I've been working overtime lately. We all have. I started a new, part-time benefited position at my job (yay health insurance - yay schedule and job stability - yay for doing it all part-time) but kept a ton of my previously scheduled shifts from my on-call job. So that basically meant working full-time for the last couple of weeks, without two days off together for over three weeks and basically.....it's been a grind. Adam's parents came in for a few days to take care of James, and my mom has been staying over one night a week, so we had extra help which we were really grateful for. I finish up another long week starting Thursday, and finally starting next week will be working 3 days one week, 4 days the next. Pretty dreamy. I love being a social worker, love my career, love my baby and love my days both at work and at home. So it's the best of both worlds. Plus we all get medical care. Did I mention the health insurance? Sick time, vacation days, 401(K)s are great but...mostly we're stoked about going to the doctor visits.
Speaking of things to be stoked about, I absolutely love the stage of development that James is in right now and wish I could pause him here for a bit. He's just so much fun, a great sleeper, starting to say words, plays games like Patty-Cake, likes to dance to music, and smiles and laughs all the time. He's been ahead of the curve for most of his physical developmental milestones (rolling over, crawling, cruising, etc.) so it's been suggested by many that he'd be an early walker. I don't care at all what rate things happen - if anything, I already miss stages of James's babyhood that have passed and wish he'd slow down. Adam's been saying for weeks that James would be walking by his first birthday, and I'd just shrug it off. The range of "normal" for all milestones is so huge I see no point in expecting babies to hit certain things by arbitrary dates. Many times, James would be standing a chair or couch or somewhere and reach his hand out for me, wanting me help him walk over. But I wouldn't always do it. Much of the time I'd just plop him right back on his bottom and give him a toy. I see no ethical qualms with working moms doing some harmless retardation of their babies' physical growth when we already feel like it's passing by too quickly and want more of what we miss out on. The honest truth is that I've also secretly feared I'd miss the sacred milestone of his first steps, given the highly likelihood of it happening during my workday. Plus James has been so close for a long time, loves pushing his little alligator push cart, standing, and cruising along anything he can get his hands on.
Fast forward to October 1st, 2012. James has just turned 10 months old. I'm home from work, James and I are listening to reggae in the living room and catching up together. Adam is working in the office next to the living room. I'm tired, having just kicked off my high heels and relishing the sweet smiles and games I'm playing with my babe. James is standing at his activity table, playing with the piano keys and looking over at me a few steps away. And then, just like that, he stood tall and confidently raised his arms up. He looked over at me, smiled, and walked to the couch. He put one miniature, chubby little foot in front of the other and lunged forward. About five steps later arrived safely at his destination (couch) and didn't even notice he'd done it. I called in Adam immediately, and pulled James back to me. He stood up again, and walked another 5 steps to Adam. I cried happy tears. Adam laughed. Never have I felt such joy as watching my beloved sweet baby boy walking all by himself. He glanced over at his delighted parents, totally unaware of anything except our smiles.
And that's how it happened.
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