Madeline was reported to have taken five full baby steps while standing on Tuesday night. Word travelled fast about it through the parent network such that I didn't need to tell either pair of parents about it before they knew. I didn't even have to write about it. Since I was unable to see this first hand and I was interested in capturing some first steps video I tried multiple times to coach Madeline to reproduce the feat. My attempts were failures because the likelyhood of her taking a step on cue while the camera is set-up and she is coached to standing is about one in five thousand, or about the same as peeling back the prize on a McDonalds cup and winning something significant like a happy meal. I also don't have a video camera. I was trying to use my old Canon Powershot and it is becoming slowly more and more unreliable. She did take a couple of steps for me while the camera wasn't rolling so I can confirm Sarah's assertion that she is starting to walk.

Yesterday amidst the shuffle of the afternoon while Sarah was on a cell phone call in the living room and I was staring at the ceiling in Madeline's bedroom Madeline discovered that the coffee table is also a dangerous object. She lost her balance and landed with her lip on the table. So the next thing I knew I was helping Sarah to clean blood coming out of her lip and pressing ice in a paper towel onto it. I was also the guy calling the pediatrician's office to ask the question of whether she needed to have stitches or not and getting pushed to an answering machine. It was a messy scene but the end result was that Maddie didn't need stitches but does have a gross looking fat lip.

The night didn't go as well as normal. Madeline awoke at about midnight and wouldn't return to sleep. I tried bringing her into the bedroom and she felt that it was playtime in the bed. Then Sarah and I each tried a turn at rocking her to sleep in her room but whenever either of us loaded her into the crib she awoke. We then returned her into the bed where she continued to try to play and make dinosaur noises. Next we tried sleeping on the floor with her in her room or at least sleeping while she played with the toys, stood-up, and made Godzilla noises and motions including banging stacking cups. Finally she went to sleep for about an hour and Sarah moved to the bed while I slept on the floor but she awoke again and I brought her back to the bed where she nursed to sleep. It felt like a pretty long night and I am sure we lost some key sleeping hours. It was the kind of night where Sarah was wondering how or why two children are possible for anyone.

BUT she is walking, falling, and partying all night long.