As if time was not passing by fast enough with a growing baby, COVID has only made the days blur into one another even more. It’s been over a month since Zoe’s first birthday. Did she start walking right before her birthday, or was it right after? When did she start saying 蛙蛙 (frog) and 花花 (flower)? Did her obsession with books last for 2 weeks or was it more like 2 months? It’s so hard to keep up with her already, and she’s barely toddling. So I thought I would start writing these things down, and perhaps one day bring them up in conversations just to embarrass her, or remind her how much she was loved from the very beginning.
The day starts between 5 and 6. We’ve tried to put her down any time from 6 to 8, but none seem to push back her wake time. Grandma wakes up with her, and we all go on a walk around 8:30. If she’s not watching TV, she happily points to the door when she sees mommy, and grabs her shoes to get ready. But if the TV is on, then an internal struggle goes on as she faces the difficult decision of TV or mommy until someone turns the TV off.
The morning walk is in the baby carrier, which I don’t know how long I can keep going. By the time we finish the 40 minute walk, I’m pretty sweaty with an achy back, especially since the last stretch is uphill. Zoe points out all the flowers and calls them “wawa”, even though the proper pronunciation should be “huahua”. She says either “gougou” or “woof” when there’s a dog nearby, even if she can only hear them barking. We stop to watch all the squirrels, and if she’s in a good mood, she waves at our neighbors and says hi (but often only does this when they are super far away but not when they are close).
Zoe is a picky eater. She currently is mostly a fan of fruits, but only certain types of fruits. Blueberries are good, raspberries are meh. Star fruits are tolerable, persimmons are bad. Sometimes apples are devoured, sometimes apples are spat right out. She is little for her age, only 12th percentile for height, so grandma tries all kinds of recipes to make sure she gets some nutrients in her, which unfortunately means she gets more sweet stuff than we prefer. Milk is always loved though, so if all else fails, she gets a giant cup of milk right before bed, and when we give her a bath after we always laugh at her big tummy.
Bath time is no longer fun. Well, I guess it depends, but she finally realizes that after the bath comes bedtime and she’s not happy about it, so she throws a fit before we even get started. She is not a fan of bubble bath, I think it’s because her rubber ducky gets lost under all that foam. Once she’s changed into her sleepwear, she can be calmed down if I have a book in hand. She is used to the routine of books, turning on the white noise, turning off the Google lullaby, listening to me sing Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, then going to bed. When I’m telling Google to stop she has to watch the lights blink and shut off before turning around and putting her head on my shoulders though. For the most part she’ll still cry for a few minutes once I leave the room. I’m hoping that stops eventually.
She has already gone through a few favorite things these last few months. There were a few weeks when she would not let go of grandma’s Coach purse. No other purse will do. She loves digging through my tote bag, but has no interest in carrying it. Then there was the time when she dragged Ruby’s leash around everywhere until we got a new retractable one. She has now discovered Ruby’s bed and loves to dive head in. Then there were the remote controls, which still fascinates her. We had to hide the TV one from her because 1) she had already broken the previous one; and 2) she not only knows how to turn the TV on, she now even figured out how to fast forward. She has recently discovered the Switch because mom and dad have been playing Animal Crossing, and throws a fit when we refuse to let her push the buttons. She also likes to carry clothes around, generally whatever she was wearing before or what she dug out of grandma’s laundry, but if you let her choose from the closet it’s her pink leopard onesie that always gets her attention. I may have a girly girl on my hands.
I hadn’t even finished this post before things changed. Zoe no longer enjoys sitting in the carrier, but is ok with the stroller again. I guess it’s not so much fun to sit in a carrier during the hot summer. I’m slightly sad to see her grow up so fast, but it’s absolutely amazing to watch. I’m so glad I chose to bring her into this world, however messed up it may be, and hope that she will take part in making it better someday.
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