Fortune-ate Son

The weekend after Thanksgiving we were blessed with the opportunity to meet up with (if only for a short time and outside in the freezing cold) our good friends Lori (one of my closest friends since 5th grade) and Evan and their two adorable tots, Jack and Emme. It was the first time we had met Emme and the first time they had met River since they live in IA and we live in CO. Unfortunately, Emme had finally fallen asleep right before we met up so it was just Jack and River that got to hang out. Despite their major age difference (Jack just turned 5) they had a blast playing together.


As we were about to leave Jack gave River several plastic elephants that linked together to play with in the car and a fortune cookie. The fortune in the cookie read:

"The project you have in mind will soon gain momentum."

At first I thought it was pretty lame because River is only 14 months old, what kind of project could he have in mind? But, recently this fortune has become "prophetic." I use "quotations" because I do not believe fortune cookies are really prophetic ;) However, it is interesting because River has since gained momentum in what one might call a project...

He has FINALLY developed a real interest in starting to walk!

Over the past two weeks River has 1) taken 6-8 steps at a time on his own (10-20 steps at a time if he is pushing his toy lawn mower even though it only offers imagined support to keep him upright), 2) really taken to walking around as often as possible with the support of one or both of my hands, and 3) started moving from a sitting to a standing position without any support. He also has started purposefully turning while walking on his own to reach an interesting destination and often chooses walking over crawling. These are all HUGE developments for River. Previously I would have said that River wouldn't be walking by the end of the year. But now it is a very real possiblity!

So cheers to Jack, fortune cookies, good friends, and babies becoming toddlers!