It all happened last Thursday. It was late afternoon and I was finally squeezing in my shower (why would I waste the valuable time while Charlie's home -- I schedule them between conference calls!) when the phone rang and I saw that it was Donna calling. Something is wrong with the phone in the master bedroom, though -- it picks up, but you can't hear anything and callers can't hear you.
For the five seconds it took me to run downstairs I was terrified. Donna never calls -- she's right next door, and since I come over every day for lunch there is never a long enough delay to require updates between my visits. Therefore, I of course assumed that Charlie had spiked a fever, broken a limb or was unresponsive for some unknown reason... To be clear, I have absolutely no doubts regarding the care Charlie gets at Donna's -- it was just instinctual Mother Terror that set in.
During these 5 seconds I also debated calling or rushing over and opted to call because Donna had called here. As soon as she picked up, I begged her to tell me what was wrong, but Donna just laughed and said "Your son walked!". I was relieved, terrifed and bursting with pride all at the same time. My baby boy can walk!
Now, at no point during the previous 11 months and 1 week had we had any reason to doubt that Charlie would walk -- but it still felt like a miracle. We did it! Jason and I succeeded in raising Charlie all the way through the baby stage. He is officially a little boy!
To take a step back (pun intended!), here is exactly what happened. Donna was standing in the pantry area of her kitchen while Charlie played on the floor. All of a sudden she looked up, and he was standing right beside her. Surprised, to say the least, Donna said to him "Come over here to me, Charlie," and Charlie walked the three steps into her arms. Yes -- he is amazing!!!!
Of course, I went to pick him up early that afternoon and while it's debatable whether or not he walked again, he did stand unassisted and step/lunge/dive at me when I held out the remote control. I say it counts! Later that evening we tried many times to duplicate the feat, but only got as far as him standing on his own in the driveway looking back and forth from Bob to Jason and laughing at both of them.
Then Sunday morning while we were picking up his toys before church, Charlie took three steps to me when I pulled away the toy bin he'd been holding. In my unbiased opinion, he may be an Olympian walker someday -- such skill, such grace!
Despite my obvious excitement and pride at Charlie's amazing abilities, it's bittersweet to realize that in the near future my son will be independently mobile -- he won't need me as much. I can't wait to hold his hand and walk down the street, to watch him run to greet daddy and to see him chase Otis through the house, but I'm going to miss his crooked little crawl.
Just learning to crawl...
Can't catch me...
