My baby is walking!

None of my children has walked before the age of one. Most have decided the 2 legged approach to life had its advantages some time between 13 and 16 months. Being the inherently lazy mom that I am, I have not hurried or worried them in this pursuit. Once babies are walking, they get into so much more trouble, but more importantly, their baby days become so much more visibly numbered.

So, it was no great surprise to me that M's first birthday came and went without her seeing the merits of walking on her own. When CE was her age, we lived in Virginia and when she was around 13 months, we came to Vegas to visit DH's parents where CE began walking and Grammie went with us to pick out the first new walking shoes.
Now we are living in Vegas, near DH's parents so it seems appropriate that while we were visiting my parents in Virginia that M decided to begin walking and Grandma T came with us to pick out her new walking shoes.

For M, I think the deciding factor in whether walking was a good idea centered on carrying capacity. The look on her face these days as she repeatedly carries a toy in each hand is priceless, as if to say "see Mom, all the cool things I can carry around now that I'm walking instead of crawling!"

Each baby is different in how they walk. For CE, she was so excited to be walking that for a while after figuring out the mechanics, she would walk with her hands in the air, like she was on her own personal roller coaster (scanner is broken, or I would share pix). M's thing seems to be the way in which she gets up in the first place, getting to her feet in a deep catcher's mound sort of squat first and then slowly rising from this most uncertain of toddler pliés. Perhaps this bodes well for a graceful future for Miss M. It entertains her mamma at the very least.

I don't want to freeze my children in time, refusing to let them grow and progress (not to mention that it isn't even possible). But there are certain milestones that just seem to propel them light years forward in their development as autonomous beings. Walking is definitely one of them. M is so much more a little girl and less a baby with each step. It's kind of disturbing. Baptism is another of these grand steps into maturity. Z will turn 8 this fall and he brings this to our attention roughly once a week. He is so excited to be baptized. I am so proud of him for wanting to make these grown up steps, to have his own covenant relationship with the Lord. But 8 is such a slippery slope! I know that I will blink and he will be 12 and passing the sacrament and then shaving and then leaving on a mission. In much the same way, CE will be 10 on Sunday and I know that I will blink and she will be driving and choosing colleges. And yet, in my heart of hearts she is not far from the little slip of a baby girl for whom walking was the most exciting roller coaster she could imagine.

I guess the trick of this part of motherhood is to not let my wistfulness overtake my(or their) joy. In that, I have to be sufficiently proactive in my teaching moments so that my wistfulness doesn't slide into regret. These young motherhood moments are brief, I know, despite how long the eternity until "naptime" feels the day after a sleep deprived night. I am so grateful that whatever craziness my life entails, I am blessed to be home to witness so many of the moments.