We have lift-off people! My little dude is officially walking! He's been right on the cusp for a few months now but always sunk down to his knees to crawl when he wanted to get somewhere fast. Just this past week he's taken the leap to walk on his own from point A to point B. It's adorable because he looks so incredibly proud of himself while he's doing it! It makes me look forward to all the milestones we have in the future but I am also struck by the realization that he is not a baby anymore!
We also had the misfortune of making our first trip to the walk-in today. I jinxed us by telling people we'd almost made it one year without an illness and then pow! - he got a cold just at the end of winter. We've been riding it out and he's been such a little trooper but when I got home from a mom-to-mom sale yesterday I could tell he had hit a wall. We had a puking incident earlier in the week (wherein my husband stood in the hallway holding him at arms length, looking like a deer caught in head lights while the puke from their clothes dripped onto the carpet) so we thought we had seen the worst of it.
Saturday afternoon my heart could have broken for him. My usually energetic, newly walking baby was reduced to a sad little puddle on the floor. He seemed to not even have enough energy to open his eyes, let alone do the happy dance he normally greeted me with. We decided to give him a little medicine and see how the night went. We must be the luckiest people on Earth because through his entire illness I think he's only had one poor nights sleep - we got a solid 10 hours out of him.
Still, he wasn't himself this morning and his chest was rattling when he coughed so we thought we'd feel better having him looked at. Fast forward through a couple of very stressful hours spent in a walk-in clinic - another first for us but one I had hoped to put off for longer! Poor Zack, he didn't know if he wanted to be up or down, hugged or left alone so thank goodness my husband was with me to trade off taking him for walks while we waited. We held it together until the nurse had to take his temperature. God love my husband but he can't be tough in these situations no matter how hard he tries! When we need to do eye drops, hes useless at holding Zack still and pinning down his hands. The temperature was no different; he couldn't seem to find it in himself to hold Zack's head still. I hate to hear Zack cry as much as anyone but I have no problem being tough when the moment calls for it - they can't help him if we don't hold him still! Calming him down from the experience was no easy feat - several rounds of our fail-safe song, the Golden Girls theme song.
I've seen some parents doing crazy things in public and wondered if they were embarrassed or not. I can tell you from experience - they are NOT! I found myself bouncing, jiggling & hopping down the aisles of Fortino's while singing "thank you for being a friend", loud and proud (because that's the way he likes it) this afternoon with not even a glimmer of shame! When I realized I would sacrifice my pride to keep my baby happy that's when I thought I must be growing up. And when I realized a whole half of my birthday had gone by without me even noticing because what did a birthday matter when I had a sick child? That's when I knew I was growing up!
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