Zoe at 12 months
This post was surprisingly hard to write because I’m not ready for our baby girl to be 1 year old. The emotions hit harder than expected. Zoe is our last baby and while we spend so much time celebrating firsts, it’s much sadder to celebrate lasts. I know I’m being overly sentimental, but I’m hanging on to her baby cheeks, chubby legs, and squishy belly as long as possible.
To say this year has flown by would be an understatement. With Max, we spent weekends laying on the floor, stacking blocks, singing songs and taking millions of pictures. With two kids, weekends are a blur of activity and exhaustion. Zoe has been a good sport, tagging along to Max’s soccer games, birthday parties, play dates, swim classes etc. But the past few weekends we have started taking her to her own activities like Romp N Roll. She loves crawling around the mats and bouncing on trampolines.
Earlier this week, I was cleaning out Zoe’s closet and found one of her newborn outfits. The outfit was almost half her current size and I could hardly believe she was ever that tiny. At this point, Aaron and I comment daily on how quickly she is growing and how much she is changing. So far her strongest personality trait is her “strong will” (i.e. fiery temper). We appreciate her passion, even though in Max’s words “it hurts my ears”.
Sleeping
Zoe is officially back to being a great night sleeper and we could not love her more for it. Her teachers say she is napping better at school. As soon as she turned one they moved her from a crib to a cot. Here is the picture they sent us.
Eating
Zoe is a good eater when she wants to be. For her first birthday we gave her cake and she discovered a love of sweets (just like her mama!).
Doing
This is my favorite age because they are on the verge of so much, and watching her learn and change on a daily basis is such a thrill. Zoe is going to be our social child. Anytime we pick her up, she immediately twists her body around so she can see what’s going on. She isn’t happy being held unless she is facing out.
Zoe loves to stand but she still hasn’t figured out how to take a step forward. We have tried pretty hard to get her to walk with the Y bike, but to no avail. On a good day she will take one or two cautious steps forward then sit back down. But she isn’t always that cautious; she will hurl herself happily down any slide without hesitation. She even learned to say “go”, which sounds more like “ga”, when she wants to go down. It’s the cutest thing. She is happiest when she is hanging upside down. She loves being picked up by her legs and flipped. I think we are going to have a little gymnast (unless she gets Aaron’s flexibility (i.e. hasn’t touched his toes since he was in grade school)).
Zoe is so chatty and Max can’t wait to start talking with her. Sometimes he tries so hard to understand what she is saying. It makes us laugh when he furrows his brow and says, “What does “baa-da-da-dee” mean. I don’t know that word.” He asks in such a serious way, as if “baa-da-da-dee” is a really word. But even though they can’t communicate in an obvious way, Zoe loves chasing and Max and Max loves making Zoe laugh. I know they won’t always get along this well, but for now we are loving it. This is one of my favorite sibling pictures:
Milestones
- Waves and says “hiiiiiiiiii”
- Crawls up stairs
- Loves going down slides
Zoe 12 month stats
(Max at 12 months here.)
- Weight: 18 lbs 12 oz (34%)
- Height: 29″ (44%)
- Head circumference: 18.25″ (88%)
Here are some of my favorite moments from this past month
