Daredevil

She pulled this trick before I even had a chance to have my coffee.

Please note the one foot in the air.

She pulled her book box down, climbed on top of it and started playing on the couch.

She's up to all kinds of other things as well...

She can point out "nose" and "eye" on people she knows and in books and is very very determined to eat big people food and feed herself.

Even if that means covering the frightened and confused cats in a spray of spinach muffin.

I've taken to giving her household items to catch a minute here and there.

But really, as soon as she spies me - the game is over...

I keep a close eye on her.

And it's a good thing.

I kid you not. I watched her take her wagon and on her knees push it over to a table. She then climbed into it and I reached for the camera.

She then stood up in said wagon and started pulling items off said table...

As I took the photo, her antics caused the wagon to start moving backwards.

This could have been nasty had I not been watching her with complete awe.

Wow.

Really going to have to watch her even closer.

Auntie Amy Comes to Visit!

I don't know...

Teeth? Developmental? All of the above?

I have no clue.

But Piper is one lucky little girl to have such an awesome, understanding, and easy going Auntie That is all I have to say...

okay, okay...so maybe I have more to say.

Aunt Amy came this weekend with fabulous new outfits for Piper and pampering items for me.

The trip started off the way all trips should....

With a purple sparkly evening gown.

It was a mellow weekend, Aunt Amy has been working like crazy and well...I don't have much left to give. But we had fun just the same.

Though the weekend came with its share of challenges.

This is Piper's "chew" book. We let her chew on it when teeth get really bad. But see this weekend she took it a step farther...she ate it. Like full on ate the book.

I knew something was amiss.

Then there was this.

hanging

on

mom

all

weekend...

ugh.

But Auntie could get her to smile just the same.

Auntie Amy also was the one to figure out that Piper is now talking to the knots in the wood on the stairs. It is too funny!

Well, she does love her some trees.

And pointing.

Lots of demands these days.

10 Months Old

Wild.

No, serious- where does the time go?

10 months old and Piper continues to delight us every day.

Her giggles and antics never cease to entertain.

She's a little person with thoughts, opinions, and preferences. We may have to play our own version of charades to figure it out - but before we know it, that will pass.

So, what we've learned lately?

No cartoon-y horses for Piper. No no no... has to be the real thing.

She totally rejected any other horse thing I happened to find in the house. Had to be her life like toy, the photo, or...

The real thing.

She was so excited - double pointing and chatting up a storm.

She watched our friend Sophia ready her horse Hazen.

And we even got to visit with our friend Ivan's horse Cinnamon Girl.

Cinnamon is a real people horse, so it was a great visit.

Two fist fulls of Cinnamon right there.

Friends, Standing and More Antics

Yay! Jonah and his Mommy are back from their Holiday adventures!

Another play date and more to come!

They launched right into playing

Yes, we had Piper push Jonah.

It was awesome! She wasn't nearly as fast as she usually is with the extra weight, but she did it!

Way to go Strong Girl, you Rock!

I've been trying for the better part of a week to get either a video or a photo of this new trick, but alas this is the closest I've gotten.

Piper crawls around the house with her toys in her mouth.

It's quite the scene, let me tell you - depending on what she's playing with.

If she wants to go into the kitchen, she'll put her current toy in her mouth and take it with her.

so with that...

A baby jail was in order.

I am actually anti- baby jail. I want Piper to explore the world. Yes its limiting, but we do pretty well and she plays on her own quite a bit so that helps. I actually bought this for Piper for spending the night at Grammy and Grandpa's or her Aunties.

But when it came and I set it up and she was into it...

well.

Its amazing how the things you thought you would never do change when faced with the reality. But even then, I don't think this will be a permanent fixture in the house. She likes to play a bit of hide and seek over the edge of it -

sitting and playing quietly doesn't happen in this contraption.

Girl has places to go, toys to relocate...

Yep, still a red head :)

Oh and the standing! She's been standing for several weeks, but she's taken it to a whole new level in the last few days. She'll pull to stand on you and let go. Stand there for several minutes, sometimes playing with a toy!

And now? A little wiggle here and there as she's starting to dance!

So this afternoon she would not stop it with wanting to see the horse photo we have in the living room. Something Grandpa always does with her- which is great for him, he's much stronger than I am. There's only so long I can stand holding her in front of this photo really.

