IKEA, Here We Come

We're up to five steps now walking. It's too cute to watch. She loves to walk from mommy to daddy and back, but now she's also standing from a sitting position and racing to one of us. Sometimes she catches us off guard because we weren't watching her at that moment. Then out of the corner of your eye, you see this pint-sized dynamo staggering at an amazing speed straight for you. She grabs on, looks up and gives the biggest "I'm a big girl" grin you can imagine.

All this walking makes her bones weary, so now she's decided she likes to sit. She likes to sit like everyone else with her knees bent and her feet touching the floor. Who wants to sit with their legs stuck straight out all the time. A small table and chair set is on our list, but we hadn't rushed out to buy one yet. I think we have to now because she's claimed this as her chair.

It is kind of handy. She pushes it to where she wants to sit and then has a seat. She's tried sitting on the upper step, but it's a little too high for her, and she fell off. The bottom seat is perfect. This was a gift from my sister, Kati. Sera loves to pull the blocks out. The blocks in the lower step are rubber. In the top step, half are wooden and half are fabric. Two of the fabric ones have a mirror on them. Sera recognizes which two they are as they're her favorite. I'm impressed because each side of the fabric blocks has a different pattern.

Yesterday, we went to a 2nd birthday party for Lilly. Lilly came home about a year before Sera and is part of our weekly play group. Her older brother is just 2 1/2, so their mom has her hands full. It was a very nice party with lots of friends, food, and fun. Sera and I only knew one other family there, so it was nice to meet some new people. The weather was perfect, in the 70's and just slightly cloudy. Since scattered thunderstorms had been predicted, this was a nice surprise.

This family has an amazing backyard with the best swingset. It has two slides and a tire swing underneath the treehouse-like top. I want to be six again! There was also a sandbox, tons of riding toys, and some lawn toys. The kids had a blast. Sera stuck pretty close to me. She's not big on swings, but does like the slide. For the most part, she enjoys walking around me. The other family that we knew there has a Lilly, too. She's just five months older than Sera. It was amazing to see her running around and playing. She stuck close to mom and dad at first. When she warmed up though, it was off to the races. She would take off and play. She'd stop and look to see her mom and dad and go back to playing. It's hard to imagine Sera running off and playing, but I know it will happen soon.

If we'd had any doubt about Sera liking a table and chair in her size, just take a look at how she loved this table set.