Standing Alone

"I said 'low five', dad"

As I was preparing another all-word posting, Nico was sweeping under the couch.
Two miracles happened. The first one I already described, the second one was when Nico reached behind the couch, and said "hmmmf, you're going to like this". He reappeared holding my lost Canon!
I grabed it from him, clutched it to my chest and got weepy eyed. Seriously.
After loosing the camera, I deduced that I must have lost it when packing up the car in the woods. I went back, met with the ranger to fill out a missing item report. I taped "lost" signs around the parking lot, i asked fellow park visitors if they'd seen it, I posted on Craigslit, i'd visited Ebay for a replacement. Nico said wait. Let's be sure it's gone.
A part of me was gone, and it's absence left me disabled. I was forlorn.

Oh happy day! My Canon and I have been joyously reunited and now we can continue our visual journey!

First Words

Did I hear that right?
A couple of weeks ago, Zoe and I got to spend time with Zoe's cousin Alena. Alena, who is about 6 months older than Zoe is always a few steps ahead, and it's fun to see that what Alena is doing now, Zoe will be doing soon.
When we saw Alena last time, she had a vocabulary of about 50 words. As she ran around the house stopping to dance in front of the stereo, or nibble on some snacks, she would yell out various things as she whizzed by. I didn't really pay much attention to the specifics of her speech as it sounded a lot like "la la da bashdosien gsldhsenkg" (except for the occasional and very clear "HI!"). Zoe does a lot of incoherent babbling while she practices her speech so I thought this is what was mostly being said. But her mommy, Angela kept saying "yes honey, you're dancing" and "that's right, there's the baby" and so on. Angela was tuning into a special frequency that only mommies can pick up. I was baffled. I did not hear anything in that babbly speech that I could recogonize as English. I began to think that Zoe would start talking in another few months and would be trying to express her deep needs and thoughts to me, and I would say "yes honey, I'm making lunch" much to her disappointment of not being understood as saying "I want to wear the blue shirt". I wondered if I would be able to discern my baby's speech from all the jabber that stumbles out of her mimicking mouth.
This morning as I was feeding our big orange cat, Zoe watched while holding onto the safety gate between her and Sid's food dish. Sid brushed by Zoe and I said "Look Zoe, your kitty is coming to say 'hello'". She held out her hand to his fur as he sauntered toward the gate, under her hand. "KiTTi"!!! she said. I thought I was imagining what I had heard. Maybe a coincidence. "yes Zoe, that's Sidsy kitty". "KiTTi"!!! she said again. I couldn't believe it! Her first word.
Later in the park I told her not to put the mud pie in her mouth. "that's dirt. you can touch the dirt honey, but don't put it in your mouth".
"dirt"! Zoe said.
No, coincidence.
"Dirt"!!!
Wow. My little prodigy. Now I am paying close attention to all the babbles. Later, as I pulled her out of the car she yelled "Dirt"! We went in and played with toys. "Dirt"! Okay, maybe dirt was a coincidence, but Kitty was definitley intentional.

Sad Day

Last week, Zoe and I went to the redwood forest up the hill for a twilight walk. It was so calm and pretty there, it reminded me of my senior year at UCSC spent walking the paths of the forest in the evening with the huge 4x5. while packing up the car with baby, diaper bag, stroller, pacifiers, cheerios, sippy cup, etc. I must have lost the camera. I never even had the chance to look over the shots of her parked on the trail in a patch of peachy evening light reflecting through the ferns.
I've taped "Lost!" announcements in the park next to the tick warnings at the trailheads and on the window of the payment kiosk. I posted under the Lost & Found heading on Craigslist. I filled out paperwork with the ranger. I searched every bag and the trunk of the car. No luck.
Until I can replace the camera, I've decided to take "mental pictures" and while they hold more detail than the digital version, they are more difficult and time consuming to upload on to Blogspot. Bear with me for a bit.

Lost

This is the last image I took before "loosing" the canon for 10 days.
I saw it in my mind as I moped over the loss of the camera.
Now I can post it, and you can see it too.

The Chiccomobile

Last week Zoe wanted nothing to do with the Chiccomobile. Now she loves it. With a deathgrip on the bar, she pushes it like a scuba diver walking over sand with their flippers on. She sits on it's yellow seat while being whisked along at breakneck speed, her giggles bubbling away in the wind behind her.

Screams of Joy!

We have found a great park nearby. We asked our mailman if he knew of a good park, and he suggested it.
Zoe and I went right over. As I pulled Zoe out of the car, she could see all the children playing and she smiled, then giggled, then started screaming with excitement. Not only does this park have basket swings, they have play kitchens, slides, sand, grass (which zoe hates, by the way) and all kinds of toys that live in the park. We found a walking toy there, we zoe can push a little car on wheels and walk along behind it. She grabbed a hold and took off! She went and walked and rolled and kept going as we did laps around the other kids on big wheels and scooters and bikes.
Enjoy the video of Zoe having fun!

London Bridges- Lesson #2

Zoe's Swimming Lesson

Watch! As the AMAZING BABY swims through the pool full of toddlers and mommies.
See! Her silly goggle-eyes!
Listen! As she kicks gently in the water like a little frog.
Behold! The baby goes UNDERWATER!
Thanks! To Ted's great video skills!

Discovery Park

Fair, Zoe & Heather

Cheerios

Walking the Pad