More on that fundraiser

Zola likes to feel that she's included in adults' conversations and naturally, one of the best ways to accomplish this is to laugh along with jokes -- even when she's not entirely sure what people are laughing about. This tendency was in full force at the fundraiser. When it came time for the Congressman to address the crowd, people laughed politely at each of his jokes. Not Zola. She would throw back her head and give her fullest laugh to even his throwaway lines. Good stuff!

Other instances of this:
Alexei came for a visit one day, and didn't greet Zola as he usually does. He instead headed into the kitchen to talk to Ian. Zola stood before him and once he was laughing at something funny that Ian said, she started laughing as hard as she could.

And one of our first positive signs that school was going well:
I was driving along and she was chattering behind me. Suddenly, she gave a staged guffaw, "HAHAHA. (pause) Alex at school is soooo silly."

Zola ruminates on babies

So we're driving along after a fun afternoon of running errands. Zola's in the back and says, "I don't like babies."

Me: Oh, yeah? Why not?

Z: They cry. They cry a lot.

Me: That's true. You were a good baby, but you still cried some of the time. And I loved you then, just like I do now.

Z: But I'm NOT a baby anymore.

Me: No, you're a big girl. But babies are really fun even though they do cry. I bet you're really gonna like Baby Khale.

Zola: Yeah. I bet he will chew on his toys.

Me: On his toys? That's funny, for a second I thought you said "chews on his toes."

Zola: Yeah, babies do that, too ... Chew on they toes.

Me: They do?

Zola: Yeah, but then they get embarrassed.

Z's first fundraiser

Ms. Z really is a DC girl. She went to her first fundraiser for a friend of mine who is a Congressman a few weeks back. Because there were a few sitters hired to watch the kids at the party, Z referred to it as a "babysitter party."

That was several weeks ago. Last night as I was putting her to bed, when out of the blue she said, "At that babysitter party, I did like the Congressman." That's my girl :)

Uh oh

2 year 9 months, Zola decided she wants to pee standing up.

UPDATE: She's actually doing a pretty good job of it...