Climbing and Baptizing

Our sweet niece, Madeleine, was baptized this weekend, so we all headed to Columbia for the big event. What a big girl she is now; and we're blessed to have her not only in our family, but in the family of God. She taught Shepard how to climb steps--!! I arrived to find him about four up--and stood behind him the rest of the way. He climbed about 15 steps completely on his own. I didn't know he could do that. I'm pretty sure he didn't know either as we haven't really encountered steps yet. So...when we visit Nana and Pops later this month, we'll definitely be taking that baby gate!
In other news of climbing, just this morning he was in the bathroom with me while I tried to do something with my not-quite-short and not-quite-long hair to beat the summer heat. He was banging the plastic hair-rinsing pitcher against the side of the empty tub. No problem. I looked away for about 10 seconds to secure a bobby pin and saw his little tush in the air followed by feet. He sat up inside the tub looking quite pleased with himself. So...he can get into an empty bathtub too. We usually keep that closed off in any case, but I think I've got a climber on my hands.

Snuggles with Uncle Justin



Madeleine called out from the kitchen, "Aunt Shelley, I think you need to come in here and take a picture of this!"
She knows a good photo op when she sees one!

 Aunt Jessica (who clearly rules--see onesie for clarification) took some great pics of Shepard with his Uncle Justin and cousin Madeleine. Shepard had a blast walking all around their house and trying to make friends with Max the dog (Max was not really interested in having a new friend, by the by). Other than an unfortunate incident with a marker, it was super-fun to be with the whole family and celebrate.