I expect to hear a whole lot more “my” from now on. But on the bright side, hey, a nice complete thought was spoken and very little screaming was involved.

That’s my girl.

But, I can’t help but see a budding mobster ready to make her mark on the kids at the playground.

And so I says to Tony, take this back! — I ordered the linguine, not the fettuccine…

NIKON D200, ISO 320, ƒ/2.8, 1/60sec, 70mm focal L.

The Goddaughter

NIKON D200, ISO 320, ƒ/2.8, 1/50sec, 70mm focal L.

And that was my Facebook announcement on November 13. She’s since progressed to several halting steps in a row, but crawling is still her preferred mode of transport when she really needs to be somewhere. But. She’s getting so good on her feet. She wants to be up and is starting to realize how much she can do when her hands aren’t otherwise occupied in acting as stabilizers.

She’s a semi-walker. Her skills get madder day by day. And she loves it. I’m so very proud of my littlest girl.

It was a beautiful day for it. Sunshine, cool breeze, temperate weather. The time was right…after lunch so it was very quiet. The girls had a fantastic time. Elise and Stella both loved the swings. Elsie has been loving them, but this is a new development for Stella. Stella spent the entire time laughing her perfect baby laugh, laughing to the point where she gave herself the hiccups…which only made her laugh  louder.

After swings we went to the small child play area with a large sandy area that is partially shaded. There is a small climbing structure with a “Maia sized house” and slide. Maia loves the play structure and Stella and Elise enjoyed the sand, both giving a shovel a try. They then scooped sand and, wonder of wonders, put it into their small buckets and not into their mouths. Yay!

Then it was teeter-totter time. This teeter-totter is really a cantilever type beam with a spring in the middle, so it bounces as opposed to moving the kids up and down in the air. Better for little ones. Elise loves to pull herself up by the seats and make the whole thing bounce and once she realized she could sit on the seat and bounce big time I had a hard time convincing her to do anything else. At one point she even tried to throw her little leg over the saddle herself, but the seat is still a bit high for her.

Stella also enjoyed the bouncy teeter-totter, but not as much as she enjoyed the sand area and flirting with the other moms and grandmas. Stella was holding court with her bucket and shovel. She’d do peek-a-boo and then smile and look away and then laugh as the other women coo’d at her. She was just too cute, and we almost lost her to the grandma who just wanted to take her home.

There were tears all around when we had to head out. I’m thinking that’s a good thing, in a way, because all the girls had such a good time playing.

Stand. On her own.

And then, instead of crouching back to her knees or bum when she was done, she simply steadied herself on the drawer again and went back to rummaging around in the plastic containers. Never once bending knees or going back into her default sitting position.

It’s not going to be much longer until we have a toddler on our hands.

She’s working on more bottoms, but man. She’s loving crunching up crackers. I started them on Goldfish–The Official Cracker of Modern Childhood–and there is much happiness from those biting teeth.

Your Mommy loves you enough to give you your very first cake to smoosh around and generally make a mess with.  It was all sorts of fun to watch as you first ate/licked all the frosting off the top, and then finally bit into the cake.  Then you got all frustrated when the cake broke apart and you dropped most of it on the floor before being whisked off to the bath while I cleaned up the mess. Don’t worry, you can thank me later

Happy Birthday Elise!

For Complete pictures of the event ** click here **.