Sealing the deal as the favorite granddaughter

By virtue of being the only grandson, Connor has always held the position of favorite grandson. Even when he went through his rather long phase of classifying the world into “mommy” and “not the mommy” - and as you might imagine, he was not excited about members of the second category - he held the distinction of being the only male offspring in his generation, thus retaining the title of favorite. Competition is a bit stiffer for favorite granddaughter.


But, I have to be proud of my little gal for putting her best foot forward – literally – to lock the title up. There I was, taking a nap (yes! a nap! Did I mention how much I love it when my parents visit?) when I heard “Helen – I think those count as your fist steps!” and quick as could be, I bolted out of bed (OK, so I wasn’t actually sleeping at that point, I was just laying in bed loving that not one person was demanding anything of me) and headed for the camcorder. Carefully, I maneuvered my way around so that Helen didn’t catch a glimpse of me (after verifying that indeed, she could take a couple of steps) and recorded the feat. Of course, I still haven’t figured out how to move that video from my camcorder to this medium (damn technology), but perhaps once Vickie settles in with her new babe, she’ll help me out.


My dad surely remembers the hours he spent as he was recovering from brain surgery and babysitting Anna (the first granddaughter) trying to teach her to crawl, only to have her crawl at my home after Ed made it too dangerous to not crawl in our home. You see, Ed had no idea that the enormous boulder that sits atop a baby’s shoulders is very heavy. Anna was in our kitchen and she looked like she could crawl, if only she’d pick her behind up. So Ed provided an assist, only to see her entire body lurch forward as she face-planted into our floor. The next day, there was no more fake crawling for Anna. Nope, she crawled right over to Ed’s CD collection and attempted to wreak havoc on it.

Anyway, Helen is not walking yet, per se, but she is awfully interested in walking, and regularly will take a couple of steps. She’s gone from needing two hands to assist her when walking to only needing to hold on with one. She cruises like nobody’s business and can move her shopping cart and two other walkers pretty much anywhere she needs to go, so long as no backing up is required.