Nice moments (Anna)

Emma took her first steps today holding onto our hands. She's been building up to it for a long time, crusing on the furniture and on push toys, but, up to now, her knees collapsed when it was just us. She was so proud of herself (and we were pretty proud of her too).

I tidied up the office today, which happened to have about 100 CDs strewn across the floor (I can't imagine how they got there). I had just finished and turned my attention to something else when Little Miss Mischief makes her way over to the CD rack and happlessly pulls them back off, looking at me all the time to see I am watching. She was very proud of herself (and, alright, we were too, in that begrudging kind of "You're adorable, but you're wreaking havoc" kind of way that seems to be a staple of parenthood).

She spent several hours today exploring the contents of her toy box. Every new discovery made her say "Oooh" and hold it out to show us what she had found, as if she had never seen the toy before. Kind of makes up for the fact that our living room is now covered in things that are furry, things that squeak, and things that rattle (and she is yet to learn how to put things back in as well as take them out...maybe that will next month's milestone?).

Blowing raspberries together - the kind where you wobble your fingers gainst your lip to produce that satisfactory blubalubalub noise. She can do it herself, but likes to just blow and pull our fingers up to do the wobbling for her. It's a lovely glimpse into the older kid who has a sense of humour and wants to play with us.

Having a nap on our bed with her. Waking up to hear her babbling to herself...in another room. Apparently, somehow (how? how?) she has mastered getting herself off our bed without crying (and without even waking us) and wandering off into her nursery to look at her books. Luckily she was apparently not interested in the unprotected stairwell she had to crawl past to get there. It spells a new era of independence for her...and vigilance for us.

Summary: A beautiful child. A satisfied parent. I'll be sad to go back to work next week.