But she was starting to have the beginnings of her first temper tantrum about it actually.

Josh saw what was happening when he came home for lunch and sat with her with horse photos on the ipad, and that worked for a little while...

I was about to bundle us both and go to the stables when I remembered,

Aunt Joan had given her a horse when she was first born!

Oh my goodness the delight. She was so excited she studied it for quite some time then proceeded to crawl around the house with it. Even took it up the stairs with her.

Evenings these days you can find Father-Daughter play time in our living room.

Josh was not thrilled about being taped, but I had to at least try.

Then here's one from this afternoon. It is a bit long, but you can see so much of her personality- and much of what I'm talking about in action...

Places to Go

From the moment she gets up to the moment she goes to bed, Piper is on the move.

Constant.

She's always been like that for the most part, but it has... increased.

For now, Piper is not at all a cuddler. She'll push against you to get out and around. Reading is about as close as you'll get to a cuddle from this kid.

But what comes with that is a keen sense of the world around her. If you hide, she'll go looking for you. She chases the cat and explores the cabinets that don't have locks yet. She is always crawling or walking with her cart. And she has more time for this as she continues to strike her afternoon nap periodically. Its early for the one nap shift, but we might be going there if she keeps this up. I'd rather her have one longer nap a little later than a short early one.

Her new obsession?

Horses.

Much to Josh's horror (he has visions of horse payments in his future) she is always into looking at pictures of horses. And Aoife reports a fearlessness when they visit the stables.

BLOCKS!

When G-Ma Sally found out there weren't any blocks in the house...well she had to remedy!

Ya, just a little excited!

Also in the box was Aunt Charlie's Three Wise Men set. G-Ma Sally made it for her when she was little. Thanks for sharing Aunt Charlie!

Piper has been battling a cold and teeth these days. Add in that she stopped sleeping through the night, and we're all a little blurry eyed 'round here.

She's also decided to stop taking her afternoon nap from time to time. She's not ready for just one nap yet (trust me), but she sure wants to try it on for size once and awhile.

There are just too many cool things to do!!!

For the next three months I've taken on teaching a couple of belly dance classes each week.

Grandpa Scott is playing with Piper for one of them and Grammy Eileen for the other.

Thank you!!!

After class tonight Piper was double pointing and Grandpa - I think she had fun!

She's chatting quite a bit. Talking to herself and singing. Lots of dadada and nananan Such a wonderful sound...there have been reports from some of some new words.

Something that sounds like Ansel and then Aoife has a dog named Yoda and she'll say "Oda" (they go on walks together a few times a week).

She's really soaking up everyone and everything and the pointing, standing, and crawling continues. I've gotten locks ordered for the cabinets and today she was headed for the bathroom. But the big news of the week?

Cat food.

Yep.

She got into the cat food.

Ah well, it could be worse.

Happy New Year!

Happy 2012!

The New Year found us feeling better, visiting with friends and enjoying other random events.

New Years Eve Uncle Shane and Aunt Carrie came to visit

(among other friends who stopped by).

We haven't seen Shane in ages and it was great to visit. Piper took to them both quickly.

She lunged to be picked up and shared some of her best faces.

She did great with the revolving door, she's a social one this one.

The next morning was Shumei's annual New Years Day Brunch.

A beautiful, fun event they put on for staff and members.

And a wonderful tradition that we look forward to each year.

Stunning.

The Shumei Girls didn't disappoint with their antics.

Piper actually played, and watched them play. So wild to see her interacting with other kids.

After some warming up she felt comfortable to crawl around,

chasing the other kids and visiting folks.

After brunch we went for a short walk with Uncle Bill over to the gallery.

Where Piper instantly started crawling around and chatting to herself. No need to warm up here, she knows this place.

Eating.

Well....

Piper is growing up and learning to show preferences. They change constantly, one day yes- next day no. But either way, she's eating good size chunks of food - picking them up and putting them in her mouth as well as enjoying small bites of food from my plate.

Remember just less than a month ago when she could barely touch the Rudolph ornament?

Not anymore.

She also has taken to climbing behind the tree and trying to get at it that way...

So needless to say the tree came down right at the new year. It was time.

Piper has also been working on figuring out the inner workings of just about anything.

The shower pull on the faucet, the dishwasher, the automatic kitty water...