Giggles Update

To start things off, here are Giggles and Pumpkin enjoying a ride courtesy of Daddy.











My giggly little girl is getting around better and better and just plain doing more every day. And, she's full of surprises!

Yesterday, the kids and I went over to a friend's house to visit, and wouldn't you know it, the toy that most attracted Giggles was (drum roll please)....a baby doll with its own pacifier and crib. Giggles would clamber into the toy crib and try to give the "baby" its pacifier. So cute!!

Week before last, she started eating more regular food and also drinking water from a sippy cup. Finally. I think she'd actually been ready to do these things for a while; however, her parents had simply failed to notice that she was getting older and more able, hehe. So, now the kids and I might enjoy a nice breakfast of cheesy ham and eggs or some oatmeal with yogurt and fruit or bagels and/or muffins or bread with jam. For lunch, she'll have bread and chicken or turkey...all of this in just-barely-visible-to-the-eye pieces, of course (meaning she's graduated from the microscopic pieces I used to give her). She also enjoys finger foods like Gerber's wagon wheels or veggie crisps, which are like Cheetos but made with veggies. She also still eats #3 baby food from a jar. Lately, she's been sampling Earth's Best "My First Soups." Her favorite so far is Butternut Squash Bisque.

Last week, Pumpkin and I were in the kitchen after breakfast, and I happened to glance over to the family room. Something totally incongruous caught my attention, and it was a few beats before I realized what I was looking at. It was my baby girl STANDING on the arm of the sofa with her little leg stretched out as if about to walk right off! Talk about a heart-stopper! I don't even remember what I was holding in my hands, but I dropped whatever it was and raced to family room to (hopefully) catch Giggles before she leapt from the sofa. (I caught her.)

The following day, I was in the office, and Giggles was playing on the floor behind me. Next thing I knew, she was standing on top of her brother's desk chair, happy as a clam. This time, I decided not to rescue her from the chair. I figured the fall from his chair is a lot shorter (and less harmful) than the fall from any adult-sized piece of furniture in our house. Sure enough, she fell off the chair. She cried. I picked her up. She stopped crying. She moved on to other mischief. Lesson not learned.

As I sit here typing, she has once again clambered onto her brother's desk chair to watch him construct the Transcontinental Railroad on his Lionel Trains Trans-Con! PC game. Perhaps I misspoke and she did learn a lesson because, this time, she's sitting on the chair instead of standing on it. I'll take it. Anyway, the two of them look so cute sitting together at their little desk.

It's Been Crazy (but fun)

As usual.

I apologize for not posting anything in a while. As you've read by now, Giggles started walking a few weeks ago, and she is literally all over the place now. On top of that, she's not napping as often or as long as she used to either. Might be teething or the cold, which has been sticking around since last week. So, yeah, it's been a bit crazy here and there.

So what's new, you ask? Hmm...well, Giggles had her 3rd haircut today. It's kind of weird getting used to the way she looks all over again, but I think she's probably more comfortable now that she's not as shaggy.

We went to a birthday party this weekend at one of those bounce places. QT took Giggles on the big kid slide a few times, and she LOVED it! We forgot to pack our camera, but fortunately, we were able to borrow one from a friend. I'll post a pic from the party as soon as I get them from her. Hopefully, we were able to get at least one good shot. BTW, here's a picture from a birthday party we attended the week before. It was held at a splash park, but we didn't pack swim clothes since it was (supposed to be) a bit chilly. Turns out, it wasn't chilly at all, and Pumpkin ended up getting wet in his regular clothes, which then proceeded to get chilly once he got out of the water. So, here's Pumpkin enjoying himself at the party clad only in his skivvies. Well, that, his shirt, and his Pumas, of course.



For his part, Pumpkin seemed to enjoy himself very much at the party though I confess that I'm starting to worry just a bit about him. Over the past few months, I've noticed that he develops very close relationships with his peers. However, it seems like he can be "close" to only one child at a time, and then he gets so attached to this child that he wants to exclude all others from his life...er, I mean, play. What worries me is that Pumpkin seems lost whenever his special friend is not around. Is it normal 4 y/o behavior to want to cling to one special friend at a time at the exclusion of all others? I simply don't know.

When he was in school, he'd often tell me that he spent the day playing by himself because everyone else was already playing with their own friend (as in, "Kid 1 only plays with Kid 2, and Kid 3 only plays with Kid 4, etc etc). When I talked to his teachers about it, they said they hadn't seen that. According to them, Pumpkin got along well with all the kids in his class and was able to fit in with whatever playtime activity and with any group of kids. So I'm left to wonder whether this is for real or another one of those things that is more anxiety (on his part) than reality (like the infamous gym time-out episode that never happened). He believes it enough to cause himself real concern even though there isn't anything actually there. I'm concerned enough that I'm considering calling his doctor, but I'm not quite there yet. I'd like to do some research on my own first, but I don't really know where to begin...except the Internet. Oy.

Anyway, other than that...or should I say, despite that, Pumpkin is enjoying the remainder of his summer vacation. He's got his new DSi (a story for another time...grrr). He's got his best dog. And he's got me, which reminds me...



Last week, QT stayed home with Giggles while Pumpkin accompanied me "into town" to run an errand. He behaved very well on our errand, which involved much waiting in line, so I offered to take him out to dinner afterward. To a "real restaurant" as Pumpkin would say. He picked Johnny Carino's, and we had such a nice time! It was like a little mini-date, just my baby and me. He even insisted that we sit on the same side of the table so that we could hug and kiss and hold hands, LOL! It was really a wonderful treat for both of us. We may even start doing that on a regular basis.

And She Let Out a Mighty Roar

Here's a picture of Pumpkin showing off his new Pumas, which make him run really fast, and a few more of him and Sunshine goofing off.




























And here he is below with his adoring baby sister. :)

The Big Heist

Today, Giggles took a glitter crayon away from her big brother and then RAN as fast as she could to get away from him. LOL!!! He had to chase her down in order to take the crayon away. It was hilarious! She does something similar whenever I catch her trying to go up the stairs. It's like a game. I say "Where are you going!?" and she starts to huff and puff and giggle while climbing the stairs as quickly as possible...ostensibly to get away from me before I bring her back down, haha.

So, as you've probably surmised, she's definitely walking now. Further and further every day. She's still unsteady on her feet, but she can cross an entire room, stop, stand, turn around, and take off again before finally falling on her tushie.

I wish I'd gotten this morning's crayon theft on camera. It was precious. I'll see if I can get her to recreate it when she wakes from her nap. And, on that note, I'll be off. My time is limited so I'd best eat my lunch before she wakes.

Giggles First Steps

Giggles took her first steps while we were on vacation with the fam in Silvercreek. It's tough to get something like that on video so we don't have anything from that weekend, but we were able to catch her on camera taking a couple of steps on Tuesday as the fam got ready for their return trip to Texas. So, although not technically her first steps, the ones we caught on camera are still among her first dozen. ;)



Here, too, is a collage of Giggles enjoying the fresh air on the Georgetown Loop, the scenery at the Lebanon Silver Mine, in a mine cart, and chillaxin' with a teta in one of the miners' cabins.