On the Last Few Days

I have hope for the future, Friends!

Boy, Friends.  These last couple weeks have really made me wonder that kind of world I've been sent into.  I've talked about it over on the Facebook, but I know not everybody's on the Facebook, so forgive me for repeating myself, if you've already heard this.

The last couple weeks have been the kind where even the adults have been afraid.  A terrible thing happened in a place where little kids are supposed to be safe. 

But then while I was looking over Mommy's shoulder on the Facebook, I saw a quote from Mister Rogers: "When I was a boy and I would see scary things in the news, my mother would say to me, 'Look for the helpers. You will always find people who are helping.' To this day, especially in times of 'disaster,' I remember my mother’s words, and I am always comforted by realizing that there are still so many helpers - so many caring people in this world."

It made me feel better, hearing that Mister Rogers would get scared, and it made me feel better to know that there are people who are helping.  And it got me thinking.  We ALL get afraid sometimes and need help.  So what if ALL of us are helpers, too?  I can't help but feel like if we're all helpers in some way, we'll have nothing to fear. I know I haven't been in this world for very long, but I think this is the way it can be. This is what it means to be in a family. This is what it means to be in a community. We're all the helped and we're all the helpers.

There are always going to be bad people in the world, Friends.  But we can't let them make us afraid all the time.  We can't let those bad people take away our hope.  In dark times, we all have to get our flashlights out and hold them up for each other.  We need to be good to one another, give hugs when somebody needs hugs.  Being nice matters, Big People!

I'll be here, Friends. I'll be here tomorrow to see you. And I'll be here the day after that. And the next. I'll be here next Saturday, and so will you. I'll be here the Saturday after. 

 Friends, let's not just sit and hope things get better. Let's start making them better, ourselves. We have all the power in the world! 

 And remember, Zoe loves you!

My Visit With Santa

Santa, I can explain....

 Well, yesterday, I rode to Coudersport for my visit with Santa Claus.  Now, as you know, Santa and I chat quite often on the phone, but I haven't seen him in person since last year in Pittsburgh. 

Now, I know Mommy has bandied about the words "unmitigated disaster" on the Facebook.  Before you believe everything that comes out of her fingertips, allow me to present my side of things, Big People, Friends.

Okay.  I'm not going to deny that I cried when I saw Santa.  It could have even been construed as a "meltdown."  Yeah.  It was pretty big, and I'm embarrassed about it.

The thing is, Santa's a Big Hero of mine.  I adore the man.  He's been my icon for goodwill and being kind to everyone for my whole entire life.

You know I love you, Santa!

And yesterday afternoon, when I finally saw him, I was so overcome with emotion that I couldn't help but burst into tears.  I couldn't help it!  Mommy says she'd liked to have crawled into a hole, but I'd like to remind her that I cried the first time I saw her, too, and you all know how much I love Mommy!

Anyway, I called Santa on the phone last night, while he was in his Teleporting Airstream Travel Trailer, and he said there were no hard feelings.  Lots of little kids cry when they see him, for many of the same reasons I did.  And he thanked me for not peeing on his lap. 

Well, when you look at it like that, my visit with Santa Claus wasn't such an unmitigated disaster, as Mommy calls it.  That Mommy!

Santa told me that I'd better be asleep when he comes to my house on Christmas Eve, but he'll check in on me.  And of course, Santa and I are still friends.  We're still buddies!  We stay in touch!  Santa Claus doesn't want me to dwell on feeling bad because I sort of spazzed out on him.  So I'm not going to.  We all have days like this!

Stubborn Problems Call For Stubborn Problem-Solvers!

I've got a stubborn problem on my hands!

Well, hiya, Big People!  How the heck are ya today?  It's Thursday the Thirteenth, you know.  Is that a thing?  Does anybody know?  I know people kind of lose their minds about Friday the Thirteenth, but what about Thursday the Thirteenth?  I'll have to look into this. 

