ZMC – He’s a biped folks!

Yes, FrankenZach has arrived. As many of you know, Zach took his first steps by himself on Mother’s Day – May 13th. Since that moment, he has been practicing his walking more and more, generally back and forth between two people. He is called FrankenZach because of the Frankenstein way he (and all new walkers) holds his arms out in front of him, or above his head for balance. This past weekend, with his Nana in town, something finally clicked in Zach’s head about walking. He realized that it could be used to go where he wanted to, not just a fun thing to do for short distances. On Saturday, we were at the Palace Loo in Apeldoorn, Netherlands, and he started walking on his own quite a bit, with some idea of where he’d like to go. Then on Sunday, before we had to take Nana back to the airport, he finally got it – he was able to walk where he wanted. And BOY DID HE! He started walking all over the house, from the bedroom through doorways and into the kitchen. Turning around, stopping, bending down, all things he mastered on Sunday. It was amazing really that once that bit of info clicked he was like a madman. I was shocked to be in the kitchen, turn around and see him walking into the kitchen. Crazy. Now walking is his primary means of transportation. He crawls only when he needs to pull up on something to continue walking – he has not learned how to stand up on his own yet. So now begins the onerous task of teaching him to not walk off, and that he has to hold onto the stroller or our hand when we say so. Sigh. When did he get so big? I guess it is official, we now have ourselves a toddler.