And She's Off!

Well, it’s official. Sophia Grace is walking. At ten months she gave us a false start out of the gates by daring to take a few steps. She then decided she didn’t want us watching her practice and gave up all together for a while.

I thought maybe she’d be walking be her first birthday, but that was 3 weeks ago and she was still just cruising along the furniture comfortably. One day last week she gave it a go again. This time she was more determined. Natalie (our Mary Poppins) was there one day when she took a whopping 4 steps so there are in fact witnesses. Curiously, if I so much as made eye contact with her as she experimented with her new feet, she would immediately drop to the floor and let out a velociraptor like scream. She wouldn’t even try again until I picked her up and held her long enough for the memory to fade.

So, I have been ‘ignoring’ her quietly in the hopes she will get the idea. If the kids burst out “look Mom, Sophie’s walking!” I have coolly turned the other way and found the nearest mirror so I can sneak a backwards peek at her through the looking glass. She needed no help at all from me. She had an entire cheering squad in her siblings old and young alike:

"Go Sophie"
"You can do it Sophie!"
"Wanna hold my hand Sophie?"

Back in Catholic elementary school I belonged to a group called ‘the walkers’. It consisted of all the children who lived close enough to school to walk there (and home for lunch as well.) When releasing kids for dismissal they would always call for ‘the walkers’ first, it was a small but elite group I was proud to be part of.
“I don’t know what those other kids do, I am a walker.“

Sophie has joined the ranks. To me it’s not just about the day she took her first steps a few weeks ago. It’s about her decision to walk instead of crawl.The first choice in an avalanche of life long consequential choices. She decided one day this past week she actually preferred walking to crawling. She could still crawl if she’d like to, but she chooses to walk instead. Despite the obstacle course of shoes, toys, household debris, and other ‘little walkers’ knocking her over-
she stands
she wobbles
she walks
Last night she walked the length of the living room to get to her dad.How I love those first wobbly steps! Today, she has hardly crawled at all. I have watched this same show nine times before. It doesn’t get boring. What amazing creatures we men are.