#33 and #34 - CHECK!

These are big ones y’all….for me at least.  And for any other momma out there I’m sure.  Number 33 on my list of 101 things to do in 1,001 days was to watch Carter walk for the first time.  When I wrote this list, Carter was maybe 8 weeks old and I wasn’t really thinking about the difference between “walking” and “taking first steps”.  It will obviously take practice for Carter to perfect his walking skills, but what I meant when I wrote that as number 33, was that I wanted to see Carter take those very first steps.  And he did that on his 11 month birthday!  I wrote his 11 month post that morning and after work I went to my mother-in-law’s house to pick him up as usual.  We went back home and played all over the house like we normally do.  We were in the “man room” that really is no longer a man room, but I digress.  Carter was standing up holding onto the ottoman to a chair in there and there was another chair behind him.  Usually he will come down to his booty and just crawl there if the destination is too far away.  This time, he turned around and took 2 steps towards the other chair and never fell or wobbled in the process!  I was SO excited!!! 

The next day he went to my in-laws house again while I was at work (Justin was working out of town during all this).  When I went to pick him up, my MIL said that he had taken about 3 or 4 steps towards things during the day.  So when I went home with him that night, I was determined to practice with him.  Carter is a huge fan of positive reinforcement.  He LOVES to be cheered on and clapped for when he does something worthy.  So I used that to my advantage.  I put him standing up next to the shelving underneath the television in our living room and I scooted back and put my hands out and was telling him to come to me.  He did it so many times and I was so excited so obviously I cheered him on and when he did it, I would clap for him and say “yaaaaaaaay Carter!”.  Naturally, I had to try to get this on video.  I didn’t want to go pull our the video camera, so I just got my phone and propped it up on the shelving and hit the button on the i-Phone where you can make it use the video camera on the front of the phone so that you can see what you’re recording while you’re recording it.  See for yourself!!!

**Keep in mind, this was a very informal way of recording this.  You can see Carter’s upper body, but not his feet.  But it’s obvious he’s walking towards me on his own.  Also, I keep looking at the camera because I’m trying to make sure that it’s getting him in the view.**

Now on to number 34.  Number 34 on my list was to teach Carter to say “mama”.  If you read Carter’s monthly posts, you know that I have been trying for this SO hard.  He said his first word “dada” when he was about 9 months and a few days old.  Ever since then, I have been trying so hard to get him to say mama and he’s just never said it.   He says plenty of other things but for whatever reason, he’s never felt compelled to say “mama”. 

The day after the above walking occurred, I went to NYC for a short weekend with my sister, Jennifer, that lives in Tampa.  I told Jennifer and Justin that I was so worried he would perfect those walking skills while I was gone and that I worried that I had already seen my baby crawl for the last time and I didn’t even realize it.  While we were there, Justin told me that Carter indeed did something while I was away, but it wasn’t perfecting the walking skills.  Carter was finally saying “mama”.  I was excited, but at the same time so upset because I missed it.  But Justin got a pretty cute video of him saying it while he was eating lunch one day and sent it to me when I was in NYC.   I probably watched it a hundred times or more. 

People keep saying he did it because he missed me.  I know that at his age he doesn’t understand that, but I can’t help but wonder if he said it because he noticed I wasn’t around.  I can’t help but think that the reason he was saying it so much while I was gone is because he knew all along that I was “mama” and realized that I was gone.  I think he was asking Justin where I was.  Melt.My.Heart.

Two dates to go in the books!!!  Wednesday, November 28th (his 11 month birthday) he took his first step and Friday, November 30th he said my name :)