One small step for man...

Many of you know that Ryan and I are heading to Hawaii this Saturday on our first "child-free" vacation since Camden's arrival almost 14 months ago. Many of you also know the immense anxiety I am trying to fight off with leaving Camden here. Now, before you jump to the conclusion that I don't have faith my mother-in-law's child care abilities, let me remind you that I know what a fine job she can do taking care of little boys...I am married to her first attempt at child rearing and I'm pretty satisfied with the finished product. I did leave her a seven page (single spaced) document outlining every piece of information I could possibly think that she might need to know. Don't give me any grief, most of that is about how to program the coffee maker, use our gas range and activate the alarm system. It's not Camden or my MIL that I am worried about...it's me...

Along with all of the "normal" fears (that something will happen to Camden that would require a visit to the hospital for stitches or a cast...or a stomach pumping after all of the junk food he'll probably get while I'm gone) I also just had a fear of being disappointed... Meaning, I was afraid he'd accomplish some developmental milestone while we're away and I would miss it. I know, it's a selfish fear...but we've been working hard on certain words (ball, dog, bath, love you, etc.) and trying to take more than one step before face planting in the floor...and I was afraid that I would miss the fruits of all my labor.

Yesterday as I gave Millie a haircut and a bath Camden kept repeating "dog, bath...dog, bath" so I am pretty sure I can check those two words off my list. And (drum roll please) we've made the transition from the "one step-face plant move" to several steps with even a little balancing act in between. I wouldn't say he's "up and running" just yet - he's still much faster when he crawls so he'll opt to do that if he has to cover a long distance and sometimes his upper body is moving faster than his legs can go, but we've definitely hit a milestone in the fact that he'll even let go and take the 5-7 steps that allow me to comfortably get on the plane and take off.

Once he put his mind to this, he caught on really quick and went from the one step-face plant to the 5-7 steps in just a day and a half. I'm sure that as quick as he caught on to this, he'll be running circles around the house by the time we get back on the 31st...that is, if my MIL will put him down long enough to give it a try! :o)

One small step for man... from Mandy Jo on Vimeo.