Sneezing, Coughing, WALKING!!!

We have had a couple very interesting weeks around our house.  The beautiful part is that we have had a lot of extra time with Cael.  The not-so beautiful part is that all of this quality time has come in the form of a variety of sick days. 

Our little guy has faced just a bit of physical adversity in the past year ...

Exhibit A - First bug bite at 4 months (I know you can barely see it on his forehead but it seemed dramatic at the time):

Exhibit B - Week-long stomach bug at 8 months:

We've been blessed that those examples have largely been the extent of Cael's health drama to date but he made up for those smooth 11 months in the past two weeks.  Runny nose, hacking cough, ear infection and RSV were just the start.  Then we added a lovely little rash called Impetigo:

We finally cleared up that craziness and scored a big scratch and first black eye courtesy of the fireplace:

We topped off all of this excitement with a quick but dramatic stomach bug last night.  I'll spare you those pictures.

Needless to say, we want our little guy in one piece but we've been thankful for the extra time to love on Cael.  These past two weeks have given us a chance to closely watch him hone his latest and greatest skill ... WALKING!

We knew it was just a matter of time until he took off on his own since he was using everything he could get his hands on to walk around the house ...

his walker ...

his scooter (yes, there's a dog leash on the scooter) ...

and even my air-drying laundry.

But all of that practice made perfect when Cael took his first real set of steps this past weekend ...

... and he's been on the move ever since.