Yes, I know in the title that it should be “Feet” technically, but then it doesn’t rhyme with “boots” does it, smartypants?

March 13th, this was the day that Nina started taking a stumbling real step before falling forward, instead of just falling forward. In fact she took two real steps. I’m going to be specific here, because she improved as time went on… She needed to gain complete balance with the help of parent, and could then stumble forward through two shaky steps before collapsing into the arms of the other waiting parent. This happened only a few times on this day.

March 13th, after seeing a Facebook slideshow that included Uncle Chris’s fun in Las Vegas, Ian held this up to my face and asked “Is this Uncle Chris?” I said “Of course it is.” See this image larger.

The irony is not lost on us that Nina has a medical cart as a toy, and has heart surgery this year. We want her to be more comfortable with this kind of thing, in general, and all of us to be more comfortable with the topic in general. See this image larger.

Melissa picked this cart up for cheap, and she couldn’t have done a better job. I think we were worried it was too tall, but the handle is SO high, that it actually forces Nina to achieve almost true front/back balance as she uses it, unlike most of the wheeled toys that we have. Daddy gives Mommy the engineering thumbs up! Is it a coincidence that her first steps also happened this day? Probably not. Again, awesome Mama! See this image larger.

This chart has changed how we deal with Ian. He gets a little circular magnet coin whenever he completes one of his responsibilities… or exhibits good behavior. He gets enough coins and we take a trip to the toy store. He seems to love it, and we’re much happier to have a little leverage. See this image larger.

Ian trying out a super-hero pose! You really need to watch the video I link to next to understand the significance of this image. See this image larger.

We have some great videos too, check these out!

Video
Click here to see the most entertaining video I’ve shown in forever. Watch it once, and then read this to see if you caught everything. First and foremost, Ian spends most of the video wondering when he is going to achieve a cool enough pose to warrant Daddy clicking the shutter on the camera and actually take a picture, not knowing that I’m using the camera to capture video, not still images. Meanwhile, in the background, watch as Nina stands up nicely, attempts to put her cup on the table, succeeds, gets it back down, and then climbs up a toy to get a better vantage-point. None of the things that she’s doing are first-time attempts, but certainly she’s never pulled them off with this much dexterity. Yes, you get to watch all of this happen in the same clip. This video reminds me what a privilege it is to be a parent, that these moments of hilarity and awesomeness can actually overlap, like planets aligning.