Going back a bit...September 2011

I took two hours this morning to transfer photos from my phone to my computer...Simply so that I could, uh, gift you with, like, twenty new posts. Not really. Well, hopefully not really. I just found some super cute pictures (if you can look past the obvious camera-phone blurriness). They scream to be shared.

So to start. September 2011.

 This other kiddo is Naomi. Piper and Naomi became fast friends. Believe it or not, Naomi is 6.5-months-old in this picture. She was easily double Piper's size. And she could walk. At six months. I wanted to cry for her mom. I don't know what in the world I would do with a walking 6-month-old.

And this reminds me of a conversation I recently had with Chris, Piper's in-home ESD therapist. Apparently Nate and I are doomed to have late walkers. Something in our combined genes has resulted in two kids who walk later than desired. With those numbers in mind, our future children will more than likely be exactly the same.

As for this second picture, I had stuck Piper in her carseat while I loaded some items into the trunk of my car at the store. When I was bending down, shifting stuff around, I glanced up to check on Piper. I peeked at her through the crack between the raised trunk lid and the frame of the car. I saw her watching me watching her. She started to laugh.

This was the first time she stood up by herself and I was so proud of her! And she was so proud of herself. I walked around to her door and opened it up to snap this picture. I wish it was better - her utter delight at her newly discovered ability was pretty exciting.

 This third picture is from a day at OMSI. Mom drove the girls and I in her Mini Cooper. Hazel has never been one for wind blowing in her hair. Usually it elicits screams of terror and frustration. She was a trooper for this particular car ride, though, which was nice.

On the other hand, Piper is typically ecstatic when she has the wind shaking up her, uh, locks. She will laugh and laugh when we drive with the windows down. Hazel, though. Man, that girl. The other day my smart little cookie was trying to work around a straight question/negative answer situation (she wanted me to close my window because she didn't like the breeze). Instead of asking outright (knowing I'd say no), she asked if we could "listen to music, please, and then, so, Mom, we should turn down the wind. Yes?"

We had so much fun wandering OMSI. Hazel could focus on one station or another for 15 minutes at a time, or longer. Piper was much less content with that time-frame. She wanted to boogie. We compromised. If I remember right, Hazel was visitor to fewer activity stations, and Piper was bounced and jiggled constantly.

Nate couldn't go with us (worker bee that he is), so I snapped this astronaut picture of Hazel and sent it to him. It's a keeper. Especially her little tongue hanging out.

At this very moment Hazel is tracking me down, looking for some lunch. She's stomping past Piper's bedroom where she's napping. I should probably feed Hazel so her inner food monster can be satisfied. Up next: More delinquent posts.