Z-Cakes: 11 Months

A, B, C, D, E, F, G, skip to the end and get to Zee-zee...

The irony that her nickname is Zee-Zee, and she is the Queen of 23 Minute Naps is not lost on us, but we're telling ourselves God gave her those big blues so they could sparkle as much as possible. Sleep is negotiable. 

It took 11 months, but we can finally see her two little teeth that popped through at the end of last month. She's already quite the little meat eater. She loves hot dogs and chicken nuggets, roast and any chicken we have for dinner. Berries of all kinds are her favorite, and she eats cuties by the handful everyday. Less noticeable than her teeth is the tiny bit of hair growing just a little bit longer than the rest behind her ear. It's pretty sweet. 

Zina continues to love clapping, especially for herself, and she puts her hand to her mouth to blow a kiss. She is known to pound on her tray when we're not moving fast enough, and she loves to do little head butts with Daddy. 

If it's really quiet, and she's nowhere to be seen, you can usually find her standing up at a window to look outside or unraveling toilet paper in the bathroom. She lights up whenever you sit down to read her a book, and she loves standing up at the piano to reach for the keys. One of her favorite spots is on Daddy's lap at the piano. She even sang a few times too! 

Somehow Zina always seems to find writing utensils and knows the general motion of coloring. Thankfully caps have been on and she hasn't figured out how to press hard enough to do any damage yet. Try taking it away, and she will let you know she does not like it one bit.

The dishwasher has become her new best friend, and she has a knack for pulling out spoons. She loves them so much that she took a whole nap while I was holding her while on a zoom call with my moms group, and she didn't let go before, during or after the nap. Taking away spoons gets the same response as taking away writing utensils. 

We're all pretty taken with our little Zee. When I was pregnant with her, I ate a ton of sour patch kids. I'm not a fruity candy gal usually, but the craving was strong! It turns out we got a little sour patch girl of our own...she's got quite the punch to her personality, but we just can't seem to get enough! 

Z-Cakes: 10 Months

Covid 19 has seemingly brought the world to a halt just in time for Zina Kate to show more growth than ever. This pandemic has not slowed her down one bit.

This month Zina has learned to crawl, and she even pulled herself up just a few days after she really started crawling. 

Zina has not discovered that she can crawl from room to room and all over the house so she still gets pretty upset when she can't see Mommy. She loves me so much but only says "Mama" when she's really upset. Basically, she has us all trained. 

She loves playing on the blanket outside and inspecting the little kid sized car. Her reflection in a mirror or the dishwasher gets her really excited, and she moves to the beat of the music every time. Her face lights up whenever she hears it.

All of her siblings beg to see her naked so she has become the subject of our favorite new game, Pass the Naked Baby. 

She claps like a pro...

...And she loves waving to herself most. We can't blame her because she's definitely the cutest. We've started saying "I dream of Zinie" because she truly is a dream!

Z-Cakes: 9 Months

We used to say Zee-zee was "the mix", but this month she has transitioned to being "in the mix." She's responding to her siblings with big smiles, gasps of delight and bobbing up and down. She loves to get a response from them too. Her first "look at me moment" as the baby of the family happened around the dinner table. She figured out how to blow raspberries, and when the three bigs exploded with laughter she continued to oblige with the biggest grin and twinkle in her eyes between her sweet raspberries. 

Zina continues to be in a holding pattern as far as gross motor movement goes. She's still sitting up strong but going nowhere fast! We've enforced tummy time more regularly much to her dismay, but by the end of the month she was pushing her upper body up and rolling much more. 

Our girl loves table food especially chicken and has a great fine motor pincher for eating all the puffs. She also bounces up and down whenever music plays. Her whole being lights up when Daddy plays and sings at the piano. 

She has officially said Da-da but continues to "say" Ma-Ma by a general disgruntled whine, cry when I pass her off to someone else and reaching out for me. Zina's wide, open-mouthed kisses on the cheek are also reserved for Mommy alone! 

Zina still has no teeth, but her hair is coming in, and her bald spot is gone. Her sleep training has officially begun because we're all going crazy without it, but she's still the Queen of the twenty minute nap! Bless her heart, she just doesn't want to miss out!

Z-Cakes: 8 Months

These little photo shoots are becoming more and more challenging...

We had the flu in our house this month, Mommy included, so it all seems fuzzy. The best part of the month was the Chiefs Super Bowl win. Zina was super pumped!!!

So pumped that she continued to wake up three to four times a night :) For the most part she was in a holding pattern: no crawling, no teeth, no sleep, but she did start her own little wiggle we call the ziggle. 

Daddy continues to put her to nap best with his human swaddle pinkie hold while walking our downstairs circle. She just can't stand for mommy to do it. Her nap average is 26 minutes. Never more, often less. She just wants to make sure we're not deprived...