Happy Birthday (last month) to Zipporah!

Zipporah has now earned the status of "one-year-old" which is excellent because I imagine she is quite tired of her siblings telling people she is "zero-years-old" even though it was technically accurate.  Anyhow, read on for a fun list of "Zipporah facts."

Mom baked this cake - it is the famous Nutri-Cake.  Daddy decorated the cake. . . he is such a character.

*Zipporah LOVES to sleep.  She has been sleeping through the night for quite some time. (I think as early as month or two - but it was so long ago it is difficult for me to remember.)  Even now she still takes a great nap in the afternoon.

*Her current favorite food is banana.  (This might be because it is such a handy food for a baby to eat!  It is mushy enough to not have to worry so much about choking, but still able to be eaten without making too much of a mess, and can be held in baby's hand.  A win all around in my opinion.)

*Zipporah LOVES her siblings - especially Miriam.  In the morning sometimes Miriam will come in as I am getting Zipporah dressed and Zipporah will absolutely light up at the sound of Miriam's voice and the sight of Miriam's smile and warm greeting.

*She still is not "crawling" or "walking" but she wiggles around quite a bit.  She can push herself with her feet, while on her back, and scoot across the floor.  She also can reach and wiggle while sitting up to get toys and other things near her.

*Zipporah is most interested in details.  Her fine-motor-control is awesome.  She turns pages in books, picks up tiny particles of food with dainty precision, and will not stop playing with this "busy board" that her godparents made for her.

*She has several teeth (four and another one or two working their way in) and eats (or tries to eat) almost everything the big kids consume.

Zipporah eating Grandma out of house and home.

*Zipporah really enjoyed the nutri-cake I made for her first birthday party.

*Other foods she prefers are my homemade taco meat (with lots of beans) and my homemade chili, as well as my lasagna and spaghetti.

Grandma made this cake - a "poke cake" which is basically a box cake with holes poked by fingers (this time all my other kiddos helped Grandma with that) and jello poured in, with whipped topping to cover.  Zipporah liked it, too - she is not a cake snob in any sense.

***We were a bit concerned as Zipporah was not gaining weight well for several of her check-ups and was down to the third percentile for a bit!!  But the specs from her year check in are:

Weight: 19lbs & 9oz (20%)
Height: 29 & 1/4 (50%)
Head: 45cm (45%)

So she is doing fine now - pfew!  She did have some raised platelets at her blood draw, so the doc wants to follow up with another draw in a month, but we are hopeful that is simply a fluke (as there are many things that could cause it) and not an indication of something serious.  I am grateful that our doctor is so thorough, though.

I have started making these little picture collages for facebook and I think I will start posting them on birthday posts so they will be in my "scrapbook" (aka the book I print of my blog at the end of the year).