Look at this!

Doesn’t Coraline give a convincing impression here that she’s taking some of her very first steps?

But take a closer look at the toes…

Do you see how firmly curled up they are?  How decisively rooted to the ground?

In fact, our girl loves to be on her feet, and can stand unassisted for quite some time now, but has still yet to venture a single step without support.  And as for this picture…

In the immortal words of Woody, it was merely “falling with style.”  Only, perhaps, without the style.

She will be 14 months old this week and could really take the plunge any day now, so, by our family’s standards, she’s right on track.  Plus, you know, she’s super cute, so we’ll keep her, even if she’s not exactly a motor skills prodigy.

Meanwhile, the boy…

…lost his very first tooth today!

I was so thankful when Niko came home 10 months ago that he still had all his baby teeth (Romilly, his twin but for three weeks, had already lost two by that time).  It made me sad to think of him possibly having had that rite of passage without the proper fanfare.  But I did expect them to start falling out pretty soon after, and he kept us waiting!  Finally, when they extubated him after his surgery in September, one of his bottom teeth was knocked wobbly.  Even then, it took its time, but today was the day, at 6 years 9 months old.  And he was so delighted.  We ceremoniously put it under his pillow, and we called Daddy at work to tell him the news.  It was a happy day.

A week today, if all goes according to plan, will be another happy day: Niko is having his halo removed!  Although he has seemed completely unbothered by wearing it, I will be very excited to have my little boy back in a more easily cuddlable form.  It will be nice, too, not to have to carry straws in my purse all the time and to be able to pull shirts over his head again.  It is worth noting, though, that he has not been confined exclusively to front-opening shirts for three months as we initially thought he would be.  After about a week home from the hospital, in a desperate need for variety, he discovered that he can actually wriggle into most of his shirts feet first.  “See, Mommy?  I no needa button shirt.  I so skinny!”