The first steps

Little S has become a wild ball of fire. She dazzles us with her blazing smiles, the funniest faces, her tiny finger pokes in the eyes, nostrils and mouth, and her unstopable intonated chatty voice. (Oh, she's crying loudly now in the middle of her sleep - ah, DH will get her.) She still wakes me up at least twice a night. She expects me to hold and feed her back to sleep, but no more! I must take back my slumber. Yes, she will cry, but she will still wake up happy in the morning with the sun peaking between her opaque royal blue curtains. She babbles in her crib, rolls around, plays with the hippo, elephant and cat until someone comes to greet her. Her excitement in seeing you is priceless. We cherish these days very much.

She's now fourteen months but still not walking around yet. However, on the weekend when my sister D was here, Little S took her first steps toward herself. Yes, that's right: Little S took three steps to her own reflection in her brother's toddler height mirror! She was thoroughly excited by her success. She has continued to take two or three steps here and there (but mostly in front of the mirror), but has also been standing for much longer periods. Her standard mode of transportation is crawling or the "mommy bus". She stands on the toddler picnic table while playing (and drooling) with playdough sometimes for fifteen minutes or so. She also enjoys watching the outside world through our low bay windows at the front of our house. More recently she has expressed great interest in cooking like her brother. In the photos, Little R was making a vanilla cake, and when he went to bed, Little S took over to make the chocolate cake. It was her first time standing on a kitchen chair at the table to prepare food. How fascinated she was.

As the children develop more skills, there are so many more things that we can do together. After watching an episode of Chef at Home with Michael Smith, I got Little R to play basketball. He actually played and was excited. I hope that he will be just as excited when I teach him how to clean and organise. When teaching him to pick his toys, Little S eagerly crawls over and starts putting the pieces away. But, they are still creating more mess than they're cleaning up... at least for now.