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: 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...

Z-Cakes: 7 Months

Not much changed in Zina's seventh month or maybe the sleep depravation made life so blurry that I'm struggling to see it. 

She's much sturdier at sitting up, loves to closely inspect anything in her hands, and enjoys squishy fruits and veggies and saltine crackers of all things. 

The first thing everyone says about her is "Look at those beautiful big blue eyes!" We like them too but just wish they'd stay closed a little longer at night! 

Z-cakes: 6 Months

Half of a year with Zee-Zee, and we like to say, "She likes to be in the mix. No, she is the the mix." She's what has her mamma trying to remember that little list of six month milestones while writing this when she's really almost seven months. Somehow we did manage to take the pictures at 6 months though...

Zina's percentiles are going down, but I assure you she's getting all she needs to eat, even in the middle of the night. Early in the month Daddy put a carrot to her mouth at dinner, and when he tried to take it away, she started moaning so she now gets all the pureed veggies and fruits too!

Zina is starting to sit on her own but not for long. She sat up just long enough to get a good half year picture and then toppled over. The Bumbo was working for us at the beginning of the month, but she very quickly started reaching and leaning out of it so the high chair is our best friend. She has started to play and inspect the things we sit before her in her seat which affords everyone a little more independence.

 Zee-zee is proving to be a Mommy's girl. She reached for me this month and definitely has separation anxiety. If she can see me or hear me, she wants to be with me. She even struggles to fall asleep when I walk her but does so immediately for Daddy when he gets home from work. He puts her in what he calls the human swaddle, she grabs his pinkie and she's out. It's very cute and baffling all at once.

Her hair is growing a bit more, and the bald spot is starting to fade. The pterodactyls have started to have syllables, and Daddy is convinced that her first word is his to claim.

Our Little Wonder: 4.5

She's four and a half (and then some, really), and I still say God added extra sugar when He made our Moriah girl....

She is this beautiful mix of cuddly and rowdy. One of her top love languages continues to be climbing all over you, and she'll give me a million kisses in one day if I stay still in one place long enough. 

Moriah loves to play legos, baby Merlissa and Husband, Lol Dolls, and so many other things with her big sister, but she loves sneaking away into her own little world with stuffed animals and dolls just as well. When she's living her best life, Moriah changes her clothes more than five times in a day and loves her cozy pajamas most of all. She's really good at dressing her little brother and all of her dolls too. Having a baby sister has been mostly a joy for her. She loves to stare at Zina and say all kinds of sweet things to her. 

Moriah is loving Cubbies and MOPS, but she tends to keep to herself in group situations. She recently told me that she didn't play because no one asked her to. She's just as happy sitting at the table and doing all of the hard puzzles quietly. Meanwhile she can be one of the loudest at home. She keeps our family laughing with all of her little voices, but she has a deep concern that others will laugh at her and can't see that it's just because she's really cute. 

My favorite recent Moriah story happened at Cubbies. She was taking a bathroom break while the class was talking about their story. The teacher was asking if anyone knew what God said after he made everything. No one was answering so finally Moriah flung open the bathroom door, poked her head out and said with confidence, "HE SAID IT WAS GOOD!" She then shut the door and went on with her business!

Also worth mentioning: Moriah can make a huge mess in her room, lost in her world of play. She likes to lock the door behind her. Her middle childness comes out any time she excuses herself from the table saying, "Guard my food." She's a sucker for sweets, loves ethnic foods and detests having her hair brushed.

This is Moriah's last year before Kindergarten. She insists that she wants to be home schooled. We spend a lot of time waiting on Moriah to get ready so I'm praying really hard she'll be ready when the time for kindergarten comes. Until then, this Mommy is trying to soak up the sweetness of my baby in the middle of two other babies, and I can't really sum up how I feel about her better than the words of Moriah herself: "I love you more than diamonds, hearts, jewels and sparkles all mixed together."

Z-cakes: 5 months

The Rilla's Here! Our latest little jingle comes from Daddy's nickname for Z and the latest NFL commercial. You'd have to know her and be here to get it, but it pretty much sums up life with Zina this month...

It's amazing to me how this little girl who was just sleeping and eating all day is now showing interest in her world. Playing, observing, following us with her big blue eyes.

Zina's favorite toy is her blue octopus. She also enjoys spinning the toggles on her bouncy seat. She does not tolerate the swing for long and still prefers to do very little tummy time. The bumbo seat is working great for her which is great because she has shown some interest in food. Daddy put a carrot in her mouth at dinner, and she made the funniest panting noise when he took it away. She did the same with a cucumber so we decided to start some pureed veggies and fruits. She is our best five month old eater to date!

Daddy is the best at getting Zee to sleep. One day I tried in vain, but she fell straight to sleep while Dan held her at dinner.
The most I have seen her laugh is when I imitate her voice. Zina is not one to flatter with her smile. It's safe to say this Big Mama Boss Lady has mastered her game face:

Z-Cakes: 4 Months

 What a month we've had with baby Zina! To sum it up, Zee-Zee has not had many zzzz's...and neither has mommy or daddy! But she sure is a cute and pretty sweet...

