The Zoe Zine

Yesterday and today, Zoe and I spent the mornings at the Children’s Festival down at Schenley Plaza. It’s SO COOL. Even after two mornings, we still haven’t seen half of the booths.

Last time we saw Dippy, Zoe didn’t know what a dinosaur was. She’s a lot more impressed this time.

There’s a whole area themed around The Very Hungry Caterpillar. Since I have (shamefully) never read her the book, we listened to a volunteer read it and then played on the Caterpillar slide:

Zoe very bravely shook hands with a sunflower, a shark and a fish:

The petting zoo was a big highlight. You could actually just wander around a huge pen with lambs, calves, and, um, baby alpacas. (What’s the name for a baby alpaca?)

Zoe specifically asked me to take a picture of these two goats. I don’t know why, but here you go, Zoe:

This one wanted to eat my camera. Om nom nom:

We went back today with my friend Andrew. Here’s Zoe entirely ignoring a calf, a pony, and a baby alpaca to read the letters on a sign:

As we left the petting zoo, Zoe said “EIEIO.” I thought it may be a coincidence, as I don’t sing her “Old MacDonald” very often, but after we got home this afternoon I asked her what we did at the festival, and she started singing “Old Macdonald.” I guess it’s another preschool favorite!

We spent quite some time in Mirazozo, an art piece that is basically an inflatable castle that uses strips of translucent fabric in different colors to create interesting lighting effects using natural light:

The ceiling:

I took this picture accidentally by pressing the shutter when I meant to press the off button. I think it’s my prettiest accidental photo ever:

After lunch we headed back to our car through Newell Simon Hall, the Robotics Institute building where Justin used to work. Zoe met Tank, the Roboceptionist, for the first time. She was scared of him at first, as she always is with a new robot. Luckily, Zoe knows that a robot can’t eat you if you turn your head to the side and watch them through the corners of your eyes:

Of course, once we were out of sight of Tank she was in love with him. She kept talking about the wobot all the way back to the car.

If you hadn’t noticed, Zoe’s robot crazy. Here she is a couple days ago playing with a new robot toddler game on my cell phone:

(If you need subtitles, she says “Robot singing” and “Robot hug.”)

I believe I mentioned the Zoe and Robot book my mother found at the library. Here she is reading it to Zoe:

Here Zoe pauses to reenact Robot’s climb up Mt. Pillow:

Zoe “helps” Gran with the knitting:

Awww:

Zoe and Papa practice yoga:

On the morning my parents left, we got out all the accoutrements for Zoe’s toy plane in order to talk her through what was about to happen. She didn’t seem to understand, but she got very unusually grumpy afterwards, so maybe she did:

Zoe put the toy suitcase on top of Gran and Grandpa’s actual suitcase:

(Zoe’s mouth is open there because I just said, “Zoe, look at the camera,” and she was saying “No” and getting off the suitcase to come look at the picture of herself. She understands enough to know that “camera out” means “ooh new pictures to look at,” but she doesn’t yet understand that she has to wait for me to actually take the pictures before running to me shouting “Picca picca!”)

Zoe came with me to take my parents to the airport, but they said goodbye to her before we left since we knew she’d nap on the way there. She woke up a couple blocks before we got back home, and walked sleepily into the house calling “Gan Gampa?” She then spent a good part of the afternoon looking at pictures of them and then glancing over at the loveseat and saying “No Gan.”

To help her understand the transition, we video chatted with them during their layover in Boston and again today when they got to my sister’s house. Here are Zoe and Ben hiding in boxes together:

And two more photos from today, both sadly taken with my inferior phone camera. The first is Zoe “helping” me put together a filing rack. It came with dozens of little black plastic half-tubes that you snap together around the round metal legs in order to support the shelves. Zoe commandeered the entire bag of plastic half-tubes and snapped them ALL onto one leg. She took it very seriously:

And finally, a very happy Zoe walking to the swimming pool with Papa after work:

It’s been a long time since I’ve gone swimming with Zoe — it’s usually a Papa-Zoe activity. She has so much fun in the water, and she’s gotten so good at kicking and jumping in! It was a lot of fun.

My parents are en route to England right now, a happy fact for cousin Ben but a rather sad one for Zoe. I’ll post more pictures of their visit tomorrow, but for now here are the pictures from Mum’s visit to Google.

Zoe in the vest Mum just knit for her, holding Robot in a matching vest:

Obligatory rollercoaster photo op:

This made me giggle:

Zoe loves this guy. Also, better shot of the vest:

Zoe laughing at the funhouse mirrors:

And Zoe’s usual confused reaction to the Zoltar machine. First, the “OMG protect me Papa” stage:

Second, the “Wait, no, take me back to the robot” stage:

Third, the “Forget the rest of this tour, I’m going to keep running down the hall shouting ‘WOBOT’ until I can see Zoltar” stage:

Trust Google to have a crayon table:

Today we headed to Meadowcroft Rockshelter, which is possibly the earliest known inhabited site in North America.

