Month 14

What a difference a month makes! I feel we better hold on tight, because the ride of toddler-hood has begun. Oh, how the stages of childhood bring with them their wonders and their challenges, all in the same package.

We have been having so much fun with Lily over the past month, it just seems to keep getting better, the more and more active and engaged she becomes. It is such a joy to watch her discover the world. Everyday she seems to pick up a new word, or at least the inflection of a word. So far her favorites are Juice, Shoes, Dog, and we're working on Thank you....it kind of sounds like "Tai-ku" but she gets the inflection. She's so proud of herself too, when she first said Juice....that's all we heard for the next 30 minutes.

But, as I said, there's also the flip side, as she is learning to assert her independence....something her mother never did....I assure you. So, I suppose appropriately, on her 14 month birthday, I had to officially discipline her and put her in "time-out" which at this point just constitutes putting her back into her crib. But it was certainly as hard for me as it was for her, basically because all I kept thinking was......'and so it's begun'......

This picture may shed a little light onto why she was such a handful this morning. She's been chewing on that back right gum for two days now, and as mentioned in a previous post, that back molar is the next to make an appearance. Guess I should have cut her a little slack?!??.

And finally here are a few pics from our Saturday morning trip to Winged Deer Park that has a wonderful interactive playground. Lily was a big fan of the swings, and the steering wheel that looked like Daddy's Jeep.