Three Steps

(Photos of Mercena have become trickier now that my iPhone is her favorite toy. Grace note: the shirt she’s wearing was once worn by her mother.)

(Why am I naming days?)
10/10/15, Day 14,402 (Mercena Day 422): Three Steps

While my plate is somehow busier than ever with all sorts of exciting projects, making it feel like difficult to keep up here, I have to make time to acknowledge that yesterday Mercena took three steps on her own!

The day before was actually her first two solo steps, but I wasn’t there (I did get a thrilled text from Heather). But then yesterday, as she was digging things out from her toy chest, she turned and after a moment of thought, took three confident solo steps toward Heather. We both cheered exuberantly, and she grinned, knowing she’d just done something pretty amazing.

It’s hard to express just how amazing; that this creature that once could barely open her eyes is now confidently toddling forward. She’s a physically-daring 13 month old kid, and after her feet of toddling earlier in the day, she spent our afternoon trip to the playground race-crawling up jungle gyms and careening down slides.

She’s also begun adventuring in the deep waters of meta-cognition. Yup, she’s thinking about her own thinking, which (according to our research) is typical for this age but just as thrilling as her physical steps to observe. She’s also increasingly interested in simple puzzles and in building things, though her love of destruction has not fully abated. She’ll still tiger through a pop-up book until there’s nothing left to pop.

There’s so much more to share, but like I said, too many projects, not enough hours, blah de blah, the old song. But I hope to catch back up with posting here, so as not to miss recording another step.