First Steps

Mark sent me a text message to let me know that River took his first steps this evening. Mark had gone grocery shopping and was putting away the groceries. Unsurprisingly, it was food that first motivated River to walk. He wanted to see what Mark was putting in the refrigerator, so he walked to the kitchen, even negotiating the bump that divides the kitchen from the adjoining room and walked to the refrigerator.

“I was cheering wildly for him,” Mark said. “But he didn’t seem to appreciate it.”

My Russian friend Marina said that River is probably scared of walking. She thinks he will only do it when he is focused on a particular goal (such as seeing what goodies dad has bought) and is not thinking of what he’s doing. If he actually realizes he’s walking, he becomes scared.

“It was a very random surprise,” Mark said. He just turned around and suddenly saw him walking.

Of course, I’m very sad to not have been there to see that. I’m doubly sad that because I took the camera and the videocamera with me, Mark had no way to record it.