Thursday, November 3, 2011

New Thing #63: Baby steps!

Today started off with the usual mad rush to get everyone up, fed, dressed and out the door for another half-day at daycare. As I waved goodbye from the porch, I walked into the house and was greeted by...the silence of an empty house. I was recently asked by someone what I do when the LP aren't home. This was followed by "I bet you go back to bed and catch up on your sleep, right?"

Ummm...no. I do pour myself a large cup of coffee, take my laptop into bed with me and luxuriate in being able to watch the morning news without persistent requests to change it to Treehouse or Kid's CBC. I give myself an hour to do nothing besides surf the net and drink coffee. I try to talk myself into staying in bed but this little voice in my head starts nagging me to get up and BE PRODUCTIVE. "MAKE GOOD USE OF YOUR TIME!" it screams at me. "But I want to look at stupid websites and generally waste four hours," I whine back. "GET UP RIGHT THIS VERY SECOND OR I WILL MAKE SURE THAT 'COPACOBANA' IS STUCK IN YOUR HEAD FOR THE REST OF THE WEEK!" I guess it is not such a little voice after all, because invariably I get up. And for the rest of the morning, I whirl into action until it is time to go fetch the LP, doing all the things that are difficult to do when they are at home. The bathrooms get scrubbed, their clothes and bedding are laundered and the vacuum makes a wild run through the house. Sometimes I even wash the kitchen floor. I always run out of time and have just enough time to run through the shower like it is a sprinkler before throwing on whatever clothes look good enough to leave the house in so our daycare provider doesn't think I'm a total degenerate when I come to get the kids.

That is what happened today, anyway. One day I will do something luxurious, like go get my wild bird's nest of hair tamed into something civilized or start re-building my back-to-work wardrobe...like maybe next week. I picked the LP up and when we came home, it was kind of a mishmash of stuff that happened. One napped and one stayed up and then they switched it up. In a very uncharacteristic move, Daddy came home from work early, not feeling well and became one with the couch. We didn't really do a New Thing today...but something ABSOLUTELY AMAZING happened!

LP2 STARTED WALKING! ALL BY HIMSELF!

It was so incredibly wonderful and fantastic! LP1 was napping and LP2 and I were hanging out together in the living room, checking out the flyers. He suddenly stood up and took six steps across the room before grabbing onto the couch. My heart started racing with excitement and I started cheering and clapping. His face split into a giant grin as he turned around and walked back to me! I gave him a smushing hug before setting him down on the floor...and off he went again! OH HOLY COW! It is hard to say who was more proud...me or him. He came back over to me, sat on my lap and started bouncing up and down, laughing and babbling. 

I don't care what anyone else may say - I am convinced that babies understand so much more than we ever give them credit for. They are proud of themselves when they achieve something they have been trying to do for so long. I see it all the time lately with LP2 and I think it is so cool. He gets a certain look on his face when we can understand something he is communicating. And today? It was so obvious that he was so very happy. We called Daddy right away to share the news. As soon as I heard his car pull into the driveway, I put LP2 down on the floor. When Daddy opened the door, LP2 chirped "DADA!" and started walking towards him. I met Daddy's eyes across the room. It was one of those parenting moments when we were both marveling not just at what our son had done but at the fact that we had made him. I know that Daddy's heart was just as full as mine was.

When LP1 got up from her nap, we showed her what her little brother was up to. She did a little jig of joy for him. We spent the remainder of the afternoon playing together and watching LP2 continue to work on walking. He stumbled every now and then and when he really wanted to get somewhere, stuck with crawling. We cheered him on throughout the rest of the day.

Life never fails to astound and surprise me. Two cells come together to create life and in 40 weeks (or 40 weeks and 3 days in the case of LP2, or 41 weeks and 2 days in the case of LP1), a human being is formed. In the first year that tiny little human is here, they learn to smile and roll over, to sit on their own, to eat and say words and crawl and walk. They grow hair and get teeth. A personality emerges. And when that tiny little human is YOUR tiny little human? Well...I don't have the words. Your heart gets bigger. You feel intense pride at all the achievements, big and small. You can't wait to see what happens next.

Today belonged to LP2. He was our New Thing. I think it was our best one yet.


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