Becky, Aaron, Zoë, Liam and Reggie: April 2011

Sliding: Here Zoë is at the top of the slide. She is now able to climb up the stairs and go down the slide completely on her own! She is becoming a very determined and independent little girl!

Swinging (especially with friends): Zoë with Miss Olivia at the park.

Running: We love having races through the house and in the last week Zoë has become brave enough to run up and down the hills at the park. As she runs she says, "Run, run, run, run!"

Scooping and Pouring: This started with Zoë wanting to help get Reggie's food for him. Reggie became very frustrated with this activity as Zoë was not nearly fast enough for him and if it wasn't meal time the activity would really get his hopes up that he was getting extra food. The lentils and beans work well and aren't nearly as gross when Zoë tries to eat them (which I'm pretty sure she is doing in this picture).

Sunglasses: Zoë loves her sunglasses. She likes to put them on herself and then admire herself in the mirror saying, "Cool!" She loves them so much that the other night she saw them on her night stand when I was trying to put her to bed and wouldn't settle down until I gave them to her. As soon as she got them she put them on, laid down, grabbed her blankie, started sucking her thumb and fell asleep.

Helping Mom with yard work: Zoe decided she wanted to help me with yard work, so I gave her this spade. She immediately started chopping up flowers and was so proud of herself that I couldn't tell her to stop. Maybe next time I'll set her down next to some of our pretty weeds.

Movies: Unfortunately when I was feeling so cruddy during the first part of pregnancy I turned to movies to help keep Zoë entertained and now she's hooked. She loves "Finding Nemo" and Leap Frog's "The Letter Factory." Multiple times throughout the day she will head to the TV, search for her videos and bring one to me. She's very good at requesting "Meemo (Nemo)." One of the great things about this bad habit is that she amazingly knows her letter sounds and can say them when she plays with her letter toys! Zoe is also learning her colors and can say "Lello (yellow), boo (blue), gra (green), pink, brow (brown), oh (orange), and pupa (purple)!"

Playing with Cousins: We went up to Moscow for a weekend recently and Zoë had so much fun with her cousins! Here she is with Ella, Rose, and Emilia. We really miss them and wish we could see them more! Zoë also gets to spend a lot of time with her cousin, Sophie, in Boise when Grandma and Grandpa Bronner take care of them both on the 2 days/week that I work.

Dancing: Zoë has some AWESOME dance moves (think Elaine on Seinfeld)! Here she is having a dance party with Ella and Rose, which by the way was about 2 or 3 hours past her bedtime! I'll try to get video up of these moves before long.

Time keeps flying by and I just realized that I'm not doing a very good job of keeping up with our blog! Here are a few recent pictures to show what we (mostly Zoë) have been up to: