Of the many things we’re happy about in this parenthood thing, our child eats lots of foods, so far at least.

Sure, she’ll wolf down mac & cheese, a quesadilla or pizza with the rest of the toddlers (who wouldn’t?), but those meals are rare at Chez Johnson, and on the whole she eats what we eat (or a modified version). That, in fact, has worked both ways. I was just marveling yesterday about how many FRESH FOODS we now have in our house: avocados, green beans, corn, every berry you can imagine (though her true love is raspberries), sweet potatoes, grapes, bananas, even a kiwi. And she loves them all.

Thanks to our daughter, Bart and I (well, mostly me) have tasted some amazing fresh fruits in our quest to make sure Zoe gets to taste everything out there. I never even knew what a pluot was before Zoe. Now, thanks to the many Farmers Markets we’ve checked out, we’ve had many varieties, including a “dinosaur egg”. Honestly, they all taste the same to me and she doesn’t seem to notice, but hey, life’s an adventure, right? Oh, and she LOVES white champagne grapes, which look like baby chokers and taste like pure sugar (and nothing like champagne). And they are the stickiest fruits around when dropped on the floor by sloppy toddlers… I do not recommend.

Some of the surprising (to me) foods she loves follow:

• asparagas
• lemons & limes – her entire face puckers up, then she wants more
• broccoli – though our friend Kathleen’s son eats it RAW, so I guess some kids really like broccoli?
• tofu, seared with soy & ginger stir fry
• salsa – even the “hotter” versions, though I think she’s just into those for the dipping action

She’s actually really just getting in to the “dipping” thing. My niece used to call it all “dippit”, so cute. Zoe’s gotten a chance to dip French Toast in syrup, chips in salsa, bread in olive oil, french fries in ketchup, so now she thinks you should be able to dip anything. I sliced a peanut butter sandwich into sticks, and she picked up the first piece and said, “Dip?” (read: you expect me to eat this thing dry, mom?!)

It’s happening.

I’m sure anyone who’s spent time with a little girl remembers the moment(s) when suddenly she starts to look and act like a BIG girl. It’s disconcerting, honestly. I know everyone says “they’re developing so fast!” and certainly that’s true, but what if literally one day your best friend couldn’t write his own email and the next he had written a best-selling novel? (don’t take that personally, honey, you’ve got other skills)

In all seriousness, that’s how fast our daughter is changing. Here are some recent developments:

• She can count to 10 (or 20, depending on the day). Though technically she has only proven she can actually count (meaning, ask her how many and she counts them up) to 2 with consistency, she can spout off numbers, in order, up to 20. Oh, and she really likes 14. I bet that’s because she plans to make my life hell at that age.
• She can put 2 words together on a regular basis, and we understand them. So, I did a little research on this one, and 2 word “sentences” are a milestone, but most resources suggest that though they can put 2 words together, you have to decipher them to get that it’s a sentence. Not so for Zoe.
• She now has 2 songs. The old standby, “Row, Row, Row” (yes, that’s still as far as she can get, though she sometimes says “boat”) and now the “ABC” song – she can make it to D and sometimes E before she claps enthusiastically because she’s so proud of herself. Oh, and she can fill in the blanks if you pause while you’re singing. And she loves Z.
• She’s beginning to test her power. She’s thrown a tantrum or two, though honestly they’re pretty mild, and thanks to my brilliant husband we always say “Oh, are you swimming? Swim, swim!” and walk away. Generally, that works. She’ll usually get distracted and says “swim”, pulling all the power right out of her tantrum. A week or so ago, she not only threw her tantrum (followed by Bart’s response) but realizing he had walked away, she got up, went over to his new location and tried again. That’s testing. Oh, and she failed. Bart is a rock.
• She’s starting to look like a little girl. I swear her legs are growing, and her face… That “baby” look is morphing into a little girl look that we’re pretty confident is going to cause us as much trouble as the baby face. And when she wears clothes, she’s “wearing” them. Not like a doll but like a person. I don’t know how better to describe this one.

Anyway, when it comes to other milestones, I have to say I’m skeptical about the lists out there. BabyCenter suggests that at 19 months “advanced” kids (a few of them) can point to an object when you say its name – and at 20 months these advanced kids can name several body parts. She’s been doing both for months, and she’s only 16 months. That said, she hasn’t learned to use a spoon/fork very well, and she still has 2 naps (things “half” the kids at her age can do). I know this isn’t exactly a science, but how in the world are you supposed to know what’s normal? Or what to reinforce?

