Holding Hands and Going to Church

I've been pretty excited ever since Jack started walking. It meant that if I just had to run in somewhere to make a return, I didn't have to bring the stroller in the store. Granted, it still wasn't easy since he usually either wanted to wander off or try to climb up my leg while crying very loudly, and I still had to carry him since he always chose not to walk. But the one thing I've been waiting for is the day he would hold my hand and walk with me into the store instead of wanting to be carried in. I see toddlers all of the time walking into stores with their parents, but not Jack. He would plant his feet down and cry to be carried. 

Today seems to be the day I've been waiting for!

It started earlier this week when we got to school at the same time as Charlie and his mom. Jack saw Charlie walking to class and made it a good 20 or 30 feet before he stopped and said "carry you" and wouldn't move his feet another inch. Then, at the movie theater yesterday, he held hands with me to walk to the bathroom.

Jack was a sleepy head this morning. He slept until 8:45! It gave me enough time to get myself ready for the day and decide that I would try to take him to church. He got up and ate a quick breakfast, and we had just enough time to make it to the 9:45 service. He walked all the way into the church and to our seats. We only made it through about 30 minutes before we had to leave, but he did well. A few comments by him were met by giggles from the people around us. After an applause, he would say "Good job!" and in the middle of prayers he would say "Amen!" At one point, shortly before we left, he reached up to play with the hair of a girl sitting in front of us. She turned around and he said "Nice hair" and then he started getting fussy and said loudly "Let's go home." So we left before he managed to say something too embarrassing!

After church, we went to Target to get a magna doodle. He loved playing with it at Melissa's house so, of course, I had to get one for him. I was so excited to have him walk into Target since that's where I see the most toddlers doing the same. More walking followed when we went over to Ranweiler's for a little visit and the same goes for getting the mail when we got home. He even walked around in the snow in our back yard for a little while — I had to pull him around in his sled when he came carrying my boots into the kitchen and asking politely to play in the snow.

That's it for this novel of a post. I put Jack down for a nap just before starting this and I still hear him chattering away :-)