Some first steps

In the last day or so, Sean has surprised us - and himself, though to a lesser extent - by taking a couple steps at what we think are a few different times. I know "first steps" implies a certain simplicity: he took a few steps? Yes. Had he taken any before? Well, then.

So perhaps this will sound silly. But in the last few weeks, Sean has been so comfortable cruising, that we've been thinking he might take his first steps (without support or leverage) at any time now, and we've had to remind ourselves that there are smaller stages for him than the ones we name. After all, it's not like we memorialized "first time he stood at wall and whacked it with both hands at the same time (thus marking progress from when he'd alternate the hands he whacked it with, so one always provided balance)" or "first time he took medium-sized wobbly step holding one hand" as distinct from "first time he took medium-sized wobbly step holding two hands." (Though, you may say, what else are the blog, facebook, and twitter for?)

And so this morning, I admitted to Merrie that I thought he might've taken a couple steps while we were in the kitchen; I'd been watching him stand at the arm of a chair next to the doorway, and a moment later, after I glanced in the kitchen (seriously, it was just a moment; it's not like I made cookie dough in the meantime) (hm, not a bad idea... I'll be right back.), I saw that he had somehow transported himself to the other side of the doorway. Normally, for him to traverse such a distance - greater than his wingspan - requires a quick analysis: "Can I reach that, holding on to something? No? Okay, time to fall on my butt, crawl to within arm's reach, and stand up with a hand on something for support."

Except I didn't think he'd done all that. He just seemed to suddenly be, well, just a couple feet away from where he'd just been standing, standing again and holding on to something else, and fairly calm about the whole thing, as if he'd just been wandering around like usual. Which, to some extent, he was; he's been very happy to wander around with his hands on walls, cabinets, doors, furniture, refrigerators, stereo/TV components, etc. - and so this is just part of his steady expansion of what's "usual" to go from "standing on his own" and "walking with hands on things" to "walking on his own, without hands on things."

Which is a small step in one sense... and a big step in another sense... and should make for quite a few small steps to come.