Happy Birthday!

Two years ago, Zoë Anastasia came into the world, and the world was forever changed. :)

We celebrated Zoë's life today with all sorts of things that Zoë loves: a special butterfly themed birthday breakfast (with favorites banana and chocolate), a trip to the zoo with mommy and daddy, presents, ice cream, a shopping "spree," fun at the park, and painting in the bathtub.

All decorated and ready for the birthday girl to wake up!

Zoë loves butterflies. And it is perfect that she loves them,
because her middle name, Anastasia, means "resurrection" and butterflies are a
 Christian symbol for resurrection. Cool, huh?

Butterfly Breakfast!

Delicious Banana Chocolate Chip Baked Donuts 

(made with Greek yogurt too, so basically healthy ;)

Blowing out the candles

Zoë truly is full of "life," and brings joy and delight wherever she goes. She has a tender heart and shows great empathy for her age - giving hugs to anyone who is sad (including characters in her books). Her hugs and kisses are precious.

Hanging out with the "penguins" at the zoo. :)

Chillin' by the elephants with her new "Hello Kitty" water bottle

Zoë's intelligence is almost frightening. Every day we are blown away by her comprehension, her memory, problem solving and the connections she makes between words and between people and experiences.

Zoë is a super independent and self-motivated. She basically potty trained herself last week and has been accident free for 6 days! (At barely 24 months - what?!). She is also very spirited (a.k.a. strong willed), and stubborn as a mule (I don't know where she got that...) and has given us a run for our money trying to figure out the best and most godly way to guide/shape that spiritedness into a gift rather than a curse (for her and for us!). 

 

Presents! Regrettably, we let her open her gift from Auntie Judy first -

 a VTec digital camera. She didn't really care about any

 of the other presents after that... :p

The words are really starting to come out now. Some of her recent favorites: "dress"(which she asks to wear EVERY day), "shoes", "gackgack" (a.k.a backpack), "hand,""stop" and "go", "ba-bye", "butterfly" and "mingo" (flamingo).

She loves books. Zoë will sit in her room or on the potty and read, read, read. Any kind of book - children's books, our camping book (her current favorite), songbooks, road maps, and checkbooks. Lately, she has been asking be to read some of the longer books, like Seuss's "Horton Hears a Who!," and sits (mostly) and listens to the whole thing!

Zoë loves this camera!

(And now we can start to avoid the tantrums 

when I want to take pictures but won't let her touch mine! Yay!)

My present to Zoë: Butterfly wings made from fabric taken from old stained baby clothes, ruined quilts, worthless velcro diaper covers, and scraps from things I made for her in the last two years. She can wear the elastic straps around her shoulders and hook her hands into elastic handles on the wing tips.

Unfortunately, Zoë was not thrilled about the wings today and wouldn't even put them on long enough for me to get a picture. *Sigh.* Even though I told her it was making mommy VERY sad! Oh well. Hopefully she will want to wear them on Saturday for her "official" birthday party.

Ice cream is one of Zoë's most favorite things. 

We knew we would have to include a trip to our

 neighborhood Baskin-Robins for her birthday. :)

The funniest part is that she decided she didn't want her ice cream cone, 

and wanted daddy's milkshake instead. Crazy girl!

The grocery store across the street gave Zoë a $5 gift certificate for her birthday.

She picked out this blue bunny. :)

(Thanks Auntie Gloria for the new dress too!)

Zoë is full of adventure. She's a thrill seeker and likes a challenge. The playground is one of her favorite places to "monkey around," and do all sorts of things that make mommy a little anxious. :s If the big kids are doing it, well, so can she! She has mastered the somersault and is working on the cartwheel. :) Zoë loves to dance. LOVES to dance. She requests that we turn on some music at least once every day so that she can show off her moves. And if she hears music outside or in a store, she'll immediately start groovin'.  

Enjoy a little glimpse into the everyday life of the now-two-year-old Zozo:

We love you, Zoë Anastasia! We thank God for sending you into our lives, 

and for blessing us with such joy and delight!