Walky Walkerson

Sniff-sniff. The end of an era. My prideful Mama side makes way to a sad Mommy who knows her little baby is growin' up.

Just after his 10-month mark, little Baby Gabe decided to put on his walking feet. Remember how you were with your first one? You practiced things. You gave opportunities. You took tons of pictures. Then #2 comes along & you feel like you barely have time to be sure the neck cheese is washed off every night. And all of a sudden, all these milestones & phases are flying by.... like you're on a bus & you're yelling for the driver to slow down, but he doesn't. You look out your window & things are going by so fast that it seems blurry.

Gabe does things before I even know to look for them. Sure, I know all the developmental stuff, but my baby's growing up.

He's been standing alone for a while now. And holds onto things & lifts his leg (particularly during the Wiggles marching... don't tell Daddy I added that part). So last weekend I thought, "Hmm, maybe I should see what he does when I put him up into the walker stance."

I kid you not, he walked. Just like that. First opportunity & he took it.

And he hasn't stopped. Today he tripped over Daddy's leg & just kept going 'til he crashed onto Daddy's chest.

I saw somewhat of a cheesy movie around the holidays. In this movie, the girl character (I think played by Kirstin Dunst), kept taking her hands, making them square like a camera, holding them up to her eyes & making a clicky-flash noise with her mouth. As if she were taking pictures with an "air camera" (as opposed to an air guitar). The point she was making was that she was taking a mental picture. Snap-shotting that given moment in time.

Gosh, I wish I could do that. And I'd be taking them all day long. Like tonight when Flynn tried to put a diaper on her doll, then asked me to help (because the diaper was like 16 times bigger than the doll). Or when Jeff made her shampoo-y hair into a horn. Or when Gabe finally found his binky & sucked it like an old friends' reunion. Or when Flynn asked me to tell her a story about an elephant.

I've always had the sharpest memory. Jeff hates that about me sometimes... he can never correct me on recall.

My prayer is that I always have that memory. That I'll always remember these times.