11-Month Milestone

First steps. They're such a big...um,...er,...step in a child's development. When I imagined how it would happen, I always pictured Little Guy eagerly lifting one chubby little foot and stepping towards me, arms outstretched, tumbling happily right into my arms for a scrumptialicious hug.

And that's almost how it happened...

However, in reality, this is how it went down. Last night I made a batch of my favorite smoothies. (See picture below and click here for the awesome smoothie book that I took the recipe from.) I sat Little Guy down across from me on the rug in our family room so that we could share the delicious rasperry concotion together. One spoonful for him, two spoonfuls for me. One spoonful for him, two spoonfuls for me.

At some point, I think it became clear to him that he was getting shorted a spoonful or two because all of a sudden he rose from the ground, steadied himself carefully on both feet, and then, with his eyes fixed intently on the icy goodness I was holding, he pumped both fists in the air, grunted twice (I kid you not), and then took two Frankenstein-like steps in my direction, hands plunging straight for the beverage.

As I wrestled the smoothie away from him, careful not to let any of the pink iciness fall onto my cream colored shag carpet, I realized that these were officially his first two steps.

I couldn't believe it. Eleven months have flown by so quickly. Suddenly his babyness seemed to be slipping through my fingers just a little bit too fast. I wanted to freeze time, to remember exactly how he looked in his long john PJs and little bib, with his pink moustache and messy fingers.

Yet, no matter how much I wished I could bottle his babyness in that moment, I couldn't. So instead I opted to give him the last four spoonfuls of our smoothie. After all, he earned it.