Guess we’ll just keep giving her opportunities to learn and being pleasantly surprised as she picks up new things. Oh, and we’ll keep you posted :)

To understand this post, you gotta watch the video first (methinks), but it’s only 45 seconds? You can make it.

Then you’ll know what I mean when I refer to the “Hannibal Lecter” kid on the pony in front of Zoe, and why it might be humorous/cruel that she appears to be pointing and laughing at him. Don’t worry, we’re still doing our best to instill positive virtues in our child, so I’m certain she’s not ACTUALLY pointing and laughing, but it sure looks that way.

And you’re also likely to agree that sweet Zoe is a natural on a horse. My mom says my sister and I were the same when she put us on a horse at that age (my first reaction was SHOCK that my overprotective mother would have put us on a HORSE at that age, but hey, she liked horses). I must admit, I was a little surprised that I put my own 16-month-old, teeny tiny daughter up on a horse (ok, pony), barely strapped in, over CONCRETE.

Seriously, as I’m sure you noticed, the guys that worked the “pony ride”  at the Studio City Farmers Market don’t seem to even notice there are tiny children up on big animals over a hard surface. So either they’ve NEVER had an incident or they feel their very loose liability notice really has them covered.

Regardless, we did it, and ultimately, I’m glad we did! Clearly she loved every minute of it – I’m actually quite curious about how she knew to “spur on” the horse (which did no good but still). And what we don’t have a video of is her reaction when she realized they’d taken her OFF the horse… Let’s just say I think she’d be open to another pony ride.

First of all, who thought it was a good idea to connect new shoes (especially kid shoes) to one another in the box? I mean, I get the whole “keep ‘em together” idea, but it’s impossible to walk in them that way – unless you happen to have prior experience in the prison system for a violent crime. And anyway, wouldn’t it reduce returns if you could always, say, try the shoes on right there in the store and walk in them? Clearly, no one asked me.

As an adult, you just live with these things. Maybe you question, but mostly you just grumble, shake your head and get over it. When you have a kid and everything gets a little more “challenging”, these sorts of decisions seem really really poorly thought out. Makes me want to write a letter (is this a letter?) to someone.

But I digress. I’ve learned one thing as a parent (often the hard way) that seems to help: IMPROVISE.

And so, when we took Zoe to try on shoes at our local Target store, we just found 2 identical pair and put one of each set on each foot. Take that, you dummy shoe connector people. HA!

Speaking of shoes, if anyone has suggestions on how the heck to know (other than blisters) that a baby’s shoe fits correctly, please share. So far, we’ve gone with the “can she walk in them and are there visible signs of pain?” method, but surely there’s a better way. In fact, we’ll take all the shoe advice we can get. And in the meantime, we’ll keep buying shoes that happen to have 2 identical pair in stock…

Anyone who knows my husband must know of his love for ice cream. It’s how he ends most days, like a daily punctuation mark. Boom. I made it. Now for the ice cream part. Ben & Jerry’s, Häagen-Dazs, Trader Joe’s, bring it on. We usually have 3-4 different pints in our freezer at any given time, probably a well-planned mix to match the tenor of any given day.

I was wondering how long it would take him to want to share this love with our daughter, especially since she hasn’t even had JUICE yet because he doesn’t think she “needs all that sugar”. Turns out ice cream sugar must be better for you than that crazy OJ and apple juice sugar.

Technically, the extra special sugar in the above video is gelato. I honestly don’t know (or want to know) the difference. They taste the same to me, and give me a good chocolate covered marshmallow any day of the week before ice cream. But I’m excited to think of all the the father/daughter bonding time ahead as Bart has an ice cream buddy to go with him to all the hot (ha!) spots the kids hang out these days. Yum.

ADDENDUM: As Bart was pre-reading this post, he swears that ice cream sugar IS better than fruit juice sugar. That in fact, dairy is the only single food source that a human could live on, all by itself. Still, I’ll maintain that of all the “dairy” choices, I’m not sure ice cream is the one to choose if you only get one. But I could be wrong ;)

Last year, she was basically feeding every 3 hours and sleeping in between, so while she was up more times during the night last year, the whole experience was quite uneventful. Not that this year was particularly “eventful”.

Just before dinner (which was not long before bedtime), Zoe and I watched some Mickey Mouse Clubhouse – who WASN’T doing that on New Year’s Eve?! Minnie kicked Pluto’s ball ALL THE WAY TO THE MOON! So they had to find a way to get to the moon, which they DID, and there they found Pete and Chip ‘n’ Dale, who are not normally on the moon but for some reason no one was surprised (other than me). Regardless, they got the ball back. Phew.

