The Latest Drama

This girl - what can I say? She is so many things. A little spunk, a lot of drama, and just enough of a snuggler to compensate for the other two.

Since we last visited the subject of Keri though, a few things have taken place. She reached the ever-important milestone of learning to escape one's crib and is now happily napping and sleeping in the much-safer floor bed. I laugh as I think of what a dreaded transition it was for me to switch Braden out of his crib and into a bed. It ended up going fine in the end but it seemed like a big deal at the time.

But the second time around, it was so matter-of-fact. "Oh look, there's my 17-month-old munchkin halfway over the crib bar, about to break her arm. Better take that down."

It was a lovely thing actually because I also took everything else out of their room that was hazardous (such as the changing table, used mostly for jumping and climbing on and very little for the actual changing of diapers) and now the room is wide open with beds close to the floor (for ideal jumping). They sometimes spend a whole hour in there just playing and jumping and letting me get something cleaned or cooked!

Anyway, the bed thing is going great for her...she stays in it to take naps and I am thinking that switching her now is actually a good thing because now she will be used to taking naps in there. I sometimes think that Braden switching from the crib was what ended naps prematurely for us (and I say us because we both suffered as a result of this premature loss).

As far as her other hobbies, she enjoys trying on my shoes, figuring out where she fits...

and where she doesn't...

And other than that, she mostly just walks around the house trying to declare ownership of random objects. "MINE!" she'll say as she pats the top of the coffee table. Or sometimes it's an old college textbook or a half-eaten granola bar left on the carpet. It doesn't really matter what it is, as long as we know that it is hers.

[Psychologically speaking, this little "MINE!" game is likely the result of having everything she has tried to hold or show interest in over the past year ripped out of her hands by an aggressive yet well-mannered older sibling. So we just smile and nod and occasionally referee the disputes that inevitably arise over whom certain objects truly belong to.]

She's pretty cute. Mostly. I'm trying to encourage her to arch her back a little more and kick harder when she throws tantrums though...I'm convinced she can do better. I think the encouragement is helping because the other day she actually dove across the carpet during her best tantrum yet. It was truly gymnastical.

But five minutes later, she was smiling like this again.

And that's how I like her best.