Look what I can do

Here's is one of our gal's new tricks caught on video. She can climb all the way up the stairs starting at the bottom stair. She gets a little winded after a couple of times but we think it's great exercise for her and she seems to enjoy it. Of course somebody has always got to be behind her to ensure she doesn't have an accident. She just scoots right on up.

Her walking is going great. We used to count the number of steps she took but now it seems like a waste of time since she just stands and goes. We have to keep track of her especially closely now - she is like a little ninja - very quiet and often times you look up and she has escaped out the baby gate and is rushing towards something she shouldn't be into and you never knew it. She is fascinated with our water cooler and can open the cold water spigot. We now have that appliance barricaded since neither Momma or I want to swab up 5 gallons of water off the deck.

It is so very hard to believe Momoka is almost one year old. I know it sounds so cliche but it really does seem like yesterday when Misao and I were boarding the flight at Dulles to go to meet Momoka for the first time. So much has happened in the last year and all of it has been good.

Today Momoka and I went for a walk to the park not far from our house. Momoka walked around the playground and watched all the kids playing, running and making the happy noises children make. I thought to myself that she will be there running around, bouncing from place to place in the blink of an eye - she is growing up way too fast.