Charlotte has just sprouted all sorts of new abilities.  It started after Thanksgiving dinner when she decided she’d like to give crawling a try.  It took her about 2 weeks to start getting the hang of it and made really excellent progress… going from an army crawl to learning to mix in a bit of getting up on her knees, to full hands-and-knees power crawling.

But she didn’t think that was enough.  No, she decided she had best tackle the stairs.

I was checking in while on the road and at 11:30 am Beth reported she had started eying up the stairs.  At 1:30 pm she had taken a crack at them and had tons of encouragement from her big sister.  By 3:30 pm she was going up the stairs flawlessly.

Two days later she started going down them.  Now she is fully mobile in the house and just loving it!

But why stop there?… let’s explore this whole world of going vertical.  This last week she has decided to try pulling herself up.  And now Beth is greeted by a standing [crying] child at 1 in the morning (sometimes the crying is preceded by a loud thumb as she loses her balance).

She is now crawling to her destination, pulling herself up, and reaching for whatever catches her eye.

So in a month she learned to crawl, pull herself up, and is starting to cruise.  Wow!

Oh yeah, and she is now into eating solids – the more the better =)

And the difference in her personality has been stunning.  She is SOOOO much more happy now that she has mobility.  Way more smiles and giggles (and this hilarious snorting that she does when she is especially happy).  And Morgan loves showing her little sister how to do things (read: get into things she shouldn’t be getting in to).

Morgan has turned into a little kid right before our eyes.  Morgan has grown 2 inches in the last 5 months and is now in the 95th percentile for height (yikes!).  She got her first haircut and the transformation to kidhood has been amazing.  Her vocabulary is starting to really expand (and oddly, her sign language continues to increase as well) and she is so interested in everything her mom does.  She’s a little girl that loves clothes, and dress-up, and baking, and eating the baking, and playing, and running (constantly).

As we start to teach Charlotte sign language, Morgan joins in and shows her little sister her own take on how the signs are done… so we’ve started doing MSL (Morgan Sign Language).

This year we were able to enjoy Halloween (as you may recall, last year we spent it in emergency with Scarlett Fever and Strep Throat).  Morgan went as a puppy and Charlotte as a Kitty.  They were both wonderfully behaved and Morgan signed Thank You to everyone that gave her a treat.  Very sweet kids.

Morgan has been up to alot of things since we last posted.

We went out over to her Great-Grandma’s for a nice visit and then out to lunch at Daphne’s.  It was the first time that Morgan sat in a high chair!  It was very exciting for all of us, and Mommy even got a chance to eat her lunch while it was hot!!

Unfortunately we have all been sick here.  We’ve been trying to take it pretty easy but we have managed to go out for a few family walks.  Morgan is generally very serious on our walks, which is the total opposite of how she normally is.

On the 20th we finally got a high chair.  It has been wonderful.  Morgan seems to really like it.  She has really taken to feeding herself.  This morning for breakfast she made the decision that it was to be only finger food.  No more of being fed ceral by Mommy!  She really seems to be getting the hang of it.

Morgan has also been learning how to stand.  Not on her own just yet, but she is constantly trying to get to her feet.  She has even done a little bit of standing holding on to furniture.  It’s all very exciting!

Check out the pictures here.