Zoë

Sorry Kiddo, No Flowers For You

/ Dawn Kasal-Finley / 2 Comments

Zoë is doing gymnastics and has been for about 12 weeks or so.  In the spring, her gymnastics club puts on a mini-olympics for the age groups who don’t compete at the USGA levels as a way to showcase their skills.  I think it’s a cute idea.  I remember my first club competition when I was about 8 or so–I actually had to remember and do a floor routine and a beam routine.  I remember being very nervous.  So, Zoë who is 3 had her “big performance” (that is how she dubbed it) yesterday.  She was with other kids ages 3-5.  It was really cute–they set up four circuits for the kids and they moved through them.  It was a bit like herding cats, but cute and Zoë kept looking into the stands and waving to us, etc.

I had noticed a few folks come in with bouquets of flowers.  My first thought was that they were for the older girl who would put on a show for everyone half way through the kids skill session.  I was taken aback when I started seeing other families with bouquets of flowers.  I thought, No these can’t be for these little kids.

I was so wrong.  There were at least 6 families that brought flowers in for their 3, 4, or possibly 5 year old gymnasts.  I was so surprised.  I couldn’t believe it.  I thought to myself, people really do this?  I could see if maybe they are really been part of a competition–but this was not a competition.  I still have a hard time believing it.

Zoë had fun and didn’t even notice the flowers.  She was much more enamored with her medal which she wore all day long.

Connections

/ Dawn Kasal-Finley / 2 Comments

There are many who feel the internet has taken over their lives and the lives of others.  There are those who don’t see the value in relationships made online.  I have to disagree completely with them.  The internet has allowed me to create an adoption community that allows my children to have connections to their birth country and more importantly to kids and families that look like theirs.  They have a shared story and it isn’t one that is written based solely on their skin color.  It is a complex story that can and will only be understood by those who have a similar experience.

This past weekend, we were lucky to meet up again with Noah and Zoë’s Ethiopian “cousins.”  These are kids who they share their early history with–kids who they were in our agency’s care center with.  There are many more “cousins” that we have not met or do not keep in as close touch with, but I have always believed it was important to keep some connections to my children’s past and birth country.  I am so thankful for Anne, Steph and Ginger.  I am so thankful for my own local Ethiopian adoption community.  The fabric of which  with only enrich my children’s lives and my own.

Thank you Internet for making the world smaller.

She’ll Take Five Years Or 100 Off Your Life

/ Dawn Kasal-Finley / 1 Comment

Zoë was home today all day with Bill as her sitter had surgery and is off for a week.  She was great and kept herself occupied with Moon Sand, scissors, paper, tape and glue sticks (can you envision what our house looked like when I got home) so that Bill could actually get some work done to pay for the lady who cleans our house–Monday can’t come soon enough.

So, Bill came up to check on her and he couldn’t find her, which is worrisome as our house isn’t very big.  It’s small really.  The doors were still closed and locked but she was gone.  He ran upstairs to look and thank goodness he is tall.  She had crawled up into the top bunkbed and was hunkered down asleep.  She put herself down for a nap.  Oh how cute.  Of course if it had been me at home, as short as I am, I would not have noticed her asleep in the bunk bed and would have called out the national guard to find her.

She really is going to give us a run for our money. 

Through The Window

/ Dawn Kasal-Finley / Leave a comment

Today is a milestone.  Zoë started school.  Only part-time for the rest of this year.  She officially starts in August, but the school invited her to start part-time for the last two months of school.  The idea is to help with the transition to school for next year.  We toyed with the idea of starting her in January, but decided to wait until Fall.  She is doing four weeks of summer camp at school, so this opportunity will be a good transition for her from daycare to school.

Someone took her scissors this morning and there were almost tears until I told her to just get another pair and that this was school and everyone shared everything.  She struggled when it was meeting time, because she was set on cleaning up and cleaning up everything.  She was telling the boys “guys we have to clean up. GUYS. WE. HAVE. TO. CLEAN. UP.  Then she’d run to tell her teacher that the boys weren’t cleaning up.  But I reminded her that she has to listen to her teacher, even if she thinks she needs to do something else.  She conceded to mom and went to sit with one of her teachers.

I stalked from the windows and was happy and sad at the same time.  She is my baby, but not so little anymore.  It makes me realize how I’m slowly becoming more of a spectator in their life and while I am happy they are independent, it is also a little sad.  But they need to grow and flourish and I can’t stand in their way.  I have to trust that I am doing my job well and I’ll keep watch through the window.

Just Try To Stop Her

/ Dawn Kasal-Finley / Leave a comment

I have talked before about having my hands full with Zoë.  She is amazing, funny, loving, stubborn, opinionated, strong-willed and spirited.  Her spirit is amazingly joyful.  She is going to do great things.  She is a performer and I often joke that she is going to dance her way through college on a stage of some sort–I hope the broadway sort, but not having to pay for college either way would be great.  I joke (a little).  Zoë loves to put on “shows.”  She is always telling us to get ready for her show.  It’s cute–although Noah has much more natural dancing ability that Zoë.  I know he got all the good stuff and Zoë will resent it–awesome hair, natural dancing talent, dimples, and eye-lashes to swoon over.  Ah but Zoë your personality outshines his (wait–can I say that).

Anyway, this morning I was making lunches and coffee when Zoë came into the kitchen in only her underwear (prepping for future stage dancing) and wanted to show me her dance.  It was a modern interpretation of tap-dancing.

I asked “who taught you that?”  the babysitters daughter takes dance and often teaches Zoë.

“No one.”

“Did you make it up yourself?”

“Yes, from my heart.”

Oh just kill me now.  There is no taming this one and why on earth would I want to?