Zombies and Alleluia!

Ryan is now walking, and I have been struck in the face by the reality that my baby is almost a toddler. Yesterday I was in the kitchen when I heard a little pitter patter behind me. Normally I know exactly when and where Ryan is crawling around because of his excited baby pant. "Huh! Huh! Huh!" marks the cadence of his hands and knees, and I know that he will be grabbing at my ankles soon after I hear his gleeful breathing. This time I turned around to see him in the doorway standing sturdily while he took a break from his walk to the land of whisks and potato mashers, his favorite kitchen utensils. Seeing him there on his two tiny feet pressed the fast forward button in my imagination, and I envisioned him standing at the door on the way to school, waiting on the field for a football game to start, waving goodbye as we left him at his college dorm, and watching his bride walk down the aisle. 

Whoa, Mama, slow down! 

I came back to the present when Ryan started his exuberant wheezing that he does about a hundred times a day like when he spots that the bathroom door is open and adventure (and toilet paper) lies within. He wheezingly waddled over to me, found his whisk and went about making some music on the floor while being completely oblivious to his sappy mother's emotions.  Blissfully a baby...key word is baby, not toddler...yet.

Well, since I have now caused myself to tear up (and can hear Chris chuckling in my head about his overly emotional wife), I would like to move on to tell you about Ryan's variety of walking styles. Sometimes he takes a lot of tiny steps on his toes quickly when he is super excited, while other times he just moseys around slowly like he is on a Sunday stroll. Here are my favorites: 

This one is the, "I like to act like my dad and stick my tongue out whenever I'm concentrating on doing something." Sadly, Ryan's tongue has already suffered a bite because of this technique. 

Like father, like son.

Then we have the "Christmas Story" walk. 

I can't put my arms down!

I call this one the, "Praise Jesus! Alleluia!" walk. 

Alleluia! Amen!

Now we have the "The Walking Dead" stagger. As Chris observed this weekend, "Ryan is basically a mini zombie. He staggers around aimlessly with his arms out and tries to eat anything he can get his hands on." Someone watches a lot of The Walking Dead...

Ryan looks much cleaner than a real zombie.

Which walking style is your favorite?