At last!

At her 6-month check-up, the doctor gave Rowan a good looking over and declared that she would be crawling "any day now." She was up on all fours, rocking back and forth. We came home and waited. And waited.

And waited.

And then we waited some more.

And exactly six days before her 9-month check-up (last Friday), she finally did it. The kid crawled. I asked her how it felt to finally be liberated...free to move about at will...and she replied, "Daa daa daa daa daa."

The kid's a talker, I tell you. Lots of ga's and ma's and da's and ba's. One might guess based on her vocal sounds that she'll be talking "any day now."

I'm not holding my breath for this one.

Tutu cute

This fall I've found myself enjoying a lot of new things. A new school. New friends. And a new extracurricular activity: ballet.

An excuse to wear more pink.

As if I needed one.

And then mom knew...

...I was, in fact, watching a little too much TV.

After an acoustic version of "Dora the Explorer" (the theme song), I give a shout out

to Rowan, on back-up vocals.

Rocker chicks

This morning, Rowan and I spent a little quality time together in the glider, and she discovered that she rather enjoys a good rock. She may not have mastered crawling, but this kid can rock and roll (over).

For those of you who do not regularly engage with me in conversation, I am complimenting Rowan on her "beautiful ears" in the middle of this video (as well as narrowly missing poking her in the eye). I'm quite liberal in handing out compliments these days.

We did it! (Lo hicimos!)

Turns out my parents could have saved themselves some pain and aggravation (not all, just some) had they purchased these scratchy, 10-thread-count Dora sheets from Target before they tried converting my crib to a big-girl bed for the first time.

Last night, while I was busy applying foam letters to the bathtub walls, my crafty mom and dad were busy converting the crib once again. When I walked into the room after my bath, I did a double take and yelled, "A DORA bed!! Oh, wow!" I went on and on about "my present" and how wonderful it was. And imagine my excitement when after just a few tears Daddy declared a slumber party and camped out on my floor.

An hour or so later, the slumber party ended, and my mom rated what followed to be only a 7 out of 10 on the scale of toddler-induced misery. After another hour or so, I finally went to sleep. And I stayed in that bed ALL NIGHT LONG...except for 2 am, when I had to just say a quick "hi" to my mom and get tucked back in.

I'm enjoying the new freedom that comes along with being in a big girl...for instance, now when I need something after lights out, I can open the door and yell to my mom and dad. I think that will be helpful, because oftentimes I would yell very loudly for a very long time from my crib and they wouldn't hear me. What a relief to know that all of my requests and comments will be addressed with the immediacy they deserve.

Excuse No. 5: I was engaged in trickery

If there's one thing I'm known for, it's pulling a good fast one on my mom and dad. A classic fake out.

Like the time we went to Family Day at the race track and waited online for 40 minutes to ride a pony. Mom and Dad talked to me about the pony. I was excited. Took me up to see the pony while our spot was held in the line. I was excited. Got up to the front of the line and was next to ride the pony. I was excited. Went to actually put me on the pony.

I called for an immediate ABORT MISSION. It turns out I'm just not that into ponies.

So long story short, I talk a big game. What I do in actuality is anybody's guess.

Like the night that I bunked with Morgan and Hayden for the first Cousins Slumber Party. I seem psyched, right?

After the lights went out and the camera stopped rolling, I had a meltdown of ginormous proportions that suggested, perhaps, that I am not that into slumber parties, after all.

Or how about last Tuesday, when Mom and Dad took my crib and turned it into a big girl bed. I happily helped my Dad with the construction, supervising and transporting screws. And when it was all done, my bed looked like this:

Despite this fact, one hour of tears and one late-night trip to Target (for carpet shampoo -- I will spare you the related details) later, my crib was restored to its previous state. Turns out I'm not that into big-girl beds after all.

Excuse No. 4: I was busy scaling mountains

On the last weekend of the trip, my mom and dad took me to Howelson Hill for some alpine sliding. It's kind of like doing the luge on a skateboard (only sitting down), and it's AWESOME!

It reminded me of many, many weeks ago when I was a much younger toddler and my mom and dad and Nannie took me to my first carnival. After several trips around the track on the little-kid train, Mom and Dad looked around for another ride they thought I might enjoy, and they happened upon one with planes that spun around a couple feet off the ground. Since my daddy was too big to go with me, I rode all by myself with nothing but a chain-link seatbelt. The ride started and two surprising things happened:

1. The part where the planes go around in a circle two feet off the ground turned out to be only the beginning and end of the ride. The middle involved the planes soaring 10 feet off the ground. Surprise!

2. I LOVED IT! Begged to go again. And my mom told me to enjoy that second trip around because it was the last carnival ride I'd ever go on.

And in keeping with my adventurous spirit, I totally dug the chair lift ride to the top of the slide and the whole trip down. Before the weekend was through, I rode that slide six times! And here's the video of my very first trip down.

Excuse No. 3: I had to bounce

Not one to say no to a good inflatable, I visited the bouncy house...three times.