Off and Running

Over Labor Day weekend, Kate decided that she was now ready to walk. This was probably due to the fact that my parents were in town to visit, and that Kate had the round-the-clock attention of both her parents and two of her grandparents for three whole days. And then on Sunday, Devoted Wife's parents and sister C joined us for a delicious barbeque of tri tip and roast corn (which were grilled to perfection, I might add). After dinner, Kate dramatically waited until all SEVEN adults were dutifully watching her (what a show-off!) before taking her first real steps across the living room floor. Her previous efforts had consisted of some foot shuffling while toppling forward toward the floor. But by Sunday evening she was moving carefully across the floor, taking 8 to 10 steps at a time. And by last night she could navigate her way back and forth across the living room and kitchen, over carpet and tile and around chairs, stopping and starting more or less at will -- although some of her stops are still the kind that occasionally result in tears (sometimes from her, sometimes from Devoted Wife). She loves to walk while clutching things in both hands, which limits her ability to use her hands to brace her fall:

Now that Kate views the world from about a foot higher than before and her reach has also expanded, we're learning to not leave things near the edges of tables, etc. We're already down one dinner glass from when Kate grabbed a placemat and pulled a glass of water down onto the kitchen tile. I thought the shattering glass might have scared her but instead I think she found it quite fascinating. So it looks like I'll be spending this weekend babyproofing our house. Oh joy. I'm sure its only a short time until she learns to put food in the DVD player and how to open the china cabinet with a crochet hook.

We had a great time with my parents over the long weekend. We went down to Point Dume beach at sunset one night and watched the tide come in.

On the way home we stopped at Malibu Seafood for a great seafood meal (note to self: the fried fish combo plate is too much fried food for any one person to consume in one sitting, and it came back to haunt me). The real treat was that we got to feast on my mom's cooking skills for nearly a week. There is always plenty of food when my mom cooks, since for years she cooked for seven children including five hungry boys. For example, back then we had a 2-gallons-of-milk-per-day habit. I think that even though its been years since she had a houseful of big eaters she still thinks somewhat in those same proportions when she cooks. Trust me, that proved to be a great thing for us this week. We had great food, and she even bought a flat of strawberries and made us enough jam to fill our freezer.

Kate had a great time with all of her grandparents and can't wait to get them together again. Next time I expect that she'll want to sing a Puccini aria, solve some differential equations or explain her latest geopolitical theories for the group. Hopefully by then I will have purchased a video camera.