It's true. and we hadn't even been encouraging him. we just assumed that sometime around 1-year he'd just feel like giving it a shot. we were still getting used to his speed-demon crawling and all his funny attempts at talking. but all of a sudden, this weekend, he just decided it was time. he's got places to go and cute feet to take him there -- why wait?
His first 2 steps were at the house of Chris Wood, Kirk Weinert, and their daughter Vienne, who were generously helping us out this weekend by watching misch while we worked. I'd just run out to the car to grab something i'd forgotten... and when i returned Chris's eyes were wide open with excitement and she was holding Fozzy the dog back and saying "SHHH!" to me and pointing silently at the standing misch. Turned out he'd just stood himself up and started walking - one step, two. I proceeded to stare at him excitedly, showering him with praise and encouraging him to take more, but he just took two more little half steps (which were really more like catching your balance than actually going somewhere), then plopped down & quickly crawled away. I think the pressure was just too much.
This morning, however, he took two more steps, right in front of my very eyes. Real ones, steps with purpose. Since then he's done it half a dozen more times or so -- always just a couple steps at a time, but you can tell he's getting the hang of it. Too soon i think to call it actual "walking," but he's definitely on that path. Perhaps just in time for some election-day canvassing... or some trick-or-treating to bring Mom back the good candy -- it's been way too long.
No pictures of the step-stepping adventures yet, but i thought i'd post these two photos i'd never seen before -- our friend Deirdre took them a while back while she was watching mischa:
