Zoeness

Zoe made the front page! Full color and everything. Very exciting! And yes, if you are one of her grandparents, you will be getting a copy, I'm talking to you, Mom.

Oh, and here it is directly stolen borrowed off the website:

In other Zoe news, she locked me out of the house yesterday. I went out to wait for Nick's bus without her, because she was happily reading and didn't want to move, and Nick was going to be home in a minute or two anyway, then she apparently decided to join me, mistakes were made, and then of course she couldn't unlock it again. That was exciting too, but in a not so nice way. Fortunately, one of my neighbors is handy with a credit card, and she jimmied the lock for me. Yes, I'm going to hide a key outside now.

Also, we carved the jack o'lantern on Saturday. Zoe was quite interested at first, watching what we were doing, happily scribbling on her pumpkin with the marker, and generally staying involved. But after I'd scooped out the guts, and Nick had drawn the design he wanted, and I started the lengthy process of carving the face, she wandered off. Which, fine, she was clearly going around the side of the house, she's welcome to play in the driveway or on the patio. After a couple minutes I asked Nick to check on her anyway. He couldn't find her. I joined him, not immediately concerned. But I couldn't find her either. We searched the backyard with obsessive thoroughness, the patio, the house, everywhere back there. Nowhere. I wasn't truly panicked, because it's a safe neighborhood and a safe house; I knew there were many possible explanations, and very few of them ended in tragedy. But it's not a good feeling, mislaying your toddler. Finally I decided she wasn't back there, that she must have somehow slipped around out front. I walked up the driveway, ready to start searching the neighborhood.

And there she was, calmly walking home again. I ran to her and scooped her up and hugged her and told her not to scare me like that, Zoe, don't leave the yard, Zoe, and I paused for breath and she smiled happily and said, "Hide!" Because guess what idiot taught her to play hide-and-seek? She had dried corn and sunflower seeds clutched in her fist, incidentally, so I'm guessing she wandered two houses down, played with the bird feeder in their front yard, and wandered home again to show me what she'd found. Which means she was, reassuringly, never was in any danger. Except from her own complete lack of common sense and her incompetent mother, that is. 

But hey, it's a cool jack o'lantern.

 
Let's  see, what else have we been up to. Well, I was sick as a dog on Thursday and Friday last week. That was nasty. And it wasn't even swine flu, I don't think, just a nasty stomach bug, which means I could potentially feel that awful twice this year. Zoe watched a lot of TV those days. Nothing bad happened as a result of poor supervision that time, though. Rich was out of town the whole time I was sick, which sucked. It also meant we missed the first cub scout camping trip of the year. I wasn't convinced I was well enough to hit the woods (what if I'd relapsed?) and there was no other parent to be had, so we all stayed home. I did drag myself and Zoe to the annual school picnic on Friday. I only had to stay upright for an hour or so, it was doable. And I didn't want to disappoint Nick too many times in one weekend. It was fine. We had fun, we sat a little part from everyone and anyway I doubt I was particularly infectious at that point, and Nick felt properly valued. 

Man, this has been a depressing entry. Should I mention that the school bus was an hour late today, or is that just piling on?