Skip to main content

Zoe is 27 Months Old!




Zoe called for me at 4:30 in the morning.  She had wet through her diaper, and was happy to talk about it.  As I was changing her she said, I'm very wet.  Then, What a wet Zoe! And finally, as I was stripping the bed, What a wet little girl!

I don't know quite how to characterize the change in Zoe this past month.  She's been verbal for a while now, so the complete sentences, including (some) pronouns and articles are not new.  What feels new is the way she interacts.  Instead of labeling things or asking for explanations of things she sees, she is talking about them.  We can have conversations about things she remembers, or people who aren't present.  It's a subtle difference, but a real one.  Suddenly we converse - things she says lead to responses on my part, which lead to new responses on hers.

She talks now about wants, rather than needs.  "Maybe go to playground?"  "I want a slide!"  "We go to Tennessee - maybe Katie come?"  "Mommy, don't go!" 

I can ask her open-ended questions and get responses - what are you eating at Nana's, rather than Are you eating carrots?  What did you dream about, rather than Did you dream about a robot?



She is imaginative.  We go for walks and she is a giraffe, a bunny rabbit, Big Bird.  She "paints" the wall by licking her hand and moistening it - a perfectly logical combination of what Daddy does and what the cat does, with the same apparent result - a shiny wet wall.  If I sit down on the floor she brings a blanket (or napkins, or scarves) to cover me, brings Tigger to keep me company, and puts me to "bed", stepping quietly out of the room and closing the door behind her. 



Her new thing is birthdays. Over and over, every day, she will bring me a toy or more often a refrigerator magnet, wrapped in a dishtowel, and sing Happy Birthday to me, all the way through, and stand by excitedly, bouncing up and down, while I open the present and exclaim over its wonderfulness. 

This is not a trait I recognize.  Honestly, Steve and I stink at gift giving.  I still make fun of him for the year he insisted that my birthday present was the Murphy bed we installed in the condo.  Which I researched, contracted for, and paid for out of my personal checking account.  Even now, I tend to find myself panicking on the day before a holiday and getting the first thing I see and dreading the moment it is opened, thanked, and politely set aside.  Also, I never have any wrapping paper and usually use photocopies of orchestra music which looks all artsy but really just means I didn't have wrapping paper.

Little girl, however, is all about the gifting.  Her dishtowel wrapping is just about as neat as my version (and she's TWO) and she truly seems to love the whole process.  The more magnetic numbers she can get into the package the prouder she is.  And I have to glow about every one. 

My Goodness, you shouldn't have!  A Seven! A Two! AND a Four!  THANK YOU, Zoe!

She is so much more a person than I ever dreamed a two-year-old could be.  She is so much more different from me than I expected.  She is so utterly marvelous that I can't get enough. 




Happy 27-month Birthday, Sweet Girl!


Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Knife Sharpening

I've gotten a lot of questions on this topic, and the most recent querent prompted me to make a video to demonstrate.  You can find that  HERE . Knife sharpening seems to strike terror into many hearts.  And it's little wonder.  Many famous oboists have gone on record as saying that a sharp knife is the most important aspect of reed making. People have entire systems of stones and strops and rods set up to sharpen their knives. And it is important, of course it is - but I don't believe that you need your knife to be razor-like, or objectively the sharpest blade of any in your home.  The reed knife has one job - scraping cane off in precision ways - and it has to be sharp enough for that, and sharpened optimally for that purpose.  More than that is overly fussy for my taste. This is not to say that I allow my knife to be dull.  A dull knife forces you to put too much pressure on the reed and can cause cracking. Obviously it can lead to terribly inc...

Exciting Upcoming Concerts

The South Bend Symphony has a great concert this weekend that I've been really excited about. If you are in town you should definitely try to attend, as it features Prokofiev's thrilling Symphony no. 5 AND our marvelous concertmistress, Zofia Glashauser, playing the Tchaikovsky Violin Concerto. However, I will not be there. This Friday and Saturday I am playing Strauss's Ein Heldenleben with the Milwaukee Symphony , and loving every single minute. This orchestra sounds spectacular, and here's why. They rehearse. They have plenty of time to really listen to each other and get things right. This morning, our service was a wind sectional, which blew my mind. Almost 2 full hours with only the winds and brass, just on this one 40-minute piece. The conductor worked with us on every detail. Intonation, articulation, ensemble, balance, style. And still we have another full orchestra rehearsal tomorrow as well as the dress. I haven't sat in a winds-only rehearsal...

Beauty of Sound

In our dress rehearsal Saturday afternoon, the conductor did exactly what I often do to my students - he asked the violins to play more beautifully, and they did.  He didn’t tell them how, or give them a flowery expressive speech, he just asked for more beauty of sound, and they immediately gave it to him.  To a great extent the sound we produce is set, based on our equipment and the shape of our mouths and our bodies - but it can be altered, too.  Adjustments in reeds and instruments can go a long way, but the key change we can make is in our own minds. I don’t know how to explain it physically, but if you determine the sound you want to make you can produce it.  Or at least you can lean in and approach it.  This is something I’ve been paying a lot of attention to lately in my own playing.  As I prepare the Saint-Saëns Sonata to perform on our Oboe Studio Recital (tonight at 7 - details HERE ), my approach is largely about beauty of sound and vibrato....