This post was really due a few days ago, after my great weekend with the kids. A lot of nice moments that just really makes parenthood seem like a less scary place to be. As Alex and Zoe get older, the growth that I've witnessed in them seems like a brand new revelation every single time.
Zoe's picking up new words all the time, with special emphasis on words like, "NO!" and "MINE!". But she also learned words like "That's nice." and "Miao", which I think is pretty cute because she does the Chinese pronunciation of a cat's meow, which I think is great. She's also a bundle of fun because when I tickle her, she would giggle, and then point to her other knee, and say, "This One!" And giggle. And then point to her head and say, "This one." Mouth. "This one!" She also has the great advantage of being impervious to how she acts, like most kids, and I would be lying if I didn't feel like the best daddy in the world when she sees me. The other morning, she came downstairs, saw me, yelled, "Daddy!" and did this weird, skipping, flappy little dance of joy. And inside, so was I.
Alex is currently testing his boundaries, and probably has an imaginary time-out scorecard in his brain. He's getting in trouble a lot recently, kicking kitty, throwing toys, terrorizing his little sister and not listening. I'm sure it's just a phase, but it's still tough for me and my wife who would rather spent the time we have together playing or just chilling, instead of having him warm up the corner of the couch and testing how screamproof the house is.
Alex is also progressing well along, saying and remembering more words and even working out an occasional sentence. He has tints of humor in his exchanges, and more cheekiness than you can shake a cat with. It's odd that each of them have things they listen to, and some they don't. Alex hates diaper changes, but Zoe doesn't mind them. Zoe doesn't obey physical boundaries like the kitchen and eating in the living room, but Alex is really good about that. And of course, both of them really respond to words like, "Candy" and "Chocolate" and "Ice cream." Ice cream's like the worse. They have plastic food and they will actually take possesion over the ice cream cones, and lick them over and over again.
Altogether, I'm glad they're getting older. To get past the little baby things like crankiness without a nap, or food pickiness, or diapers, so that we can just discover new things together. This summer will be a fun one - we're planning on the movie drive-in (yes, there are a few still operational in this wet state.), a zoo visit, maybe the Science Center, and the Space Needle. And something that I've missed - The Seattle Bite. Foooooood.
Tom Cruise is coming to Aberdeen. I don't know why. As I stated to someone in the breakroom, maybe he's looking all over the place for someone who still likes him. Personally, I think he's getting a tough rap for the whole thing. We all say stupid things, express our personal beliefs at the wrong times, but he just happened to do it to the most critical audience on national TV - the daytime crowd. Now that's a crowd that you don't want to piss off.
Tangent.