Then after Zoe’s annual bath (kidding), baba and night-night, her father and I stayed up and rang in the new year. Well, the East Coast one at least. We DID see the ball drop, in NY, on TV. That’s something.

And that must explain why we’re all tuckered out today. No wait, I think that’s the 80 degree weather. What a way to start the new year!

Zoe’s entry to this new year, weather aside, has been a little rocky. Just 2 days after the ER episode we ended up at my sister’s pediatrician to check out some ear tugging and a fever, which turned out to be the beginning of her first ever ear infection. So this is day 6 of twice-a-day sickeningly sweet (no, I didn’t taste it) pink antibiotics and ibuprofen. Yes, I’m aware how ironic that is after my medicine-hating post. Oh, and just before heading to the pediatrician, we noticed she had snuck in TWO new bottom teeth – her First Molars! Which could also explain some of the poor sleep.

And that’s the news from Zoeville on this fine New Year’s Day. All generally off to a good start for 2012! I’ve got a couple of backlog videos I hope to post over the next few days, so stay tuned, and here’s to an awesome year!

First of all, we genuinely have the best holiday baby in the whole world. If you’ve been reading the blog, you already know that 1) she’s a dream around dangerous Christmas decorations and 2) she LOVES Santa – as evidenced by the photo above. In fact, Santa thought she was so great that he LEFT HIS SANTA POST and came over after she had her picture taken, picked her up and let me take a few more pictures, free.

And though her father gave her a B minus for her behavior on the 4 hour plane trip to GA for the holidays (she was a little fidgety), that score can only be “as compared to” how incredibly wonderful SHE is normally. Compared to other babies’ behavior on many a cross-country flight I’ve witnessed, Zoe was a solid A+. Come on, she didn’t scream once. Not once.

But that’s not the point of this blog. The holiday hiccup we did experience was nighttime sleep. Zoe just didn’t adjust well to the time change and with her “new climate” nasal congestion, her sleep for the first three nights in GA was pretty terrible. Up 3-4 times a night. Ouch. That doesn’t make for a happy holiday at all.

One thing to note: I hate medicine. Maybe it’s irrational, but I actively avoid it. That way (I rationalize), when I really need it, it will REALLY work. Anyway, that’s also made me super reluctant to give Zoe any medicine at all. Such a tiny body. It’s a point on which Bart and I differ, and NOT giving Zoe medicine, just like my having to hold our child’s hand when she’s close to a busy street, seems senseless to him. I wish I shared his confidence. But I don’t.

So, the first night Zoe had trouble sleeping (I say “trouble” but actually she was up at midnight talking and playing like it was midday), Bart suggested Benadryl. We’d brought it with us “just in case” for the plane. We had no idea what to expect from a 15-month-old MOBILE version of our child on an airplane, and we’d tested it once before her first flight at 6 months old to make sure it didn’t make her hyper (it didn’t). But at midnight this past Wednesday when he suggested it, my response was “why would we do that?” And without medication, we got our child back to sleep, for a while…

On the fourth night (also known as “Christmas Eve”) of getting up 3-4 times a night to soothe her, we decided to make a pre-emptive strike. We’d give her Benadryl when she went to bed, in hopes of getting her over the middle of the night hump and getting some sleep for all of us (especially her). When my sister said that Benadryl would help with congestion, I was sold. Here’s how that move played out:

• At 8:20, we dosed her and put her to bed.
• At 10:30, she woke up crying (an odd cry I didn’t like).
• I went into her room and instead of her standing at the edge of the crib ready for me to get her out (as she usually is), she was still crying and still lying on her back. I thought she had gotten her hand stuck, but instead she simply couldn’t move and had trouble lifting her head when I picked her up.
• I won’t say I panicked but my mommy-sense went into high gear, and I did what any new-ish mom should do: I held her close, and we went to get my sister (two kids, 8 and 5). Seriously, you too should call my sister; she was great.
• We checked her pupils as best we could. She was still lethargic and couldn’t stand. It’s crazy the thoughts that go through your head in stressful situations, and yet somehow you just “KNOW” things. The logic part of your brain says “well, Benadryl does knock you out, why wouldn’t she be lethargic?” while the rest of your brain says “yeah, but knocked out or no, when the overhead light is on and three adults are staring at you in the middle of the night, you should be able to muster strength enough to move your limbs, if only to clock one of them…”
• So we called the hospital. I should say, my sister called the hospital while I clung to our crying child. Word to the wise: never use the word “LIMP” when you call a pediatric hospital. According to the nurse we talked to, it’s a 4-letter word that triggers “bring your child in now”, which it did. To make matters worse, the nurse followed that advice up with “I’ve been doing this for 30 years, and I’ve never heard of Benadryl causing those symptoms.”
• SO, on Christmas eve at 11 pm (after putting together some toys for my niece/nephew and before helping Santa fill the stockings), we headed to the ER at Scottish Rite Hospital.

