Blood & Tears

I don't like this whole walking thing.

Oh. Sorry. I guess I forgot to tell you.

Katie is walking. She took her first steps around the 11 month mark. She's had a good two weeks of practice and now she can get from Point A to Point B on her two little feeties.

I think she actually prefers walking to crawling now. I think the reason for this is that she can carry stuff in her hands while she walks from place to place. Then she can take that stuff and put it places. On chairs, in laundry baskets, in bowls and boxes. I don't know. To each her own, as they say. Hey, it keeps her busy and generally happy.

She'll be futzing around as I walk out of a room and I'll call her name. I can hear her moving closer to my voice and I have to admit that it's a bit odd to see her walk around the corner. I'm always looking closer to the ground thinking that she's gonna crawl to me.

Her walking style is still a bit stiff. She walks flat footed and doesn't bend her knees very much. She also walks with her hands in a "begging dog" type of position. We have nicknamed her, "FrankenKatie".

Our cuddly little baby is gone. We are now the proud parents of a toddler.

(cue dramatic music)
Duhnnnnnnnn-Duhnnnnnnn-DUHNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNN!

Even though she's had two weeks of practice, she still has her falls and MAN OH MAN are some of them wicked! We have had two incidents just in the past 5 days that have drawn blood. Both of them involving a coffee table.

The first time was at a friends house. Katie got a hold of the coffee table and began to flop her Mickey doll around on top of it. She got excited and began to do some kinda dance that I could only assume was 'The Funky Chicken'. She lost her balance and BOOM, down she went. Next thing I know, she's balling her eyes out and she's got blood all over her lips. Her two bottom teeth cut into her upper lip. Yikes.

The second time was at home. This time she wanted to bang some blocks on the coffee table. She began walking towards it, tripped over Duckie and went face first into the table. Her upper lip hit the table edge and got a little rip in it. Ow. More raindrop tears and blood.

Both times, the bleeding stopped within seconds. It wasn't as bad as it sounded OR looked. In the past, when I thought about seeing her blood for the first time, I was sure that I was going to panic or even cry.

But, I didn't. I just quickly picked her up, gave her cuddles and reassuring words until she was calm enough to let me inspect the damage. I was strangely calm.

I can only forsee more of this type of thing happening. She has yet to learn that she should survey the area. She gets completely focused on the item that she wants and she'll walk in a straight line. There could be a brontosaurus between her and her soccer ball and she wouldn't even notice. She'd walk right over the dude.