This one's for you: Our littlest Little one

So my youngest kid, recently cut a real birthday cake- one that was deserved after completing one successful year, as opposed to those 'fraudulent' monthly cakes she got to 'cut' on some monthly milestones, in her first year of life. V junior---- (the older sis being V senior) as we call her when referring to her with dignity, is now a year plus and has started showing signs of that graduation from rear-facing to front-facing car seat. She 'gabbles' a lot, only wants to spend time in big sister's room, with or without company, going through her tiaras and bags and wands and all, and often refuses pureed foods. And yes, most importantly, she is beginning to attempt independent walking! And that is what tugs at my heart. For the last couple of months, our lives have been filled up with this crawler, who while doing the rounds of the house, manages to spot the lowliest and tiniest of spots and specks on the floor.  With her face typically positioned parallel to the ground while crawling, and her long black hair tied up in a 'fountainous' pony tail or two, she is totally someone unlike the other three residents of the house. She is a 'creature' and an adorable one at that.


In fact the other day when we were at some dog-owning family's house, the pomeranian puppy and our baby were almost interchangeable---both in white ---white fur coat matched with white cotton frock, both were hastening towards the same set of cheerios on the floor and both spent half their time on someone's lap being superly hugged and being mollycoddled. And now,  here we are. Littlest one is standing up, taking steps, rarely falling, ready to speed off to explore the world. I will miss the quadruped phase. Yes of course, it's time to buy another diva's pair of shoes----no easy job there.