Good news. She’s AOK. Not only were all her vitals and reflexes perfect, the nurse practitioner (who was terrific) said she was perfectly fine – though she did think it was smart we’d brought her in. We also found out that I had actually UNDER dosed her on the Benadryl. Thank goodness for that? Likely, she was “overtired” and had “had a big day” then got frightened when she woke up groggy. What I read from that: We just put our child on a bad drug trip trying to get her some sleep.

Bottom line: No more Benadryl unless she’s in emergency need of it. I won’t even mention how this makes me feel about medicine… But then, I suppose I don’t have to.

Hope YOUR Christmas Eve was much less eventful (in a good way). Here’s to a Happy Healthy rest of the Holidays!

Good news? I keep everything. Like this photo of a very pensive Zoe at the pumpkin patch from mid-October (how many round objects can you count? don’t forget the cheeks and tummy…):

And this video of Zoe eating her very first cookie, a gift from Grandma Ruth, which happened at Halloween. Actually, in that video she was mostly just licking off the icing. In this video, she’s got it in both hands nibbling like a squirrel with a nut and laughing like a crazy person. But what’s a month or two here and there?

Well, in the world of a 15-month old, what a difference a month makes! Funny, a friend at work asked me recently how many words Zoe knows now. I’ve lost count… Let’s just say she’s quite “verbal”. So let’s focus on some words she uses very often that I really like:

• she says “Thank You” A LOT and appropriately (along with the sign for it)
• she says “Hi” to every human being, doggie and image of Mickey she sees, anywhere (and with a smile) and “Buh-Bye” to people and things when they go out of sight; here’s a video of that.
• she says “Please” all the time, also appropriately – it still sounds like “peas”, but it gets her what she wants
• she likes to say “Octopus” (not a ton of opportunity for that, but it’s a big word for a little mouth)
• lately, she says “Santa” often, when she sees well, Santa, or red/white stockings or a picture of his hat
• she says “Up Up Up” and “Go Go Go”, which mostly means “show me something or take me somewhere” and they’re pretty much interchangeable

She can SAY pretty much anything she hears at this point. In fact, knowing this (and that she’s a parrot), we often use this to our advantage. A carefully placed “YES” from us can yield an “ES” right back, an answer which we act on immediately.

I’m less than thrilled with the words “Mickey” or “Minnie” (though they sound cute) because that means she wants to stare at a TV. Yes, we let her watch TV but not a ton, and Mickey Mouse Clubhouse is a favorite – especially the Hot Dog song at the end, though she doesn’t like it to end. She also likes Elmo, but oddly, not the stuffed version. She likes to point him out on her diaper, on books, on anything – but when her dad tried to buy her an actual Elmo, she was like “who’s that?” Hmm. We’re introducing her to Sesame Street, so we’ll see what impact that has. Oh, and she’s now addicted to this Elmo video (I’ve literally seen it 10 times tonight – Zoe and the almost 34 million people who have seen it can’t be wrong, right?).

She can also paint, sort of. No, she didn’t write her name on this. Yes, she’s both-handed, and I don’t mean ambidextrous – neither hand is that great yet, but she hasn’t shown a preference for either one so far.

I’m sure there’s lots more I’m behind on sharing… But I feel a little more caught up – I hope you do, too ;) Oh, wait, she can move FAST at this point (watch out for that, in case we talk you into babysitting) – and she just started singing. She’s got the “Row, Row, Row” part down pat. OH, and she says some odd stuff we hope to remember. For example, she calls bread “baca” (we have no idea why, but her dad encourages it), she says “bub-bubsh” for bubbles (which I encourage and hope to get on video) and similarly “puz-zuhs” for puzzles which is equally cute. In fact, pretty much any word in Zoe-tone sounds cute to us, so maybe I’m just biased…

Anyway, I’ll do my best to do a little more blogging for the Holidays. We’ll see how it goes. In the meantime, one more smiley picture for my mother (she’s a big fan of Zoe smiling):

First, I took my husband on a wild goose chase to find “shatterproof” ornaments. Only to find that the ones we already own (long before even considering a child) were shatterproof. Anyone need some lovely silver balls that I cavalierly tossed the receipt for? Next, I vetoed some medium-sized jingle bells and a felt heart with a button sewn on it (choking hazards), then hid our ornaments that had anything that looked remotely breakable (or interesting) on them at all.

