Open the door to a whole new world.

And walk right through it.
April 22nd 2013, Jack is two days away from being nineteen months old.

And he can walk.





He's been cruising around furniture since Christmas, walking behind toys since Valentines day, and taking a few independent steps here and there; but today, at 10:25 he walked across an entire room. We were at PT and he was showing off his mad skills to Rebecca. Holding a had a ball above his head and she just kept stepping backwards for him to take one more step to get it. One step, two step...a fifth, I am watching intently now, he's never taken THIS many steps at once. I don't know who is more excited at this point, giggles are bubbling out of him with each motion. He reaches the wall and is rewarded with the ball he has been chasing. Seconds have passed and just as he goes to sit down to play with his new ball I swoop in, showing off that I too can cross that room pretty damn fast.

I pick him up, squeeze that boy within an inch of his life and sit him back down to continue his work. As I walk back to my chair in the corner of the room I feel ten feet tall. I am so proud of this boy. At every step along the way these past nineteen months he has blown my expectations out of the water. He can do hard things. He is pushing himself. He will achieve.

. . .and I will be there, watching and encouraging him as a most interested spectator in his one wild life.