Zelda update
It has been a while since I posted ANYTHING and Zelda has been growing into toddlerhood by leaps and bounds so I thought it time to write some stuff down.
I remember a few weeks ago I wanted to blog that she ate her first raw baby carrot. This is a big deal because she’s got fewer teeth than most kids her age and still has no opposing molars to really munch down on stuff, but she DOES finally have 1 fully emerged molar and another most of the way and a total of 10 teeth that are more or less out so she’s halfway there - woohoo!
Then in early June Z turned her first somersault with our neighbor, her little friend Brooke (sh’es a year older).
Brooke is an AMAZING energy force and little budding athlete and turned 1700 somersaults on our lawn in between sprints up and down the block and roadrunner speed. Z turned a couple with a push over and then did a few more the next day on the bed and then never since…UNTIL. Seth & Becca came to town 10 days ago and Seth is an adorable somersaulter and rolls with the BIGGEST grin on his little face.
Z watched and then a few days later started tryin the saults again. Again, her favorite is doing gallipettes on the bed, especially OVER the prone and sleeping body of a parent with lots of giggles.
Seth is also an impressive little talker. he’s just a couple of weeks older that Z but he was speaking VERY clearly and often in full sentences. After spending 4 days with Seth, within a few days of his departure, Z too started talking in sentences here and there. So I don’t know if developmentally they are so close that this is what HAPPENS at that stage, but I suspect these little ones just influence each other a lot. Z is lucky to have Seth as a friend! I hope he picked up some French or is enjoying singing more since he left influencedby Z. Hmmm, or maybe he’s eating more food!
Zelda continues to sing a lot from the time she wakes up until she goes to sleep. Her twinkle Twinkle little star is getting really good (Niku Niku little star, and niku niku is how she often refers to stars, very cute I think) as is her “Meunier, tu dors”. Her best song is still her favorite lullaby “Dodo, l’enfant do” She sings it to all her little animals friends.
She continues to grow and those of us who carry her a lot feel as though she’s getting a lot heavier, but I don’t know for sure. Here she is as a flower girl with Aunt Kaki & the Uncle formnerly known as Nonah.
I still think she’ll hit 20 pounds before her 2nd birthday, but the clock is ticking. For reference, most babies hit 20 pounds around the 1 year mark when they get to face forward in the car. But she’s not asking to face forward and I’m in no hurry to turn her. How will she EVER fall asleep in the car when she has the whole front window to look out of in addition to the side windows? I’ve decided to STOP worrying about how much she eats though. She’s growing, she outeats most toddlers we know, she’s happy and asks for food on those rare occasions she isn’t offered some before she gets hungry. I’m going to drop the stress and keep stressing out over what matters: WHAT she eats and how much sleep she gets! 
I should also mention the slide, because it’s on of her FAVORITE things.
We got her a little backyard slide maybe a month ago and she loves it, greets it out the window each morning, talks about the tobogan, and after a little practice got confident in climbing up and down on her own, learned to launch herself etc. Now she even wants to slide down the slope of the bathtub “head” into her bath. Now got to work on that upper body strength! We have a billion cute little movies of her sliding among other things. If I knew how to post an mov of 20-60 seconds…
She’s very sweet and loving and is ever trying to help. Carrying things to us, helping “clean the floor” after spills. Here she is helping me water. Never mind that it’s the middle of the day and I try to conserve water, she’s helping and taking it VERY seriously, getting every rose bush.
She had a test of her ability to wait this weekend while Tomo was out of town for 3 days. We missed him of course and she talked about him, but she did ok. Especially considering she had a beesting (not allergic -YAY!!!), scraped her knee and caught a cold all within 24 hours of his departure. But she also made huge improvements with her swimming both at my folks house and in our bathtub, she was all on her little belly trying to float and froggy kick with her legs, blowing bubbles etc. She also got some extra French immersion this weekend without Papa around (or Papelou as she’s been calling him, my little Yiddishe bubele) and she did great. Although now he’s back. ALREADY she’s back to answering me in English and this morning she confused fenetre and frigo. SIGH. But we met a little French girl at the YMCA so maybe if they become little friends she can practice beyond Maman, Meme and Tonton Avram.
ANYHOW, the BIG news in Zland is that yesterday she peed in the potty! Yes, she did it when she was 3 months old with Monica’s help, but this was me noting her dry diaper post nap, asking if she wanted to sit on the potty, her saying yes, sitting, waiting, watching (very funny to watch and I imagine difficult to execute the head down potty pipi, especially as a firsttimer) and then she did it! We were very happy. Here’s a photo
(come on, it’s funny!), I told her I was proud of her and for the rest of the evening she kept telling me “I so proud o you”. Thanks,Z, right back at ya! She was very happy.
Then TODAY, she went caca in the potty! Ok, so there was a little miss first (no pics, sorry), but then she sat and finished her business. Yeah! I know, it probably won’t happen again for months, but meanwhile, we’re so proud of each other! Aren’t you glad you read to the end?
I think that does it for my update, love to all,
Shana