he can walk!

we seriously thought it would never happen.  but doesn't every parent think that when their kid isn't doing something months before they're "supposed" to?

he started dabbling in the walking world thursday night.  sam & i were just hanging out in the living room & parker was crawling around up to his usual shenanigans.  he pulled himself up & was standing in the dining room holding on to a chair.  he was looking at us with this mischievous grin & i swear to you i said to sam, "he totally looks like he's just gonna let go & walk off."

and then he did.  

he took six or seven steps towards us, laughing the whole way, & then stumbled & fell.  he thought it was hilarious!  he was so proud of himself & tried to do it a few more times before he got sick of it.  we didn't push it & i had kinda forgotten about it come friday.  

we ran errands all friday morning, came home, had lunch, parker took his nap... walking wasn't even on our radar.  then, after his nap we were playing in the living room when he pulled himself up by the coffee table & just took off.  he was walking around the room like he'd been doing it his whole life!  although he was laughing so hard about it that it was hard for him to keep his balance.  he'd fall over & try to get up, & fall over again laughing the whole time.  

by the time sam got home from work, he was turning corners & going from room to room.  here's some video of some of his very first real steps.

{oh yeah, i PROMISE i don't say "oooooh, you SUCK"  at the end of this video!!  i said "oooh you stopped!"  because he could have kept going & he didn't.  although, i've watched this video 1,000x & every time it sounds like "you suck".  ugh, i suppose some editing is in order. }

anywho, here are parker's first steps...

look how proud of himself he is!  i love it.  

so yup.  he's been a walking machine all weekend.  he's pretty sturdy on his feet & has been walking on grass, over dirt, around corners, & from room to room.  he stoops down to pick things up & keeps going.  he still has to pull himself up by something before he takes off & when he needs to get somewhere real quick he will resort to crawling. 

but i think it's pretty safe to say i am the mother of a toddler.  

where did my baby go??

how about a couple clicks for walking babies?  heck yes!