walking but not really

somewhere between 9 and 12 months, infants learn to walk. but it's no easy road. tummy time is not really as fun as it sounds. there's lots of falling down. stained knees from tireless crawling. some kids skip the whole crawling part and poof just stand up one day, which is totally weird if you think about it. also, genius.

my boys each get an "a" for average to which i interpret as normal, and that is A-OK with me. they crawled for what seemed like forever before crossing the big milestone around 10 months. more than 9 and less than 12. perfect. i remember being so excited for the moment it finally happened, making sure to get it on camera then watching it a million times.

then you spend the next two years teaching them to not walk like total drunkards.

it ain't easy. at times, it's maddening, and has you longing for the days when they were babies, ridden to the ground until you scooped them up. once they can walk, they can move. on their own. and they want to go everywhere yet get nowhere. and almost never where you want them to go. other moms warned me about this, even johnnny depp voiced his opinion. but i had refused to listen.

it's quite the conundrum. and pretty annoying. walking sans direction. without the concept of a destination. i know in time it will get better (soon soon soon). i will explain to them what the phrase "from point a to point b" means. they will eventually take more than five steps at a time in one direction without immediately turning around to run ten steps in the opposite direction.

in time.

but meanwhile...

last saturday we were dog-sitting and thought it would be fun to walk the silver lake reservoir loop. our plan was to start at the meadow and attempt to leg the no more than half-a-mile route that would take us to the dog park, or in my mind, the finish line, aka VICTORY.

a few steps in i already knew how it was going to go.

not to ruin it or anything, but we did not make it to the dog park. sorry stella.

instead, there was a lot time spent being spider-man.

and just stopping to stare at everything.

a lot of random running.

and hugging trees.

also, peek-a-boo.

after far less than half-a-mile, we gave up on getting to the dog park and gave in to what it was: spending a beautiful afternoon with our sons. where it wasn't about reaching our destination, but how we didn't get there.

and it was beautiful. ok, and a little maddening. but mostly beautiful.

xoxo, sony