“Do you remember when he learned to walk?”

Heather asked me this tonight in the kitchen long after Jakey was in bed.

We’re in a bit of a countdown to the young man’s second birthday and it makes us nostalgic about all the milestones along the way.

I recounted his pulling up onto anything that would support him, edging along walls and furniture, and then eventually toddling peg-legged and drunken the few paces between Heather and I seated opposite one another on the living room floor.

She mentioned his giggly little bursts of laughter at his own accomplishment.

How far he’s come.

He now manages the daily obstacle course of his local world: scaling, hurdling, maneuvering, crawling under, or jumping off of anything he comes across. He teeters and totters a lot and falls down less than before.

I submit this video as evidence of how far a year will take you.

He is a wonder.

Sure, he is doing the same things that billions of other children do around this age.

Yet, he is ours and he’s doing them for the first time.