Before the site was excavated in the 1970s, archaeologists believed that the first peoples to arrive in the New World were the Clovis culture around 12,000 BP. But when a team from Pitt started excavating Meadowcroft, they found evidence of human usage all the way down to the Clovis era… and then some. There is evidence of Native American usage of the site over at least 16,000 years (ending with 18th century arrowheads made from gin bottles).

The argument over whether the Clovis civilization was the first in America still continues, but there are now more than a dozen other sites throughout the Americas that corroborate Meadowcroft’s dates.

It seems like that claim to fame would make Meadowcroft more widely known than it is, but I only learned about it recently. It’s out by the border with West Virginia, about an hour’s drive away, and was definitely worth the trek.

Various naps were had on the way there:

The archaeological site:

Zoe wasn’t excited about the half-hour video about the site, but she was pretty good anyway:

Meadowcroft also has a recreated 16th century Monongahela village. I’m sorry to say I’m not sure Zoe followed my explanation:

There’s also an 18th century village, which is recreated but made up of authentic buildings from nearby areas:

Ringing the school bell:

Zoe’s favorite part was the covered bridge, or as she called it, the “tunnel”:

My parents bought me a reproduction of the Miller Lanceolate Point, the spear point whose dating at 12,000 was what first made the archaeologists go “Wait, what?”:

All in all it was a really fun afternoon. I look forward to taking other visitors there in future! (Note to English relatives: come back in the summer next time!)

So this was Zoe’s reaction to my stating that it was about naptime:

She’s utterly convinced I can’t see her back there. I tease her and say “I see brown shoes!” and she’ll stoop down and point to her shoes. “I see brown pants!” and she points at her pants. But she expects me to be astonished when she reveals that there’s an actual PERSON behind the curtain!

Sometimes I worry that we retard kids’ understanding of object permanence by playing along with these things.

The rest of her “nap” went like this:

While Zoe falls asleep at nap time, I lie next to the crib and do puzzles. After her nap today Zoe decided to join in the fun:

Later we read a book my mother found for Zoe in the library, called Zoe and Robot. (How perfect is that?) In the book, Zoe and Robot build a mountain out of pillows, so my Zoe and I did too. My Zoe decided that climbing the pillow mountain isn’t quite as fun as jumping onto it, though:

Well, it took us almost two years, but we finally decorated the baby’s room!

My awesome and talented friend Lea designed and painted Totoro murals in Zoe’s room. Zoe absolutely loves them. For the first three days, she was incapable of walking into her room — or waking up in her crib — without shrieking “TOTOOOOOO!”

Big Totoro:

Big Totoro in context, showing also the carpet Doug sent from Japan:

Medium (“neebee”) and little (“big,” says Zoe with confusing certainty) Totoros playing ocarina:

A line of little Totoros along the wall. This is from a scene where the little Totoro is trying to be invisible, which is why he’s mostly wall colored:

Totoro dolls on the dresser. Two from Japan, one knitted by my mum (with no pattern!):

Zoe’s favorite part are the soot sprites (tu-pite) behind the door and hiding around the room:

Zoe hasn’t seen the movie yet, but she loves the storybook of movie stills. One of her favorite parts is when Mei catches a soot sprite with her hands:

The other day I was reading Zoe a book in which a character caught a fish, and as soon as I said “catching fish,” Zoe said, “Catth! Catth tu-pite! Mei!” and ran over to the wall to do this:

Also, one of Zoe’s most grammatically correct utterances so far has been in regard to the soot sprites. She walked over to the closet door (which has a soot sprite hidden behind it), tried unsuccessfully to open the door, turned to me, and said, “Tu-pite heah! Op’n it!” [Soot sprites here! Open it!]

Cleaning up old files I found these pictures I forgot to post last month. Since Zoe’s cousin Ben is now covered in chicken pox and barely waking up to eat ice cream, I thought he might like to see some pictures of happier days.

Ben, we hope you are well enough to wear a bowl on your head very soon!

Yesterday, at Zoe’s request, I started writing her name on her Magna Doodle. I wrote a big “Z.” She pointed next to it and said, “O.” I wrote an “O,” and she pointed next to it and said “E.” I guess this is a benefit of giving her such a short name — she’s figured it out quite quickly!

My dad had a good idea: maybe she could type her name herself! So, with a little (OK, a lot of) coaching, she did:

Fridge magnets work too! (Also with a lot of coaching.)

We had a pretty quiet day today; I slept in a lot, one of the many luxuries of having grandparents in the house. I also made chocolate chip cookies, which Zoe ate while the chocolate was still melted:

Zoe’s not a big fan of being messy.

Zoe has also decided that the best way to read a book is lying down, propped up on your elbows. I have to say I agree with her.

Reading a new Babybug magazine before nap time:

Reading with Gran before dinner: