Notes on the life, times, and development of Miss Zoë Bromage, as recorded by her mother. Also includes minor notes on updates to this website.

Sunday, April 29, 2001

Zoë spent the night at Nanna and Grandpop's last night. In total, she was away from home for around 24 hours. By all reports, she did very well and didn't have any major traumas or other drama, except for managing to get her finger caught in the VCR (she's got a little bump and broken skin there now). She had dinner, a bath, and fell asleep on Nanna's lap at a perfectly reasonable hour.

She slept in her own (portable) cot and then woke around 2am, when Nanna, thinking Zoë might be cold, brought her into bed with them. Nanna slept the rest of the night with Zoë on one side and the cat on the other.

Breakfast was milk, cereal and toast, and she went to church with them, but she doesn't like the organ. We first discovered this at her great-grandmother's funeral a few weeks ago, but apparently Zoë really, really means it. She doesn't like the organ, thankyou. She also apparently had a nap during the service and later, at the coffee gathering afterward, took someone's piece of fruit bread and promptly ate it herself.

One of the funniest things was yesterday, before we left. She had previously had a great deal of fun getting into Nanna's sewing cupboard and playing with a big collection of boxed zippers that are kept in there. Well, Grandpop put a hook and eye latch on the cupboard and the toddler couldn't get the door open any more. The cry of infuriation and frustration was both pitiful and funny, because we all pretty much figured she'd object loudly to finding she couldn't open the door any more. She did eventually figure out she wasn't going to be able to open it and resigned herself to that fact and found other things to play with (such as the VCR).

Today she seems a bit out of sorts, but I think it's mostly because she's tired. She was asleep in the car when Nanna brought her back this afternoon, and she was woken when I took her out of the car, and she hasn't slept since.

I'd say the night at the grandparents' house was quite a sucess. We'll do it again soon (May 12, to be precise).

:: posted 29.4.01 :: link

Two new word-sounds. "Weeee" (as in the little piggy who cried all the way home), and "Coke". I'm absolutely certain she doesn't actually mean "Coke", but Andrew's been having fun joking that she's already starting her caffeine addiction by asking for our favorite bubbly caffeinated beverage.

Tomorrow night, she's going to spent the whole night with Nanna and Grandpop, while Andrew and I go out to dinner and a show at the Melbourne Comedy Festival. She'll go to church with them in the morning and we'll meet up with them in the afternoon at a showing of the Dead Sea Scrolls, which are on tour in Australia right now. I'm sure I'll be thinking about her a lot, because it's my first time away from her overnight, but I'm equally confident that she'll actually be perfectly fine in the care of her grandparents. I'm guessing she won't miss us until she sees us again and realizes we were away!

:: posted 27.4.01 :: link

Spent some time at Nanna and Grandpop's house today. Zoë walked all over the place and played and played and played (she's always a very busy girl). She discovered Nanna's sewing cabinet, which has a big collection of zippers still in the cardboard packages. I wouldn't actually have thought of "zippers in the packages" as fun toys, but apparently, Zoë found them highly enjoyable, and she kept going back to the cupboard to get into them again (and make a big mess on the floor).

She managed to climb up onto the couch all by herself, and she was also having a fun time climbing back and forth over the little fold-out couch with Winnie the Pooh on it (a present from Nanna and Grandpop). She just climbed back and forth over the back rest, going head first and gently landing on the floor or the seat. She must have gone back and forth a couple dozen times.

She was very tired by the end of the visit, but she fought sleep for ages. She was so tired, she was wobbling around and falling on her bottom a lot, but she refused to sleep. She finally couldn't resist any more and fell asleep in the car on the way home. Thus ends the very busy day of a very busy and very clever girl, and I'm sure she'll be up and bright eyed and bushy tailed first thing in the morning...

:: posted 22.4.01 :: link

Zoë was having a nap earlier in the room next to the office (her portable cot is in that room). She suddenly woke up sobbing and couldn't be comforted for quite some time. Andrew thinks she had a nightmare and I agree, because she was very upset and very unsettled, which is really not like her. Normally she wakes up and blinks a bit and sort of looks around in a daze and then just calls out to us to come and get her. Waking up sobbing hysterically is out of character.

This leads one to wonder what, precisely, toddlers have nightmares about. Presumably it would be things that are scary or upsetting to toddlers, such as falling down and bonking your head (something she does with alarming frequency) or having your parents say "NO" to you in a loud, scary voice or perhaps having your parents take away the splendidly fun toy you just found which they insist is something you can damage or which can damage you (parents are so mean sometimes).

Sometimes, Zoë giggles and smiles in her sleep, so I guess she must have happy, fun dreams as well as bad, scary ones. Fortunately, the bad, scary ones are not at all frequent, or at least they don't often make her wake up sobbing.

:: posted 16.4.01 :: link

Zoë has finally figured out how to make that bub-bub-bub noise by "strumming" her lips with her fingers. For a while she was sticking one finger into her mouth and sort of wobbling it around while making a noise, which works, but it's not quite as good as the bub-bub-bub noise, and not as fun.

She also likes to do a "horsey" noise by blowing through relaxed lips in a sort of raspberry noise like horses make.

Oh, yes, and also, it's extremely fun to pull tissues out of the box. Just in case you ever wondered.

:: posted 13.4.01 :: link

Headphones are not allowed. Andrew and I share an office and because we don't want to have to listen to whatever the other person is doing on their computer (and because Andrew's computer doesn't have speakers), we both have a set of headphones to use when we want to be able to hear sound on the computer. Zoë does not approve.

She comes over to the offending parent (i.e., the parent wearing earphones) and just pulls them off and puts them aside. She just plain doesn't like them on us. I think maybe she sees them as alien or something, but in any event, they don't belong and we are not to wear them in her presence.

She felt the same way about the towel I had wrapped around my head, turban-style. It was weird, different, and unfamiliar, and she made it very clear that I was to remove it immediately.

Toddlers are so funny sometimes.

:: posted 7.4.01 :: link

This morning, Zoë was sleeping in only a nappy, since her pyjamas had been removed earlier due to a bit of an accident. When she called us to wake us up, she was completely naked in her cot. On the floor beside the cot was a nappy full of poo, which she had obviously removed herself. And the amazing thing about this event? She didn't get any poo anywhere at all! There was a bit on her bottom, but none in the cot or on the sheets or blankets as far as we could see (or smell). She's a clever girl!

:: posted 3.4.01 :: link

I meant to publish this earlier, but Blogger was having some troubles for a while and I kept forgetting.

Zoë has a new tooth! Lower left second incisor. Not sure when it came through, but it was definitely in the last few days. Judging by her behavior lately, I'd say the next one will be here any time now.

:: posted 1.4.01 :: link

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