What a difference half an inch makes.

A few weeks ago I noticed that Baby S's 12 month C@rter PJs did not have much room left lengthwise. As usual, it happened at a rather inconvenient time. Baby S fell asleep downstairs and I needed to change her. I tried to get them on quickly and then found it difficult to get her arm in. Weird, because she had room to grow. Baby S woke up but I was able to get them on and get her back to sleep. I thought maybe it was that I was in a hurry and forgot about it. The next night the same thing happened and I realized that her PJs were now a perfect fit. P got out the measuring tape and it appears that Baby S has grown half an inch since her check up in December. Please keep in mind that this is us measuring half a$$ at home with a very wiggly toddler. To us she looks the same, but then again, we see her every day.

Right around that time I started noticing certain things around the house. One in particular caught my attention, Baby S's sippy cups. Our girl loves to walk around holding her cups and like her Baba, she loves leaving things all over the place. I particularly dislike it when she leaves her sippy cups in her ball pit. You never know where she is going to leave (rather hide) that thing. Then when she must have a sip of whatever and does not remember where she left it all heck breaks loose. By now I have a pretty good idea where to look, because thankfully our place is small and she is predictable.

I like that she is predictable in her own messy way because P and I are the same way. We are terribly disorganized, but in a predictable manner. Heh. If I was the last person with the remote it can always be found under a pillow in my vicinity. Now days you can even find sippy cups under the sofa pillows and even under the pillows on my bed. I wish I could blame it on Baby S, say that it is a means to hide things from her. But I have been doing this for decades.

P tends to leave things between the sofa cushions or on the sofa. Look at the picture below.

This morning I found a phone, a remote and a binkie. You can usually also find sippy cups, Q-tips and the last thing he removed from Baby S's grubby little hands. But back to the sippy cups; I kept coming across this,

and it caught my attention. I never place her sippy cups on the stools and neither does P, as it is beyond Baby S's reach. It usually caught my eye as I was on my way to do something so I didn't think much about it. Maybe P found a new place to leave stuff. I picked up the sippy cup and placed it in its usual place, on the coffee table.

A few days ago I walked into Baby S's room and found this.


Baby S is a grabber and she cannot fathom being on the changing table without at least one toy. It usually is a tub toy that she grabs on her way to the dresser. We also keep a few toys on the dresser to keep her busy hands happy. However, the fish rings are not one of those toys.

Two days ago I was cuddling with Baby S on the glider after her nap. Once she was fully awake she climbed down from my lap and went straight to her toys, grabbed the heart shape piece from the shape sorter and walked over to the window sill. She got up on her tippy toes and triumphantly placed the object there. She then turned around and went back to her toys.

AHA! It was her placing the sippy cups on the stool after all. I guess half an inch is not that big of a deal to us grown ups, but when you are only 30 inches tall every bit counts. Baby S is drunk with the power her new found height is affording her. I like that she leaves a trail wherever she goes, in her own Hansel and Gretel way. Guess she won't become a master criminal, since she leaves incriminating evidence in her wake.

Here is our Yunnan Ham in action.