Of Standing on His Own Two Feet

For awhile now, it has seemed Emmett has wanted to initiate a standing position in the middle of the room. I would catch him pulling up to his feet, but leaning forward on his hands, and then, suddenly remembering he doesn't know how to do that, he would often move on with his life.

Apparently, though, it was the wood floors that scared him (and who can blame a banana-skinned little boy like himself?), because tonight he found in the hallway the changing pad that has been waiting to join the garage sale pile (which the children actually commandeered yesterday as their rowboat, with Micaiah captain, of course) and decided the padding on that would work nicely for his standing practice.  And he went to town.

Multiple times, he would hike his little haunches up in the air, knees bent, and tentatively release his hands from the floor, reminding me of a little surfer catching his carpeted wave.  Occasionally he would make it to a full upright before toppling over, but mostly he lost his balance while still squatting.  But progress is progress and for each moment his hands were not making contact with his makeshift tumbling mat he earned a great deal of applause from his captive audience of Mommy and Daddy.  And he loved it.

Mommy is particularly excited because standing on his own is the final step before those big first steps.  And I (and this growing belly) cannot wait to have a walking boy in this house*!

*Please don't remind me of these words when he is running like a madman through this living room and I am begging for him to slow down so Mommy can just catch up.  That would just be rude.