The dangers of walking

Jacob and I have been frequenting the mall that happens to be right across the street from our corporate housing. It has a Target and Old Navy attached to it (2 stores I have grown to love since having a baby. I think I can officially say that I am no longer the fashionista that I used to be.) The best thing about this mall is that they have an indoor play area that's perfect for toddlers. Since Jacob is walking now, I like to take him there to practice his new skill. I can tell after only a few visits, he's gaining more and more confidence each day.

Here's the problem. Because he is still wobbly on his feet, he reaches for anything he can hold on to when he starts to topple over. At home, it's usually a piece of furniture, the wall, the cat, or my leg. Away from home, he has a whole other world of options.

So we're at the playground yesterday and I'm encouraging him to walk to the horse, then to the igloo, then to the tunnel, and he's just frankenstein-walking around. So I sit down to let him explore and he starts walking across the play area when I see him lose his footing. No big deal...this happens often. Sometimes he recovers on his own, sometimes he grabs onto something. Unfortunately, that "something" was a little girl in a pink sweater directly in his falling path. I'd say she was about 2 years old but, not surprisingly, the same size as Jacob. As if in slow motion, I jump up to try and rescue at least one of them, when Jacob just throws his arms around her and drags her to the ground. In my head I'm thinking "oh crap, her moms's gonna kill me!" I run over to find the little girl laughing hysterically and Jacob bawling his head off. I thought to myself "why are you crying? You tackled her!" ha. The little girl then proceeded to follow Jacob around saying "I'm sorry baby. I'm sorry. I'm so sorry baby." Her mom was very sweet and we got a good laugh out of it. Two seconds later he was off exploring again (ready to grab onto anything/anyone he could.)

Babies. They crack me up.

p.s. Unfortunately, I didn't capture his tackle on video, but I do have some video of him at the playground. Watch carefully as he almost collides with a little girl in a pink Gap sweatshirt. Apparently he loves little girls in pink.

I also got a cute pic of him looking at me through the tunnel.