...wife, mother, teacher, with too many hobbies to list. I manage to stay way too busy, but love every minute of it.
...the absolute greatest husband and father, not to mention computer expert extraordinaire.
...our incredibly smart, loving, and talented eight year old second grader; cub scout, great piano player, awesome big brother, and all around good kid.
...our little firecracker, one and a half years old; happy, passionate, always on the move, and so much fun.
I haven’t posted one of these updates for quite a while. I took a picture a month in the same position during Zoe’s first year in order to see how much she was growing and changing. After she turned one, I decided to cut it down to a picture every 3 months. It is so fun to look at them and see how much she has changed. (Click on the first picture to see it bigger and then you an easily click through them.)
I am amazed at how much thicker and longer her hair is getting. It is kind of hard to tell in these pictures how long it really is. The curl in her hair is getting much tighter and so it sits tighter against her head, but it is getting really long. I am also amazed at how tall she is getting and how much she has thinned out.
At her 18 month appointment, Zoe was 33 inches tall and weighed just over 20 pounds. That puts her in the 87th percentile for height and the 6th percentile for weight. The funny thing about that is that Zoe is a wonderful eater. She isn’t picky at all and she eats a lot. It doesn’t surprise me that she is so skinny though. She never holds still.
Zoe is a character. I can’t even find the words to explain her. She is a firecracker. She has so much energy, so much passion, and such a love for life. That energy and passion gets her in a lot of trouble, but it also makes her so fun to be around. Every day, Zoe leaves me exhausted and watching the clock for bedtime. But every day she also brings me so much joy, makes me laugh more than I have ever laughed in my life, and makes the world so much fun.
She has developed quite a little temper. She knows what she wants and doesn’t think she should have to settle for anything less. When you tell her no or don’t give her what she wants, she tends to throw things, or bite (not people yet, usually just her shirt), or kick something, but half a second later she is happy and content with the world again. However, she is also very loving. She loves to give kisses and hugs. The only time she holds still during the day is when she climbs up into someone’s lap to cuddle.
She is developing an adorable little personality. She loves to be the center of attention and is quite the little show off. She loves to play with Robby (or anyone else who will play with her.) She likes to be silly. Her favorite thing to do right now is run away from me and hide. The other day, she ran into her closet, hid behind a diaper box, and pulled it back against her so she was trapped in the corner. I don’t know how long it would have taken me to find her if she wasn’t saying “Zoe, where are you” and giggling the whole time.
She is a very active child. She loves to run, gallop, jump, dance, and climb. She gets into absolutely everything. One of her favorite things right now is slides. She will go up and down a slide a hundred times and giggle every single time. She loves shoes, books, Mickey Mouse, and “poop” (Pooh).
She is talking like crazy now. She says new words every day. I seems like there isn’t a lot she can’t say and she is getting better and communicating her needs with words, which is very nice. Right now, she is working on putting words together into sentences and conversations and is getting pretty good at that. She loves to talk to anyone and will always try to get every one in the store or anywhere else we go to talk to her. She will usually say hi to whoever is passing by. If they acknowledge her, then she will continue the conversation, usually saying “Daddy work, Robby school,” because of course the random stranger would be interested in where her dad and brother are. She knows a lot of body parts and animal sounds now too and we spend a lot of our day pointing to noses, ears, eyes, eyebrows, and belly buttons. She also loves music. She sings to herself all the time and is constantly asking us to sing her favorite songs.
Zoe loves pretty things. She absolutely hates to have her hair combed, but is relatively patient with sitting for a long time to let me braid her hair. She adores having beads in her hair and will ask for them if she hasn’t had them for a while. She loves when people pay attention to her hair and tell her it is pretty. (Which is good because everyone comments on her hair.) In fact, if we have recently styled her hair, she will walk up to people, click her beads, and tell them “hair, pretty.” Aunt Emily gave her a bunch of necklaces, bracelets, and a pair of dress up shoes and she loves to put them on and walk around the house in her pretties.
I love this little girl more than I can even say. She makes life so much interesting and so much fun. I can’t even imagine my world without her in it.
