Turtle’s First Steps

Turtle took her first steps over the weekend. Last Friday night she let go of what she was hanging on to and moved forward two or three steps, flapping her hands wildly before tumbling to the ground. I don’t think she even realized what she was doing. Then on Sunday night, N and I sat a couple of feet apart, and I held her steady, then let go, while N had his arms outstretched to her. She took a few steps to him before falling into his arms, just like you see in the baby commercials. It was the first time he saw her walk, and it confirmed that I had not imagined those few steps I thought I saw on Friday night. Even though she hasn’t done it again, it is official - she has taken her first steps.

Turtle has had a lot of little developments over the past ten days that are probably adding up to dramatic development, but it’s hard for me to see the big picture. Every day I frantically scribble in my journal, trying to keep up with every new thing: Turtle abruptly stops playing to crawl to the nursery to retrieve Mr. Lovey (her Angel Dear yellow duckie) from her crib, then comes back into the living room dragging him along. Turtle points to everything, everything, and looks to you for an explanation. She gives you a book and points at it when she wants you to read to her. She points to her sippy cup when she’s ready for a drink. She “pets” the kittens in her kitty book. I put my necklace on her today (after she repeatedly pointed at it) and she crawled proudly around the living room, stopping every now and then to touch it and smile up at me.

Then there’s Monkey. She tries to snap her fingers when I snap and sing, and she will dance if she hears anything just slightly resembling music. She doesn’t seem as interested in interactive communication just yet though. She continues to sit alone in one spot for long periods of time, working the Velcro in her shoe (or whatever she’s focused on that half hour) over and over again, completely engaged, almost bothered if you try to talk to her about what she’s doing. She pushes dining room chairs, the Exersaucer, and high chairs across the room to practice walking. She is so methodical, so different from Turtle, it makes my head hurt trying to wrap my brain around the two very different humans developing simultaneously before my eyes. In some ways Turtle is like me: impatient, short attention span, determined to walk before she can stand steadily, eager for someone to show her everything now. Monkey is like N with her very methodic practice, preferring to learn on her own, in no hurry to walk unaided until she has completely mastered standing, bending, dancing, and pushing the chair across the room. I suspect she’ll just start walking one day and that will be that, where Turtle may start and stop, start and stop for awhile, too impatient to find out what’s in that picture on the wall to focus on keeping herself upright.

It really is just so fascinating I can hardly contain myself.