Frustrating
Zoë's lack of speech is starting to get really frustrating. I almost wish now that I'd gone ahead with the speech therapy, because she's driving me crazy. She can talk, but she usually won't. Her latest thing is to come over to me while I'm working at the computer and push my elbow over and over when she wants something. I say, "What do you want?" and she won't answer. I don't think she's quite gotten it yet that speech is for communication. I have to guess what she wants. Very annoying sometimes, to say the least.
Owww
A little while ago, I was sitting in the family room feeding Miranda and I heard Zoë start to cry in the kitchen. I didn't actually pay much attention at first because Zoë cries when she's frustrated and usually it stops pretty quickly. This time, though, she kept on longer than usual and so I put the baby down and went to check. Poor little girl was standing with two of her fingertips caught in a drawer! There's no damage that I can see, although the fingers were very red and the girl was very upset. We had a bit of a cuddle, but she didn't seem to want comfort. She just wanted to be left alone. I did give her a cookie, which seemed to help the situation.
Catching up
Zoë's grandparents are going overseas for a year or more on a working holiday. Therefore, I'm under orders to update this and Miranda's journals more frequently so they can keep uo with what their grandchildren are doing. I think that's fair enough. So I shall endeavor to get into the updating habit now, before they leave.
Zoë's latest thing seems to be trying some of whatever her sister is eating, unless of course it's a funny color (like, say, vegetable colored). This is actually a good thing, because Zoë is now voluntarily eating apple sauce and today she enjoyed several bites of a very tasty baby banana cereal (which she used to love but eventually refused to eat in her picky toddler phase). In other news, the girls' great-grandfather showed a picture of Zoë's marvellous Canhenge to someone who happened to be a kindergarten teacher. The teacher asked Zoë's age and was surprised to hear "two and a half". Apparently, taking things out and matching them up and arranging them is a "four year old activity". Zoë's speech is stil not great. I'm absolutely convinced she can speak, and clearly, when she feels like it. Her latest words were "Night-night" and "Grandpop", and she can now say "Cack cack cack cack" which is what the Mama duck in the song says (you know, "Five little ducks when out one day, over the hills and far away, Mama duck said quack, quack, quack, quack, etcetera). She says "juice" and "drink" and various other everyday words, as well, but she doesn't very often. It still hasn't dawned on her that she can accomplish more with verbal communication than with grunts, shouts, and other body language. Ah, and she's all full and truly into the "tantrum" stage of development. Yay. Thankfully, she never misbehaves in public, only at home, and even that isn't all that frequent. She normally only falls into a dramatic heap of sobbing, kicking toddler when she's already hungry or tired. The rest of the time, she's pretty reasonable, if not terribly obedient all the time (and really, how obedient can you expect a two-and-a-half-year-old to be?). I expect to put some new pictures in the gallery some time later today, as well. Whew. I really should update this more often.
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