You know what I'm also looking into?  A solution for those Little Giraffes of the Wild Steppes of Wexford.  If you just said "But Zoe, I thought you had their plight all taken care of, with your fancy shuttle bus, to take the Little Giraffes of the Wild Steppes of Wexford around to the different eateries and healthy grocery stores, so they wouldn't think they need to cross that busy Route 19 to go to Sonic all the time!", believe me, Friends.  I thought I had it all figured out, too.  That shuttle bus seemed like such a great idea.

I know I've told you before, but just for the sake of review, I'll repeat myself. The Little Giraffes of the Wild Steppes of Wexford weren't happy with my solution, because they thought the shuttlebus was taking them to salad bars too often and not to the Sonic enough, so they started heading over to the Sonic after the shuttlebus would drop them off for the day.  So not only are they getting all those extra calories, which was MY concern, they're also having to cross Route 19 again.  That's what brought the Little Giraffes in Wexford to my attention in the first place.

Do you know Route 19 in Wexford, Friends?  Why, it's crazy!  Traffic everywhere!  People turning left, people turning right... people trying to beat the red lights!  It's just a bad situation!

It can be discouraging when problems don't stay solved!

Well, and then you know, the other thing I'm trying not to make to big a deal out of: The Sonic itself!  Don't get me wrong.  Sonic's a great sometimes-treat place, but the Little Giraffes of the Wild Steppes of Wexford have really been going there too much!  Everything has such high calories.  Are there salads at Sonic?  If there were, even the SALADS would cost a bazillion calories apiece!  I don't know what the Little Giraffes are eating at the Sonic, but I bet it's the tater tots or the mozzarella sticks, and not the salad, since all the salad bars I've had the shuttlebus take them around to, right there in their neighborhood, that's what has them all up in arms.  Or necks. 

What do you way when you have a bunch of angry giraffes, anyway?  People get all up in arms.  I don't know what giraffes get.  All I know is that they're mad at me, still crossing Route 19, still eating Sonic food every day, and let's just say we had a discussion.  It got heated.  Really heated, heated like the oil you'd fry everything on the menu at Sonic in. Some things were said.  Things we all regret.

When the goin' gets tough, Zoe gets tougher! Grr!

And I know better, Big People.  I know that beating your chest and hurling ad hominem or ad Giraffa camelopardalis
 as the case may be, is no way to win an argument.  Not really.  That's bullying.  Think about it.  Would YOU want to do anything with somebody who beat their chest and said rude things to you?  Would having them do that make you more likely to say, "you know, you're right!  I really need to change my ways for my well-being and for that of those around me!"  Of course not! 

So, it's going to be back to the drawing table for me and the Little Giraffes of the Wild Steppes of Wexford.  They know eating so much food from Sonic AND crossing Route 19 are dangerous things for them to do.  They KNOW it, and say they can't help themselves.  And this is a bigger problem than I can handle on my own, so I'm going to have to ask for some help.

It's a funny thing about help, though, isn't it, Friends?  Sometimes, if you're not afraid to open your mind, the very help you knew you needed, but didn't know how to ask for it, it just falls in your lap.  Things fall into place.  One thing I'm certain of.  Stubborn problems call for stubborn problem-solvers, and if anything fits me to a T, it's being a stubborn problem-solver! We're gonna get through this, those Little Giraffes and me!  Rah!

I'll see ya tomorrow, Friends!

I'm Fifteen Months Old!

Time just slipped away from me like crazy!

 Hiya, Friends!  Would you believe on the 9th, I turned Fifteen Months Old?  And yesterday, it marked fifteen months since I came home for the first time and met my pal Rozzie for the first time?  An' I forgot all about both those things!  Wow!

I guess that's what the old people like Mommy mean when they say "time has a way of slipping right past you!"  Time just slipped right past me, the last coupla days! 

Anyway, it's good to be fifteen months old.  I'm allowed to do more stuff.  I've been helping Mommy carry dishes to the sink, when I can.  I like to pretend that the plates are steering wheels and I'm driving a Jeep out to the kitchen.  I know it helps Mommy out a lot, and it makes me feel like a Big Girl, getting to help her like that! 

Sometimes, believe it or not, she lets me put spoons in the slots in the silverware basket in the dishwasher!  Wow!

What can I do to make sure that doesn't happen again?

