One and a Quarter

It's official.  As of 10:57 this morning, Moriah is now a year and a quarter!!  :)

 Words cannot describe what a joy it is to watch this sweet girl grow and change as she leaves babyhood behind and marches boldly into toddlerhood.  Not that she's exactly marching these days!  But she is walking more and more, a fact I particularly noticed this past Sunday.

It was an unusual day for us.  We, who prize family togetherness so much, were split apart as Jeff, Josiah, and David headed up to D.C. and I stayed behind with the three younger ones.  The reason for the separation was simple: Jeff had gotten tickets for himself and the older two boys months ago to a performance of the Golden Dragon Acrobats at Wolf Trap.  He knew that David in particular would love it; and sure enough, according to Jeff's report later, David kept saying, "Wow!...Wow!...Wow!" through the performance.  :)  I was thrilled that the three of them got to experience that together; but honestly, my heart ached as they drove off early that morning (they went to a church service in D.C. before the performance).  Even though I knew that they would be gone for probably a shorter amount of time than Jeff is gone some days when he just goes to work(!), I missed them so much.  They just felt so far away!  (And I write that with a sheepish grin because it seems really silly now that I write it out.)  ;-)

At any rate, that afternoon at home with the three younger ones was a precious time for me.  I read book after book after book to Tobin and Shav, sat on the floor and let Moriah crawl back and forth across my legs about a zillion times, and watched--really watched--my kids.  And what did I notice?  I realized that Moriah was walking!  A lot!  She wasn't just doing it when someone coaxed her to do it.  No, she was standing up and taking steps of her own initiative--just because she wanted to.  It was super!  :)

Since then I've continued to notice how much more often she's walking these days--and more steps in a row, too, before she sits down.  Crawling is still faster, but she's definitely getting closer to making the switch to being primarily a walker.  We're so proud of her!  :)

I have to mention one other thing about Moriah that made me beam recently.  At supper, the way we're positioned around the table, Moriah's highchair is pulled up to a corner of the table between Jeff and I; and when we pray before our meal, we hold our hands out to her as we all hold hands around the table.  It used to be that when we reached for Moriah's hands, she would pull away; and we would let her.  It wasn't worth a power struggle just to make her hold our hands!  (I have a feeling we'll have plenty of other issues to deal with without making this particular one a big deal.)  ;-)  But yesterday for the first time, when Jeff and I reached our hands toward Moriah's, she reached toward us and grabbed our fingers!  It might seem like a little thing, but it made my heart sing.  :)

My heart has certainly sung a lot during the past 15 months!!  :)