You have your fear, which might become reality; and you have Godzilla, which IS reality.

She's walking! Or at least she's very very close to walking. Yesterday, out of nowhere, she stood up and took eight steps. She's such a good crawler now that she just hasn't been interested in walking, and I don't blame her. If I could get away with people me carrying me most everywhere I went, I would. So she'd take a few steps here and there, and cruise along the furniture, but now I think she's really catching on to how walking can change her little world. And it terrifies me. Sure, there are good things about her learning to walk: I can put her down in a public restroom and not worry about her being covered in a million diseases. She can walk from the car to the elevator when my arms are full of groceries. But she can also run away (she crawled under the bathroom stall the other day while I was helping Reece go potty. He was mid-stream and I couldn't just put him down and she certainly wasn't coming back...Thank goodness for nice women who stop mine from escaping, or worse). And reach a higher shelf of books (which she will subsequently throw on the floor). So here's to a new toddler in the house, a new level of independence for said toddler, and a new level of difficulty in parenting. Good thing she's so cute. And so proud of herself for her big accomplishment. I just wish she'd slow down a little so I can enjoy it a bit longer.

Also, I realize it's been a very LONG time since I've posted anything. We've just been having too much fun. I'll fill in the blanks eventually. For now, please enjoy some serious cuteness:

Okay, so it's not letting me upload any more videos. For now, this is all you get. This was supposed to be one of three videos in the sequence, to show how she acts when she's tired. She gets pretty hilarious, just kind of laying around and waiting for us to put her in bed (it was 7:30, by the way, so she's being a bit melodramatic).