I have a picture on our desktop of Piper when she was tiny - maybe 8 months old. She's sitting in a bouncy seat and blowing raspberries. She looks at something off to the side of the photographer.

I've spent the weekend in a kind of maudlin state - wondering where that baby went. My little girl is so much fun. Her spunk, humor and imagination have really emerged. Just the other day her dad was trying to convince her to get dressed for an outing. Dh, "Let's get dressed so we can go to the park and the grocery store. If you don't get dressed we can't go to the park." (Piper runs away.) Dh, "Okaaay. No park." Piper: "Okaaay. No grocery store."

She makes up games as only a small child can. "Ice skater" has been a favorite for a while. She asks for classical music to be turned on. She wants her hair pulled back into a single pony tail. Then she spins, jumps and wipes her feet on the floor. Periodically she'll balance with one hand on a chair and raise a leg into the air doing "leg lifting". She models herself on her favorite ice skaters and proclaims that she is "lellow Sasha Cohen" or "red Michelle Kwan", always referring to the color of costume the skaters are wearing in the youtube videos she loves. Then she'll stop, raise her arms over her head and demand applause.

Outside she likes to play "playgroup". "It's time for me to go home now Mommy. You say, 'Thanks for coming. I had a good time.' Then you come and pick me up." She'll run to the back yard. After a few moments, I'm supposed to run to the back to pick  her up to go to my house (the front porch) again for playgroup where the skit repeats.

I love all these new things, but there is an edge of sadness to it for me as well. She is my last little baby. As she grows, that chapter of my life will close. I know that new and wonderful things are just around the corner, but for now I am wistful.