California, here's to thee

The little dude and I are visiting my parents for a few days. My mom has been having some nasty back trouble and we thought she could use a little distraction and some cheering up. Mateo happens to have excellent skills in both areas! So, we flew down yesterday.

Let me just say that flying with an 11-month-old is somewhat challenging. He's adopted a new behavior recently, which involves dramatically throwing himself backwards and screaming whenever something happens that he doesn't like. For example, if you're trying to get him to stop yanking on the seat in front of you. Or if you're trying to get him to stop flinging ice chips all over the airplane's floor. Or if you're hoping that he will nurse off to sleep but he doesn't feel like lying down at all, much less nursing. So, as our baby group teacher advised last week, I practiced my labor breathing (funny how it's so much more helpful when you're not in agonizing, debilitating pain) and we got through the flight in one piece!

Since we've been here, just as Sacha predicted, M has made some huge strides in the walking department! In the Oakland baggage claim, he took probably 10 steps as my mom and I watched in amazement. It was very cool. He's become a lot more confident and will take several steps here and there. I think he's slowly ramping up to walking all the time. My mom said that she would consider him officially walking now, so I guess we really have a walker on our hands! We're very proud. And a little tired just at the thought of it.

Yes, Mateo is a busy, busy, busy boy. He is everywhere, doing everything. Today, we went out on a little shopping trip and he made sure to inspect everything, especially the brightly-colored flower planters, as we went around the shopping center. He loves to push his stroller around all over the place, including down the bike trail behind my parents' house. We had a little social hour out there last night, with us moving about two feet in five minutes and talking to lots of people passing by. It's pretty fun to see the world from his perspective. I keep looking at him and thinking "wow, we have a kid!". Even after 11 months, it still just blows me away. I think we must be the luckiest two girls and little walking boy in the whole wide world.