Walking

Walking, what freedom!

For Sage it started at 13 months. He'd been ready for months, walking from one piece of furniture to another. Suddenly he was ready to cut loose and stride across the room.  One of Sage's first walks included grasping a remote control for the TV in one hand and a play cell phone in the other. He was ready to be technologically ready for the world, now that he was walking in it.

Sage's walking reminded me of his dad, Justin, taking off when he was 11 months old. He went from walking around the house to walking behind his toy lawn mower. It started with him following his dad as he mowed the yard. It then became his way of unwinding after an afternoon in day care. He'd come home and walk out the back door with our dog and go all around the yard, mowing the yard. He became so attached to the lawn mower, that we made sure it went on visits to his grandmother Bettye's  house. He beamed as he showed her he could mow her yard too. She would smile, clap, and sit on the edge of her yard waving at him as he went back and forth over the lawn.

Justin's love of nature hasn't stopped yet. His first job was for a plant and tree nursery. He'd learned many skills over the years helping his dad, playing in the bamboo forest behind our house, planting flowers in his Ohio grandparent's house when they could no longer do it themselves. He learned even more from the nursery. Now he has a garden with cacti, rocks, and several incredible cedar trellis's holding grape vines.

Watching the generational passions flow in their own direction keeps me in awe. Sage has already watched his parent's love of nature take him all over Texas and New Mexico. He has gone on Sunday day-trips hiking, camped over-nite, and spent over a year in a front pack examining all the Austin trails and lakes. There is no telling where he'll be walking next!

Fear and Delight

Take an absolutely curious 2 ½ year old, add walking into a huge room with clear six foot tall tubes running up, across, and around a room and it might be too much. “Let’s go together,” you reassure. Slowly the shoes come off, the cautious steps are made to start the ascent into the maze.  The first time, caution rules every step and every corner.  Yet delight rules as she triumphantly slides down the tube at the end. 

Millie readies herself for the next run. “Come one Cece, let’s go!” Millie leads Cece, making sure she can navigate each step with her skirt as they move from a crawl to walking through the translucent duct taped clear tube.  Sliding down together completes Millie’s need to master her fears on the maze.

  After playing with the blocks, the pegs, and the wall balls, she’s off to the tubes to play with her parents making family shapes and sizes.

 

Tulsa’s new Children’s Museum is a delight for everyone. The science room was our next target.  Whether it is magnetic fields, vision delights, or lying on a bed of nails, there is plenty to challenge your thoughts in its exhibits. Lying on the bed of nails was Millie’s choice.

 First she had to watch her mom, dad and Cece prove it was safe, and then she was ready! There is nothing like watching eyes move from an intense stare to a sparkle, and a mouth move from a tense tight line to a broad open smile of delight.

 

Millie took the lead, she showed us what she could handle, and she led us through this new museum, including telling us when we had to go. The adults weren’t finished, but she had reached her limit. There’s always the next visit!