Catching Up

We’ve been busy as usual around here, doing more than writing. I’ll try to hit the important parts, starting of course with Zoey.

When last we left our faithful blog readers, both of you saw that we mentioned that Zoey’s 18-month appointment was going to be the following day. Indeed, it was! Zoey’s doing great, but as the growth chart curves trend up she is leveling out. That doesn’t mean she’s not growing, but that she’s growing slower than the average American kid. Dr. Tracy isn’t worried, but prescribed a less-strict diet which includes yummy stuff like butter. Mmm… Butter! Zoey enjoys her butter on popcorn and toast (as long as the toast is made from the awesome kamut bread from Great Harvest–rye is no good, sez she).

Dr. Tracy also suggested we get a lead test for Zoey, to make sure she didn’t chew on our house and get through to the old lead paint. Lead toxicity can cause slower growth, so we want to rule that out. Of course, it’s not like her parents are giants, so I’m sure she’s fine.

A final thing to check is her vocabulary. She’s "supposed" to say 20 words by now. Right now she doesn’t say that much between spoken and signed words, but we started a list of words she knows, and it’s huge! I’m going to write up a separate entry about her words. Here’s a highlight from about 10 minutes ago: Zoey was playing with her little interactive Leapfrog table and holding a red square lego in her hand. She pressed the Red Square button (which makes the voice say “red square!”) and then showed her red square lego to her Mommy and me. She then proceeded to bring me the red lego. I asked her if she would please get me a yellow lego, and turned back to my monitor. After a bit Rona said, “Sweetie! She brought you a yellow lego!” And indeed she had. I asked Zoey for a blue lego, figuring I’d push my luck. She brought me a 3-peg green lego that I could put the yellow and red ones on. I asked her for a blue one again, so she went back to her lego bin and returned with a blue one to fit between the yellow and red ones on the green base. So she might not say much, but she understands everything we say and is filing it away to use against us later.

In other Zoey excitement, Rona has taken her twice now to The Little Gym (coincidentally right across the street from Dr. Tracy’s office) and it’s great! I’ll leave it to Rona to write about exactly how great it is, but we’ve signed Zoey up for a weekly class there in the fall, with the same teacher.

Also starting in the fall is Zoey’s preschool at North Seattle Community College. We’ve already been busy with the search for a new teacher, but amazingly the disorganized nature of the co-op seems to lend itself to happy circumstance, so we have already found a teacher, Teacher Sally, who has 20 years’ experience in the co-op preschool system and just wants to add another teaching day to her schedule. Yay!

Little Z has been feeling quite yucky the past couple days, teething up a storm. A storm of teeth! Recently spotted in the maelstrom of fury and outrage that is her mouth are a new lateral incisor and a canine tooth. She’s been swallowing her teething drool, resulting in some coughing and one spectacular barf all over her Mommy. What fun!

When not serving as a backsplash, Rona has been quite busy with a detox regimen designed to clean out all the toxins and hormones and stuff that built up during her pregnancy and afterward, and to restore her liver and immune system post-baby. All of this had to wait until Little Z was weaned, but now that she is it’s no holds barred! You’ll have to ask Rona about the colonic she received on Saturday at Moon Lodge in Issaquah, but I hear it all came out fine in the end. She’s doing a great job on her detox diet (only fresh organic fish & meat, organic veggies, and nothing out of a box). Good job, Sweetie!

The biggest deal going on with us right now is Brassapalooza, the brass camp started this year by Rona and her friends/colleagues Chuck & Paulette. Today is the first day of camp! Rona left a few minutes ago to go pick up some comb-bound booklets for the masterclasses from Kinko’s on her way to camp, and after a while Zoey and me are going to swing by Kellogg Middle School to check everything out. The inaugural Brassapalooza is going to be great, and it will only get better from here on out.

Coming Soon: More photos!