1 whole year folks!

I jumped off the monthly update train for Zoey at 11 months and here I am jumping back on!

At 12 months Zoey is:

*Crawling!  Just shy of being 11 months old, she figured it out, and she's never looked back since!  Overnight it seemed, she became content to play on her own, too mischievous for her own good, and BUSY!  One morning, she crawled happily into her room, found a basket of toys, and played happily for a good 20 minutes while I zipped around the house, you know, tidying up.  That was once I got passed the, "Is she for real???  Good job Zoey!"  Needless to say, she is quick to find open cupboards (or open them herself), quick to unpack drawers, and quick to get into THINGS.
*Still only has two little teeth, but is rocking them with all she's got.  Over the past few months, she has become increasingly eager to feed herself which has sent her Mama scrambling to find finger-food options.  She loves bread, cheese, muffins, rice-crackers, spaghetti, pancakes, peas, grapes, blueberries, strawberries, bananas, watermelon, scrambled eggs, avocado, quinoa, oatmeal, Weetabix, rice, bits of chicken, and most recently CUPCAKES!  "Mooch" has become her middle name and if you are eating anything in front of her, she will come scrambling for a taste.  Even at Folk Fest, she scarfed down curried lentils by the spoonful off Mama's plate.  Her only obvious dislike has been tomatoes of all things.  We have joked with friends that with all the early nursing challenges, she is certainly an eager eater with almost every other thing we toss her way.   
*She hasn't been into see the doctor since her 8 month check-up but I stepped on the scale with her and she is near the 22 lb. mark.  Go Zoey!
*A few days after she discovered crawling, she also figured out how to pull herself up.  It is the cutest thing ever to walk into the living room and see her standing next to the couch, wiggling her little butt to the tunes playing.  That being being said, she is learning her Mama's warning tone that says, "Zoey, sit down!" when she stands up in the slippery tub during bath-time.
*still a cautious little one and can be a VERY clingy mama's-girl but she also shows a fierce independence.  She has started to wander around pieces of furniture on her own but as soon as you take her hand, she starts flailing, yanks her hands out of yours, and sits down.  I have a feeling her transition to walking will be much like crawling - on her OWN terms.
*sleeping at night like a champ but her snoozing habits are as fickle as a pickle.  Sometimes she sleeps a solid 2.5 hours around noon, sometimes it is 1.5 hours in the morning and afternoon, sometimes it is an hour, sometimes it is 20 minutes (RAGH!).  I am learning to be flexible and just roll with it.  I think she is transitioning to 1 nap a day, but we certainly haven't found a rhythm yet.  That being said, she rarely wakes up before 8am and she has even slept until after 10 a couple mornings. Her day-time sleep may be all out of whack, but I enjoy the fact that most days I can have a shower, a cup of coffee, and a few moments of quiet to myself before the day gets going.
*communicating in a variety of ways.  Her favorite words are, "hi!" or "hello!", "Dada!", "Mummum", "Done!", and most recently "Noooooo" (*cringe*).  She loves talking on the phone and her favorite new toy from her birthday is the Fisher-Price rotary phone.  She will place the TV remote, diaper cream bottle, cup, or toy blocks up to her ear and eagerly exclaim, "Hello?!?!"  And then I die from the cuteness of it all.  She will bring the comb up to her locks of hair (that certainly haven't diminshed) and brush.  She can "baaaaa" like a sheep, "oink" like a pig, and "meow" like a cat but she doesn't know what animals the certain sounds belong to.
*Her favorite time of day is when her Daddy comes home.  She can always hear the car door close, and the back door open and will sit up straight and open her eyes really big.  Her squeal when Arden walks through the door is the best!  
*It has been bittersweet to begin the disciplinary task of parenthood.  Whether it is when Zoey tosses food off her highchair, gets into a cupboard she knows is not for her, hits us in a moment of frustration, flails her arms and shakes her head when you take something away, or arches her back and kicks when you are holding/constraining her and she wants down, we have certainly rounded the corner into toddler-hood.  It is so fun to progress from just a loving care-giver (providing food and sustenance, keeping her bum clean, and keeping her warm and cuddled) to full-on parenting but it is challenging nonetheless.

It has been quite the year, Zoey!  Slow down, little girl!  Your Mama can hardly keep up!