Little Dude Walks, Villagers Flee in Terror

For those of you keeping score at home, mark down yesterday as the first time Paxton walked completely unaided by a parent, table, couch, wall, or by hanging onto the tail of a fleeing cat. He first did it while hanging out with M-N as I was out tutoring. He successfully repeated it a few more times after I got home.

There's that saying, "Necessity is the mother of invention." Well, with Little Dude, it goes like this: "Mother is the necessity of invention." She's always fostering these breakthroughs. She's been the driving force behind other advancements, such as the the move to solid foods and the wearing of layers during winter.

In fact, when I tried to repeat the walking move this morning, now with recharged batteries in the camera, he wouldn't do it. That's ok. She'll be home this afternoon, and I'm sure that while I'm again out tutoring, he'll learn to pole vault or defuse a bomb.

Incidentally, his nickname is shifting from raptor-baby to MacGyver-toddler. The scary thing about raptors was how they could open doors and not eat Jeff Goldblum. MacGyver-toddler figured out how our answering machine works, learning how to play messages and retrieve our passcode.

So when I mentioned he'll learn how to defuse a bomb, I fully expect that.