Crushing her previously held record of four stairs, Della crawled all the way to the second floor this morning. Distracted by the handrail, she suffered a setback at stair 7, sliding backwards one stair. But she quickly regained her confidence and resumed her climb, releasing a cry of anguish around stair 9 or 10. When she mounted the 13th and final stair, my cheers and applause seemed to startle her; she was so “in the zone,” she had forgotten the world around her. Finally reality settled in and she realized all that she had accomplished. Eager to share her success, she grabbed her rubber ducky, perched him high on top of the toilet seat, and clapped for him.

Later, to prove this wasn’t a fluke performance, Della did it all over again. Later still, I found her pulled to standing on her toy train, which is here camouflaged by a changing mat. All this excitement called for an early nap. It’s been a big day for little D…and it isn’t even 9 am.