Mommy's Newest Helper

Miranda is getting big, she's about 14 months now (10 or 11 months in this picture) & I'm certain that she is my sweetest baby yet. Helping is her passion; she loves to be in on the action. I remember that Victor was the same, Charlotte, not so much. Another fabulous use for the corner sink (I love my sink!) is to have baby do dishes w/ me. Up until now I would just hold her on my hip & wash w/ the other hand, but she is just getting too heavy. Here she can sit w/out my worrying about her falling, I just have to keep her out of the cat food. Buck is less pleased about her doing dishes in her space.

She is also my climber & always wants to be as high as she can. She's gotten so that she's able to get her feet on the first rung of Victor's ladder, but then she's stuck & cries piteously until she's rescued. As you see, the vacuum is a favorite mode of transport for her, she just climbs on & straddles it waiting for a ride. She's been crawling for about 4 months now & in that time her legs have gotten too long for the usual on-your-knees crawl. She's graduated to bear crawling everywhere since it's faster for her, but again, her legs are lengthening too fast for what is easy & she's beginning to do a weird scoot-on-your-bottom-dragging-a-leg-behind-you crawl. That's the only kind of crawl Charlotte ever did & only for 1 month when she started walking at 10 months. I hope it's soon, I can feel the strain on my shoulder sockets carrying her everywhere.

Though this picture indicates otherwise, she does enjoy sorting & organizing. She's the baby who picks up whatever she sees & then drops it in the nearest open container, clapping in the pleasure of her accomplishment. 8 times out of 10 this is very sweet to see & I'm glad to applaud w/ her. When the open container is the toilet or diaper pail we need some re-directing.

As of this morning she's pulled those q-tips out for the 3rd time; I'm considering them a total loss & relegating them to the firearms cleaning section.

And here's the long awaited 14 month picture for my mom. Portraits are out for us right now so I improvised & I think it turned out very nice w/out the headache that the dirty Wal-Mart (or other, cleaner) portrait studios create.