Zooey ~ Fall 2014

Oh, my! I am looking back at some of the funny things Zooey said over the last few months, and it's cracking me up. Here are a few:

One day in September we were leaving Albertsons, when Zooey spotted a giant witch. She started yelling, "Go away, witches! I don't like you witches!" Only...she put a "b" on the front of the word, and there were two little old ladies behind me giving me the stink eye. I started modeling the correct word very loudly for her, and they worked on the "w" sound in speech that month.

"I'm allergic to babies, Mommy."

She said she wants to be a teacher at the gym and teach kids to do tabata.

Z: "I am five. How old are you?"
Me: "33"
Z: "How old is Great Grandma?"
Me: "85"
Z: "Oh my goodness!"

Sarah: "What is Tennyson going to be when he grows up?"
Z: "Tennyson and Gideon are going to be doctors, and I'm going to teach the babies at BSF.

And some sweet things she said:

In the car one day, "Mommy, the trees are changing colors. God is our God. God is our daddy. I love Jesus!"

Sarah was telling her in-laws to pray for a sweet little girl named Emily. Sarah told Zooey that God is able to work miracles. Zooey replied, "Yes, our God is Almighty."

Zooey is just getting so big that I can't even believe it! She is five. FIVE, you guys. How did that happen? She loves to do arts and crafts, her favorite thing in school is PE, she still loves wearing dresses, and she likes to workout with me. She is such a friendly girl, and she loves to go up to kids and tell them her name and ask their name. She is super empathetic and sweet. I teach her class at church this year, and whenever there's a child crying, she almost instantly goes over to the child and either offers words of comfort or just sits near them. She is making huge strides at speech therapy. She is really starting to show an interest in reading. She loves Jesus and her favorite weekly activities are church and BSF. She is not super snuggly, because she's so busy, but when she does slow down, she likes to sit right next to you and just be with you. She is funny, creative, sassy sometimes, loving, forgiving, protective and prayerful. It is so fun getting to know this sweet girl.

So excited for balloons!

Cat for Harvest Fest at school and Halloween

Sarah caught the kids a worm

Oh my, little miss trouble

The teacher said she came up with this response with no prompting. Bless her heart!

Doing "Tabata"

Silly girl was so excited for bath she forgot to take her shirt off lol

March

First, the most exciting news: Zooey accepted Jesus into her heart this month! March 10 before bed, we were reading about the Lord's Supper, when Zooey asked if Jesus lived in her heart. After explaining that we have to ask Jesus in our hearts to forgive us of our sins, she prayed, "Dear Jesus, please come live in my heart! Amen." I asked her if she knew why Jesus died, and she answered, "For my sins!" It was such a privilege to be there with her for this moment. She was so excited and keeps talking about how Jesus lives in her heart.

- Zooey sleep-walked once this month. She was totally exhausted and was coming down with a fever. It was so weird! She came out to the living room, looked around, then laid down right there and fell asleep again. She never woke up when I took her back to bed.
- She said, "I'm going to marry Daddy. We will take a trip to the hospital and a babysitter will watch you and Daddy for five nights. Then I will bring five babies home."
- My sweet girl ran onto the playground at BSF and saw me there with my class. She ran up to me, and yelled, "I wanna see my mommy!!" It's these moments that just warm the cockles of my heart. :)
- My dad had to go to the hospital this month. Zooey was very concerned about him. She prayed for him every night and told me, "I wanna go see Grandpa at the hospital. I am really really worried about Grandpa." She has such a sweet, loving heart.
- For about a week this month, she came into my room when her bunny clock woke up and sang me, "Good Morning God" to wake me up.

Zooey has been working so hard at her speech and OT, and I can tell she's making huge strides. I got to help at the teddy bear picnic at her school, and her focus and attention were great! Her SLPs say she is doing awesome. She gets frustrated sometimes at the drills, but she will now take a deep breath all by herself and then continue trying. If something's not working for her, she'll often tell the object to obey her. It's pretty funny. :)

She was so cute at the teddy bear picnic. She was excited to find the bears and loved going on the little scavenger hunt. I love the wonder and curiosity of this age. Zooey loves getting caught up in imaginative games and stories. She will play with her dolls for a very long time, just making up little stories.

Zooey loves Tennyson and her sweet little cousin Gideon. She is always concerned when they cry and wants to know why they are crying. She tries to help them feel better by telling them, "It's ok. Don't cry!" and she'll give them a hug. Such a loving little girl.



She loved roller skating so much, we're thinking about doing lessons this summer.

