GROWING UP

I read somewhere that a kid is considered a competent walker when he can go 50 feet without falling. Well, today Jackson blew through that. He walked from our house to the end of the block, without falling once, without running into the street, with greeting several strangers along the way, and with a tremendous amount of toddler determination. And as Andrew pointed out, he wasn't even planning to worry about the kid's development until  he couldn't walk at 18 months, so the fact that he's a totally capable walker at 16.5 months is a nice thing.

On a related note, I made one last trip to Borders tonight before that chain closes for good (they're down to 30 percent off at the El Segundo location, in case anyone cares). I was browsing the book chaos while Jackson was happily pulling toys off shelves, and he caught the attention of a nice lady. He proudly announced "book!" and she launched into a enthusiastic response. Long story short, after chilling with Jackson for a while, she told me she was a speech therapist and that he was doing great on language development for his age, so that's another yay!

I'll try to post more videos soon. I want to get one of him walking at this age, and one of him saying all his toddler-y little mispronounced words before he grows out of them: "Bewwy" (berry) "Seeee-wee" (seaweed) "Dokee" (turkey) "Bobble" (bottle) "Ruck" (truck)