09.09.09 Brice Update.... yeah, a little late.

When I got home from work last night (late, of course because I was stuck in back to school traffic for over an hour) Graciella came RUNNING to the door to greet me. She had Brice in her arms. She told me to take a couple of steps backward and get down on my knees. I'm daring, so I did it. She put Brice down on the floor and turned my little man toward me. A big grin appeared on his face (like he had done something really, really bad). He stretched out his arms, let go of Graciella's hand and took four steps toward me. I was amazed. This, my little non-crawling, non-pulling up, non-sleeping baby was suddenly a toddler. I couldn't believe it so I turned him back toward her, let go of his hands and off he went.

Now let me be honest here. He looks like a drunken Frankenstein at best. What I'm calling walking is more like controlled falling to a non-parent. The fact of the matter is, he's loving it. Every time he walks, he falls into our arms with hysterical laughter which is totally contagious. Even Graciella's boyfriend who came over last night couldn't help but get down on his hands and knees to experience the B-man at eye level.

In other news, we have had three consecutive nights of sleep! Hooray! We haven't even had to endure hours and hours of crying to get this sleep. At 7:30pm I put Brice down in his crib, smooch his little forehead and walk out. I hear him on the monitor playing with his blanket and babbling but he doesn't cry and after fifteen minutes or so, he's typically asleep. Mommy usually follows about an hour and a half later (and yes, I did sleep until 4:30am on the couch the other night because Joel was too afraid to wake me or move me).

Finally, because walking and sleeping aren't enough for our kiddo, Brice accomplished the most amazing feat yet. He turned to me while we were snuggling in bed the other morning and said, "mom." He said it with a sweet, childlike feeling that made me think that he knew he should be saying it just to me. That feeling lasted about 10 minutes because as soon as he got up he also referred to Shamus, the desk chair, the remote control and a kitchen pot as "mom." I guess I'm not as special as I thought! Needless to say, its great to hear our little guy talking up a storm. Whomever told us, "Girls talk and boys walk" was totally wrong. Our Brice does both!