Oden Adventures

About 11 months ago, a whole lotta ladies we know were pregnant and we were watching one by one as they announced the arrival of their little ones.  Now it's funny to see this same set of ladies one by one announce that these kiddos are starting to walk!  Well, Vianne is - as of the very last day of her 46th week of life - now in that club, too!  She still has no teeth, but she's walking!!

Fortunately, she's actually pretty timid about it so our lives haven't changed all that dramatically...yet.  We're not so naive to think that this will continue, but we're enjoying it this week.

It was very cute how the first steps happened.  All week she had been working on her balance while standing and both of us witnessed a few attempts at a step or two.  But we weren't ready to call it.  On Sunday afternoon, I was gone for about 3 1/2 hours at a baby shower for our friend Jaimie, and I told Patrick that Vianne better not start walking while I was gone.  Well, I got home from the shower and Vianne was delighted to see me so of course I picked her up to smother her in kisses.  But I also needed to put some leftovers in the fridge so I set her down (standing) to go do that...but she did NOT want to be put down so she let out a cry and then took four steps towards me!!  Happily, Patrick was sitting right there, too, so we got to witness it together.

It is such a crazy, weird thing to watch a baby turn into a toddler before your eyes.  You wish you could reach out and somehow make it stop, but you're so proud and excited about each new thing they do at the same time, and so curious about the person they're becoming, that if you could, you wouldn't really stop it after all.

I am trying to do, though, all I find that I can do: to savor each day, take in all of her wonderfulness, and whisper continual thanks to heaven for this immeasurable privilege of getting to be entrusted with her care.

All right, enough of the mushy Mama stuff...and onto the photographic cuteness!