Almost Almost-Walking

Y'all aren't sick of hearing about Charlotte this week yet are you? Good. Because I seriously can't quit her these days. Speaking of things that are delightful.

So. About a month ago, she started doing this:

It is cute and sweet and got us all excited that her first steps were imminent. Ummmm...... yeah, no. She's still doing exactly this.

(But now with a cuteness bonus, sometimes it's Nathan holding one hand and Anneliese holding the other, although I swear the three of them are conspiring against my ability to capture it on camera.)

We think those first steps are close, though. Last week she started doing that thing where she lets go of furniture and stands unassisted, until she notices she's standing unassisted and promptly flops to the ground. You know. Like you do.

She's old enough now that I am entering that stage (again! for the third time! I roll my eyes at myself!) starting to get second-guessy about her skillz and feel jealous when other kids seem so much farther ahead of her. I know, I know, I should be better than to let myself get hung up on these things. Yet, I do sometimes. I'm happy for our friends and relatives and their normal-milestone-age children, while at the same time sometimes needing to awkwardly look away from the running and toddling and chattering that makes their kids seem so much older than little Charlotte. (Not that I'm not happy to cling to her babyhood. She's my last one! I cling! I am clinging so hard!)

(And for those of you saying "it all evens out eventually!" you should know that Nathan's peers are now riding big-kid bikes and if you think he even can -- or wants to -- push the pedals at all on a tricycle or training wheeled bike just HA HA NO. Not that I care. Ahem. My only point is that he is wonderful at many many things and it doesn't all "even out," nor does it necessarily have to, but let's not make ourselves say it does, that's all.)

ANYWAY.

The point of all this is to say look at sweet Charlotte up there, almost walking. Well, almost almost-walking. If she takes her first steps before the new year, when she'll be a week shy of seventeen months, she'll be the earliest walker of our crew. (And if she doesn't, then it means Nathan was our earliest to hit that milestone. Which haaaaaa the 2008 version of me would not even be able to wrap my brain around.)

So the moral of the story is: she will walk when she walks. And she will look adorable in the meantime, trying.