14 going on 15

I have been putting off writing this post because I, honestly, used to dread those monthly posts and because I just haven't really had time or interest in writing. I've sort of run out of things to say, but now that things are kind of settling down and we're getting into the fall activities you'll probably be hearing a lot from us.

So, Piper. She's grown alot in the past two months and is doing maturing a little too fast for our tastes.

First off is the explosion in her vocabulary. The short list of what she can now say (and more importantly, what we can actually understand) is as follows: mama, daddy, mommaw, poppaw, nana, cow, cat, puppy, baby, uh huh (like no), night night, bye bye, hi, banana, juice, please, bubba (brother), Elmo, phone, bow, whoa, duck. The list goes on and on. Seriously, sometimes she just says something and I look at her and wonder how in the world she learned that or when.

Piper is coloring, which is totally new territory to us. Caleb never did, and really still doesn't, have an interest in drawing or coloring, but put a crayon in Piper's hand and away she goes. I'm guessing that this is a girl thing, but she thinks it is so fun, if you can keep the crayon out of her mouth!

The biggest development of the past few months is that Piper is walking now. When I say walking, I mean toddling, but you know what I mean. She took her first steps a couple of weeks ago and we can hardly keep up with her. She still prefers crawling, but will stand up in the middle of a room without holding on to anything. With the advent of crawling she also developed the ever dreaded skill of climbing. The girl can climb anything! It's somewhat scary when I turn around and see her beautiful smiling face atop something that I thought for sure she couldn't get on.

One of Piper's most favorite activities is to take a container of some sort and try to determine if things can git into it. Just today, she was crawling around with an empty water bottle trying to shove various things into it. She also loves to put things into the bathtub, the diaperbag, my purse, etc. It's always a surprise to see what I'm toting around that day!

Piper still does have some residual issues from the trip home from Oregon. We spent 41 hours total in the car on that trip home (split between 2 VERY long days) and she still gets a little miffed about being in her carseat for more than a hour or so.

Our little girl is such a source of joy and fun for us and it just seems like yesterday that she was born. We are so thankful to have her in our lives!