Year 2: Week 8

Dear Zayde,


This week I learned that hands are for holding, particularly when it's time to get up and walk.

I've been holding onto furniture and walls for the last few weeks as I teetered around the house. In all honesty, balance is not my forte, but I'm getting the hang of shifting my weight from side to side and stomping down on the ground with each foot in turn. If Rome wasn't built in a day, I don't see how a small person like myself could learn to walk within 24 hours.

This repetition of controlled falling seemed at first like a fun distraction when I had nothing better to do and didn't need to get anywhere. Crawling has been a convenient and reliable form of locomotion for months, and I didn't see the point of changing my mode of transportation just because everyone around me is obsessed with my walking.

But this week I learned that holding onto someone's hands gives me the freedom to move away from the furniture, away from the walls, and to cross a room at an astounding speed. Now I know why everyone walks: it's exhilarating! Walking with someone is a joyous endeavor; we get to stroll around the house and the backyard, hand in hand, enjoying the scenery from the improved vantage point of two and a half feet above the ground. A gal could get used to this.

On a most likely unrelated note, I learned this week that Mommy has been securing furniture to the walls and locking heretofore easily explorable cabinets and drawers. Is she preparing for an earthquake? A hurricane? I can't imagine why she would need to batten down the hatches, so to speak, unless she were expecting a major upheaval. Should I be worried?


Handily,
Zelda