Gwen Climbs On and On

Gwen now walks up and down the stairs like a big person. She's getting much better at her toddling and can go about 15 feet before falling. She did fall outside on the sidewalk the other day and got her first big scrape, right on her cheek. She loves to be outside so hopefully the nice fall weather will stay for a long time. I'm not looking forward to having to be indoors more once it gets cold. It will be fun to watch her play in the snow for the first time though.

It's so neat to watch Gwen change from my little helpless baby to a very helpful toddler. She has to be right in the middle of whatever it is we're doing. She loves to load and unload the dishwasher. Here she is in her jammies putting her still full sippy cup away after breakfast. Speaking of sippy cups, Gwen weaned herself from her bottles this week. I went to give her her bedtime bottle as usual on Tuesday and she threw it at me. She hasn't picked one up since. I guess she just decided that she didn't want them anymore. What a relief that was. We've been trying to get her to give them up for the last month and weren't having any success. I fear that this is probably how things will work with Gwen. We'll try to get her to do things and she'll resist until she decides to do it.

Anything and everything is a toy to a one-year-old. She loves to crawl on her stroller, or in it if it's set up. She treats Boot the same way. That poor dog puts up with so much from her. Gwen tries to ride Boot at least a couple times a day. Gwen now says "Boot" sometimes. I think we'll have to count that as her first word. She also says "Sit" pronounced "Shet" and will hold her hand out with a fist (that's the hand signal we use for sit) and command Boot to "shet". If Boot does, then Gwen gets to give her a treat.

Did I mention that Gwen loves to get into things? The other day she got into the fridge and found an open bag of carrots. Yummy. Of course, when eating carrots, it's best to have one in each hand. Another one of Gwen's favorites these days is the Itsy Bitsy Spider song. It's the ONLY thing that keeps her remotely still for her diaper changes. It also cheers her up if she's having a mini meltdown about something. She does some of the hand actions too. Sometimes when we're driving I'll look back and she'll be doing the actions in her car seat. It's really too cute.