Reason 128 Why I Love Being A Mom: First Doll!

Zoey's dad came home Sunday night with a little prize for his girl: a Rapunzel doll! She immediately went up to it and gave it a kiss (something she has not been giving out very often lately). It was an incredibly sweet moment and just melted my heart completely. I still smile thinking about it! And then after the doll kiss she got up on her rocker and tried very hard to figure out how to rock while holding her doll in her hand. The next day I solved that for her and set her doll in front of her for this picture :o) She was definitely content!

Reason 141 Why I Love Being A Mom: Frenzie Love

The evenings were incredibly nice a few days ago (then it got hot!) so I've been keeping the back door open. My favorite tree (so grateful we got a tree for these six months!) is starting to bloom and attract birds! So needless to say two of my children (yep kitties are my children) propped themselves up against the door and watched the activity. Such a sweet moment!

Frenzie has been the hardest to get along with Zoey. I think I've posted here or on my other blog about the cats getting along with the baby but they were all pictures of Mollie with Zoey (Frenzie isn't that big into pictures anyway). That's not to say Frenzie hasn't had moments but she has also had moment where she just isn't as gracious about sharing my attention with this new addition. I think Zoey is learning a bit better how to interact with the cats and they are learning a little more patience. Zoey even goes up to them and presses her face into their fur which is her way of giving them kisses (something I haven't been getting much of lately :o( ). It's just so sweet to watch them all get along with the best of their 'dont know better' abilities :oP

Reason 160 Why I Love Being A Mom: Daddy Spoiling

My husband has group projects to do this whole time he's in the career course so when he goes out to meet up with them he usually stops by Walmart or Target. Needless to say he usually comes home with a little something for Z (and sometimes some pretty flowers for me! But that's besides the point :oP). Anyway he came home the other night with all these goods for Zoey and when I looked at him and smiled (with a possible holy cow in there) he just whiningly said "I can't help it!" (He has the best whine-talk ever!) I am thankful though that he now understands my inability to not leave a store without something for Zoey. I really didn't think it'd be this tough but now we have a closet (and grown out of tubs!) full of clothes and a living room FULL of toys (which I'm sure you can see in the background of most of my pictures :oP). Needless to say I love it. I think it's so sweet to watch his love for this little angel he helped create. She is one exceptionally blessed baby and I am one exceptionally blessed wifey. I don't take any of this for granted and I hope Zoey won't either when she learns the concept :o)

Reason 26 Why I Love Being A Mom: Baby Pool Time!

One thing I was looking forward to moving to AZ was all the time we'd be able to spend outside! And then I found this little baby pool on amazon for a pretty cheap price and got really excited about putting my little girl in her new swimsuit and letting her splash around! Well I blew the whole thing up with my breath since I didnt have an adapter for the pump that we have :oP Good lung workout! So she played with it inside since I, again, had to blow it up and that took too long and it was already pretty chilly out.

But our antsiness for the next day did not disappoint because she really seemed to enjoy it! First she had to taste test the water (yes, very silly girl I have!). When I finally plopped her in she wouldn't face me for pictures (hence the black and white one with the tree in the center :oP). But her daddy came home a little early and she was so happy to run around with him for a little bit! I am loving this stage of her being able to walk. I probably shouldn't but I am (just don't ask me in a few months or year from now :oP).

Reasons 183 & 275 Why I Love Being A Mom: That Belly and Interest In Books

My daughter has this adorable belly! When she's standing it's really not that prominent anymore but when she's sitting like this, oh baby does it pop out! I think it's the cutest thing!

And to go with this set of pictures is her interest in reading! I haven't been the greatest, as I have mentioned in blog posts on my photography blog, with imagination which I feel books really require a lot of so I am a slow reader and get easily distracted causing me to read paragraphs at least six times sometimes. But seeing her very interested in books really warms my heart. I hope she excels at my weaknesses but also picks up on the strengths that I will able to teach her well :o) Who knows maybe having to attempt teaching her my weakness will get me better at them! :o)

Reason 6 Why I Love Being A Mom: Zoey's First Steps!

My daughter took her first real group of steps on Sunday. She had smatterings of two steps followed by a fall on her tushie but nothing like what she did in this video! And now I can't get her to stop walking (unless she's in a nicer dress and outside, then she wants to crawl all over the place! :oP). I do love it though. Along with the walking she's just picking up on so many things so quickly. Her daddy was on one side of our gate to keep the cats out of the bedrooms and shaking the gate. She put her hands on the gate and started shaking it too! When I'm holding her hand walking with her she tries to open the gate before I get to it and even holding her in my arms she grabs the handle to open it to help out. I'm honestly just in awe more and more every day with this little angel! So I hope you enjoy this cute little video with my camera ham (check out those glances at the camera!).

Reason 12 Why I Love Being A Mom: Starting to Sign

This just has been such a wonderful journey with my daughter so far and it keeps getting BETTER! Oh my goodness, I cannot tell you how blessed I feel to have such a sweet, smart and beautiful little thing love and cherish me and be in my life. As I have mentioned before my dad got us a sign language for babies dvd kit and i have been working best I can to help teach her this wonderful thing! Well she has started signing 'more'! I was in disbelief when she did it the first time! And two days ago we were watching the dvd and she took my hands and moved my hands in the motion for 'more'! Talk about smart! She's seen and felt me do it so many times to her that she had to do what I was doing to her :oP Well last night she would not sign 'more' when I asked her, but when her daddy did she immediately did it! ha! Such a daddy's girl! :oP Anyway I hope you enjoy the little video above that I was able to capture (surprisingly because she loves looking at herself in the camera and stops whatever she's doing to do so) :oP

Reason 250 Why I Love Being A Mom: Cake Smash!

 It was really difficult to only pick 11 images from all of them :oP But it's my daughter so I dont want to eliminate or ignore any! We had a fun time making a mess. She was soo unsure about what to do and why she was allowed to make such a mess. She would have gotten into it more if I hadn't tried for something different and made marshmallow frosting which turned out to be uncomfortably sticky! Live and Learn :o) She had a nice fun bath afterwards and I'd say things were a success! 

I was very worried about planning a birthday party for Zoey. I am horrible at planning things! I never get it together in time or something goes wrong. I know she wont remember her first birthday and it was just my husband, Zoey and I but I wanted to practice so that as she gets older she will look back on her birthdays as memorable days!

Disclaimer: The template used in this blog post is from the INCREDIBLY talented Crave Design. Here is the link to this particular album but all of her work I simply drool over!