First Assisted Steps!

This afternoon when Karston went potty, Cale had a moment of wishful thinking, and thought it was bath time! After all, we did tell him he was getting a bath in the evening, and bathtime starts with Karston going potty. I was helping Cale stand up after a diaper change, and he started to charge, so I held his hands and we ran to the bathtub! Although he had assistance from me the whole way, Cale took his first steps today. And these weren't hesitant steps, either! He was running!

I helped him walk after dinner and that beloved bath, and Cale was already much steadier at assisted walking this evening. I don't think he intended to run to the tub this afternoon, but this evening he enjoyed a few short, purposeful strolls. I know I've been saying it for a while, but I think Cale's just about ready to walk!

Chasing

Cale gets some strenuous exercise (and then sleeps well at night) when he and Karston play at Mimi's house on pretty days. When we dropped Karston off at preschool this morning, Ms Jan was telling us that they were a sight to see, with peals of beautiful laughter echoing through the neighborhood. The game is Chase: Karston drives his Big Wheels up the ramp and Cale chases after him in his walker. Yes, Cale hauls himself and a walker that weighs almost as much as he does up that ramp! Then Karston turns around and free-wheels down the ramp (easy) while Cale turns around and chases him some more (hard). Yesterday afternoon when we picked them up, we watched a few rounds of Chase. Karston lifts his feet and zooms down the ramp; Cale powers into it, little legs pumping fast, and chases him. Cale has very strong legs after a number of weeks of this! Cale eats well, sleeps well, and is surprisingly strong.

An Easter to Celebrate

Easter on its own is always reason to celebrate, but the last two have been especially special. Last year, of course, Cale was less than a week old when we celebrated Easter. This year it's a completely different reason, but we're still thrilled: Karston pooped on the potty! He knew when, he ran, and he didn't sit for long. His reward is a small football, and he loves it.

In more traditional Easter activities, Karston was adorable in his preschool Easter parade on Wednesday and he will still sing his "In My Easter Tie" song for you. He was not, ahh, just not very competitive at his preschool's egg hunt that day, though. The Easter bunny stopped by to hide two eggs for Karston to find that also happened to lead him to breakfast. This afternoon we joined Nadia and Tasha for a church Easter egg hunt, and he was much more intent on collecting many plastic eggs this time. In fact, his basket was overflowing! He enjoyed most of games there too.

Down

Cale just gave me a huge grin, as if to say Watch this Mommy!, crawled to the one-step edge between the living room and the sunroom with kids' toys, turned around at the edge, extended one leg, and confidently slid down into the sunroom. I've never seen him enter the sunroom on his own! He used to go forward until he crawled over the edge, did a face plant, and started to cry. Or he would crawl there, and cry with outstretched arms until someone helped him down. But now he goes by himself!

He's very proud of himself, and he laughed when he saw the surprised look on my face.

Lunch with Pictures

This afternoon we met Larry and Jen for lunch, like the old days, except Jen brought Nadia and Tasha because it's not the old days anymore! We all have kids now. Tasha jumped into my arms when she saw me, and said Beach? She really enjoyed the beach, even though we didn't expect it to "click" for a newly-two year old child. She gave me a picture that she and Nadia worked on this morning of us playing at the beach. I think we need to go back!

Uh-hunh

Cale seems to use the same baby words that Karston used, so Ha-da means play and Ah-da means again (so if you're playing with Cale and some aspect is really great, he says ah-da and we do that again; ha-da is to get you to start playing).

This morning before lunch, we went to the beach. (We thought about going to the Azalea Festival in Wilmington, but the kids didn't seem like they were ready for it. So we went to Emerald Isle instead.) Mostly I kept Cale in the shade since he can't run in the surf but watching the older kids would tempt him to try as hard as he could. However, when Nadia, Tasha, and Karston switched from chilly surf to sand castles, Daddy brought Cale over to join the fun. Daddy asked Cale, Ha-da? Ha-da? Cale gave him a wondering look, said Uh-hunh quite distinctly, and with a big grin, started playing with his daddy. First step from declarations to conversations!

We had lunch at The Bogue House (very tasty food, although Karston announced he doesn't like sweetened applesauce which is good news in my book) and met Rusty the town manager. He's a very happy person, good lunch company.