Shocking, I know. In just 4 days (less, really), our daughter will be ONE YEAR OLD. It was almost a year ago on September 1, 2010 at 7:23 am that we welcomed Zoe Anika Johnson to the world. And it was 5 months before that when we started the journey of this blog, which I sure hope that one day Zoe will read and enjoy.

It’s freaky to see her as a standing person, one step closer (literally) to the walking person we’ll soon be following around saying “Zoe, don’t. stop. Zoe! stop. not in your mouth. that’s not food. that will give you an ow-ee.” (like we do now to our little crawling person, but I’m pretty sure it will happen more frequently once she’s truly mobile). And let me tell you, she will VERY soon be walking.

Want proof? Watch this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i-SHI_oRVDw

Auntie Shawn sent Zoe this push toy a while ago, and she just couldn’t quite get the hang of it. It moved a little too fast, and she kept getting distracted by the easier to handle “fun” side that allowed her to sit down. But now… Watch out world. Good news is, as long as she can make herself mobile, she’s a lot less reliant on her super old creaky parents to pick her UP UP UP to get from A to B. Bad news is, very soon she’ll be heading wherever she wants, whenever she wants, and fast. I think I mentioned fast before.

So walking is one thing, but I’m afraid (dare I say it) she’s about to have OPINIONS of her own, too. She’s already quite expressive (and can be more expressive when she’s tired and not getting what she wants instantly), but on the whole, she’s a calm, gentle child, more like her dad than her mom in temperament (thank goodness). For the first time ever, and I honestly haven’t seen this myself yet, Zoe was tired on Thursday and both signed and said “No No No” to our nanny Holly.

We’ve been so careful to use “don’t” and “stop” but you can’t protect them all the time, and sometimes you create your own little monster. She loves the iPad (and can now take an iPhone screen off lock by sliding the bar…), and we found this cute app called Talking Tom that has a cat who will repeat what you say in a helium infused voice, will purrrrrrrr, and will say “No No No” and shake his paw at you if you try to mess with his feet. He says it in such a cute way, I thought nothing of it. But clearly, babies really are sponges. Oops?

Anyway, tick tock. Countdown continues. We’ll keep you posted on whether or not our sweet little angel stays sweet…