Do

Zoe’s recent new word of affirmation is “do” rather than yes. It began as a response to such questions as “Do you want something?” or “Do you like this or that?” A few weeks ago she began responding with “I do” and quickly shortened it to “Do.” Now she says “do” whenever she means “yes.” Her “do” usually has two syllables and is said in a sing-song way - kind of funny.

Zoe’s language skills seem to have exploded (again) in the past few weeks. We have long been impressed with the number of words she knows and uses (for her age). Lately she has been consistently putting together four and five word sentences and using phrases that we have no idea where they come from. Of course she also parrots words and phrases like crazy!

With her growing ability to communicate verbally come some cute and interesting interactions as well as evidence of her ability to comprehend things. One such example involves tulips (Sara’s favourite spring flower). Our next door neighbour has tulips planted on the edge of his garden. One day last week I took Zoe over to show her the green leaves that were growing. I explained that they were going to grow bigger (making a growing motion with my arm) and then they will have pretty flowers on them. Zoe watched stoically without any reaction. A couple days later we were walking elsewhere when Zoe stopped by some young tulip plants beside the sidewalk. Talking to nobody in particular she began to make growing motions with her arms and say “Grow bigger. Then flower.” I guess she listens after all!

Over the weekend we went for a walk in the lane behind our house. There is a pretty red rock that Zoe loves to sit on. Yesterday was no exception. As she sat there she kept pointing to the ground and asking “where baby go?” We could not figure out what she was talking about until we looked closer and realized she was pointing at a few small pieces of egg shell near the base of the rock. Only then did I recall seeing a partial bird egg there about a month ago and explaining to a concerned Zoe that the baby bird must have flown away. I was surprised that she recognized the few remaining little bits of egg shell for what they were and was still concerned about the baby bird.

Following are pictures from a day at the zoo last week with some neighbourhod friends. The forecast for the day was warm and sunny... but it started off downright cold and required extra bundling for the kids.
The sun came out by mid morning and quickly warmed us all.

There is a mother baboon grooming her new baby right up against the glass of this exhibit. It fascinated all of the kids... until snacks were offered.
A tank full of colourful fish... all at the top.

Elephant rides!