Oh those pesky ears!

So, I should be working right now, but I cannot get motivated to start something new as I will be leaving soon to take Zoa to the doctor yet again. She has another ear infection, and since it is her 5th in only 3 months, we are taking her to an ENT for a consultation. I guess we will hear all the pros and cons of putting tubes in. Brian and I both want to be pretty conservative, but we will see what the doctor has to say.

Despite being sick (you would really never know she was), Zoa has been on a developmental spree. She learned almost all her colors last month, but was having trouble distinguishing red. However, now she has red down and rarely gets colors confused. She also can identify the letters of her name, saying "z" "o" "a" if you point to the letters. Again, sometimes she mixes them up, but we still think she is bordering on genius. She even drew a pretty good "z" a few weeks ago in the tub with her soap crayons.

With all this new intelligence, certainly comes more independence. She is starting to refuse to even sit in her booster chair at dinner. She wants to sit in a regular chair, but unfortunately for her, she is not quite tall enough. A couple nights ago, we removed the seat-back from the chair, so it is now more of a booster seat. If we use that and do not strap her in, it seems to appease her. We just have to keep an eye constantly on her while we are eating. Other than meals, she eats most of her snacks sitting on the floor of the kitchen or standing while using one of our chairs as a table. This is one of the only ways I can get her to eat anything sometimes.

Zoa basically wants what she wants when she wants it, and if she does not get her way, she may decide to throw herself on the floor and cry. So, she is a pretty typical toddler. Of course, this behavior is saved solely for our benefit as she would never think of behaving in such a way at daycare or under the supervision of others.

Well, I should run. We will let you know how things turn out with Zoa's ears, but knowing me, it may take a few weeks.

Quick update

Just a quick update on the Zoa front as she is currently running around and breaking CD-R drives on the computer. Today she went poop on her potty for the first time. Earlier this week, she peed on the floor twice next to her potty, but had not gone on it since my last post. Anyway, here are some pics. I hope to write a longer update later.

Major milestone!

I just had to write a quick post to let Zoa fans know that she has officially begun potty training. This morning she peed on her little potty chair for the first time. Like I was saying before, she has been really interested in sitting on the potty (or being naked by the potty), but this morning she got right out of bed saying, "potty, potty." So, we went to the bathroom where she proceeded to strip down. After a few minutes of her walking around naked, I started to think it was just another excuse to be wild and free. However, then she sat down on the chair and started saying, "pee" and low and behold there was pee. We could not be more proud!

More pics

Here are a couple new pictures of Zoa being confused by the snow and sporting her latest hair style.

Happy New Year

I realize that it has been about a month since I last posted anything to the blog. Of course that means that Zoa has changed a lot since my last post. We were busy over the winter break with a trip to Wisconsin to visit family and friends. However, we were also battling illness(es) as usual. Zoa has had multiple ear infections, and there is a threat of tubes looming over her. I also was really sick for a little over a week again, so it has been a rough start to the new semester already. I am finally on the mend, so I decided to spend a thrilling Saturday night updating the blog.

Zoa had a great Christmas meeting a new cousin and reconnecting with all her Wisconsin family. She also received a ton of Christmas gifts, which means that our house is littered with toys much of the time. We actually packed away a bunch of her old toys so that we can bring them out when she tires of the new ones.

Zoa is talking more and more every day, sometimes saying very complete sentences like, "I see a cat," but more frequently sticking to short 2 word utterances with a whole bunch "Zoa speak" in-between words. She has started to boss us around telling us what she does and does not want, specifically related to eating and playing. Today she started telling one of the cats what to do. She did not want Yoko just laying around and sleeping (perhaps she too knows Yoko is morbidly obese); she insisted Yoko get down off the couch and play in her fort, which she calls her park; or, as Zoa said, "Yoki sleeping. Yoki down. Yoki park!"

Zoa is also becoming a true kid already finding all bodily functions hilarious. She finds all gas particularly funny and cracks up any time she burps or farts. Each offense also must be celebrated by exclaming "burp" or "kai" (what she calls gas). She is very into poop too and is always having to change her dolls' diapers because they are constantly soiling them. We are hoping all this interest will lead her to begin potty training. However, so far she has only managed to sit on the potty and make faces as if she were going to the bathroom. Mostly, she uses a trip to the potty as an excuse to take her clothes off. Despite of the bitter cold here right now, Zoa has decided that she much prefers to be in her natural state and is continuosly removing her clothes. It started this last week at daycare, and now we are all having to struggle to keep Zoa clothed. She is a little Hoodini weaseling her way out of clothes with all sorts of snaps and zippers that I have to struggle to get her in.

Well, I am going to enjoy what is left of my Saturday night. I hope to write more soon as there are so many developments that I cannot begin to cover them all.