Moving, Moving, Moving!

In just the few short days since I last posted, Bailey has started becoming MUCH more mobile.  She crawls now with a speed that sometimes astounds me.  She's a lot like her daddy in that respect, I think.  Slow-moving most of the time (I don't mean that in a bad way), content to not rush and to enjoy what's around her.  But when she sees something she wants, she can move like a bat out of hell!

She's started to pull herself up on everything now, even things that I know without a doubt will not support her weight.  She falls down quite a bit, but she's learning to handle it well.  When she first started crawling and trying to pull herself up she'd have a complete meltdown if she fell even the smallest little bit.  Now, she's used to it.  She falls with an almost admirable amount of grace, smiling while the floor rushes up to meet her.  She just smiles and gets herself right back up nowadays!  Her newest feat are the stairs.  She's been trying like hell to get herself up there, but so far it's a no-go.

This picture was taken the day before she figured out how to pull herself up to standing.  Now she's just got to figure out how to lift her little legs up on the stairs and she'll be good to go!

One of the drawbacks of having such a persistent little one, I think, are the epic temper tantrums that I (and those around us) have to endure...on a daily basis.  Bailey is already a head-strong girl, even at 10 months old.  She knows what she wants and damn if she's not going to try everything in her power to get it!  If, God forbid, she's doing something that some would find dangerous like, say, trying to stick her little hands inside our baseboard heater (which is on and hot sometimes) or crawling over to the basement door that Scott can never remember to close, she will have a full meltdown.  She's perfected the art of the tantrum, I'm afraid.  Her performance is pretty gripping, complete with  top-of-her-lungs screaming, red face and LOTS of foot kicking.  It's so hard not to laugh at her when she's in the middle of a tantrum, though.  She absolutely cannot control herself, and it's pretty entertaining to watch her go from stark-raving mad to calm and smiley in less than a minute.  Darling girl, there are SO many more important things in the world than whether or not mommy and daddy will let you eat a piece of food that you swiped from the dog's bowl.  Someday she'll learn that lesson; I only hope she's learned to handle herself better by that time, too!  Yesterday, I wouldn't let her play with our $300 camera and this is what I got...

Followed quickly by this...

And in about 47 seconds, she was all smiles again...

Right now, I'm watching Bailey on her video monitor.  She woke up from her nap a few minutes ago and has been trying so hard to play with the curtains hanging from her window.  They're far enough away that she can't reach any cords, but just close enough that she can brush her fingers against the sheers...ah, temptation.  Luckily, it's kept her occupied long enough that I can finish my coffee before I go upstairs to get her.  Have I mentioned before how much I love seeing her smile when I go in to get her from  her crib.  She smiles every single time, and it's one of my favorite things.

In just a few days, I'll celebrate my first Mother's Day, and I'm so excited!  I'm not expecting anything in terms of gifts (I truly am one of those moms who thinks that her kid is the best gift)...but I certainly won't turn any away!  We'll have a busy day planned, lots of family time, and I'm really looking forward to it!