Summer days...

I thought that while the weather was really warm we'd try the new splash pad that I bought for Paige. The water was soooo cold that came out of it that she would really only feel it, but when I put her feet in it she wasn't so sure about it.

I was also able to dress Paige in one of her summer dresses. Now that she can walk, it was easier for her to wear a dress. In fact it probably made her want to walk more since crawling is hard in a dress!

You can see Paige's new toy in that picture. It is her "little people barn". She reaaallly likes it. What a great purchase. She knows that the animals are all part of the set and one by one she chucks them in the top of that silo. I find that so amazing. This is one of the first toys she has which we can play with together, and I had showed her how you can put the animals in the silo. Then, what do you know? She is doing it herself. I know that doesn't sound that exciting, but it shows a lot of skill I think. I just love how she tries to shove them in and they don't fit, so she keeps trying. Next, she'll be shape sorting!

(strange how Paige's hair photographs red....I think it is my camera, because it doesn't look like that in real life)

I've noticed she is becoming more interactive with strangers. She doesn't always become shy when people talk to her. I find if strangers don't come right up in her face, she might just talk to them. At the grocery store yesterday she repeatedly said hi to the lady at the till. Then when the lady waved and said bye bye, Paige did too!

We're walking!

The day we thought would come for the last month has finally arrived. On Saturday, Paige started to walk on her own. She was standing at the bookshelf when suddenly she took 8 or 9 steps towards her Bumbo seat. I just sat there trying not to make any noise. I think in the past when she had taken a step or 2, I had scared her with my crazy outbursts, so I tried to keep quiet this time. As she took these steps she was holding the "Ladder to Success" DVD, which I thought was somewhat appropriate.

After she took these steps Mike wanted to "work" with her, and was sitting on the ground and backing up while she walked towards him. Afer this she just got better and better. Now it kills me when I see her just randomly walk on her own. Way too funny. For instance, I put her on the floor standing up in our room, and she just wandered off into Mike's closet. If she attempts anything long distance where there isn't a resting point, she will inevitably bail and fall on the floor. She can't just wander around yet, which is good. I'm not ready for her to give up her cruising and crawlng yet. I feel like I would miss that.

What I have noticed since she has started walking, is her new feeling of independence. She doesn't like to be held as much, and hates being put in her car seat. Not that we ever just held her, but when I walk up the stairs with her, or through a store or something, she is straining her body downwards as if she wants to get on the floor and practice. I'm not sure about the car seat thing, but she is fine being put in the seat from home. If we have just been in a store, she HATEs being put back in the seat. She will make her body really stiff so she is standing in the seat, and the only way I can make her sit down is to basically physically force her knees to bend, and then she starts crying with no sound (that really upset cry). Who knows. It's time to change car seats too, so maybe that will stop, although she is fine when she is in the seat and she's not uncomfortable.

The video I posted is funny because we captured the first ever time that she tried to stand up on her own in the middle of the room. Not sure why she decided to do it for the camera, but that is great!

On Sunday we had lunch at my dad and Maura's with Marilyn Barr who was in town (hi Marilyn!). Paige found a stool in the kitchen that she had previously only cruised by. She decided to steer it around the entire house as if it were her walker. There are hardwood floors in the house, and after checking that the felt pads were still intact on the stool, we let her go wild. We just thought it was amazing that she could actually steer her way around by moving slightly around the stool.

Oh--oddly enough, Paige can also walk on grass quite easily. I would have thought that would have been difficult.

Amy's Birthday.. 1!!

On Saturday Amy turned 1. The weather was beautiful, so the adults got to spend time outside with some drinks and a Barbeque (and a DQ cake). We missed Amy's real party last week, but it was nice to see her on the actual day! Usually when the 2 girls get together they are really interactive with one another, but they pretty much did their own thing..Amy explored the garden while Paige played in the tent with a basket of brand new toys.

Cottage Life

Cottage trip a success! Paige didn't get into trouble as I thought she would. She pretty much stuck to the safe areas in the cottage, without trying to climb up on the fireplace. It was too cold to sit on the porch, so anything unsafe out there was avoided as well. Yes--it was too cold. Blech. About 10 degrees. Since the cottage is small she could cruise around the couch, the coffee table, a couple of chairs, a bookshelf, the walls, and some side tables without having to crawl at all.

There is a swing that hooks onto the door frame of the dining room that every child has used since my Aunt Robin. It was great as an option for somewhere to put Paige if she got bored, or while we were eating since she could face us. Either the swing is a perpetual motion machine, or she figured out how to make it move on her own, because she only ever needed one push. She actually fell asleep in the swing.

