Some news and the conversation of the day.

We are currently in Dallas.  Tomorrow morning the movers will bring our stuff to our house and unpack (but not put away) all of our stuff.  My plan is to get everything out of boxes and put everything away that fits, and get rid of the rest.  We have had stuff in boxes at my Mom's for a year and a half, so I don't even remember what I own.  Or if I still want to own it.  Anyhow, tonight is our last night of transiency.  We drove up to Dallas early early this morning to go to church in our new ward, mostly because we had to stay the night anyway to be here early enough to meet the movers, so we may as well make a day of it.

So we're chillin' in our La Quinta tonight.  Ella discovered the cups and was playing a game with them.

Jess: She has water in that cup.  Did you give her water?
Paul: No.  Ella, where did you get water for your cup?
Ella:  The toilet.
Jess: She's stirring it with our toothbrush.  Don't use the green one anymore.

More exciting news (not related to us having to purchase new toothbrushes):

Charlotte took her first real steps today.  Yep, right here at the La Quinta.  She has been doing single steps in between pieces of furniture or people.  But this afternoon she was getting four and five steps in a row consistently.  Shaky, slow, small steps.  But all by herself.

This is almost as fun as all of the animal noises she has started making.  Her favorite is a dog, but I enjoy her bear impressions more.  She likes to randomly roar at people.  It happened, like, four times at church today.  I shouldn't be surprised, because we roar at her all the time.  She will also meow, but she doesn't have the name association down, yet.  It is just a imitation of our meows. (She does correctly respond to "What does a bear/dog say?")  She is so outgoing.  She is sure everyone she sees is her friend, and she crawled up to at least two different strangers at church today and tried to climb on their laps.  They happily obliged.  Everybody likes to hold happy babies.

When Ella was this age strangers would wave at her and talk to her and it would take her at least sixty to ninety seconds to decide that she would smile and wave back.  I would tell people she is "slow-to-warm".  She is still that way to some extent, which is fine.  We like her the way she is.  Luckily, when she does 'warm', she is darling; well worth the wait.