Also, if you ask me where my nose is, I can show you.  I can do the same with my mouth, my belly, and my foot!  How about that!  I couldn't show you where those things were before, but now I can!

It's a lot of fun, being fifteen months old.  I have a magazine that I subscribe to now.  It's made just for me and has my name on the address label and everything.  Guess how much of a big shot THAT makes me feel like?  I'll give you a clue: it makes me feel like a great big bigshot!  You bet it does!

What I can't believe is that I've known Rozzie for fifteen months.  I think I mean I can't believe it's only been fifteen months.  To me, it feels like I've known Rozzie forever.  And I guess I have.  At least as far as I'm concerned. 

I know!  I'll write on a calendar what I wanna remember!

When I was just a little kid, I remember sitting in my swing, and Rozzie brought her favorite ball over to me to play with.  I was only about two weeks old, so I didn't know what to do with a ball, but I could tell it was something great.  And I also remember lying in my swing, and crying, and Rozzie would come up to me and give me a kiss on the cheek.  She seemed so big!

Now I can play with Rozzie with her favorite ball.  I can give her treats out of the bin.  She still seems so big to me, but she isn't scary at all.  When Rozzie's around, I feel really safe.

I'm glad Rozzie was around for me when I came home from the hospital that first time.  And I'm glad she's around now.  Some mornings, she comes into my room, and she's the first face I see, and when that happens, I know it's gonna be a good day.  Even when she isn't the first face I see, as soon as I see her waiting for me down in the room that's red, I know it's gonna be a great day. 

Me and my Best Friend Rozzie!

I think the point I'm trying to make is that when I came home that first day, I really didn't know how this was going to go.  I'd only ever lived in a hospital... at least those first coupla days.  I'd only ever slept in a plastic wheelie, not in my very own crib.  I didn't know who Rozzie was or how I was supposed to act around her.  But she really has taken me under her paw and made sure I know things.  She lets me share her food- didja know that dogfood tastes GREAT, Big People?  I didn't until Rozzie clued me in.  I love that dog!

So... Fifteen Months.  Wow!  So much has happened since I first got here.  I just can't believe I forgot until today that I've gotten to this milestone!  I'll see ya tomorrow, Friends!

I've Got the Writer's Block Today!

It's heck not to know what to say!

Hiya, Friends!  Well, I'm having a little trouble getting started on what to talk to you about today.  Usually it just pours right outta me, what to talk about with you, but today, I'm all flibbertygibbleted, and nothing's coming to mind.  I don't want to waste your time, but you're here, and I'm here, and I might as well come up with something to say, don't you think?

I've asked Mommy what I should do when I don't know what to write about, and she says I should go do something else, like vacuum the floor or do some dusting or fold some laundry.  I said I was too little to do those things, so here we are.

Personally, between you and me, Friends, I think Mommy's trying to skive off some of her chores onto me.  This thing about doing something else, especially something chorey, is all a myth!

I know! I'll play you 'Kitten on the Keys' on my imaginary piano!

I don't know, though. Maybe she's onto something about doing something else, going in a different direction, if it feels like this road's blocked for today.  For instance, I've just recently taken up playing the Imaginary Piano, and I've found that it really has helped me out of many a jelly of a creative jam, just in this short interval of time!  I get blocked on what I'm supposed to be doing, and I just sit down and play my Imaginary Piano, and everything's all right with the world. 

Plus, it makes me feel good, because I'm really good at playing the Imaginary Piano!  You wouldn't believe it! I never hit the wrong notes, I never play too loudly or too softly- always just at the right volume!  The Imaginary Piano's never out of tune, and I don't have to dust the Imaginary Piano!   It's a pretty great investment!

I bet you could do the same thing with Imaginary Drums or an Imaginary Horn, too!  I plan to pick up both, before too awful long.  Diversify my skills and all.  It's important, in this economy, to be good at a buncha things, don't you think, Big People?

Well, look at that!  I DID find something to talk to you about, after all!  I'm so glad!  And hey, maybe one of these days, we can all get together with our Imaginary Instruments, and whip ourselves up an Imaginary Symphony!  Don't you think that'd be just about the most fun ever? 

