The High Price of Walking.

That's how Julia looked two months ago when she was satisfied holding my hand while practicing her walking. The only color on her face you could see was on her rosy cheeks. Since she started walking on her own, she became Little Miss Independence; refusing to hold my hand, running away from me, climbing up the stairs, crawling across a tunnel in the park and going down the slide on HER OWN. Three days ago in the park, Julia rolled over the staircase while walking down the stairs by herself and got black and blue bruise on her forehead. The next day, she tripped on a sandy baseball field and scratched her nose and cheeks. Today she fell on her face in the playground while running after Olivia and cut open her gums and bruised her (now swollen) lip. At this rate, the local volunteer ambulance corp will soon know us all by first names.
I'll consider ourselves lucky if we don't end up in the emergency room. (Who said that girls were easier?) So far, Julia has been more of a troublemaker than David. Even though she started walking about 2 months later than he did, she's made up for it!
Anyway, there hasn't been any damage to her that won't heal in time, but until she becomes more proficient at walking and climbing (or at least understand that walking downstairs isn't possible when your legs are shorter than the step), we'll have to keep on our toes and keep one step ahead of her.