The forty-seventh week

The story of this week has been a pretty big one - Madeline started walking by herself on Sunday evening and hasn't looked back.

In those first couple days she was only walking from one object to another - from the coffee table to the chair to the television cabinet, etc. In other words, she was walking to a destination, and generally one that was within about 7 or 8 feet. Something she could steady herself upon.

But later in the week she started taking longer jaunts with no particular destination. She walked from room to room, around corners and objects. (Imagine my surprise when I looked aside while brushing my teeth this morning to see Madeline toddling around a corner toward me, instead of crawling as she usually does.)

At first she usually walked toward me, wild eyed with arms outstretched. But now, when I sit on the floor nearby, she sometimes veers around me and carries on to bigger and better things.

With all this walking have come a few spectacular collapses. Mostly she loses her balance gradually, teetering for a moment and then plopping down on her bottom or her knees. Sometimes she loses control more quickly and ends up with a belly flop. And while she can steer herself in wide patterns, she has trouble avoiding obstacles that are directly in front of her feet, such as toys and table legs.

I find myself cringing occasionally when she's going full-tilt and there's nothing nearby for her to grab - like she's riding without training wheels. I find myself picturing, again, all the bad things that could happen. But, aside from a couple minor bumps, she's survived her first week of bipedalism in splendid fashion.