walking

Cosmic Walk

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Hey, I got a decent pic of both girls today. ☺️

We strolled up to Cosmic Coffee (and Beer Garden). We’re trying to get out for regular walks to prepare for our trip to Ireland later this year. “We’re going to be waling all around Dublin, so let’s get our legs ready,” I told them. Luckily, they were pretty enthusiastic about walking. Bonus: the Texas heat will make walking around Ireland seem like a literal cake walk.

Also, Molly wanted to try out iced tea since she had enjoyed some stevia-based tea at home. But she was not terribly impressed with unsweet green hibiscus tea, describing it as “bitter”. 🤷🏻‍♂️

A Fine Friday Evening

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Good things happen when you have time off from work.  After taking a trip back to Corpus Christi and tackling countless piles of papers that have been building up for years, Kit has been able to relax a little bit this week.
Kit and I both picked up the girls from school today, thanks to Kit’s week off and an early day off for me.  Claire loves those rare occasions when both Kit and I pick her up.  As an extra special treat, we got her a bit early, while she was still out on the playground.  Claire noted that we got her even before her friend Renee went home, which basically never happens.  Usually Claire and Molly are among the first to be dropped off at school and among the last to be picked up, and usually it’s just Dad doing the picking since Mom is off helping people at one of the hospitals around town.  So this was a really special occasion.

After we got Claire on the playground, we all went by to get Molly, who was also excited to see us.  Even though Molly is walking around now, I usually carry her back to the car, just out of habit.  But today Molly had other plans.  She grabbed Claire’s hand and nonverbally asked her to walk her out to the car.  It was a really good idea, and it worked nicely, as you can see below.
Then came dinner plans.  Usually we are worried about filling Molly up with food (todo link), but tonight Claire had that honor.   She had recently experienced a new bout of asthma, her first in almost a year, and she was prescribed a steroid to help her breathing.  These nasty steroids had caused Claire to feel (and act) really bad last time we used them, and apparently taking the medicine with as much food as possible helps lessen these negative side effects.  So we are filling her up with her favorite foods.  Last night it was pizza. Tonight we came up with hot dogs.  The pleasant early spring weather beckoned us to the Trailer Park Eatery where Claire could load up on hot dogs, Kit and I could enjoy the best tacos ever at Torchy’s, and Molly could sample from the rest of us.  Claire ended up spending most of her time playing a game of “freeze tag” with a little boy she met there.  She saw said boy, wearing a large inflatable guitar on his back, introduced herself, and got a game of freeze tag going on the large dirt driveway within two minutes.  Both kids stopped off at their respective picnic tables every now and again for a bite to eat and a sip of water, sort of like a pit stop.  Kit and I yelled “Car!” any time a car showed up on the scene, no matter how slowly and carefully it was traveling. Claire managed to get down two full hotdogs with ketchup, minus the buns, during this game.  The dogs seemed to keep the nasty steroid issued at bay (which was ostensibly the whole excuse reason for coming here to eat).
Molly, meanwhile, giggled and watched the scene while nibbling at Claire’s spare hotdog buns.  As it grew dark, Molly was captivated by the light balls hanging from the trees, which were colorful and bright and roughly the size of an adult’s head.  She kept pointing at them and saying “ball”.  Finally we found one that was low enough that we could lift her up to touch it.  She whacked away at the orb, sending it swinging above us, producing a big smile on her face.  Molly also got a brief chance to try to chase down Claire and her freeze-tag friend, which she took to with glee and some screaming.
Next week, Kit will be back to work and on call.  It will be back to boring dinner at home, possibly with Kit off at some hospital for some or all of the night.  But now that Kit has her full allotment of vacation this year, hopefully we will see more fun nights like this.

It’s a Walking Baby!

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Molly is walking around really well now, as we have stated.  While on errands, she occasionally receives a surprised reaction from an amazed bystander.  “Wow!” they say, “That little baby can walk already?  How cool!”  Molly is so small that she looks like a little baby walking around.  She does not appear to be over 16 months old.  That’s our Molly, a big baby or a tiny toddler, either way, she is amazing and surprising.

Land distance record

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Molly has been developing her walking skills over the last few weeks. We have been counting how many steps she takes at a time. “She took 8 steps!”  “She took 10 steps at school!”  These accomplishments are all normally in a nice controlled indoor environment with some parental or teacher encouragement.

As of today, I think we can stop counting steps. For that matter, we can stop the nightly walking practice.
Today at a birthday party at Claire’s friend’s house, Molly was hanging out, sitting on the driveway playing with an orange golf ball, surrounded by kids on bikes and scooters. Then Molly decided that she wanted to get to the back yard where the petting zoo was set up. So she just got up on her own and walked the length of the driveway to the backyard, dodging bikes and scooters along the way, eventually arriving at the steps of the backyard on two feet with orange golf ball in hand. Molly had taken 50 consecutive steps, that I counted.  There is no doubt this kid can walk now.

Molly then climbed four or five steps up, and then climbed back down, and then climbed up a bit, and finally dropped the orange golf ball, and cried a bit, and climbed back down to get it, and then climbed back up a bit. Then it was cake time, so we went inside, where Molly just helped herself to a seat at the table alongside Claire’s friends. I think Molly earned that seat.


Walking Practice

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Molly can walk, a little bit. But she seems unsure about this whole two-legged balancing thing, and she still prefers to crawl. To encourage her to stand and walk, we have even been having “walking practice” every night after dinner. This was Kit’s idea. It is a fun event. It starts with us chanting over and over, “Walking practice! Walking practice! Walking practice!” Molly gets real excited, as does Claire. Kit sits on the floor holding Molly out in front of her in a standing position, and I sit a few feet away with Claire in my lap. (There is a continual debate about exactly how far I should be from Kit, ie how far Molly should walk. I want to let Molly stretch it out a bit, while Kit wants to avoid a discouraging fall, depending on how you look at it.) Nonetheless, Claire and I wave our hands and yell, “Come on, Molly! Come on!” Molly slowly plods over in our direction, slowly planting one foot in front of the other, sometimes falling before she gets to us, but usually making it far enough to tumble over into Claire’s and my arms, where we pick her up and shout “Yeah Molly!”. Molly and Claire are all grins. They love the cheering and seeing Molly walk. We repeat this event a few more times and then put the typically exhausted Molly to sleep.


First step!

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Molly took her first official step (that I know of) today when I dropped her off at school. I was chatting with her teacher out n the playground where they go in the mornings, and I had to put Molly down to get something from my bag. I expected her to just sit down when I let her go like usual, but this time she kept her legs straight and just stood there by herself looking up at me. She stayed there standing nice and steady for a long long time, maybe more than a full minute. (It is hard to judge these things since I was standing there in shock with my jaw wide open.). Finally, Molly decided she wanted to come to grab onto my pant leg for support, but she did not want to sit down and crawl only a foot or so to make that happen, so she tentatively and slowly stepped towards me! The first step was successful — she did not fall, and she stayed up for another step. She took a tumble on the second step, but it was amazing to see her first real step.

Here is some video a couple days later in the same spot standing (but not walking) for a much, much shorter period of time. These moments are like the Sasquatch — impossible to catch on film!

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Pushing the limits

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Molly is one “step” closer to walking, thanks to the help of a small wooden stool that her Grandaddy made for her sister a while back…

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