Amanda Walking!

As I think about the great month that we have just had, I realize how much "blogable" material I've had that I've missed posting. Instead of sitting at the computer, I've been shopping, baking, wrapping, reading, packing and traveling. We just returned from a week in Texas with Derrick's family. I'm now unpacking and organizing and wanted to take some time with the highlights of December that had nothing to do with Christmas.

Our biggest event actually was Thanksgiving weekend. On November 27, Amanda took her first steps while we were at my parent's house. What a gift for all of us to see these first precious steps and for me to have a camera handy to capture it on film.



It's a funny story. She had been on the verge of walking since early October, but it took the incentive of Christmas decorations, specifically breakable balls, to actually make it happen. We were decorating my parent's house, and Amanda spotted the breakable balls across the room. She started saying "Ball, ball" and headed in that direction. I think she was so focused on the shiny balls that she didn't even realize she was walking. We kept moving her starting point back further and letting her walk again and again. Her one focus was getting those balls.

I should have seen it as a sign of things to come. This is my 6th Christmas with children, but my first where we had to decorate around the baby. All of my ornaments are three feet off the ground, and I found Amanda today climbing a chair to reach the globes on top of the piano. She is a mess. Here are two more recent "walking" pictures.