Zoe: Happy FIRST Birthday!!

 (this picture is just SOO you, Zoe!) Love your silliness!

 

 Impossible to get a good picture with your giraffe!

 

Dear ZoZo:
Congratulations, you survived your first year in this crazy chaotic family, and you seemed to have thrived! You have grown into a toddler over night. I swear, just a week ago, I kept thinking that you didn't seem to be almost one, that you were still a little baby (doesn't help that you are so literally are still so little!). Then, all of sudden, you are walking everywhere, trying to communicate, doing things to make us laugh, and really exploring the world.

You have three words: mama, dada, and hi! You have been doing a couple signs for awhile now but have been picking them up quicker now...as long as I remember to show you! You can sign milk, daddy, eat, drink, more, all done, dog, bath, brush hair, brush teeth, and banana.

You love love love to eat. I would say right now your favorite things are bananas, blueberries, lasagna and any kind of meat. You can eat so much, I swear you must drop half of it, and you usually do, but you also eat way more than someone your size should! You want to eat by yourself most of the time so nightly baths are in order. You love to touch your hair when you eat so it usually ends up sticking straight up by the end of dinner!

You want to do everything your big brother can do and you are pretty good at keeping up. You want to be right by him all the time, checking out what he is doing. You are also starting to finally pay him back for all the full body tackles over the last year. You have started hitting him with just about anything you can get your hands on. The first few times I just thought it was an accident, like you were flying your car around and he was just in the way. Well, this last weekend, I saw you pick something up and walk all the way across the room to whack him with it. Ohhh, Zoe, I bet that felt good after all the tackles and toy stealing you have dealt with over the last year!

 

You even ask to wear your brother's jersey!

 

 "Playing" with Andrew

 

Sitting at the big kid table

The weather has been nice and you love going outside to play. You could be outside all day if we let you. We still have to be careful in our backyard because you love to eat rocks. Seriously, whoever decided that little rocks should be part of landscaping never had a one year old. Your favorite things to do-besides eating those stinking rocks- are swing and slide. You really love going down the slide. When we are at the park, you will crawl your way up to the slide, turn around and slide down on your tummy all on your own. You are getting so BIG!

 

For your birthday, we went to the San Francisco Zoo. You loved to people watch just as much as looking at the animals. You were very content to sit in the stroller and watch it all go by. It cracked me up though because every animal you saw, you kept signing "dog." This was your face almost the entire day, just in awe, taking it all in....

  

You have such a fun personality and I love watching you bloom every day. You comprehend so much more each and every day and already like to "pretend" to do things like sleep or brush your hair. You even crack yourself up! You are a happy little girl...but at the same time stubborn and know what you want! I wonder where you could possibly get that....

We love you so much!!

XOXO-

Momma