Today is full of horrible news coming from Boston. Two bombs went off near the finish line of the 117th Boston Marathon. So far there have been three deaths and over one hundred people injured - many horribly. One of your Dad's colleagues ran in the marathon today. Thank goodness he and his wife were not among the injured. I write this here only to remind you and myself that every step we take is a risk. From the first step you take as a toddler to the step you take to cross a street to a step onto a plane to your last push in that marathon. Death is a part of life - but I hate that I keep having to ask, "why would someone do this?!" Is it my imagination, or is our world just getting more and more violent? Or am I just paying more attention because I'm in protective mother mode? I do worry that we brought you into a world that might not treat you right, Socha. I fervently hope that you will inherit a better world than what you were born into. I hope that the adults of this day and age don't ruin the world you will live in as an adult. We will do our best to keep this world a safe place for you to live and thrive.
Meanwhile, on a more positive note, you are WALKING! You had been taking steps since around Valentine's day, but then you got distracted by stairs - climbing up and down stairs - forget about walking, stairs were much more fun! But when your Nana came to visit on your first birthday, you finally decided that maybe it would be easier to move around with your new stuffed animals in your hands if you just picked yourself up and started walking. So, that's what you did. And now you are moving all over the place. We've even gotten some shoes on you so you can walk outside. You love walking outside - but never in the direction we want to go. So our trips to and from the dining hall take a bit more time than they used to. You still want to go down and climb up stairs, but walking to get to the stairs gets you there faster than crawling these days.
And you're so fearless! I cringe every time you fall down on the sidewalk, but you just pick yourself up and get going again. You pick up anything that looks interesting - and sometimes try to put it in your mouth. One day you had chewed on enough dirt to have muddy drool coming out of your mouth. Your clothes are getting filthy as are your hands and face. You LOVE the slide and are learning to like the swing. I'm sure if your Dad got you out on the swing you would LOVE it too - because he would certainly swing you higher than I will. I'm convinced that you're going to be an extreme sport athlete, doing all sorts of dangerous and exciting things that will make me panic every time you go out. I guess that's justice since I did gymnastics and rock climbed and mountain biked - your poor Nana never told me how worried she was about me, but now I know how she must have felt. And you're not even out of diapers yet!
It has been a lot of fun watching you learn to walk. Your Dad mentioned tonight that he expected many of these milestones to be sudden, but we're seeing long transitions in you. From sitting to crawling to walking. From cooing to shrieking with delight to saying "Hi!" (which we think we can mark as your first word). We hear you talking to yourself in your baby language and can't wait to hear more words come out of your mouth. Of course, I'm hoping the next word is "Mama". You're so close...
Here's a clip of your first attempt at walking away from the dining hall - you got half way to the road and turned back around to get back to the steps at the dining hall. This will probably be fairly boring for anyone but your parents, but I link to it here for posterity.
Also, I forgot to mention that you are now 1 year old! Here is the 12th month photo album (that I should have posted a long time ago - I get to post your 13th month in about a week!).
Meanwhile, on a more positive note, you are WALKING! You had been taking steps since around Valentine's day, but then you got distracted by stairs - climbing up and down stairs - forget about walking, stairs were much more fun! But when your Nana came to visit on your first birthday, you finally decided that maybe it would be easier to move around with your new stuffed animals in your hands if you just picked yourself up and started walking. So, that's what you did. And now you are moving all over the place. We've even gotten some shoes on you so you can walk outside. You love walking outside - but never in the direction we want to go. So our trips to and from the dining hall take a bit more time than they used to. You still want to go down and climb up stairs, but walking to get to the stairs gets you there faster than crawling these days.
And you're so fearless! I cringe every time you fall down on the sidewalk, but you just pick yourself up and get going again. You pick up anything that looks interesting - and sometimes try to put it in your mouth. One day you had chewed on enough dirt to have muddy drool coming out of your mouth. Your clothes are getting filthy as are your hands and face. You LOVE the slide and are learning to like the swing. I'm sure if your Dad got you out on the swing you would LOVE it too - because he would certainly swing you higher than I will. I'm convinced that you're going to be an extreme sport athlete, doing all sorts of dangerous and exciting things that will make me panic every time you go out. I guess that's justice since I did gymnastics and rock climbed and mountain biked - your poor Nana never told me how worried she was about me, but now I know how she must have felt. And you're not even out of diapers yet!
It has been a lot of fun watching you learn to walk. Your Dad mentioned tonight that he expected many of these milestones to be sudden, but we're seeing long transitions in you. From sitting to crawling to walking. From cooing to shrieking with delight to saying "Hi!" (which we think we can mark as your first word). We hear you talking to yourself in your baby language and can't wait to hear more words come out of your mouth. Of course, I'm hoping the next word is "Mama". You're so close...
Here's a clip of your first attempt at walking away from the dining hall - you got half way to the road and turned back around to get back to the steps at the dining hall. This will probably be fairly boring for anyone but your parents, but I link to it here for posterity.
Also, I forgot to mention that you are now 1 year old! Here is the 12th month photo album (that I should have posted a long time ago - I get to post your 13th month in about a week!).
