First Unassisted Step

By -

I thought the first time Mara takes a standalone step, without holding on to a large item or person, it would be epic.

It its way, it was.

I had imagined it would happen one of these mornings, during her playtime. She would look up suddenly with that decisive look in her eyes. All would become silent, except for the clock on the wall which would seem to also measure our heartbeats.
Mara would get up to standing, brows furrowed with concentration, then she would ever so slightly lift her right foot up, keeping her weight on the other.
A soft drumroll would suddenly be heard out of nowhere as she moved her right foot forward, and most likely trumpets sounding some sort of victory march as she would gracefully land one step ahead of where she was standing a few seconds ago.

Now here's what really happened.

I was holding Mara in my arms in the backyard, watching the birds flying in and out of the trees.
Mara glanced down and noticed a stick on the ground. 

A STICK!!!

Unavoidably, this event became a major priority that trumps all else, so she quickly arched her body and pushed away from me, kinda like the cat in those Pepe Le Pew cartoons (see photo).


I carefully kneeled and laid her down so she can pick up her newest precious.

As you would expect, her emphatic push-away was merely temporary: she wanted right back into my arms as soon as she had tightly secured the stick in her small fist.

She glanced at me, I was still knelt just a foot away from her body. But she had already stood up in a pleased victory stance. 

It was too late now, there was no way she would squat, crawl, and get up again.

So she lifted her left foot off the ground, and demonstrated with her entire body which direction she wanted to go. That is, by leaning herself as much as possible in that direction ...

... and falling.

The fall was painless in my arms, but the event was quite deprived of the glory I had expected. It was a different kind of glory, the kind that teaches you something. That's much more useful in the long run.

What? I didn't say "First Successful Unassisted Step" :-)

Here's a sketch of Mara's evolution from newborn to today:
From left to right:
Line 1: Look cute, Turn over, Tummy time, Rock back & forth, Crawl backward, Crawl forward, Bear Walk, Pull up on furniture
Line 2: Stand unassisted, Awesome squats, Stand!, Stable upright, Tiny leg lifts
Line 3: Stand, Decide to step, Lean way forward, Fall

And here's Mara eating two corns on the cob:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

But I Will Still Need Your Money

By -
Image
In the past 6 months we've travelled over 27,000 miles, if we were to add up all of our trips with the kids. That's more than the Earth's circumference of 24,901 mi, so we could technically say we travelled around the world. On one of the last trips, our two seasoned travelers Mara and Gaius were so self sufficient: they knew how to handle the security line, and even carried all the luggage in the airport. Elena: Do you guys need us anymore? You carry your own luggage, and Mara already knows how to give the tickets to the airport people. Maybe next time you could just go on your own without us. What do you think? Mara: But I will still need your money. Way to be pragmatic; I guess parents are still good for something. Here's some highlights from our trips (non-chronological):  Seattle Zoo, USA  Space Needle, Seattle, USA Chisinau Airport,  Moldova  Bucovina Monasteries, Romania Palace of Culture, Iasi, Romania - with Andrei!
Read more

Bye Bye 2021, Welcome 2022!

By -
Image
It's a feeling shared by many: quite glad 2021 is over and behind us. This post will rehash some marking events during this long year, both ones we loved and ones we never want to go through ever again, if we could have a say. For those latter ones, we are deeply grateful for the friends and family who were by our side, offering kind words and support when it was needed most, whether from close or far. We started the year with Grandma Tammy still staying with us for several months, during our COVID-19 self-imposed isolation. She brought our family twice as much joy and peace, as conversations exploded in many more combinations than when Greg and I are the only adults around. Fae gained a whole extra year of learnings, just by being around all that, and is now speaking like a four year old at the age of two. For the first part of the year, our friend Chandni taught Mara and Gaius througho
Read more

Giant Fig Tree - Largest in North America

By -
Image
In Santa Barbara, California, thrives a giant. In fact, it is the largest fig tree in North America , the Moreton Bay Fig Tree. Yes, a Fig Tree - with actual figs strewn about, although now with the drought they were not so juicy.  You can lean on its roots, climb up on its trunk till where the branches spread out, or hide between its ridges. A great hide-and-seek spot for both kids and adults.  Here's our family playing between its giant roots; scroll to the bottom to get an idea of the actual scale, which is hard to comprehend. Giant. Two ladies shyly making an acquaintance with the giant.  Here's an interesting thing we noticed about nowadays toddlers: they seem to take amazingness as a common day-to-day thing. Maybe it's because we, the parents, strive to always show them things we find outstanding, so a zebra becomes common. Or maybe they simply enjoy the world at level 100, regardless of whether it's a random leaf in the yard, or a world-uniqu
Read more