It’s been awhile since I last posted because things have been crazy. Walker has been teething and then he decided that sleeping was for babies (which of course, he is not) and big boys stay up late practicing saying “ball,”singing “itsy bitsy spider,” clapping and giggling. Sunday night it took TWO HOURS to put him to sleep and last night it was TWO AND A HALF HOURS — Walker finally fell asleep at 10pm which is now MY bedtime. Sheesh. He was so exhausted today he went right to sleep at 7:30 but he just woke up and Larry is attempting to get him back to sleep. (SUCCESS! Daddy’s gentle and soothing rendition of “Dixie Chicken” lulled the little man to sleep.)

I wanted to take a moment to share a lesson I learned about perspective. Way back last Monday (that would be September 8th), I had a bad day at work. I started the day with a meeting that made me cranky (and frankly, the crankiness from that one meeting lasted the ENTIRE week — I just couldn’t shake it). So I spent the day with a big black cloud over my head and on the way home, I worked on resetting my mood. I couldn’t be grumpy when Walker was around. He just wouldn’t understand. The closer I got to Sofiya’s, the better I felt. And it paid off because I could appreciate the next few precious moments.

You see, in the morning, I dropped off a little baby who needed assistance with walking. In the afternoon, I was greeted by a little boy who walked from across the room to give me a big hug. I burst into tears. He just looked different. He looked older, more independent.

He just decided he was ready to grow into his name. He was intensely concentrating but was beaming with pride as he toddled from one end of the room to the other (and back and forth and back and forth). He also figured out how to stand up from the floor without climbing up something. We’d never seen that before. Just overnight it all changed.

So work is work and it may make me cranky but Walker is awesome and trumps the results of some stupid meeting. (And for further perspective, a colleague reminded me that we don’t have to carry a big metal spoon with a key on it to get into some small, dingy restroom — our bathrooms are big and equipped with automatic flush, water and paper towel dispensers).

Walker continues to gain stability. The mornings are humorous as he tries to find his balance. He’ll often toddle into the hall and bump from one wall to the other much like the guy in the a-ha “Take On Me” video (a pop-culture reference for those children of the 80’s). There isn’t as much falling as I feared so the anxiety around this milestone is less than anticipated.

This past weekend we went to the Comic Book Box’s book signing for our friends Paige Braddock (she’s in charge of product licensing for Charles Schultz — whodda thunk that a little girl who loved her Snoopy so much would know the person responsible for making that kinda thing a reality) and Jason MacNamara (a talented and crazy writer who teaches us sign language to use with Walker). Below Walker poses with his froggy shirt and his Flat Frog in front of a poster for the book.

Walker was fantastic at the signing and left all the books on the shelves — which is more than I can say for the books which SHOULD BE on his shelves at home. We’re looking forward to visiting Grammie Shirley, Aunt Lisa and family back East next week. They’re dragging out all the baby furniture and toys from the attic so Walker will be comfortable and showered with East-coast love. We’re quite excited and we’ll be sure to keep you updated.