I have been woefully neglectful of our blog and I’m sorry! Life just gets in the way sometimes. But today, our dear sweet Zoe is 17 months old and I had to mark the occasion with some adorable photos and some notes about her milestones.
Gotta love those beautiful baby blue eyes!!
Zoe is a virtual whirlwind of activity from the time she gets up until she goes to sleep! She runs, pushes her dolly and animals around in the doll stroller, climbs on the coffee table and dining room chairs, jumps (with some hand-holding help), builds and knocks down blocks and talks up a storm!
She has had a total word explosion and says a new word or several every day. Her diction isn’t quite as clear as it used to be, but some words are crystal clear like Elmo and the names of the cats. We have been upgraded to Mommy and Daddy in the last week and hearing her say it just melts my heart!
I’m not going to list all the words she says (that we can interpret), but just doing a quick list in my head, it’s over 40. Snack, yellow, birdie, block, dolly and ride are current favorites.
Just yesterday, she climbed up on Brian’s chair at the dining room table, then climbed into her high chair on the chair next to it. That was a first! She can also go down stairs without sitting down anymore.
She definitely knows what she wants and isn’t shy about telling you! She likes to drag us around by the finger, pointing to where she wants us and saying “Mommy!” while patting the ground or chair or wherever she wants me to be. She’s kinda bossy, but so darn cute, it’s hard to say no!
She still really likes to eat and likes a big variety of foods, but is a little more picky than she used to be. She will usually try just about anything but when she likes something, she wants “MOH!” and make it snappy. If she could live on just a few foods, it would be yogurt, raspberries and cheese. She won’t eat broccoli or cauliflower or usually carrots anymore, but loves fruit of almost any kind. She’ll still eat kung pao chicken and pizza though 🙂
Zoe is up to 12 teeth and has been since just after her first birthday, when her first molars came in. Her incisors have been working through for weeks, with intermittent periods of fussiness and poor sleeping, but they still haven’t made their appearance.
We are so blessed with our sweet, good natured, laid back kid. She really is fun and a joy to be around, even with the normal toddler tantrums when she doesn’t get her way. She is such a kick to interact with and it’s amazing how fast she’s growing and learning.
I go back to work full-time in just 10 weeks and I’d be lying if I said it didn’t make me incredibly sad. I know that I have been incredibly blessed to have this year and a half of extra time with me and I am profoundly grateful. I have found a couple of really nice daycare places that I think Zoe would be really happy in and in a lot of ways, I think it will be good for her to have more structured learning opportunities and socialization with other kids. I’m just going to miss her TERRIBLY. Not to mention I have no idea how I’m going to be on time, get everything done and still have time and energy to spend every waking moment with my girl. So in the meantime, I’m going to savor every snuggle and giggle and do my best to make the transition as painless as I can, for both of us.
And not a day goes by that I’m not grateful the bottom of my soul for our beautiful daughter and the gift that she is to me every single day. I can’t believe she’s 17 months old already. It’s gone SO FAST. But I’m excited to see what she’ll be like in the next year, two and beyond.
The Cox Clan 
