Z-O-E spells trouble

Ziva: Mom, come see this! This is hilarious!

Me: That is not hilarious, but I should take a picture. I'll probably think it's funny later.

Perhaps the best part is that Ziva just stood there and watched...I guess because she thought it was hilarious :) And the other best part, of course, is Zoe's face...THAT is hilarious!

She's just trying to help....

So funny

{Ziva is chasing Zoe around the house, one of their favorite games. They start to move into the kitchen.}

Me: Not in the kitchen.
Ziva: Why not?
Me: Because that floor is hard, and if Zoe falls she might get hurt.
Ziva: No she won't.
Me: You're too rough and you don't know it.
Ziva: Yes I do.
Vince: Hahahahahahahahahahahahaha

Self-portraits, by Ziva

Zoe walking

Just a few seconds....and it's sideways, sorry about that! But she's walking on her own!

The little lady turns ONE!

This picture was taken on the last day of school...both of the girls have grown up so much!

 Zoe's 12 month picture with her lamb--I gave up on trying to keep her still on the floor. Probably should have used the couch all along! She has definitely come a long way in her first year of life, and we just love her to pieces!

Vince and I tag-teamed on Zoe's lady-bug cake. I haven't done a cake like this since Ziva turned one, and I forgot it's actually not as hard as it might look. The blue eyes to match Zoe's were Vince's idea...I'm not quite that creative! :)

We fully expected Zoe to dive right into her cake, considering how much she likes to eat. But she wasn't too sure about it! She played around with the icing a lot, and it wasn't until I gave her a bite myself that she realized, "Hey, this is cake!" and dug right in.

This one doesn't show the full extent of her messiness, but you can see how she always plays with her ear and the hair right above, and that was where most of the icing got smeared. We had to abandon the party for a few minutes for a quick bath!

And the presents!! We couldn't believe how many gifts Zoe received, and she had a lot of fun (plus had a lot of little helpers) opening them all. She's a blessed little tyke, and now it's time to clean out the old toys to make room for the new!

At Zoe's 12 month checkup, the doctor said she's doing great. Her height is 29.5 inches (64th %), weight is 21 lb 2 oz (52nd %), and her head circumference is 17.5 inches (32nd %). She's starting to lengthen out some, especially in her torso like Daddy and Ziva, and is already wearing 18 month onesies! Every day she gets steadier on her feet and is even starting to run. She and Ziva play great together (hoping that lasts a good long time!), and one of her favorite things to do is climb onton the couch and walk back and forth on it. She does know how to get off the right way, but every once in a while she takes a spill. And she's starting to appreciate books, which I am so very thrilled about :) Zoe is full of life and loves to laugh, and she is a blessing to all of us!

11 months and Mother's Day

This month's highlights include Zoe's 11 month mark, Mother's Day, and, one more day away....the end of school!! I'm late on Zoe's 11 month stats, so I think I'll save most of it for the big ONE coming up in a couple weeks! But the big news is Zoe is just starting to walk, and I expect by her birthday she'll be a full-fledged little toddler. Our other big transition this month is going straight from pretty much all baby food, to all table food. Zoe is a great eater, but she is her momma and daddy's girl...with the real thing in front of her, she suddenly doesn't care for green beans :)

 This just might have been my favorite gift for Mother's Day...seeing Ziva's own handwriting like this! We are so proud of our little peanut!

 Ziva's class had a special Mother's Day breakfast and then we got to go to chapel together. It was a sweet time and I got to wear the heart she made for me.

Zoe just will not be still long enough to get any more pictures with that lamb, so it's a good thing we've only got one month left! Hard to believe how fast time's been flying! 

Zoe is walking!

She's still faster on all fours, but Zoe is walking! Over the weekend she moved from her maximum of three steps in a row to 5 or 6 or 7. We haven't caught her walking solo on video yet, but she loves pushing this little walker around, and if she doesn't run into anything, she gets pretty fast on this too! I think the main reason she's not walking more is that she literally tries to run....she takes one or two steps to get going, then gets all excited and tries to speed up, and takes a nose dive!