I bought this little high chair since it turns into a booster seat for when she is older.

We needed to get a wagon up there since a)her stroller can't be pushed on grass and gravel roads very easily, and b) we bring so much junk up there that it would never fir in the trunk with everything else. We got the "Step 2 Rumble Wagon"...only $40! After Mike assembled it we tested it out inside and let her play with her toys in it. Then we went for a short walk since it wasn't raining for a change. She started to pass out in it.

The ride home from the cottage took about 4 hours due to bad traffic. Blech. Paige wasn't very happy for a large portion of it.

A Day in the Life

I got a video of Paige with her walker, doing her typical Paige things. The video is really long (maybe 5 minutes?), but you get a very good snapshot of her character. She says hi a few times, as well as ok, and you get to see the extreme head nod. Something really cute...if you notice, her favourite bear is on her walker at the beginning. She picked that bear up 3 times and put it on her walker and walked around with it.

Extreme head nodding

Mike taught Paige how to nod her head even more when she says ok. Now we see her randomly "practicing" her nodding. We'll be watching tv and she'll be playing with the DVD's doing the extreme nod...head all the way back, and then all the way down. It looks like it hurts.

nope.

Paige is still refusing to walk at all costs.

She is now adding head motion to her "ok". She nods her head when she says ok. Like up on "O", down on "K"...try it out and you will see what I mean. Ok is winning over hi now. Also, the fireplace is now winning over the TV as a place to stand. We gave in on the TV, but we won't let her stand against the fireplace. If we tell her no in a stern voice and pull her away, she just thinks it's a joke and bolts it back to the fireplace at top speed. We never have the fireplace on, but it is surrounded with hard marble.

We had our first mother's day yesterday. "Paige" made me a card, and got me a new laundry basket and a gift certificate for a pedicure and a manicure. We had a huge breakfast, and then bought some new house plants, and then had a big dinner over at our place with my dad, Maura, Amanda, and Greg.

Looking forward to our cottage weekend, but Paige will be everywhere...

Paige's first steps??

Wow, I have not written in a long time. Basically we have been on and off sick for the past 2 weeks. The bad thing was that it effected Paige's near perfect sleep record. She started sleeping through the night during the last couple of weeks in April, but as soon as the cold hit she had some pretty rage-filled nights where she would scream and stand up and refuse to do anything but be held. Fun times. I kept telling myself that she will only get bigger and bigger and I will miss these times when I can still fully hold her in my arms and rock her. So it seems that as the cold wears off, her sleeping is getting better. I remember my dad told me that I slept through the night continually at 9 months and I thought, nooooo that is sooooo far away, I won't make it! But here we are!

Anyway, I have to write more often because right now I am finding it difficult to remember what has happened in the last little while. hmm...

Well, something from this week...Paige took her first steps! On Wednesday afternoon I put her in the standing position and backed up from her. She took 3 little steps toward me and then wiped out. She did this whole thing 2 more times (standing, 3 steps), and then she did one time with 4 steps. She didn't totally wipe out either. It was as though she just lost confidence and decided to give up. What is really odd though is she has not done it since. I assumed since she did it the one time she would want to do it again. Nope. In fact, she refuses to stand up when I try to make her...she makes her legs go really limp so that it is impossible. She really doesn't want to try to walk anymore. I don't get it!

She is getting really really good at the cruising though. She can go all over the place and she will even grab her walker and use it to get it to places across the room. She even uses the walker as a prop, like someone would as a cane, and just drags/pushes it along by its "antennae"(it looks like a car), just so she can have something to balance on. So, who knows when she will walk next???

2 more things that Paige says (but has no idea what they mean)..."ya" and "ok". I think I must say these a lot so she is just repeating them, but she walks around and says, "OK, ok, oK". She still says hi and bye a million times a day, and whenever she sees a phone she says "HI!" Like literally EVERY time she sees a phone. If I am on the phone she says Hi, hi, hi again and again. She has stopped saying duckie, but we are pretty sure she has said daddy. No mommy yet, but maybe on mother's day. ha.

I have begun to love going to the grocery store. I used to completely hate it when I was working and when Paige was little. Now I love it because she loves it in a hysterical-like way. She wiggles around in the cart and makes her body jump up and down and she looks at people and make noises. When they actually look at her though she freezes up and gives them her best poker face. She wants people to look at her and give her attention but when they do she gets shy.

The pictures at the top are of Paige and her friends Amy and Clara, and then their is a photo of Paige and Amy on the swings by our house. That day it was really cold but they really wanted to go on the swings (they cry if we pass the swings without going on them). Their hands turned blue from the cold.