Paces of Life

Another day, another milestone. Such is the pace of life...

~A couple of days ago, as we went to "read" his jigsaw puzzle storybook (thanks Mitsi, great Christmas present!), Charlie told me to not help him. So I held back and watched in amazement as he worked the jigsaw pieces and put them together all by himself!



Charlie and his "dude" Alex, riding their horses as cowboys. Charlie's horse was also eating the grass.



~And while Charlie's been able to undress himself for awhile, just in the last week or so he's also started dressing himself. He can put on his own socks and pants. Which means he has an outfit change every few hours. Although it's still quite cool outside, he will go change out of his pants and into basketball shorts. I guess he's just exercising his newfound freedom (choosing what to wear and when to wear it).



~Speaking of exercising new freedom, Chance has hit a big milestone in the last couple of days: he can get DOWN the stairs. He's been able to crawl up the stairs for months, but it was the getting down that I worried most about. So he finally figured out how to do it, and efficiently. So after lots of practice, today I let him go up and down without Mommy hovering over him. So he worked about half a dozen trips all by himself! Pretty soon we'll be able to take the gate down! Woohoo! Seems like we just got it up...





And about this newfound skill of Chance's, this is another way that he is so different from Charlie. I'm realizing this is truly a personality issue, not something that is necessarily learned. Charlie just naturally works at a more hurried pace (and has since infancy) and therefore gets hurt a lot more than Chance. Chance's pace is just a little slower, more time for thought, not so pressed for action. He's not a lazy kid by any means, but he is just less active. These guys give me a good way to see how Chuck and I vary so much in our pace... I prefer to go fast, throw caution to the wind, get a thrill... Chuck prefers to think things through, and cannot stand being rushed. We just have different paces. Personally, I wish my pace was a little slower... How about you?