Firsts

There are moments in parenthood that are so brilliantly good that they cause the sleepless nights, diaper changes, and whiny days to melt entirely away.  These moments cause love to surge through my veins the way adrenaline does in an emergency until I am so full of joy and overwhelmed with happiness that I want to burst, or at least jump up and down.  We had a stellar day here at the Sullivan house yesterday.
It started with a trip to Target, where I thought Harry could use some art supplies to make Halloween decorations.  We bought safety scissors, glue sticks, and a big pack of construction paper.  Once home I set out to teach my boy how to cut for the first time, but it turns out that he is a natural when it comes to art and crafts (be still, my beating artist's heart!).  He took the scissors from me, held them properly, and proceeded to cut for the next hour and a half, all the while yelling in fits of glee "I'm cutting, Mom!  I'm really doing it!"  he was so delighted and proud of the cutting that I had a hard time getting him to glue the pieces he had cut onto another sheet of paper, but once he understood the concept of the glue stick there was no slowing him down.  He would have happily glued little confetti-like bits of paper all over the house had I let him.  He made a picture for Brendan, and the excitement and exuberance with which he greeted his dad last night was something that, if bottled, would run all of the cars in the nation for a year.  We could not help but giggle and be excited with him as he told Brendan all about scissors and cutting and glue, jumping up and down as he spoke, and pointing at the picture he had created for Brendan to take to work.  And every time we reminded him of the picture he'd made we got the same reaction, exuberance and excitement that were barely contained.  We had another scissors session last evening after an early dinner, in which I showed Harry the techniques for accordion style paper dolls, crown making, and paper airplanes, all of which he promptly cut into little pieces, starting with the heads of the paper dolls.  At first I was concerned, because that seemed a little gross, but he assured me he was only giving them haircuts.  Harry's imagination is alive and well, and I foresee many art sessions in our near future.
After we cleaned up the confettied floor (which both Emma and Harry helped to pick up) we migrated to the living room, where Emma proceeded to take her first steps!  She would plunk down on her knees after the fourth step or so each time, but she was definitely walking!  We cheered her on, she laughed incredibly cute belly laughs, and eventually sat right down to clap for herself and say "yay!"  I jumped up and down, clapping myself, quite unable to control my excitement as my daughter went from baby to toddler before my very eyes.  Brendan was clapping, our friend, Liz, did a happy dance, and Harry cheered and clapped, too, yelling "Go Emma!"  I wish we had it on film, but we were so captivated by her sudden progress that none of us thought to grab the camera. 
My heart is full today. 
As an aside, I am wondering is anyone else's kids make their big milestones when they are overtired?  We have noticed with both of our kids that when they miss their naps or are up later than usual they make leaps in their development, whether it be language, walking, etc.  Just curious.