.) We went for a walk around the flower garden nearby and picked a few dandelions on the way home. Then instead of wanting a snack, she said “I want a nap” which never happens! It was a perfect end to a perfect afternoon.
Since I never really finished my comments on Zoe on the last post, this seems like a good time. Her enthusiasm for every day things is really wonderful. She still loves saying hello to the diggers every day (fortunately there is a construction site a few blocks away), and the expression “stop to smell the roses” in my mind has been replaced by “stop to see the diggers”. We always walk home from school that way, and sometimes walk that way to school too.
I love listening to her talk in her room at night, and am always amused by the connections she makes. She often uses adjectives, and then says “just like….” with a connection that is usually correct, but not one our conditioned adult minds would make. A mild example today is the leap from crunching cheerios to Caramel (the guinea pig) crunching carrots. While I would probably think of other food I’d like, she thinks of animals eating food. Today I also learned that school is good, which is a relief, and she seemed happy at the thought of going back to school. I started calling summer camp (which she apparently doesn’t want to do) summer school in the hope that some of that enthusiasm would rub off.
Zoe was potty trained a few months after her third birthday and I was amazed at how elated I was. I think I didn’t really believe it was ever going to happen, and that she would be going off to high school and then college still in diapers. I started a post called Potty Power - the video of choice for all the girls, but never finished it because it seemed a bit much. Zoe takes such pride in her “huge” poopies that for months she wanted us to take pictures of them. (Sometimes when she sees huge items, she says “just like my__” - you get the idea.) We obliged because it seemed like a good way to reinforce the accomplishment. Fortunately there hasn’t been much regression though naps are still an issue, and make me wonder how we will ever give up the night-time diaper.
Zoe was a very easy happy girl today. I hope that someday she will be this way with her sisters around, but today I started to really see things from her perspective. It can’t be easy to be the only child and suddenly have twin sisters. Yes, most of us have siblings but most of us don’t have twin siblings. While there are advantages to everyone being the same gender, at this age it may make it harder because she is no longer the only girl. Fortunately our new school schedule in the fall may help, because built into every week is 3 hours on Wednesday morning when her sisters are in school and she is home. I also realized today that it’s not about where we go or what we do, it really is about the quality time.