growing up fast

Sloane is TOO much. I have been SO attachment parenting good about holding her for 95% of her day and her life and she's been in a sling and I keep thinking 'at least she won't learn to crawl or walk because she never gets any practice nor has any reason to. Alas, she has been scooting in a not-true-crawl for some time now and then, out of no where, she suddenly can truck across a room in a proper crawl AND use her walker (any child-size chair will do in a pinch) to walk about the house. When she plods around it's as if she's stomping all over my feelings with no regard for my wishes that she remain a babe-in-arms for at least another year! Humph!
So, it's baby gates and constantly pulling her out of the kitchen cabinets, she stands and the armoire and takes out all her toys, she's pulling the books off the shelves...ugh. Yesterday marked a milestone: she knocked down the block castle Billie was working on. I know it's generally thought that babies impact the older sibling (how much can they impact when all they do is sleep and nurse for 3 months?) but up until this point she's just been there for them to cuddle and sing when the feeling takes them. Most of the time they are totally involved in their games or have their nose in a book and Sloane is just along for the ride- she's on their schedule, going in the sling or the backpack to their playgrounds. But now she's knocking down their castle...soon the grabbing will begin...and i think i've got to get ready for a whole new dynamic.
boxes of choclate do make me feel better- and i enjoy carrot cake a great deal.
and letterboxing is the coolest new thing ever. some random people hide a tupperware that contains a stamp, stamppad and a small notebook in the forest, along a trail. Then they post some cryptic directions on the internet (12 paces East of the quadruple tree) and we go round filling up our own little notebook with all the stamps we find. I've whittled a Solley5 stamp from an eraser and we've found 2 out of 3 on our first excursion (spotted one black snake as well)! We're addicted- it's a nice day of hiking for Bill and I (and Sloane gets a nap in the backpack) and the kids are motivated to keep walking through the woods in search of a treasure at the end of the clues.
More to write about unschoolers and meeting their free-spirited Moms and cape-clad children in the next post.