A BIG day!

Wow. At this age, people say that babies learn something new every day. Well today must have been an extra special day because Piper was on fire!

We had swimming lessons today, and while she's loved it before, she just totally blossomed. She was holding her breath and putting her face in the water, kicking like crazy, splashing when told to, and spitting out water instead of drinking it. She rocked it out in swimming lessons.

Then Reid came home for lunch, and when he stepped onto our screened in porch with a load of wood (SO gross and rainy today), Piper saw him, smiled, and said Da-da. She's babbled da-da a thousand times before, but this was the first time she's put the word with the actual person before. Adorable.

Then we're playing this afternoon and she army crawls! Her motivation was the fake plastic eggs that I took out of her Easter basket. She saw those little plastic pieces of heaven in front of her and pulled her way forward. Again, adorable.

And then when we were having dinner tonight, she was a sign language maven. Signing for "more". Signing for "all done." Letting us know when she wanted a "drink." And clearly very happy with her ability to communicate! She also told me when she wanted to eat this afternoon by signing for "more" while whining and then "hungry."

Seriously? She did about a week's worth of learning today. Maybe she was making up for other days, but each individual thing was amazing! Can't wait to see what she does tomorrow :-)

And I definitely need to blog about this past weekend's trip to Boston because it ROCKED. And I have so many pics that I want to post! In the meantime, the one at the beginning of the blog is from tonight, before she got in the tub (after peeing on the counter top). Check out those thighs - they are pretty incredible. And here's one of my favorite pics from Boston - of Piper admiring her balloon that Reid just had to buy her at CVS. Seriously, it may be the best $4 he ever spent ...

My little reader

This is how cute Piper is: we're driving back from Saratoga today, and when we're stopped at a stop sign, I happen to look back to see what she's doing in her car seat that's keeping her happy. Well, she has her Water Water Everywhere book (great for the car because she can eat it all she wants and she can't hurt it) and she is babbling and flipping the pages of the book as if she was reading it. And you could see the pride on her face (in the mirror since she's still rear facing). I wish I could have captured the moment with video, but instead I'm going to have to burn it into my brain forever because it was absolutely priceless.

In more disturbing reading news, look at the book Piper pulled off the shelf at my parents' house last week. Seriously, out of all the books on there (99% children's books), that's what she pulls? Yikes.

Mom brain

When I was pregnant, I read a study that showed that expecting moms' brains can shrink up to 7 percent, so yes, you are in fact less intelligent while pregnant. Now what it didn't cover was what happens after pregnancy ... I will admit that I'm pretty sure I lost all 7 percent - at least! - and it has yet to come back.

I've locked Piper and I out of the house. Not once, but twice.

I've lost the keys to our truck. Not once, but twice.

And that's really just the beginning of a long list of stupid actions. At first, I blamed my lack of cognition on sleep deprivation, which seemed completely reasonable. Well, since Piper sleeps about 12 hours a night and has for a long time, that excuse not longer works. I guess I'm left with the reality of being a mom, which I guess means that Piper now takes up almost all of my free gray matter! And looking at her, all naked and happy with her Daddy, how can she not?