Shannon's First Steps!

Shannon officially started walking today. Just 3 days after her 1st birthday, too! She took 3 steps at the photography studio yesterday (a whole story in and of itself) from the pillar to me. Nada during daycare today, but as soon as we got home, she grabbed her doll stroller and went to town. When the stroller got stuck, she took about 10 steps to the coffee table. I was so thrilled!! And annoyed that the video camera is a piece of crap. So, I set her back up by the hall and she walked from there, around the high chair in the kitchen, and to the back sliding door! I took some poor-quality video with my phone, since that was close at hand. I'll get some better video asap.




In addition to walking (!!!!!) she has also learned to shake her head "no," which she thinks is the funniest thing in the world, and it looks pretty cute.... For now. At least she smiles when she does it. Haha.


Shannon's birthday was on Friday. Irene had a little party for her at daycare, complete with party hats, cupcakes, and a kiddie pool. Our friend, Le Amber came over in the afternoon, and Jim came down to see Shannon, but unfortunately, he got here about 30 minutes before Shannon needed to go to bed. So, I sent Jim to the store for dinner, since none of us had eaten recently and were all famished. He gave S a plush panda bear that unfolds into a pillow. I want it. Maybe I will use it when Shannon isn't looking.

My dad came down the next day with Cynthia. I woke up when he got here (4:30 am), and worked on lessons and theme tests all morning for work while he played with Shannon. I invited Colleen and Carol Ann (CA is 7 days older than S.) over for a mini birthday party for the girls. I baked carrot cake cupcakes, and the girls LOVED them. y dad gave her a heart-shaped music box and a toy MP3 player (that she loves!), Cynthia gave her a bilingual cell phone (which she loves), Colleen gave her a pair of hot pink shoes (which Mommy LOVES) and some madras shorts (again, Mommy loves them!). Auntie Sarah sent her a Care Bear and Mommy bought her some new clothes (which is probably more for Mommy).

So, back to the photography session... Our appointment was for 12:20, and being who I am, we got there 30 minutes early. We were finally seen over an hour after our appointment time. During that hour, I had to feed S and chase her around the store to keep her entertained, plus try to keep her new toys out of the hands of some annoying little girl who kept trying to steal them. This same girl's cousins were also trying to flirt with my photographer as she was working with Shannon. Ugh!

So, needless to say, Shannon was not thrilled about having to sit still (what? Shannon sit still??) and ended up having a meltdown 20 minutes into the shoot. gee, really? You're over an hour late, and you wonder why my kid is pissed off? she's tired of looking at the muted colors and gaudy portraits of strange-looking kids! So, the portraits we got were not the best. I could have done better with my own camera, but I wanted something special. I was definitely special, all right!

Proofs are available to view here:
https://www.smilesbywire.com/home.asp?AC=LTPP0085115588JCP