Mr. Methodical Makes A Move

In the past week Sam has become Mr. Methodical. Everything he does is thought out and has a purpose. He now likes to put items into containers, and then take them out again. And then put them back in. And on, and on. Sometimes this means putting the plastic fork (that fell on the floor and has now been claimed as a toy) in and out of a compartment on his activity table with the left hand, then the right hand, then the left hand, etc. Sometimes it means moving balls in and out of the ball popper. The past few days its meant mastering the ring stacker - all the rings on, then all the rings off and to the left. The on again, and off an to the right. Then repeat, for 10 minutes. All by himself, without anyone in the room with him. Its fascinating to watch the level of concentration as he manipulates the items around him.

All of this concentration has lead to an increase in his stability. You see, it takes two hands to play these games. He's quite confident about standing "hands free" now, so we knew that more was coming soon...

On Sunday Sam was standing holding onto a bench at church. Daddy came down to his level and Sam let go to reach for him. While leaning towards Chris, Sam took two steps without holding onto anything! Of course he did it knowing he'd fall right into Daddy's arms, but he did it!

Then today he let go of the coffee table. I watched him from across the room as he eyed the couch. I could see his little brain thinking, "how far is it really? How many steps would it take? Can I do it?" And then he started...he took one big step and fell on his bum. And I got a tear in my eye, because baby boy took his first intentional step.