STEPS!!!

So!  Something has been happening over the last few weeks.... the little guy has been taking some steps!

This is not of him taking steps but it's one of my fav. pictures of him lately so... yeah.  WATERMELON.

It's happened SO gradually.  There was no big These Are His First Steps moment.

His first "I can climb in a box!" moment.

With my daughter it was a clear line.  She decided to do it and went from this to running in two weeks.  Which exactly how she's done everything.  Reading?  One day she couldn't do it and the next day she could.  Because she decided to.  Matt got home from work that day and she literally told him "By the way I can read now."

With my middle child - the Dude - there was a "first steps" moment where he commanded the attention of a crowd.  Actually, just about everything the Dude does he does to command attention:

Guess which one is an extrovert?

But my Tiny*?  He's an overthinker.  He works it out.

So it's been incredibly gradual.  First a long reach.  Then a step between things.  Then two.  Then three.  He clearly makes a conscientious decision about if he's going to walk or crawl.  You can almost see him do the math on the situation.

"If the distance to the couch from this chair is X than the number of steps I need to take is Y. If Y exceeds 3 than crawl.  Except if the number of toys carrying exceeds 2 or if Mommy is there to catch me."

In the last couple of days his equation seems to have flipped.  Walking is preferable to crawling.  At least for short distances.  Matt was able to capture a couple of videos while I was at the park the other night with the big kids (meeting a new kindergarten classmate!  Yay!):


Yay walking!!!!

*Tiny is his newish nickname.  It has really stuck.  We all call him it.  It's funny because the opposite is true - he's our biggest kid.  He is literally only 6 pounds lighter than his brother and is kindof a bruiser.