A Time for Independence

Several weeks ago, John Michael started taking steps by himself. It's so scary, wonderful, and every other emotion you can think of. Thank goodness diapers are padded though, because that's the direction he falls almost every time. You know when you take a short deep breath whenever something startles you?  Well, I'm thinking that I probably take about 1200 of those a day now. It seems like every time I turn around, he's doing something that looks like it's about to end in disaster- but 99% of the time, it's fine. It's just that 1% of the time when he falls and hits his head on our hardwood floor, or the leg of the dining room table, or the side table, or the bookcase, or the...

I have to say though, it's such a cool thing to watch your child discover the world. The things that interest him are so funny to me. JM is really into hinges and wheels. He loves to study things to try and figure out how they work. Cabinets are by far the coolest things ever, along with doors. I could sit in a room with him while he opens and closes a door for hours. And anything that has wheels is super cool at this point. If it has wheels, he'll turn it upside down and study how it turns. We might have a little engineer on our hands, but at any rate, it brings me joy to watch him grow and discover this great new world around him. Granted, it's just our living room, or kitchen, or bedroom- but it's kind of fun getting down on his level and looking at things through his eyes.

Here's a little video I put together of John Michael's first attempts at walking (and then threw in some recent clips too since I'm so late getting this out). Enjoy!

You can also view it on Vimeo here.