From Madame Njet to Lady Why

Not too long ago Zoe's favourite word must have been a resounding "no" - most questions were answered in the negative, even if she actually kind of meant yes. "Would you like some lunch?" "No." As soon as lunch was ready she'd of course eat. My secret theory is that all the nays were a rebellion against being offered a confusing array of choices by her mother ("Would you prefer peas or carrots?"), but Vivien would probably dispute that. Anyway, these days she's moved on and her favourite word when told something, question or request, is "why?" Which can drive you quite batty. "Put a jacket on, Zoe." "Why?" "Because it's cold outside." "Why?" "Because it's winter." "Why?" ... "Either you put a jacket on or we don't go to the playground." "Ok."

Pretty often in pink

Observant followers of this blog will have noticed an inordinate amount of pink creeping in, especially on the body of this lovely young lady. We deny all responsibility! From the outset we banned all items pink - clothes, linen, toys or others. It was not an easy task as the mainstream world of baby and toddler paraphernalia is roughly divided into two colours: pink and light blue. We did what we could to keep what we considered artificial and consumer-oriented gender predetermination and, worse, an onslaught onto our sense of aesthetics out of the house. Even at her day-care there wasn't really a lot of pink around. We still lost the battle. Whenever given the opportunity to choose the colour of some new item, Zoe will pick pink. She loves her pink tutu, pink shoes, pink t-shirts and even pink toothbrush. Amid the slight bewilderment we are still feeling after having been hit completely unprepared by this pink avalanche, some doubt has crept in: Maybe it's in the genes after all...

Lula

Lula is one of Zoe's closest friends. She has been around for a couple of months, but she's a bit of an enigma as neither Vivien nor I really know what she looks like or where she's from. Actually we don't even know how old she is because depending on the day, she can be either 65, 3 or still in Zoe's tummy waiting for birth. But she's definitely around a lot, sometimes sitting quietly next to Zoe, sometimes playing with her and frequently chatting on the phone from work. She's probably also been invited to the tea party Zoe threw for a couple of her dolls and bears, but only Zoe could tell.