Using a cup.

Mira's started using a big girl cup! No top, no sippy spout, no straw, just a plain plastic cup!

Apparently, Brian had been letting her practice in the bathtub. I know what you're thinking, and, no, he wasn't letting her drink bath water. In the tub, she would get thirsty, so Brian would let her drink some fresh tap water from a plastic cup. He said that eventually she got so good at it that he let her try it one morning at breakfast. I was shocked! No spilling, no dribbling, she just drank. Like a miniature adult.

It's funny how much her development just astounds me. I worked for 4 years as a private nanny, watching kids as young as newborns, and my little sister is 12 years younger than me, so I helped a bit with her when she was a baby. So you could say I'm going into this whole parenting thing with a good bit more experience than most new parents. But still, I get so surprised by her! It's wonderful how each new development has my jaw on the floor. Even when I know it's coming, like when she was learning to crawl and she worked on it for months before actually doing it, but then still the first time she took off on all fours I was so surprised. And it's not just Mira that surprises me either. The other children in her playgroups are growing just as fast as she is and it is just as astounding to me. One week, we'll meet up and one of her friends is not walking yet, and then the next week they're practically running across the room. Then again, it's so hard for me to believe that she's a year old today; it seems like the time has just flown by; it can't have been more than a few months, right? Maybe that's why it feels like she's developing so fast: my perspective is out of whack.