I Fought the Floor and the Floor Won

Olive has started to walk. Not cruise. Not shuffle while holding on to mommy or daddy’s hand. Walk. Like, plop her down and watch her go. This is at once wildly exciting and terrifying.

Part of the terror stems from the fact that, with walking, comes a whole heck of a lot of falling. I have spent the last 11 months of my life cradling this little pile of chub and protecting her from any possible bumps or bruises - well, kind of. Now, I need to come to terms with the fact that her nose’s primary role for the next few months is to cushion the fall for the rest of her face.



Olive visited my office this past Friday and, in an effort to show off her still fledgling walking skills, fell forward and bounced her forehead off the industrially carpeted (read: extremely hard) floor. I now know what most of my internal organs taste like.

Floor: 1 – Baby: 0



But over the course of the weekend Olive has made amazing, er, strides. Just a few days ago you needed to stand her up, set her balance, and maybe give her a bit of a nudge before she would take a couple steps and then plop down on her tummy or butt. Now you just put her on her feet and she runs across an entire room. These pictures were taken today as she would wobble from Leanne on one end of the dining room, to me on the other. If it weren’t for the thresholds between rooms she would be doing laps of the house. Of course, this means that Leanne and I need to run around the entire house with her.

Next task: figure out ways to either attach pillows, balloons or foam to Olive’s body or, alternatively, cover my entire house with wrestling mats.