"Do not go gentle into that dark night..." OR Nancy Sinatra Would Be Proud

Dear Ian,
Today is a momentous day. This morning you took your first steps! Thankfully our blog posts have time stamps, so you will be able to look and see that today is September 14, and that you are five days away from your 11th month-day. It was around 8:45am, too. :) But just in case, the "First Steps" sticker is already on your calendar.
Anyway, you were standing holding on to my legs, and Daddy got down about three feet away from you and held his arms out, and off you toddled to him. It was a grand total of about two steps and a lunge, but it counts!
The quote from Dylan Thomas' poem at the title of this post is descriptive of your walking progress. You are definitely not "going gently" into this toddler-hood thing. This morning you really seemed to want to walk. The past couple of weeks, you had been doing more of the one-handed cruising, and you had more interest in your push walker, but that is small potatoes compared to today. You were a dare-devil! First it was a let-go-of-the-chair-and-lunge-for-the-ottoman. Then you expanded your reach from letting go of the chair to reaching for something about two feet away. Good grief. No, gently is so not the word for it. More like careening. Sheesh. You practiced and attempted to take steps most of the morning, and between 7:30 and 7:45am, you had already hit your head about four times. Mommy is going to call Miss Laurie today to dye my hair back to brown to cover the gray you have given me just this morning.
The crazy part was, you did NOT want help. I'm not that bad of a mother that I would just let you bounce off furniture unassisted. I tried to help, but every time I touched you, you would shriek, plop down on the floor and bat my hands away. You are SO my child.
But then, about an hour after your last run-in with furniture, you managed to propel yourself forward into the arms of your Daddy. It was amazing! We were so proud!
So, Sweet Boy, "Do not go gently into that dark night..." that is growing up. Despite the fact that it's a long and bumpy road and therefore hard work, the rewards (walking, running, running away from Mom, independence) are so worth the risk and effort.
And to cover the other part of the title, and to paraphrase the late, great Nancy Sinatra and her hit, "Boots"
"you were made for walking, and that's just what you'll do!"

Love always,
Mommy