Sixteen Months

In case you're not keeping track, I have a 16 month old.

My little Zoe.

Oh, she's cute.

And she is super funny.

But, good heavens, she is a handful.

(You know how moms get offended when someone at the grocery store says, "You've got your hands full, don't you?" I am not one of those moms. In fact, I consider it a compliment. Thank you for acknowledging that my job isn't easy. Because it's not. I would be more offended if someone came up to me and said, "You've sure got it easy!" At least the person who says I've got my hands full understands that my life is complete chaos. I want credit for that).

I dread taking Zoe out in public. First there's the car seat fight. You know that one, right? With the arching back and the screaming? And the dangling from the grab handle? I have to pin her down like a WWE wrestler and wrangle her arms in the straps at least three times each before I can get anything buckled. It's like trying to put a straight jacket on a wild boar.

Then when we finally get to, say, the grocery store, she can not be restrained by the seat belts in the carts. She slips right out of them - it doesn't matter how far I tighten them, she loosens them (and let's be honest, they aren't very high quality anyway, and 50% of them are broken - I have to search through shopping carts everywhere I go to find the ones with functioning safety belts only to have my baby climb right out of them).

So life feels a little inconvenient at times.

But at the same time, this is such a fun age.

Zoe cracks us up, and she's really amusing to watch. I love all of the little things she has picked up on, like how she drapes purses over her shoulder, and how she slam dunks the ball in our living room basketball hoop.

I don't like how she constantly climbs on the kitchen table or how she throws her food down the stairs or how she grabs handfuls of silverware and chucks it all under the couch.

But I will deal with those things because I love how deeply she yells, "Eeeeee!" when I push her in the swing outside and how she moves her highchair across the kitchen floor at warp speed.

I love how, when we clap for her, she claps for herself. I love how her face beams with pride when she accomplishes something tricky, like slipping her feet into her sister's cowgirl boots and then making the effort to stand up in them. I love the early-walking phase. It's so amusing to see a little, tiny person wandering the house, and those wobbly steps are just the greatest!

This age is hard - Zoe is clingy and fussy a lot of the time. She fights sleep and gets really grumpy. She is very difficult to take out of the house (I think I cry just as much in public as she does), and she is oh so stubborn!

But I know I'll miss this.

I'll miss it so much.