Walking

So I'm gonna talk about two types of walking here...one about my kid, and one about another "kid" I know.

First, my kid. It seems we may be entering the walking phase of Carrie's life. Good lord, hold on everyone. She's almost 14 months old, so obviously taking her sweet time. I have no problem with that due to the fact that a) she doesn't seem to have any physical problem keeping her from walking for me to worry about, and b) I'm frankly not over the moon about having to keep up with her running amok from this point forward. At least I had a chance with the crawling. Not so with the walking. She took a couple of what I call "accidental" steps on Memorial Day. I didn't really count them because I don't think she quite knew what she was doing, and Jerry wasn't there to witness it. But there we were, in my grandmother's den, and she thought it would be fun to try to take a couple of steps closer to Lady to chase her down. She took about a step and a half, face-planted on the floor, and took off crawling. We all gasped because I was sure she'd start screaming bloody murder, but she just hauled across the floor after Lady. My first thought was "Oh my God, she just took a step." My second thought was "Oh my God, do I tell Jerry?" I didn't want him to think he'd missed something, but told him anyways. I am not a good secret-keeper, generally speaking.

This was followed up by more fun in the pool this past Sunday. She hadn't tried to walk any more since Memorial Day. However, we were hanging out in the kiddie pool at Oldfield (which had to be a sight, by the way - 5 grown adults and one child in the kiddie pool. Yeah, we were hogging it but I didn't care). It was me, Jerry, Rhett, Alston & Nick who witnessed Carrie's realization that this whole walking thing was WAY easier when water can help you out. She took lots of steps in the pool, generally chasing after me. She'd take a step or two, then sort of lunge into my arms, usually getting a face full of water at the time. Luckily, due to Jerry's unorthodox bathtime methods of just dumping water over her head to get her wet, she thought it was great and didn't have issues with the water in the face thing. I cried, I think Jerry got a little teary, and I think Alston/Nick/Rhett just thought it was cool to witness this milestone. Now, if we can only get her to do it on land, our world will once again be turned upside down...

Now on to the other "kid" and walking...Rhett graduated from high school last night. Talk about a reality check. She was 8 when I first met her. Jerry and I drove down to Savannah for SCDS' homecoming in the fall of 1998 because Alston was on the Homecoming Court (I'm sure she'll kill me for publishing that - sorry!!). We were driving back to Okatie after the game, and Rhett rode with me and Jerry, and she was curled up in the backseat asleep, 8 years old. Now, she's a high school graduate and off to Sewanee in the fall. She's turned into such an amazing young woman; I'd consider myself extremely lucky if Carrie turns out to be anything like her or Alston. Honestly, both of my sisters-in-law are totally amazing women. They probably don't realize it, but they've both taught me a lot about life and opened my eyes to things I may have never considered for myself.

Enough sap. I'm done!