THEN, I joked with my poor husband that I was of course going to put up our super baby gate around the tree. He was mortified. I was only half-kidding.

Here’s the trouble: I love Christmas (I get a REAL tree the day after Thanksgiving every year, without fail). But I hate negotiations that I can’t win. And all I could imagine was negotiating with our child every single day between Thanksgiving and New Year’s Day over why she can’t play with the shiny silver balls or sparkly lights on the new tree that’s now in our living room (read: the play area beside her book-book-books). Where’s my Christmas spirit?!

And don’t forget about the loose needles! Zoe puts EVERYTHING in her mouth. I’m sure pine needles are not poisonous (actually, I’m not sure they’re not poisonous but would Santa pick a tree that was?). My cat used to eat them and puke them up every holiday for 17 years (and that’s long life for a cat – maybe they’re actually good for you, partially digested). Seriously, what are the chances my orally-fixated daughter wasn’t going to siphon as many pine needles as possible into her mouth when she has such easy access? Bah Humbug.

Flash forward to why I’m glad I trust my INCREDIBLY brilliant husband, who insisted that our child would have a “normal” Christmas. I have no clue how he came up with the following idea, but it’s insanely wonderful. Here’s the story:

• I talk Bart into decorating 95% of the tree while Zoe is sleeping (“She’ll be so excited to see it with the lights on it! She won’t want to put ALL the decorations on it – we’ll leave some special ones just for her!”), because I’m convinced decorating a tree with a 15-month-old will be hell on earth.
• Zoe wakes from her nap, and we bring her into the room with the Christmas tree. Her face lights up. I cringe.
• Bart takes her over to the tree, where she instantly reaches for a silver ball (as I suspected!)… then he says, “We can’t take the balls off the tree. They’re sleeping. Shhhh.”

OMG. IT WORKED. That was 9 days ago, and IT’S STILL WORKING!! She gets near the tree, and SHE tells US “shhhhhh”, and we lower our voices and say, “Yes, the balls are sleeping. Shhh.” She loves it.

Honestly, I should do something nice for that man. Thanks to him, this is shaping up to be a very Merry Christmas indeed. Here’s some actual footage of the family tree decorating, with Bart and my mom:

(if you’re interested in how the tree topper got on the tree, check this out.)

HAPPY HOLIDAYS!

Unfortunately, I think she’s finally caught on that the camera is actually a barrier between her and mamamamamamama – not a fun peekaboo game to make her giggle. And yes, she does like looking at pictures of herself, so this could continue for  a while – as long as I keep the lens cap out of sight, out of mind.

Speaking of mamamamama, Zoe’s definitely entered a mommy phase. Which, as any mother will admit, can be cute and flattering. Until you realize that you’re really just an addiction she can’t manage and that you, like that electrical socket she REALLY wants to poke a fork in, are just one more object she wants to have immediately, or else. Sure, you definitely get lots of hugs and smiles out of the deal, but you also get stuck picking up and carrying around a 22-pound sack of potatoes, which can slow down everyday activities like, oh, going to the bathroom.

I’m learning the art of distraction – I actually thought I’d be better at it. Most of the time, I’m at least in the “advanced” category but over the past few weeks we’ve got a new challenge: The Tantrum. When it happened the first time, she conked her head on the hardwood floor (she sat herself down and threw her head forward in protest, then sat up with a blue dot on her forehead). I was sure that would deter future tantrums. NOPE. She’s just gotten more careful.

Now she throws her whole body on the ground, head held millimeters away from the floor. No kicking, but definitely screaming. Seriously, she’s not even 15 months old! Even baby center says this starts at 20 months (as early as 18)! I’m all for her being an overachiever, but according to that article, we should hold off on things like “time outs” until 2 or 3 years old… In general, her tantrums are at least VERY brief and easy to redirect. We’ve only had one night where she was truly inconsolable, just before dinner, and I finally, very rationally told her I’d tried my best to help her and she was just going to have to work it out.

At which point she walked over to my seat, stared up at me and cried/sniffled from there. So I asked her if she wanted to calm down and eat dinner – to which she responded with a tiny “Es”. How can you turn that away? So she sat on my lap and ate my food. Clearly, I should post my success to Baby Center – they didn’t even suggest that! ;)

Anyway, 99.2% of the time (yes, I’m tracking), she’s an awesome baby. Guess we’ll just have to adapt – and keep taking pictures so we can remember how cute she is when she’s flailing on the ground in protest.