Getting ready for the teddy bear picnic

Going on a bear hunt

Found her bear at last!

February

Zooey started asking a lot of questions about Jesus and heaven this month. Thankfully, God answered my prayers on how to best answer a four year old with the BSF preschool program lessons and the amazingly timed home training lessons! In fact, my phone notes are mostly about these comments and questions for February. :)

- "I wanna thank Jesus for saving my sins."
- "Mommy, are you going to go see Jesus? Are you going to take baby Tennyson with you?"
- I love how Zooey still calls Tennyson "Baby Tennyson." LOL
- One day after speech, Zooey was having a hard time obeying, so I encouraged her to pray and ask Jesus to help her obey. She fell to her knees, looked toward the sky and yelled, "Jesus! Come down from heaven and help me obey!!"
- Zooey taught Tennyson how to pray after we read our Bible one day.
- In the car one day, "Mommy, are you going to take me to heaven to see Jesus today?"
- One night at dinner, Zooey told me, "I gonna have babies one day." I asked her some questions to find out she was going to have four babies, two boys and tow girls, and she was going to marry Daddy. :)
- Another night she told me she was going to marry me, Daddy and Baby Tennyson when she grows up. :)

I had heard that this was an age when kids start to ask a lot of questions, and I actually remember asking a lot of questions when I was four. I am so incredibly thankful to be there for these questions about her budding faith and to have BSF and a solid church home to teach her, too.

Zooey got her ears pierced on Valentine's Day, after months of asking to have it done. It was...quite the adventure. We're now in April, and some days I wish I hadn't done it. It is what it is, though. She loves her little butterflies and asks when she's going to be able to wear dangly earrings. My answer? Never. LOL :)

She loves school and is really starting to talk about her little friends there and what they do at school. She's picked up some interesting habits from her class, which consists mostly of boys: fake burping, talking about poo. It's funny, but I can't laugh too much, you know. :)

The day she got her ears pierced!

President's Day at school

Love the way she dresses herself

January

It has been TOO long since I've done an update. Life is crazy right now, and I cannot wait until summer break. Thankfully, I've been taking notes in my phone about the cute and wonderful stuff I don't want to forget. :)

- I took Zooey on a trike ride. At lunch, I asked her if she had fun, and she said, "Yes, thanks. That felt good today."
- She said, "Your phone's calling you," whenever my phone rang.
- "Love you forever."
- One night before bed, I told her I was sorry I didn't get to play with her much that day and asked her to forgive me. She replied, "Ya. I just really need you to play with me. You no feed baby Tennyson ALL DAY LONG. Stop feeding baby Tennyson all day."
- She calls the color silver, "silverware."
- God answered a prayer of mine and Ryan suggested pulling Zooey out of school next year on Wednesdays to be able to attend BSF. This was a thought I had, but I hadn't suggested it to him, yet.
- She had a cold one day, and took a drink of her water and said, "Feels so good! I feel sick." Then she blew her nose out onto the ground. Yuck! lol
- I was in the shower one day when she got up from her nap, so she went in the kitchen and got her own bowl and goldfish. She showed me what she did and said, "I know; I'm so special!"
- I was doing my quiet time one morning and praying. She came into the living room and kneeled beside me to pray. So special! 

Super fun craft - ice cube painting. Kept her busy for about an hour.

Poor baby got gum in her hair. She did not like the peanut butter removal process.

So excited to see "baby Tennyson."

December

We spent most of December excited about Christmas. It was so much fun to watch Zooey this year! She really "gets" it. She was excited about celebrating Jesus' birthday, excited about Santa, excited about our elves, Chocolate & Hart. She had a lot of fun. She had a lot of fun helping decorate the tree and putting up the usual decorations, plus she made some at school that we put up around the house. She loved doing her advent calendar every day and counting the days. I realize I am way behind on the blogging, but I do remember a couple of cute things she did in December (thank God I track this stuff on my phone!).

A sweet clerk at the grocery store gave Zooey $1.00 for her purse. When I told her we'd go home and put it in her piggy bank, she said, "NO! I give all money to Jesus at BSF."

She got up from her nap and went to get her own snack (a new favorite thing for her to do), and she brought me and Sarah fruit snacks, too.

Imitating her teachers from BSF, told me and Ryan "Zip your lips; it's my turn to talk and your turn to listen."

Randomly getting out of the car one day she told me, "Me wanna grow up to be just like you, Mommy." How sweet! And kind of sobering, too!

She started telling me to keep an eye on Baby Tennyson when she left the room.

She saw the movie Frozen and is absolutely obsessed!