1. Shoes: Starting at about 10 months old, Reese began wearing shoes. The main motivation was a new policy at the gym which required all children to wear socks. The only way I could get a pair of socks to stay on Reese was to put shoes on over them. Since she wasn't walking yet, I started by getting her a pair of Robeez-rip offs from Target. They were soft leather soled slip ons that were great for indoor use. They accumulated a lot of abuse pretty quickly and weren't suitable for wearing outside.
Just before her first birthday, though, we invested in her first "real" pair of shoes. I looked at countless stores trying to find something with a rubber sole and Velcro, but came up empty handed. (Most stores were still selling flip flops and open-toed summer shoes.) After some research (and hesitation) I got her a pair of Stride Rites at the mall. I was hesitant only because of the price tag--at $35 I felt ripped off. Now, she wears her shoes everyday and LOVES them. She gets excited and hops up into the rocking chair so that we can put them on in the mornings. She'll hand me one sock and shoe at a time and lift up her feet so we can get them on. In the last two weeks, she's figured out how to unbuckle them, and if she's bored in the car or her stroller it's the first thing she does. Luckily, she doesn't take the shoes off, she just unbuckles them.
2. Naps: We're back to one nap again, this time for good--I think. I'm relishing the fact that she now sleeps longer at night. Her new wake up time is between 7-8, instead of 6-7. The length of her one nap hasn't settled out yet. Some days it's over two hours, sometimes it's barely an hour and half. Altogether, though, it's still better than two forty-five minute jaunts.
3. Playpen: Since Reese is taking only one nap, I've put her in her playpen on a few occasions so I can sneak in a shower. I move her playpen into the bathroom with some toys and I jump in and take the world's quickest shower. Most of the time, she enjoys standing up and putting her toys on the vanity (which is next to the playpen) or throwing them into the sink. One day last week, though, she got quiet while I was showering. Curious, I poked my head out to see what she was up to. With her new long reach, she had managed to get a hold of a tube of toothpaste that was on the counter. At the moment I caught her, she had managed to get the lid off the toothpaste tube and was sticking her finger in the opening. I jumped out of the shower and stole the tube away from her (leading to a giant tantrum, of course). I can only imagine the mess I may have found had I let her play with that tube for a few minutes longer.
4. Helping: Reese is starting to be a helper around the house:
* She loves carrying recyclables out the front door to the recycling bin. If I hand her a box or can, and tell her it's for recycling, she marches straight to the front door. When she goes outside, she dumps it in the bin.
* She also helps pick up the decorative pillows that go on mommy and daddy's bed. When I make the bed, Reese picks up each pillow and carries them over to me. Some of the pillows are bigger than she is, so it's pretty impressive to see her figure out how to pick them up.
* Reese also likes to help move laundry from the washer to the dryer. Now that we have Aunt Kim's new front loading dryer, I will hand her one piece of wet laundry at a time, and she will stand in front of the dryer and put them inside. Once the dryer starts, she likes to watch the laundry go around inside for a few minutes.
5. The Park: While the weather hasn't completely cooled off, the mornings getting cool enough for us to spend some time at the park. We're lucky enough to have two GREAT parks within walking distance, and another two that are within a two or three minute drive from our house. When we go, we take Annie with us and usually spend at least an hour walking, climbing, and exploring. It's amazing to see how mobile and coordinated Reese has become in such a short time. She climbs up stairs, walks up slides (holding on to either side of the slide as she goes up), climbs in and out of tunnels, and is working on walking across the wobbly bridge by herself. She's absolutely fearless and has learned that she can go down the slides by herself on her belly. Sometimes, she'll go down sitting on her bottom while holding mommy's hands, but I think she prefers the thrill of zooming down head first. I'm constantly surprised to see her work out how to maneuver up, down, and around obstacles without help or prompting. She's figured out how to hold on to bars for support, or turn herself sideways to lower her foot while stepping down stairs. I guess it just goes to show how much of what we do and how we move is second nature.
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