Little sisters
Little sisters are handy. If you pay attention, you can wait until Mama is distracted with feeding or otherwise taking care of the little sister and then you can go get into whatever it was Mama told you to leave alone. Very handy...
Zoë is, as I've mentioned, very TWO. The day before yesterday she was absolutely everywhere, into everything, ignoring me every time I said "Give that to me" or "Leave that alone" in typical toddler fashion. It didn't help that it was very hot and we were all tired and cranky, or that she was still cranky when she woke up from her nap. Poor kid, her routine got disrupted and she always gets very irritable when that happens. As far as Miranda goes, Zoë seems to be warming up to her a bit. Now and then she'll voluntarily go over to the baby and touch her, usually on the cheek or hand. It's always a brief touch and then Zoë's somewhere else again, but it's kinda sweet to see. And every now and then, Zoë will give her baby sister a little cuddle by touching her own head to the baby's, very gently. I didn't expect Zoë to be all that interested in the new baby, and I was right (she's more interested in Miranda's bed and bouncer and the toys people have given her). I also really wasn't expecting signs of affection, but I'm glad to see it happening. I don't know why I'm suprised, though, Zoë is a very affectionate little girl. In the evening of her Very-Two-Years-Old day, when I was just about unravelled, Zoë came over and climbed into my lap and gave me hugs and cuddles and kisses, entirely on her own initiative. I guess she just wanted to remind me that even though she's at the stage of her life where she's going to push every limit and challenge every barrier (including me telling her to leave something alone), she's a pretty wonderful kid. And so she is.
Sisterhood, Etc.
Zoë is taking the arrival of Miranda totally in stride. Big sister pretty much just ignores the little one most of the time, although now and then she comes over and touches the baby on the cheek or hand (mostly because any adults nearby will say, "Awww, that's nice" to her when she does).
What seems to fascinate Zoë far more than the baby is the baby's bed (the basket basinette, as mentioned) and the baby's bouncer, which used to be Zoë's. Zoë wants to sit in the bouncer, although I have no idea why. When we stopped putting her in it, it was because she hated it. She had to have the five-point harness on, and it was too restrictive, so she'd complain loudly if we tried to put her in. Now, though, it's apparently "fun" to sit in... Of course, we're not using the five-point harness any more, so maybe that's part of it, and I really doubt that she remembers when it was her bouncer. I think it's just a cool new piece of furniture and she wants to use it. The day before yesterday, Miranda was sleeping in the bouncer near my feet. Zoë came over and attempted to get into the bouncer with the baby (Zoë has learned that she's not allowed to pull the baby out or move her in any way). I said to Zoë, "You can't get in there with Miranda. There's not room for two little girls." Zoë's response was to take my hand and place it on the baby and then look at me expectantly. In other words, "Well, then, move the baby!" Once I got done laughing, I did, in fact, pick Miranda up, and Zoë sat down in the bouncer quite happily. Andrew said, "She's already bossing her little sister around, although by proxy." Zoë has also taken to getting her cup, plate, and silverware out of the cupboard and putting them on her highchair tray when she wants to eat. She doesn't use the silverware, but she likes to hold it while she does eat, and seems to consider it a necessary part of a meal. Cup, plate, silverware, then she climbs into the high chair, herself. She even waits more or less patiently for her food (provided she's not extremely hungry). At some point, my baby turned into a little kid...
Zoë and Miranda
Zoë got a baby sister on 8 January. So far, she's pretty much taken it in stride, as far as I can tell. She does seem to have an interest in the baby, but she's more interested in the baby's basket bed. Yesterday, Zoë climbed into it on several occasions (she just sat inside it and played quietly). On all of those occasions, it was empty.
Today, she pulled the blanket off the sleeping baby in the basket, put in several toys, and was almost certainly about to climb in herself when she was apprehended and stopped. I'm sure there's no malice involved here, and almost certainly no jealousy. I think Zoë just really likes the basket and therefore wants to get in it, herself. In other areas, Zoë has started to "talk" animatedly. She doesn't use actual words, but does sort of "speech noise". Think of the noise that Charlie Brown's teachers made in the animated cartoons. It has the rhythm and cadence of speech, but it's nonsense syllables. That's what Zoë's doing, usually with the sound "ba-ba-ba". She can go on at some length sometimes. It's really quite cute. Sounds like she's reciting a story or something. She used this skill to "lead the prayer" in church on Sunday. She got up near the lectern and as the reader was speaking, Zoë did her "ba-ba-ba-bahh" speech. I wasn't there, but I can just picture it in my mind's eye. So, well, so far so good, I guess. When Miranda is big enough to start playing with Zoë's toys, we may see some fireworks, of course, but for now all seems well enough. I have new pictures of Zoë, including some with Miranda, but as I don't have regular access to my own computer, they won't be available online for a while. Thankfully, our digital camera has enough memory to hold over a hundred pictures, so it doesn't need to be downloaded all that often.
Blink!
New game: blinking. She gets face to face with an adult (so far, she's played this with Grandpop and with me) and squints hard so her eyes squeeze shut. Then she opens them and waits while the adult does the same, and then giggles. Apparently, squinting/blinking is hilarious, judging by the way she laughs when she plays this game.
Sunday, she got an Angel Award for "angelic behavior" in Sunday school. From what I heard, she mostly ran around "playing" with the bigger kids and grinning at them all. I guess that does pretty much count as angelic for a two-year-old, though. I mean, no one got hurt, she didn't do any sort of damage to anything, and she was in a happy mood. Sounds pretty good to me.
She's definitely TWO
We've been offline for a while because of the holidays and such, so I haven't updated. I will now, though, even though it's going to take me a while to do all the pictures I have of Zoë and Christmastime (they'll keep for now, I think).
In the past couple of weeks, Zoë has absolutely just blossomed into a Two-Year-Old™. She suddenly learned how to climb practically everything! She can get up onto the dining room chairs and from there to the table, she can climb up onto all of the livingroom furniture, into and out of beds, and various other means of scaling the walls or shelves to get what she wants. She's also gotten very good at opening doors all of a sudden. Her cutest new trick was a few days ago. She was sleeping with her grandparents (she woke early and they brought her into bed with them) and got out of bed quietly and left the room. Grandpop watched as she opened the cupboard and got out two of her cups, went into the diningroom and put them on the tray of her high chair, and then proceeded to climb into the chair. When she tried to take a drink, she yelled because the cup was empty (she still hasn't worked out that people have to actually put things in cups). Pretty amazing, huh? My latest saying to her is, "You're very Two." And so she is. And while I am perfectly aware that two-year-olds are often referred to as "terrible twos" I don't find her so terrible. Frustrating, yes, sometimes annoying, sure, but watching her grow and bloom is wonderful. She suddenly is just full of possibilities and new abilities and it's a delight to see. I can't wait to see what she thinks of the baby...
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