Walking days are over

I love taking walks while pushing Andy in the stroller, but he's getting to an age where he wants to walk himself. It's fun to watch him walk, but it prevents me from getting the exercise I could use. We have a new routine of walking over to the park right by the pool across the street. There is a cute little path that goes over a small bridge over a creek and he likes to walk over and stare at the water. It's fun to watch.

Unfortunately, with all this walking he's also scraping his knees up a good bit as he manages to wipe out pretty regularly, even if I'm holding his hand. Most of the time he shakes it off, but his knees are quickly getting cut up from the cement. You'd think that would make him prefer the grass, but he doesn't like walking on it much. He's also almost figured out how to stand up without holding onto something. Right now, when we play with the basketball hoop that is now in the driveway, he can bend all the way down and stand back up, but he hasn't quite gotten to getting himself into the squat position from sitting down. I think it's soon though. I also think he's coming up with some new words. He babble seems more deliberate as if he's really saying something. Plus, I think I hear words (Bjorn thinks I'm imaginging it), but I hear him point to the light and say "la" and now after I give him something, he says something close to thank you, at least with the syllables and the inflection.