Teo: Short & Stubborn

Our youngest son is adorable and infuriating, a paradoxical bundle of laid-back guy and willful monster. For four months we've known he could walk, was perfectly capable of taking unassisted steps if he chose to, and we've been waiting patiently, in an atmostphere of almost no pressure, for him to step up, as it were. Then last Sunday (January 15, 2006 for the record book), while my parents were visiting, they'd been here for less than an hour when my mother called out from the living room, where she was all alone with Teo, that he'd just taken two steps! Apparently he'd forgotten himself for a moment, taken the steps, and then when he realized what he'd done, looked terrified and plopped back down on his bottom. We tried to coax and cajole a repeat performance out of him for the rest of the day with no success. A week later he still won't walk, but he can get everywhere, including up onto and off the couches by himself, up stairs, pretty much anywhere he wants to be.

Last night after putting the boys to bed we turned on the baby monitor to check on them and heard Teo calling, "Mama! Mama! Mama!" over and over. Then this morning he woke me at 6:30 with the same work instead of his customary morning crying. He's not in any hurry, hasn't seemed to have the slightest bit of competitive drive (Luke started walking and didn't stop again after spending a day with our mom's group and seeing his age-mate, Caleb, walking around our house all day; Teo's reaction to seeing Caleb's brother Abe do the same when we got together a month ago: unimpressed.) and just seems to be having a grand old time. We could learn a lot from this kid.