Perpetual Motion

Why haven’t I posted anything for a few weeks? What could possibly be keeping me from documenting all the fascinating minutia of daily life in the our household? I’ll tell you what – walking. Lots and lots of walking. Finally we are hearing the pitter pat of little feet around here. Casey started walking about four weeks ago and ever since he started walking we have all been on the run. Nothing and no one in his path is safe, most importantly himself. Once again, the dog is utterly freaked out.

Perhaps it is not the walking that has Ani so freaked out but his gait. He doesn’t so much walk as stumble around like a drunken midget. Watching him stagger around her house caused my friend Colleen to begin singing “What do you do with a drunken sailor?” It totally cracks me up. I love watching his little face light up with pride as he makes his way around the house, totally immersed in experiencing freedom for the first time.

While we have delighted in Casey’s latest milestone, it has also brought on some interesting personality changes in the boy. Apparently, learning to move around upright has awoken his little sense of independence, and he is asserting it whenever possible. For example, when you pry something dangerous (such as an electrical cord) from his surprisingly strong death grip, previous to walking his most common response was to give you a ear-to-ear grin and move on to shove something else sharp and hazardous into his mouth. Now, his response to the same situation is to fling himself on the ground, turn an alarming shade of bright red, and to begin yelling “Nyet!” at the top of his small lungs. “Nyet” is apparently Casey’s version of “no”, and it makes him sound like a very tiny but militant member of the Russian army when he screams it in your face.

So needless to say we have been in constant motion around here. Perpetual, loud, ever-changing, freeing, scary, and necessary motion. It seems that this is the very definition of our life now, and although it quite often leaves me feeling exhausted, it also fills me with a feeling of complete exhilaration. I suppose much like the feeling of learning to walk.