I'll see ya tomorrow, Big People!  Hopefully I'll have played my way out of this Writer's Block!  But I always love you!  Muah!

Christmas Crunch Time

Smile and say "hiya!" to someone who needs a smile today!

Hiya, Big People!  Well, guess what!  It's the tenth of December, and my excitement is just about at a frenzied pitch.  You know why?  Two weeks from tonight, it'll be Christmas Eve.

Now, my friend Santa Claus and I talked about it, and we decided that since he's going to get milk and cookies at everybody's houses, I'm going to leave him two Texas Hots from the Texas Hot in Downtown Wellsville, a Pepsi, and a plate of fries.

This DID cause a little bit of awkwardness, on the subject of Santa and the Pepsi.  I understand Santa and Coca-Cola have had an affiliation in the past.  But the Texas Hot in Downtown Wellsville is all Pepsi, and you hafta have that in order to get the full Texas Hot experience... or as close to it as you can get, not being there.  See, the people at the Texas Hot in Downtown Wellsville will be spending Christmas Eve with their families that night.  So I can't take Santa Claus there myself when he comes to my house.  But I want his experience to be as authentic as I can make it.  So, Pepsi instead of Coca-Cola.

I woulda planned on a piece of pie, too.  I love the Banana Creme at the Texas Hot in Downtown Wellsville.  But with all those cookies he'll be eating that night, Santa said he'd prefer to keep his snack at my house savory.  I can appreciate that. 

So anyway, we're down to the crunch time for the countdown to Christmas.  Big People, why do we call this time "crunch time?"  Are we all going to do crunches in preparation for all the Christmas cookies we're going to eat?  Do you think that's why?  I hope you have all your shopping close to done, though. If you're doing crunches, that's going to take up time from your shopping and wrapping. 

Just seems weird to me that of all the things you can do, you'd pick crunches to do.  I'd think during this time, we all ought to Turbo Jam, or play some table tennis, or something else that really burns calories, don't you?  Go for walks.  Crunches are great, I guess, but they don't look like they'd really burn off many cookie-calories.  I get so confused.  It'll be okay.  I guess we should just do whatever we do, so when Christmas comes, we can eat lotsa cookies and hot cocoa and not worry about it.

That sounds like a good deal to me, Friends!  See ya tomorrow!

It's an "Up" Kinda Day!

Make your day an "UP" one!

Hiya, Friends!  I'm feeling fine and sassy today, Big People.  I've got some snap in my walk and some spring in my step.  The last few days, I've been kinda down, because of my teeth an' all, but today's an UP kinda day! 

Part of it is that I did get some rest, and love, and patience.  But the bigger part of it is that I just decided that I've let these teeth get to me long enough.  I just decided I'm just going to be happy before the end of this week, darn it! 

Happy is one of those things that you can fake until it comes true sometimes, I think.  If you don't have an underlying condition.  If you DO have an underlying condition, or you think you might, please see a doctor.  I love my doctor!  But I think he's just for kids.  You need to see a Big People doctor!

But if you don't have an underlying condition, and you're just feeling down because it's cloudy, or it's cold, or your jeans are pinching you or drawing in areas you don't want your jeans to draw into... just take a deep breath and fill your lungs up with air.  Beat your chest a little and fluff yourself up some.  Stomp your feet, left-right-left-right and make your arms go like snow-angel arms.  Then clap your hands together once, look in the mirror, give that reflection a smile, and say "You're gonna have a GREAT day, good-lookin'!"  And make it so!

Works for me every time I'm feelin' down. Might take a few days.  But once I decide something, once I set my mind to it, it's gonna happen. 

Just ask the babygate Mommy put up, thinking she'd keep me corralled.  I decided I was gonna get that babygate opened up someday soon.  I set my mind right to it, and by golly, it's come true!  A sliding bolt?! Come on, Big People!  That's WAY too easy!  Hahahaha!

Make it an Up kinda day, Friends!  If it helps, remember Zoe loves you!  Muah!

Love and Rest and Patience

Boy I wish these teeth would either come in or quit hurting!

Friends, I've got to tell you.  I don't like to complain.  Usually I'm a very happy person.  And even now, I'm pretty happy, but do I ever have something that's bothering me. 

