Steps

It was just Molly, the dogs, and I last night since Trina had a dinner engagement with co-workers who were in town from Kansas City. On the hour drive back home from an all-day meeting in Burlington, I thought about how we would have a mellow evening of the usual routine. We would play on the floor for a while, then move to the kitchen where Molly would sit happily (of course) in her high chair eating whatever morsels of goodness we put her way, I would could dinner (Spanish style shrimp and mushroom risotto). After dinner we would play on the floor some more before she went to bed by 7:30. After that I would likely work up some photos, update the blogging about the trip to La Paz, and work on her invitations for her birthday party.

Not so much.

I picked her up from daycare at 4:30. She was her usual happy self and Jen reported that Molly had taken a few steps during the day. This wasn't a surprise since she had let go of the ottoman the previous night, took a step, and fell to the floor, laughing of course.

At home she was full of energy and we played on the floor for about an hour. I thought we would have an early dinner, so at 5:30 placed her in her high chair, gave her some puffs (a.k.a. 'baby crack'), opened an IPA, and began working on dinner. I chopped up some carrot that I roasted a little earlier for her and gave it to her along with some pieces of string cheese. She showed some interest, but not a lot. No big deal since it is a relatively new flavor. She was quite restless, so I gave her some Pirate's Booty (http://piratesbooty.com/) which she loves. This held her for a few minutes before she started giving it to the dogs. She was still very restless.

My dinner prep had not gone well. I had only managed to get the shrimp out of the refrigerator, rinse them, and place them on a cutting board for deveining. Molly was even more restless. Since she has three or four teeth coming in and was drooling a little, I gave her some Tylenol, and then prepared a bottle to hopefully ease her hunger more quickly. She downed the bottle with admirable speed. I thought that we could give dinner prep another go. Nope. She didn't want to sit still.

We played on the floor for the next two hours. She displayed a new level of energy I had not seen. She crawled to every room in the house and back. We played peek-a-boo multiple times. She climbed up her chair and over the arm of it into her toy box, where she played for a few minutes, then back up and over the chair. We walked all over the house while she held on to my fingers for balance many times. She played with her books, her doll, everything. She crawled around some more. Then as I was sitting on the floor where I could contain her in the living room she stood next to Trina's ottoman only using only one hand for balance, let go, took two steps, and fell to the floor (laughing of course), and crawled over to me. She did this a couple of times on her own, so after she crawled to me I carried her back to the ottoman where she would repeat the attempt at walking.

After about 10 practice runs at walking she moved to her toy boxes. She emptied them completely, then began putting some back in and taking them back out. We played with her toys until 8:15, when I thought she must be tired, despite not showing any symptoms. I prepared her bottle, carried her to her room, turned all the lights except for her night light, sat in the rocking chair, and gave her the bottle. She quietly drank her bottle and then turned around in my lap, laid her head on my shoulder, and started to go to sleep.

She was tired.

I placed her in her crib and expected the usual 10 minutes of crying before falling asleep. She uttered not a peep.

At last I had dinner at 9:00 and Trina got home soon after, quite fatigued, sore throat and all, and sad she missed out on the night's fun. I'm sure there will be more steps today since once she gets something she is persistent at perfecting it.