Growing, Growing, Growing!

Sometimes I can't believe how quickly Piper's growing.  No, not physically (still not much over 10 pounds), but in everything else she's doing.  She's figured out how to wave "hi", and loves doing it to everyone she sees.  As soon as she hears someone say it to her, she waves her arm and gets the largest, most adorable smile ever.  As if that doesn't win affection with anyone...

She's also started playing peekaboo with me.  It's absolutely hilarious.  Usually when she's done eating, I'll lay her on my chest and we'll talk for a few minutes.  She started putting her head down, quickly, up under my chin.  All of a sudden, she'll pull her whole upper body up and just start laughing.  And then she'll do it again.  And again.  And again.  Of course I can't stop laughing during this whole time, which just eggs her own even more.  She definitely has herself a sense of humor.  (And I'm beginning to think that it's as dry as my mom's and mine-- I wonder if she'll like British comedies, too?  Heaven help us...)

But the biggest development the last few days?

Ladies and Gentlemen, may I introduce to you-- our newly appointment grocery cart driver!

Since she's really starting to master her sitting skills, we decided to give it a whirl.  The problem is that, since she's so tiny, there's just not much support in the grocery carts.  If she had some more built-in cushion, I think she would have been okay for some time now.  But she really needed to be able to hold her own without much assistance before we'd let her try.

I know this will sound absolutely preposterous, but I've been waiting for this for a long time (in fact, this liner?  We got for Christmas last year).  We'll finally be able to go to Costco (and everywhere else, for that matter) without her regular stroller (which means I can go by myself!!!).  I'm very excited.  And so is Piper!  She's having so much fun up where she can see what's going on!   

And since that was working out so well for us, we also decided to break down and get one of those attach-to-the-table booster seats that we can take out with us.  We go to lunch on Sundays with Luke's folks a lot, and the high chairs in the restaurants kind of give me the willies, especially this time of year.  So we figured these would be a great solution.  We tried it out at home tonight-- she loved it!

 

We're going to have to put about 5 inches of padding behind her to give her a little more support, but other than that, it's perfect!

You always hear that "they grow up too fast", but it doesn't really hit home until you have a little one.  But, man, are we proud of her!