Zane's first birthday.

Zane turns 1 year old today.  He's been a great joy to Abby and I, as well as Signe and Gunnar.  As he comes out of his infancy and into being a toddler, he is revealing more and more of himself to us.  Some Zane characteristics and points-of-interest are as follows:

• Zane points at most everything and follows it up with baby-babble that sounds like "What's that?"   He particularly likes to point at family pictures and light fixtures.
• Zane follows mommy everywhere during the day and when daddy is home, Zane follows him.  (Admittedly, mommy sometimes gets a little tired of Zane's tender tenacity to tether himself to a parent)
• Zane takes a licking and keeps on ticking.  He is constantly serving as a speed bump to Gunnar.  Older brother likes to knock him down when he is standing or walking, or lay on him when he is crawling.  Despite being bowled over on a regular basis, this almost never upsets Zane to point of crying.  While reprimanding Gunnar for being abusive, Zane will simply look back and forth from Gunnar to parent with a blank look on his face as if to say, "Hey, no problem.  I'm tough enough."  I think he is training himself to play offensive tackle.
• Zane loves Tikki-dog or rather Tikki loves Zane.  Describing their relationship as symbiotic or parasitic, parasitic probably wins the day.  Every meal finds Zane looking to drop bits of food to the dog, while Tikki has her nose in Zane's lap, looking for further treats.  However, when Zane toddles/crawls/waddles/moseys his way back to Tikki's den to pet her, Tikki gives a low growl, hoping for a parent to rescue her from this low-slung drooling invader.  Tikki is never too happy to indulge the curiosity of small human beings.
• Zane likes to scream for one of two things.  One, to fill the void of relative silence in church.  Two, if the food is not forthcoming and he is in his chair, ready to feed himself and Tikki.  Neither are considered acceptable behaviors by his parents, but one is definitely more embarrassing than two and requires lots of pacing in the back of the church with a baby boy who is now happily pointing at light fixtures, wall banners, and basketball hoops.   
• Zane is drawn to Tikki's water bowl like a moth to a porch light.  No matter how many times we have flicked Zane's hand and told him "No touch." in a very firm voice, Zane still feels the need to either grab Tikki's water bowl or stick his hand in the water bowl.  When caught in the almost-act, and told "No touch!" by a parent who is tired of cleaning up pools of water on the kitchen floor, one can see the terrible crux of decision when faced with temptation crossing the tubby tots face.  He stops, he ponders, he watches.  Sometimes he wins over his temptation, sometimes he loses.  Losing often involved a red hand, wet floor, and a crying baby boy.  (However, if mommy is doing the hand-flicking, then the result is a red hand, wet floor, and baby boy with a curious look on his face often accompanied by an amused smile.  Did I already mention he can take a hit?)
• Zane is NOT a napper, much like Signe.  Whereas Gunnar can easily take a three hour nap in the afternoon without much protest, Zane has three approaches to naps.  1.  howls, sleeps for 20 minutes, and then howls again until either a parent removes him from his incarceration or a sibling joins him in his pack-n-play jail cell. 2.  He doesn't.  3.  He naps when neither his mommy or daddy can do so.  This involves napping in places like the car, the baby backpack, or while being carried in the last few minutes of church (Thus making the partaking in the bread and wine a bit more of an adventure.) These three approaches to napping has mommy running a little ragged these days and considering the more positive aspects of chloroform, either administered in small doses to small individuals sporting runny noses or in larger doses for the owner of a larger nose who is in desperate need of a nap.  But these approaches to napping also tell us that Zane loves to be involved and around people.  Yet another Holloway who will probably never be a shy, retiring violet.  Maybe more of a brassy, adventurous fullback.

Zane is 1.  We love him and find great joy in him.  He is our B-Zay.  Thank you God for giving us this life.  And don't worry Gunnar.  He will be as big as you someday.  Knocking him down may prove to be a bit more difficult very soon.