Baby steps...

Max's:
Schwoo, my sweet little bug has decided that walking might be fun.  It's still that run-forward-until-you-fall-on-your-face/I'm-new-at-this/I-didn't-even-know-I-could-do-this kind of walking, but yesterday he made it to 5 or 6 steps in a row, and did it many times.  And, he was standing himself up, on his own, in the middle of the room just to try it out again.  I think it's official!  Why the 'schwoo' you ask?  NOT because I thought he had issues because he's 14 months old and just didn't seem to care.  BUT, because I am leaving the boys in David's very capable hands for a couple of days and I was just sure he would pick then to walk.  You see, Seth was 16 months old when he started walking, and he waited until I left town for 5 days for a work conference to do it.  I sat patiently waiting for 16 months to see those first steps and missed them.  When Luke came along and I was able to quit my job, I thought, 'Great, now I'll never miss another first!'  And then it looked like I was going to.  So, thank you Max for doing this Monday, rather than Thursday! 

[Quirky side note that pretty much no one will likely care about:  Seth walked at 16 months, Luke at 12, and Max at 14.  Max's birth weight was also exactly between Seth and Luke's and during my pregnancy with Max the weight I gained was right between the weight I gained with Seth and Luke.]

Mine:

Luke went to VBS last week.  Luke is only 3 [and never had occasion to go to daycare] so this was the first time Luke has been left "alone," without me or another family member on the premises.  We don't have babysitters - just Grammy and Grampy, and sometimes Aunt G and Uncle Matt.  So, for me to drop him off and walk away was a new experience for me.  Leaving my child at church for VBS would have been fine, but leaving my allergy child at church to eat a snack during VBS was a whole different ballgame.  There were many e-mails exchanged, a visit to the kitchen to check the labels on all the snacks, a trip to the grocery store to find substitutions for any food he couldn't eat, a batch of cupcakes made to replicate the ones the other kids were eating, and (finally and most importantly to me) a phone call with another allergy mom who was going to be on site and assured me she would look after him and have an epipen on her (he also had an epipen on the premises).  Sweet Luke didn't know about much of the planning that went into.  He just knew that he was having a fantastic time and learning a lot too.  I'm glad I let him do it.  And really glad the week went off without a hitch!