Sturdy Girl

At eight and a half months Caitlin is officially standing. Look Mom,
no hands! She's also doing pull-ups on the side of her crib. She's
climbing the stairs like a champ too and thankfully seems to have
some kind of fear at the top.

Next step will be literal.

Goldy Locks & the Three Grapes

Miriam sat on the floor with one of my braille binders open and as she
turned a page she said "Once upon a time there were three grapes."
This seemed noteworthy since it's the first time I've heard her make
up a story from scratch. It's also possibly the longest sentence I've
heard her utter. To my knowledge she's never heard Goldy Locks and the
Three Bears; I think instead the genesis was from a Vegie Tales TV
episode based on The Grapes of Wrath. I'll have to ask her tomorrow
what happened to the three grapes in her story.

Moving, Milestones, & Madness

Last week I would have begun this post by saying, "It's official—I'm
going bonkers!" but this is a new week and maybe there's hope that
I'll be okay after all (not that life has gotten any less crazy
though).

The cause for such mother madness has been a combo of the upheaval
associated with moving house and Caitlin reaching a rapid succession
of milestones. So, I wrote previously that Caitlin was sitting up and
about a week after that, the week we moved into our house with stairs;
she learned how to crawl—Perfect timing. If that wasn't enough, about
a week after that I caught her pulling herself up onto her feet in her
crib or beside whatever else she could grab onto. She was only seven
months old by this point. Then a week after that she began
experimenting with letting go of whatever she was holding onto and
attempting to stand by herself, although she hasn't succeeded for more
than a teetering moment yet. Somewhere in there she also grew her
second tooth (that's two on the bottom now). Also she started moving a
step or two along furniture and has thankfully not progressed further
than that as yet because if this keeps up, I'm in for double trouble.
Oh, actually I might have to revise that and admit that further
trouble has broken out in that she is now climbing up the stairs every
time I look away for more than a second and she has no clue how to get
down yet except with the end result of biffing it. At eight months old
she possesses none of the needed caution. Thankfully to date I have
managed to pluck her off in time to prevent any major spills but she's
getting faster and more excited by the challenge. I've been avoiding
the hassle of a gate but perhaps it's inevitable.

Meanwhile Miriam has been transitioning okay, but bedtime has been a
challenge. For the first couple of weeks we'd be chasing her back to
bed constantly for at least an hour or two after bedtime; now I'll
admit that last grocery trip we also bought a doorknob with a lock
because this midnight rendezvous stuff routine has to end.

Currently both girls have runny noses and Caitlin has had a mild
fever, coughing and gagging for a week straight—poor girl. We've had
some long nights but last night was a bit better, so we'll hope for
the best.


Here's a funny Miriam story though to change the subject… On our first
weekend here after moving we were invited to our friend's house, the
Lilywhites for dinner. Miriam showed evidence of having been brought
up in an apartment when she looked out the window and saw a backyard
with a swing set and exclaimed "Look A park!"

Miriam has also loved living so close to Poppy's house. Ever since we
spent the New Year vacation visiting with Joe's family she has asked
at least on a weekly if not daily basis to "Go Poppy house?" Now we've
been stopping by at least once a week to jump on the trampoline or
swim in the pool.

One more Miriam story… On our second Sunday heading off to church, we
pulled out of the driveway and were heading down the street and Miriam
started saying something unintelligible but urgent. We asked her to
say it again and gathered that she was saying "Shut it.
We asked if she meant that we had left the garage door open and sure
enough that was it. She gave a little nod and "Mm-hmm" of satisfaction
as we drove back up the street and closed it. She's got sharp little
observational skills that girl. I'm sure she's busy noticing all my
bad habits too. I'll have to stop stirring the oatmeal with my finger
before I put it in the microwave. And I'll end on that thought.