...except when she's not...

The best line of the month, "Zina, you need to get a longer fuse, girl!" -Daddy

Also overheard while I was attempting to cook dinner after pacing the girl and feeding her a million times...

"It's okay, Zina, I know it's hard, but you're not the only one in the family. You're not the only one who has to eat." -Moriah while bouncing her in the bouncy seat (She did get her to go to sleep. I guess the pep talk helped).

When she is happy, we love to make her laugh. Tickling under her neck and on her chest usually gets a good one. She also loves Daddy's silly little jingles, "Bad Z, Bad Z whatcha' gonna' do?, Whatcha' gonna' do when they come for you..."

At four months, Zina has finally accepted tummy time and has even rolled over once or twice. That silly arm still gets in the way most of the time!
Her favorite thing is Mommy. Sometimes she will scream her head off when others are holding her and calm down the second she's given back to me! Her least favorite thing (besides sleep) seems to be the car. She will not give it up until she's out of that car seat!

Z-Cakes: 2 Months

We've never had a baby like Zina before: double chin, chubby legs and cheeks, a legit tummy and sleeping through the night at two months. I think we'll keep her...

She's still putting on her tough girl act for most of the day, but we have had a few smiles and coo-conversations throughout the month. Zina is not a snuggle baby. She constantly lifts her head up while being held and wants to face out. 

Her first conversation was a sweet moment for the whole family. Daddy had her on our bed, and all of the kids were gathered around in jammies. She was smiling and cooing away as Daddy told her "I gonna roll you in da butta', put on the cinnamon suga', and then gobble you up. 

Her favorite places are her bouncy seat, right next to mommy, and lying on the bed watching the fan whir above. Her big brother loves to hover, and she tolerates him at best. She is one loved little lady with more kisses in one day than you could count. Her two big sisters keep her fashionably dressed and help bounce her and bring her whatever mommy says she needs.
This month Zina was a good girl in the carrier for an afternoon of blueberry picking and slept in her stroller for our entire county fair outing. What a good girl!

New nicknames and jingles include: Squirt, jelly fish-she stings!, Z-Z in the sky with diamonds.

Our Felicity: 7.25

I can't believe it has already been three months since Felicity turned SEVEN! I was out of commission in the early days of carrying baby number four so we didn't get around to her pictures until recently. What a great excuse to get outside in Felicity's first for real, fluffy, you can really build a snow man snow since she was one and a half! I love it too because she has recently started reading Narnia on her own, and it feels like we got to enter into it for a bit...

For her seventh birthday party she wanted a Greatest Showman theme. She has fallen in love with the music and loves to crank it up and sing and dance her heart out. Our circus decorations were up, but she just couldn't resist dressing up as Belle, village Belle to be precise. I love that Beauty and the Beast still holds a special place in Felicity's heart four years later.

Our girl continues to love school and goes bounding out of the car full speed ahead each day. Her teacher says she's much more talkative this year and is a wonderful helper. Felicity has great enthusiasm for math and a mind made for it. She's always asking for math problems even during bed time snuggles. She likes to solve them on her sequins flip pillow. I'm amazed at how quickly she can do mental math with large numbers and how many math facts she already knows by heart. We're excited to have this new gifting in our house and not so sure we'll be able to keep up for too long!

The biggest surprise of the year has been Felicity's obsession with the Chiefs. We started casually turning the games on, and she was captivated. Week after week she learned the game and players by watching the entire game. She was so focused. We were amazed! Her enthusiasm caused us to become super fans as well so when things were looking good for an amazing season, Dan got tickets for all three of us to go to a Thursday night game. We bundled up in at least four layers, and Felicity cheered her guts out. She loved watching all of her favorites: Mahomes, Kelce, Hill. We played the Chargers in a close game that ended with a devastating loss in the last seconds due to a two point conversion. Her heart was broken, and her face showed it. Immediate tears flowed and an expression appeared that I haven't seen since we put stuffed Santa away after Christmas when she was three years old! Thankfully we recovered from the trauma and continued to enjoy watching our team through the playoffs. She took the AFC championship loss a bit better saying she was happy because we still had a good season, BUT she is still saying she will NOT be watching the Super Bowl!

A few other things that can't go without mentioning are her mad skills in Monopoly and Clue, her forever first loose tooth that finally came out just before her birthday (while Mommy and Daddy were both gone for the first time in her little life), learning magic tricks from Daddy, still downing cheeseburgers with the best of them, reading her first book of the Bible (Mark) on her own, and setting high goals: In response to the table talk question "What do you hope to accomplish in your life?"...

"I want to get a 100 on all of the rest of my spelling tests and get back my Arabic." 

                                                                                          - Felicity Renee