Big Girl

Lately, despite the fact that Paige is entering an extremely exciting stage where she is seemingly growing and learning to do new things daily, I've been having a hard time finding the time to keep a record of it all. In the last month she has had a major growth spurt whereby she went up 1-2 clothing and shoe sizes, she two new teeth, she is walking up to about 20 steps herself (and walking to people other than me now), she has started using sign language, she has had two nights where she did not pee in her diaper at all, AND she has turned in to quite the little chatterbox. She speaks in full sentences, albeit in a language we do not understand. She doesn't point at things and grunt or use one syllable sounds, she recites delivers full soliloquies. In addition to the walking, she is working on sitting up by herself, and regularly launches herself from sitting into what is almost a crawling position. Dave and I still have hope she may do a little bit of crawling after all even if it is after she has already walked.

The best part of the last few weeks has been watching the emergence of Paige's personality. She is a happy and playful girl. She is also very sweet. Don't get me wrong, she has her moments, but her overall disposition is a happy one. We are extremely lucky.

Paige is walking!

Over the last few days, Paige has gone from insisting that she only walk while someone is holding both her hands, to walking happily beside me just holding one of my hands. Then, today, her nanny Zoila decided to hold on to the back of Paige's shirt and not hold her hands. Paige likes the security of feeling a hand on her back or something holding her up. When I got home from work, Zoila showed me. Then, because Paige was so excited to see me, Zoila let go and Paige took her first few steps. Dave got home minutes after I did, so we both got to see her taking her first few tentative steps around the living room. It was incredible, and I would be lying if I said we didn't get a little teary-eyed. She is such a big girl!

In other news, Paige seems to have four of her top teeth coming in simultaneously. She has had a rough few days as a result. Poor baby.

She is so close!

Today Paige decided that she no longer needed to hold on to two hands to help her walk. Instead, she is holding my hand and walking along beside me like a big girl. She has taken this new found skill to mean that she can also dictate where we walk...or not walk. As a result, the walk home from the farmer's market took about an hour longer than usual. She stopped, turned around, walked into stores. It was hilarious, and also a little glimpse at what Dave and I have in store for us in the coming months. She is at an amazing stage in her development right now. Everyday she is doing something new and exciting.

The funniest of her new tricks is that she now dances to her favorite songs (she will not dance to every song, she has clear favorites). Here is a short video of Paige doing her thing. A longer and even funnier video appears here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MxsnwG8w0PM