Tidbits from the life of B: And then she walked! (Plus other updates and a bunch of pictures)

Years from now when my daughter asks me, "When did I start walking?"
I will tell her, "November 10, 2012."

We went to visit my parents last week at their new house (it was Nate's first time up there). As soon as we stepped in the door and I set Baby Girl down so that I could take off my shoes... and she toddled away from me, across the room.

Up to that point in time, my daughter's walking was pretty limited. She'd use furniture and other objects to help herself stand and walk, and she would sometimes take two or three steps on her own. One time I even saw her take about six unassisted steps. But mostly, she wasn't interested.

Not until the magic of Grandma's House intervened. A magic spell was cast when we walked in the door, and now my daughter is walking. She still crawls a bit, especially if she falls down while walking, but for the most part she is just toddling around as though it were the most normal thing ever.

I LOVE IT.

A lot of people tried to tell me that walking wasn't going to be much fun. They said she would get into everything and run away all the time, and that she would be too fast. I think these people must not have waited for seventeen months to see their children walk. To date, of all the things my daughter has learned to do, this is my very most favorite. It is amazing and adorable! I don't miss crawling. She's too big and too old to crawl, and created plenty of its own worries and nuisances. Bring on the walking! Heck, bring on the running!!! I love new adventures and challenges.

The next day, on Sunday, our very good friends who live an hour south (in our college town) came to visit. You might remember them from previous blog posts -- Nathan and Kimmy, whose son "Little" is nearly the same age as our daughter. We made them dinner and Kimmy took some pictures of me making my beloved new treat, pumpkin cremes! Kimmy has a food blog and wanted me to write a guest post. I was/am totally flattered! But since I'm not a great photographer, I convinced her to come and take the pictures. You can check out the post, pictures, and recipe on the Bake Shop's blog, www.kimmysbakeshop.com (here's the direct link).

Monday was a day off work (Vet's Day, belated) so we were all home and having fun. We went to see Nate's dad and then worked a bit on the chicken coop. (More on the coop in a minute.) I finally finished my edits to Queen Witch, J.R. Pearse Nelson's latest work. I sent them along and final revisions are underway. I am grateful and pleased to have participated in the writing process for such an inspiring, self-published author! The new book should be out by the end of the month. Do you want a copy? I'm going to order some extra prints to give away; just let me know.

There's a job opening at work that has me very excited. It's for the Senior Analyst position, which is one step up in pay and about five steps up in awesome from my current job. The position came open two years ago and I very much wanted to apply, but after many long deliberations, I decided the timing wasn't right. For one thing, I was four months pregnant with daughter so I knew I would be out of the office (parental leave) during a critical workload period. In the end I applied for a promotion to my current position, and I am very happy about the route I took. I've gained great experience in my job, and developed leadership skills that will be invaluable if I'm promoted again. It also gave me time to better understand and appreciate the workload of the Senior Analyst.

Now, I don't know whether I will be the top candidate. I'm a strong contender, but several smart, capable people are applying. I do know now that I am very seriously interested in the job, and I feel ready to tackle it, should things go well. The whole process will take a couple of months, so for now... stay tuned!

Today was a pretty normal Saturday. We ran a few errands and got a few things done around the house. I finally got most of the wiring set up for the chicken coop, so that we can have a light out there to keep them warm this winter. There's a covered patio out back with several lights and outlets -- too many, in fact. So I axed the last two routes on the line, hijacking them instead for the coop. I installed a light switch, and then ran wires through conduit out to the coop. (In the rain. And mud. And cold. The conditions were ugly and shoving the wire through long plastic tubing required more muscle than you would think, but when I was done and got to head inside to take a nap with the baby... total satisfaction.)

The thing is, I'm going to have to redo a bunch of work. The switch box is too small to comfortably hold all the wires, and the box doesn't mount securely. So I got a different box after nap time, and I will have to spend another hour out there sometime soon so I can swap out the switch and boxes. It's okay, it will be worthwhile in the end.

As if that wasn't enough stuff, I also tried a new bread recipe today. The goal was a bread with lots of seeds. It has five kinds... but... it's hard to explain. The bread didn't have a big rise, so it's dense (not bad, just not great); the flavor is a bit... bitter? Some of the seeds have a great flavor, but others are kinda sour/bitter. So maybe more sugar/honey/agave next time? We'll see. I'm not going to make bread for a couple of weeks; too much is going on.

This week is Thanksgiving! Nate's parents are coming over for "dinner" at noon on the big day. We are making most of the goodies. I'm actually excited. I didn't think I would be -- who wants to go through all of that effort? -- but then we went grocery shopping today, and I got yams and potatoes and green beans and pumpkin puree and a turkey... and now, I'm feeling festive! I love Thanksgiving. If only it didn't have to be followed by the madness and annoyance of the Christmas season. (Bah humbug, I despise the holiday commercialism, masses of people everywhere, and stress. Can't I please just skip Christmas this year?)

Since I don't want to end on that Scrooge-like note, here are a ton of cute pictures from the last three months:

Set A) Climbing, crawling, exploring: She'll get into everything. It use to be "Where did we put the baby?" but now it's, "Where did the baby put herself?"