These back teeth of mine, coming in.  It's awful. I've had it pretty easy, with teething so far, but this time around, I get where those other little kids are coming from.  It's making me worn-out.  My mouth hurts.  My nose won't quit running.  I want Mommy to hold me, but I don't want her to.

Do you understand where I'm coming from, Big People?

In my telephone call to Santa Claus yesterday, I asked him if it was the only things I asked for, if he could just bring me my teeth, so I could stop hurting.  He said he'd like to, but that I have to let my teeth grow in all by themselves, and that all I need is lots of love and lots of rest and to let Mother Nature do her thing.  I love Santa Claus and all, but that wasn't what I wanted to hear, at all.

In just three days, I'm going to be fifteen months old, and I think of all the things I've done so far, growing in my teeth is the hardest thing I've had to do, because I hafta be patient, and I can't DO anything to speed along things.  That's really a bitter pill for me to swallow, Friends.  I'd rather just be able to practice and work at it, and have 'em all in.

Wouldn't you think Daddy'd help me out with this, since teeth are his thing?  Well, he just said the same thing Santa Claus said.  Love and rest and patience.

I guess that's how it's gonna hafta be, Friends.  Love and rest and patience.  So I hope if you're going through anything that's making you feel hurt or sad and worn out, that you get lots of love and rest and patience.  That's what I'm hoping for too, Big People.  That's what I'm hoping for, too.

An' They Had a DISCO BALL!

My Ballapalooza is the closest thing I have to a disco ball.

 Hiya, Friends!  Well, last night, we went to TGIFridays.  It was pretty neat.  Our waitress brought me a straw of my very own to play with.  I didn't even make a fuss, and she just gave me a straw!  I pretended it was a magic wand.

Then our light was cool.  It reminded me of a lamp from the 1950s I saw on the internet.  But it was hanging from the ceiling.  How about that?!

Mommy and Daddy let me share their fried green beans with Wasabi-Ranch sauce.  I didn't know that green beans were something to be fried, but Mommy said that fried green beans are okay for a sometimes-treat, but not an everyday addition to your meal.  I sure liked the crunchy part.  The green beans were good, too, but I'm not gonna lie, Friends.  That crunchy part was where it was at!

I looked up and there it was! A disco ball!

Mommy got some chicken skewers that came with pita bread.  She shared her pita bread with me.  It was so good and soft and warm and tasty.  It was almost as good as my crescent roll on Thanksgiving.  And I felt like such a big girl, sitting right up at the table at TGIFridays, eating the pita bread, just like I owned the place!  Or, at least just like I was a big girl at the table, eating pita bread.  The only thing about it was that Mommy made me wear a bib.  That's pretty much a tip-off that I'm a baby.  I think I coulda convinced everybody in our section that I'm NOT a baby, except with that bib, that's what everybody thought I was, I'm pretty sure.  I think I handled it well.  I didn't kick up a fuss.  The waitress brought me out a dish of ice cream.  It was good.  But with that bib on, to everybody else, I just looked like a baby with a bib on, eating ice cream soup, like Wemberly from my book.

I sure love disco balls!

But that's not all.  As I was sitting there, thinking about how awful it was that I had to sit there with a bib on, I looked up, and there was beautiful light, dancing on the wall.  I suspected, and then when I looked a little higher, there it was: a big, beautiful disco ball.  Musta been a two-footer.  It was a little dusty.  That, I could see right from my high chair.  But it didn't change that the light the disco ball put up on the wall was nothing short of beautiful, and it reminded me of how much I yearn for a disco ball of my very own.

Now, if I had a disco ball of my very own, I wouldn't let it get dusty.  I know where Mommy keeps the window cleaning spray that comes in a can, and I know where to find the microfiber cloths.  I'd keep my very own disco ball all shined up.  It's been a fond dream of mine to have a disco ball to call my own for quite a while now.

Seeing that disco ball at the restaurant reminded me just now much I'd like to adopt a disco ball.  I wonder who I'd need to get in touch with, to help this dream come true.  I wonder if the Little Giraffes would know.  I'll hafta get on this, Friends!  I will!