Watch out World!!

Kalin is learning to walk. Based on his personality I thought he might be one of those infants who just stands up and starts running everywhere, but that hasn't been the case. It's been a slow road and we still have a ways to go. I'm perfectly happy with that though because even though he is a fast crawler, I can't imagine what life will be like when he starts running everywhere. If he doesn't have brain damage already from all of his falls he may end up with some by the time he's a steady walker :-) We started this walking journey a couple months ago and some people were predicting that he would be walking by 9 1/2 or 10 months but he's been taking his time. He can now take 6 or 7 steps before either lunging forward or falling down. He's also quite steady just standing on his own. I laugh when I think about how often, when Kalin was 6 months old and younger, I would watch him on the floor and say, "Do something!!". I was ready for him to do something exciting instead of just chillin' on the floor, crying for me everytime I walked away from him. Now I find myself wishing he would just sit still for more than 5 minutes and give me a chance to relax and just watch him play!!

I never thought that I could be so entertained and filled with joy watching a child play. Remembering the days when he would lay on the floor doing nothing but flail his arms and legs and try to carry on a conversation with his Cedarville monkey and watching him now as he turns pages in books, pulls every toy out of his toy basket in search of the one that's making noise, and hitting any two objects he can find together makes me realize just how far he has come in these 10 months. I find myself wondering what goes on his little head as he's playing. What thoughts does he have as he plays with a book or with his blocks. Sometimes he'll catch me watching him and he'll give me a huge smile while he waves around whatever object he has in his hands at the time. He's so fun.

Unfortunately, I don't have any video yet of his walking abilities because whenever I get the camera out he crawls as fast as he can towards me. He doesn't seem to want to cooperate with us in that regard. Someday we'll catch those steps on film.

On a side note...When does an infant become a toddler? Is it based on when they start to "toddle" around or is there a general age, say 12 or 18 months that they technically become a toddler. It's not important information, I was just wondering.