I had to lie on the floor to get this angle, but I felt, without linking you to video of them on YouTube, which I'd prefer to avoid, thanks, that these shots best demonstrated their walking 'style'. It's hilarious. Morgan started out walking like Charlie Chaplin, and it made me wonder if Chaplin, genius that he was, invented his walk after watching babies take their first steps. Liam's walk is more of a determined drunk, but both of them improve their gaits by the day, and are getting around quite well. There was a period where Morgan used the weight of her head to advance or slow down. The further forward she leaned, she learned, the faster she would go, and by straightening up and leaning backward, she could slow herself down and stop before hitting the wall. It had its flaws, and after a few faceplants, she gave up on that method. Liam's stopping plan was much simpler. He would just fall down when he wanted to cease advancement. It worked for a while, but when he started to pick up speed, the falling-down-to-stop method hurt a little too much to stick with.
Unfortunately, because they kept running at me while I was lying on the floor in the gated community that is our living room (it's their playroom, really - and yes, there are always toys everywhere), many of the shots are fuzzy - but I kinda like the 'action shot' effect, especially on the first two pictures in this post. The shot above has a really neat trail coming from a toy Morgan is dropping, (babies love dropping things - gravity is fascinating to them) and Liam's hands are a blur from swinging them wildly. In the second shot, Liam looks like he's doing the Monster Mash or something, and the two of them walking away looks like they're leaving a wake of toys as they plunder through.
This third picture is funny (to me) for a couple of reasons. First, it's Morgan's turn to come at me, and I wanted to call the picture "Jazz Hands", for the obvious reason...but she was coming at me so quickly that I had to rush, and I didn't even notice that my finger was in the shot (Janne had to point it out to me - I was so focused on Morgan), so we'll call it "Dumb Dad" instead.
This next one has nothing to do with their walking, but it just reminded me a little of Robert DeNiro's expression in Taxi Driver when he says, "You talkin' to me?"
...And this is a perfect example of the enjoyment-of-the-wrapping-paper-more-than-the-gift syndrome. The gift was plural, actually - really cool growth charts for both Morgan's and Liam's rooms from their "Auntie" Robyn - a gift which they will eventually appreciate - but it's good to see that they're normal babies, and prefer the ripping of brightly coloured wrapping paper into little pieces and spreading the love around.
