I wrote a book! I'm proud because I tend to be an "idea person" and not an "action person", so usually I dream up fantastic projects like this and then never execute them. Not only did I manage to execute this particular idea, it turned out pretty close to what I imagined, AND it's finished in time to be actually useful. Mossie loves it and I'm jazzed. :D
PS The last 2 pages of line drawings are actually open-the-flap style coverings for the line drawings in the rest of the book, which I cut out and taped in place. Moss is really into lift-the-flap books at the moment. Ben did all the drawings. <3
PPS Quiet, you graphic designer-y friends and family of mine, it's amateur hour for layouts in here.
September 15 - October 1, definitely not walking. Crawling exclusively. Occasionally standing unassisted.
October 2, takes first "step". Crying hysterically about something and doesn't notice that it has happened. Lets go of the stool and walks one step to the counter.
October 3-7, occasionally takes 1 or 2 steps as part of cruising, letting go of the wall without realizing it. I wouldn't call it walking so much as cruising carelessly.
October 8, purposefully walks about 10 steps across the room. Does not want to take finger out of nose, cannot crawl and keep finger in nose. Solves problem effectively.
October 8-13, doesn't really choose to walk much, but lots of unassisted standing. Maybe 5-8 steps per day.
October 14, decides to walk about 10% of the time and crawl about 90% of the time.
October 15, I finally get my camera out at the right moment to catch some of his first trips.
October 17, figures out how to stand up without holding onto anything. Abruptly decides to walk about 90% of the time and crawl about 10% of the time. Never looks back.
And now I have a toddler.
Unless babies eat bites of apple and run away down the sidewalk.
Apparently he was just waiting until he could walk perfectly without any of the silly falling down nonsense. He literally just stood up and walked away one day. I'm sure the rest of motherhood will be filled with this happening over and over again, just a little more metaphorically each time.
Watching Moss learn to use his body has been fascinating. He's increasingly confident in his abilities and, given the amount of time he spends practicing a thing before committing to it, I think it's deserved.
When we were in Montana at the beginning of the summer, he was constantly practicing crawling up and down the cabin's loft stairs. When we got back, he was climbing on all the things. He pioneered a path onto our bed by way of a shoe rack, learned the top of his play table is an excellent place to contemplate your navel, and started joining Cal on the couch. Even though he wasn't walking he was fearlessly scaling just about everything. Calla found him on the nightstand one day, and I decided to give him something it was okay to climb.
A digression -- when I was in 8th grade, I drew up the plan to the house I was going to build as an adult. It was basically a 2-story cubic hobbit hole and the killer feature was a climbing wall that joined the floors and wrapped around this sweet pillar into a sort of cave. I'd just done a week's worth of climbing at Camp Montvale so naturally I was pretty sure it was going to be a major part of my life moving forward. Then I more or less forgot about it for 20 years.
I started climbing again last year, and recently got to thinking about the old plans. We don't own and I'll probably never live in my future-cube, but I do have a nearly-toddler son who seems pretty intent on summiting everything in sight.
So I built him a climbing wall in the corner of his soon-to-be big boy room.
Her are my obligatory building photos.
The room was a disaster to begin with, since he's been sleeping in our room since, oh, birth.
Getting the angles right was math-y
Mapping...
Then drilling...
Then filing all the holes by hand
Priming...
And gluing...
And hammering...
And screwing...
And tightening... soo... many... nuts...
Designing and painting, protecting the nuts with dozens of golf tees
Framing was frustrating without quite the right tools, but doable
Moss was a big help, and by help I mean he was underfoot doing dangerous things
Progress was made, regardless
Finally installing all the holds
Finished! Moss is understandably hesitant.
Apparently, he doesn't just need a little bit of persuasion...
Not really interested at this point.
At least he found a use for it: satisfying his need to put his fingers into random small holes.
It's been finished for about 3 weeks, and Moss is walking now, so the original rationale is kind of irrelevant, but he's finally started putting it together.
I don't know if this is something he's going to be interested in long-term. He's only 15 months old after all. But I don't think trying to lay the groundwork for common interests when he's a little older is going to hurt anything either.
