Hide-and-Seek, Zoe Style

Zoe has long been fascinated with cabinets, drawers, etc, but recently she's discovered the art of sitting inside cabinets. She has a favorite cabinet in the kitchen that she likes to use to play hide-and-seek. When she goes "in" the cabinet (her feet are still hanging out...lol) she says "bye" and when she pops out she says "hi." Of course, we act shocked every time she pops out. She's a hoot! We love this girl to pieces!!! She is so much fun!

Where's Zoe?!

There She Is!

Our Little Shopper

***To my family and friends (if you're still out there): I'm sorry this blog is so grossly outdated. Life is busier than ever for some reason. Rather than catching up, I'm going to "keep up" and work on Zoe's old monthly posts as time permits. Now, on to the post...***

Zoe enjoys pushing things. Chairs, her stroller, doors, whatever. If it can be pushed, she's pushing it! We recently visited a grocery store that has small grocery carts to be pushed by its smallest of patrons. Zoe had a blast pushing her grocery cart. She had a few crashes along the way (which she acknowledged by saying "boom"), but there was no stopping her....until we got to the bread and candy aisle. Zoe does not eat candy, but she was determined to place three bags of chocolate in her cart. When we removed said bags from her cart, she politely picked them back up and returned them to her cart. LOL. I think a toy shopping cart of her own will be added to our toy "wish list" for Zoe. (We're trying to pace ourselves so our home doesn't become a mini toy store, but it's hard to do with so many cute toys on the market) Zoe also enjoyed pushing the cart against the shelves. Price tags were flying off left and right, but Zoe, being the sweet heart that she is, made sure to stop and pick up the debris she was leaving behind. As a friend aptly pointed out, pushing the cart against the shelves probably helped her keep her cart going straight; good point. Zoe's one smart cookie!

Zoe also enjoys riding in the shopping carts that have little cars attached to the front. She's so proud to "drive" the basket around the store. If the car has two steering wheels, she takes great pleasure if driving with both steering wheels. That's what I call talent!

Zoe returning her chocolates to her cart:

Zoe "driving" through the store:

Our Budding Artist?

Zoe started her first "art" class on June 14. The class is called Dri.bbles and Scri.bbles and is offered at the children's mus.eum. The program theme for the summer is "Carnival of Animals." Each class starts with a quick story time and ends with music and instruments. The toddlers are exploring different animal shapes using different art media. Unfortunately we had to miss week #3 because Zoe wasn't feeling well, but in the first two weeks we've used finger paints, regular paint using brushes (at the art easel), paint dotters and painting with toilet paper rolls (who knew?). Each week Zoe creates a new piece of art and is supposed to add something to her personal canvas. At the end of the eight week session, she will have a canvas that contains a sample of each art medium used. Although this is supposed to be Zoe's art class, it feels like Mommy and Daddy are taking art classes because we're doing more art work than Zoe. Go figure! (But Zoe is personally adding to her canvas (except for a few dots from Daddy during week #2), so it'll be fun to display her art in her future play room) This class is confirming that Zoe, at least up to this point, is a girly girl because she does not like getting paint on her hands. It's pretty funny.

After each art class, we spend time playing in the children's mus.eum. I was able to convince my dear friend, Julie, to enroll her daughter, Kendall, in Zoe's art class. It's so fun watching Kendall and Zoe explore and play together.

Our Budding Artist

(Zoe loves spending time at the easel)

Week 1 Masterpiece (plus Zoe working on her canvas)

Scribbling with the "dotters"...Zoe wouldn't "dot" the paper.

Distressed by the paint on her hands.
Relieved to be washing her hands.

Week 2 Masterpieces

Playtime at the children's mus.eum

Zoe and Kendall...notice that Kendall actually looks like she's been to art class...I love it!

Zoe enjoyed squeezing the cow's teats at the museum's little farm

Standing at the silly mirrors....look at those legs

Our Little Helper

Zoe loves helping Trevor and I do things around the house. Whether it be loading (or unloading) the dishwasher, putting clothes in the washer or dryer, or putting laundry away, Zoe is right there eager to help. I hope Zoe's this eager to help out when she's a teenager. Here's our sweet Zoe in action:

Is this what you need Mommy?

Helping Daddy load dishes

Putting away groceries

Helping put laundry...away?

Putting clothes in the dryer

Balloon Festival

The city we live in has an annual hot air balloon festival. Trevor and I have never attended, but this year we had a special reason to check it out. The balloons were inflated and launched twice a day for an entire weekend, so we took a blanket out to the festival grounds and enjoyed a Sunday evening launch. The weather was perfect. Zoe enjoyed watching the balloons momentarily, but she especially enjoyed the fresh air, rolling and crawling around on the blanket and playing with her two favorite people in the whole wide world, Mommy and Daddy.