We interrupt this week of spectacular HBM programming (more Gloria Steinem! random crizzap about New York! the long-awaited eros post that will commemorate WonderBaby’s 10-month birthday!) to bring you the following news flash:

WonderBaby walks.

WONDERBABY WALKS.

Hell YEAH it’s blurry. She’s moving. Pretty fucking fast, too.

I think that she actually started walking a month ago, but I don’t know know how to evaluate these things. Is it walking when it’s one upright step? Two? Three? When it’s turbo-cruising at high speeds along any available furniture, animal or pant-leg? When it involves scaling walls?

Speed is reduced for purposes of climbing. The faint-hearted mother finds such baby-scale mountaineering nonetheless alarming.

You’d think that witnessing WonderBaby’s dance program would have prepared me for the full extent of her physical determination and prowess. That, and the fact that she’s been scaling her baby gates since 8 and half months.

Sadly, no. I was not prepared.

It all surprises me. Even the things that I think I am expecting – these things surprise me. It all surprises me.

Could someone tell me, please, when it is exactly that motherhood will stop feeling so consistently startling?

*********

I’m expecting Gloria Steinem’s response to our questions (yes! I snuck in more than one!) sometime this week. Likely after the launch of Greenstone Media tomorrow evening, which I am (omigodpinchme!) attending. In New York. City. With Liz. (Yes, you will hear all about it. Don’t you doubt it for a minute.) When I get Gloria’s response to our questions I’ll post that response, along with your other questions, which will, I hope, provoke much stimulating and fist-waving discussion.

Sometime after the weekend I’ll be doing a separate post with a list of all of your Call to Action posts. All of which are beyond wonderful. Please keep sending links. And remember that your calls-to-action needn’t focus upon conventional ’causes:’ if your family is your cause, write about that and about how you feel that makes a difference. If you feel that the best action is the sort that involves always saying please and thank you and being neighborly and helping the elderly across the street, write about that. The idea is to see how well we can demonstrate the force of writing as an impetus or inspiration to action. What that action is, exactly, doesn’t matter so much. If it makes a difference, makes the world a better place, it counts. So do, please, write about it, and tell others why they should consider doing it too.

In the meantime, to see such action in action, please visit the The 2,996 Project – an online tribute to the fallen of 9/11. Truly testament to the power of community and language.

**********

My blog-neighborliness has been sorely lacking lo these last few days, and can be expected to remain lackluster until I get back from NYC at the end of the week. So please forgive me if you haven’t seen me around. I’ll be back on my rounds as soon as my head stops spinning.