Walk Like a Man

This has been a pretty busy month for all of us but mostly for Luke. He's walking now! About a week or so ago he started taking two, three... ten steps around the house, and now he's walking all the way up and down our street and all around Target and Toys R Us. Here's a video of him on his second day of walking (sorry it is so dark):



He is walking really well now, although I wouldn't have him carry a trayful of mugs of hot tea just yet. The only problem now is that he sometimes will INSIST on walking- and no, I don't want to hold your hand, I want to do it all by myself, thankyouverymuch! Take the Target trip, for example. He wanted to walk around the store as opposed to riding in the cart or having us carry him. We let him walk for a while, but him walking up and down the aisles, while cute, is neither efficient nor safe. We felt like we were watching a Frogger video game as he crossed an aisle, narrowing avoiding cart collisions. After we tired of his slow pace and just wanted to finish up and get out of the store, we picked him up and what transpired can, I think, be described as his first tantrum. He desperately flailed and squirmed to get out of the cart or our arms so that he could walk on his own, and he screamed and cried for at least 10 minutes when he did not get his way. Of course, we got "the eye" from our fellow shoppers, some of knowing pity and some of the "are you kidnapping him" variety. Eventually he calmed down, or just gave up, but not before we got a glimpse of the future Terrible Twos to come.

This is what it looks like when you bump into a camera

There are unfortunate consequences to walking though, we soon learned. The fall down to the ground can be a rough one. The other day Luke slipped and landed mouth first onto a table, busting his top lip and the gums under it. His mouth was swollen out like two inches and he looked very much like Daffy Duck. His gums turned all black and he had a big scab on his lip. The pic below just doesn't do it justice. It looked much worse in person. Then two days later he face planted onto the carpet and sported carpet burn scratches up his nose and forehead. This walking thing is not for wussies!

You shoulda seen the other guy

To complement his new big man walking we decided it was time to get him a big man haircut as well. No more Flying Nun-like long curls flowing from the sides of his head. Time to dress the part, son. So, we took him to a kiddy haircut joint with cool race car chairs and cartoons showing on the tv. But he wasn't impressed. He didn't like this idea at all! How the hair cutter managed to cut his hair evenly and without slicing an ear is beyond me. She had magic squirmy kid skills. He eventually chilled out and went into an Elmo tv watching trance and she finished up his haircut without incident.

Samson is defeated

Let me outta this race car chair!

Hmm, I guess I do look pretty good now

Afterward Luke wanted to parade around at Toys R Us and show off his dapper new do. He eyed these sweet kid sized automobiles and made a bee line for them and climbed on in.

Firetrucks are so cool! (But the boy is not for sale)

In retrospect, this probably wasn't very safe at all...

Mascot- Firemen of Austin Calendar 2006