Zoe is Awesome

Zoe is 2 and 3/4.    She loves to sing. She can’t carry a tune, or match pitch with me AT ALL, which I am very surprised by.  It’s not even really close.  But she knows every word to all of her songs, and bellows them cheerfully out at any opportunity.   Verbal, more than musical, but definitely enthusiastic. 

I am astounded at how fast she memorizes new books.  If I read a story to her four or five times she’s got it, and can “read” it to her toys in bed. I think BECAUSE I can read, I don’t have this kind of storage potential anymore, but it makes me think about the oral traditions of pre-literate societies, and suddenly I can really imagine how a legend might be passed on, word for word, for generations.  If my 2 year old can recite The Tawny Scrawny Lion with that much accuracy, how much more could a motivated adult retain, and access, and teach, and use?  Humans are amazing. 

Zoe has about a thousand toys, and it used to be that she just projected directly onto them the emotions she was working through.  She would give Tigger time-outs for disobeying or throwing food.  She would reassure Eeyore that the loud hand-dryer was normal, and not scary.  She would put Paddington Bear on the potty and coach him through the process.  

Now, more of her friends have names that she chose herself.  There’s Walter the puffin, named after the new Muppet, and Ian the dog - I have no idea where she heard that one.  Her friends have interactions, out loud, in which Zoe sometimes doesn’t play a prominent role.
Hi, I’m Ian.  Would you like to ride on my back?
Sure!  Thank you!
Let’s go see Spiderman!
OK.  Oh no!  Mommy!
[At this point, I yell What?, and Zoe explains that Linda fell off and wanted her help.  It’s not about me, but about Zoe the mommy to her doll.  I love it.]

She’s turning into quite the movie buff, with Steve’s expert assistance.  And all of the characters have become her imaginary friends.  She pretends a knock on the door, and invites Gary and Mary (from the Muppet Movie, again)  in and shows them around the house.   Proudly introduces them to me.  Has long polite conversations with them.

Best of all, Zoe puts on costumes and acts out scenes.  Here she is as a Jedi Knight.

 Here as the Lion King. 

This is Spiderman, and if I had been able to capture her without her mask you could have seen her as Peter Parker as well.

And this is the Statue of Liberty.

I don’t remember ever being this creative, or this interested in the clothes on my body.  It’s amazing and marvelous that she is so different from me.   I could watch her all day.  Sometimes I do.