An Update on All Things Zoya

As I rushed home from work to eat dinner (Shawn cooked yay!) and then off to take Zoya to a doctor appointment, I got behind a car with a bumper sticker that said "I Love Yoga" and I thought if that bumper sticker were on my car it would say, "I'd love to have time for yoga" hehe oh well.  Oh and incase you were wondering, I took Zoya to her doctor appointment with my shirt on inside out and didn't realize it until I was giving her a bath tonight.   And the way that I found out I am an official member of the mother's club is when I was cleaning out my car and I found an old hardened stinky banana peel under the seat.  I soooo don't have it all together if there was anyone out there who thought I did!!  As you can see, things around here have been busy busy busy!  Zoya's had a little cold going on and since she likes to kiss me once every minute or so, I ended up with it too....but it is oh so worth it for all the kisses.

We've been busy with every day life but we still make time to have fun, snuggle, and learn new things....all the important things in life!  Zoya has recently learned to shake her head "no" appropriately and it cracks me up when she does it. At least now she is not pushing her cup away when she doesn't want any more...she is appropriately shaking her head no. Someone needs to tell her though that we can't "hear" sign language! I put her down for her nap the other day and I walked out and went and turned on the video monitor (which has been a life saver bc Zoya doesn't ever cry when she wakes up, and also it's just really fun to watch her!)...anyways, so I look at the monitor and I see her standing in the corner of her crib shaking her head NO! Silly girl. I don't think she wanted to take a nap!  She laid right down and went to sleep after that little silent protest though. Other times when she wakes up I can see her standing there signing "all done." It is too funny. Maybe she knows the camera is there (which could explain why we see her waving to us on the camera?) She is one smart cookie and I seriously wonder if she knows we can see her!  Her other new "I wanna use it all the time" sign is HELP! She couldn't figure out how to get her thumb up to do the ASL sign for help so we made up our own where she raises her hand and flaps it wildly. She had been getting VERY whiny and it was clear we needed to teach her a way to ask for help to cut down the whining and it has helped so much! Except now, she uses it about 800 times a day! Most of the time we can figure out what it is she needs help with or wants, but sometimes we have no idea and then she just whines. OR she will sign help and point to something she isn't allowed to have and then we tell her no so she whines because she thinks we didn't understand (when we really just said "no even though you asked nicely the answer is still no!") When she first started signing help we gave her whatever she was asking for or helped her with what she needed help with (within reason) because we wanted her to make that connection that the sign was getting her what she asked for....so now she is like what the heck, I asked for it, now give it to me! I know you'll never believe this but this girl is SASSY! ;)

Zoya has some issues with sensory things as I've written about before. Tactile wise she doesn't have too many issues that I've observed...she touches everything in her environment and never has any problems. While I was working one day, she had OT and the OT wanted her to play with rice and shaving cream and apparently she had a melt down. Since I wasn't here I can't say if it was sensory related or if something else was bugging her, although the OT thought it was sensory related. Soooo, I set out to do my own little experiment and she loved it. The only difference was that I let her sit on the floor (as opposed to her high chair) where she could get as close to or as far away from the shaving cream and rice as she wanted, and I put foil down to make some fun noise while she played in it. If you look close at some of the pictures you can see rice EVERYWHERE. In fact, we did this a week ago and I am still stepping on rice every other step no matter how many times I vacuum! Oh well she had fun! And she didn't try to eat it even once!!

I can't think of anything that makes me happier than this...my girl in soft snugly jammies with fun feet!

Happy to be watching baby signing times...her all time favorite!

Look at her mouth...when she is tired she does this cute sucking thing with her tongue behind her lips. 

Zoya loves this piggy bank that you can put coins in and take out. Her favorite hobby is putting anything into anything and then taking it all out and then putting it all in again! Over and over! It is so awesome to see Zoya initiate play and play with toys the right way! When we first came home she had no idea what to do with any of her toys. Now she seeks them out and plays with them the right way! Check out her open mouth in the pics. She always does this when she is focusing...so cute! The piggy has also motivated her to walk. I will hold it up and in order to play with it she has to stand up and walk over. Then she will stand for up to one minute not holding onto anything while she plays with the piggy. That's some good PT!

Like I said she loves the piggy :)

Zoya has been doing great with walking (when she wants to). Here you can see me in various places with a box of yummy crackers for a little motivation. I just sit there and she comes! Then I move and she follows. But she knows she only gets a cracker if she walks and not if she crawls. I'm not allowed to tell her to walk though or she gets cranky.  So I look off to the side pretending to ignore her and I say "these crackers are for girls that walk" and viola, she walks!  You'd never believe it but this girl is....yep you got it....SASSY! And I wouldn't want her any other way! Oh and you can see her skills in this picture as she is walking right over the obstacles Mya has set for her! (Oh and I was eating the crackers to motivate her...ya sure I was)

And Mya...well she'd do anything for a cracker!

And after seeing this shot...now I know what Shawn does with Zoya when he is home alone with her.  He has been working on some football plays...it's obvious! Hut, Hut, HIKE!