Tadpole is walking!!!!! (and some other stuff)

Tadpole started taking a few steps at a time a couple weeks ago, but has been really wobbly and unbalanced. She could take maybe five steps before crashing or toppling into someone, and she wouldn't let go of the furniture or my legs unless she had a very nearby destination in mind. Yesterday, at IKEA, she just took off, and she's been going ever since. She can't stand up without having something to pull up on, so once she falls, she finishes her journey by crawling. It is SO CUTE to see her walking along, waggling her hands in the air to keep herself balanced. Sometimes she grabs onto Turtle when she starts losing her balance and then they both go down (Turtle doesn't walk, but he pulls up and stands and will let go and balance for a while). The whole domino effect thing is pretty funny.

I'm going to write a post in a day or two about a blog I stumbled across about orphans. I've had a lot of stories pull at my heart lately. I guess I really am a bleeding heart liberal, but I've never understood how stories of orphans and sick children wouldn't make anyone's heart hurt. In any case, there was a post on this blog about a 4-week old Haitian orphan that broke my heart, and I mean that in a stronger way than I've ever meant it before. I've been crying off and on since I read it, and I'm in the process of figuring out how to channel my feelings into something worthwhile. I'll share it all in the next few days, once I've had some time to think about it. In the meantime, I'm trying to stop crying and keep my children in perspective, and remember again how incredibly lucky I am to have them.