Big muscles

My friend Rhonda always rewards the kiddos trying to walk by saying "look at your big muscles ____!" and I love it. I now say it ALL the time, as Piper is getting closer and closer to taking her first big steps. Today we were at the library and she was a champ, standing up on her own and listening to the stories. Beyond that, nada yet, but she pushes her lion around everywhere (porch, driveway, lawn) with what I would describe as gusto. Maybe her birthday present to herself will be using her big muscles!!

I can't believe she's going to be ONE in six days. The fact that this huge milestone will soon be upon us leaves me both excited and flabbergasted. A year! 365 days! Insane, but I'm so happy to celebrate with her too :-)

It's been a month since I've posted and Piper has just been growing and learning like crazy. She said "snack" today when I gave her a snack cup this morning and I think she has a molar coming in on the top left. She crosses her feet almost all the time (whether she's sitting in her highchair, laying down drinking her bottle, in her stroller, sitting Indian style on the floor, etc) and her legs have stretched out like crazy. We are loving our play dates and the babies are almost playing with each other - which sometimes means pushing each other over or pulling hair, but they're all definitely way more aware of each other. All in all, we are having SO much fun, and I can't believe I'm even going to write this, but Piper is almost making parenting seem easy because we are having so much fun. We're swimming almost every day, she's playing her sandbox and going down her slide. She goes and goes all day, but you can just tell that she's loving every minute of it - and if she is, then how can I not? I thought I would miss work more than I do ... there are days when I miss the rush of a deadline, or the thrill of landing a story in a big pub, but I can't imagine doing anything else other than what I'm doing right now. I've had to readjust my ideas of what's rewarding and what an accomplishment is, but almost a year in, I think I'm getting it and I love it.

And now that I've said that, Piper will go through some huge changes and throw everything for a loop. We shall see!!