On Our Toes

This picture explains why I don't spend more time answering e-mail. I had to let it happen, she was so happy playing in that paper. She wasn't eating it, so I figured this was a relatively safe activity. And then I spotted a dirty tissue among all that harmless paper -- YUCK! That was the end of that game, and the end of a few quiet minutes for me.

I just can't believe how busy Harper is. And these days, while we're sleeping at Nana and Dziatku's, there is no pack-n-play at our house. Which means I have to watch her every second that we're here. Yesterday she was standing up, playing with a coaster on an end table. While I was watching, she got frustrated that she couldn't reach a framed photograph farther back on the table. Somehow she wriggled herself around the corner, between the couch and the end table. I present to you, Baby Houdini. Unfortunately she works backwards, getting herself stuck on her own, and needed help to be freed. She didn't seem to realize she had a problem until I tried to free her from between the couch and the table, then her eyes got a big as dinner plates and she geared up for some major screaming. Lucky for me, it was a swift rescue mission.

I apparently jinxed myself by saying that nap time had gotten easier. Today it took Harper nearly an hour to finally fall asleep. Frustrated does not even begin to explain how I was feeling. And then, the last time I went to lay her down, I placed her on her back and covered her up, and, when I put her little giraffe next to her, she wrapped her arm around it and hugged it to her cheek. So sweet! I've never seen her do anything like that before. To me, it looked like such a "big-kid" gesture, and that just melted my heart. It's a mental image I will file away to reference the next time she is spitting pureed green beans at me and throwing Cheerios at the dog.