Lucky Thirteen
[This entry is written by Chris]
Natalie turned 13 months-old this past Monday. Over the past few weeks she’s been practicing walking a lot, taking a few unassisted steps every day, but usually while clutching one of our fingers or pushing her walker. Before Monday, she’d been very reluctant to walk on her own.
When I got home from work on Monday night, it was like a whole month had gone by. She was walking all over, very deliberately and with much more skill. She toddled over to me with a book and held it out for me to read.
When I asked, “do you want to sit in my lap?”, she climbed right into my lap. She’s always liked sitting in my lap, but I usually have to pick her up and place her there. Then she practically read Moo, Baa, La La La to me, pointing at the animals and making all the right noises. It was surreal to witness such an enormous developmental leap in that short a period of time.
Here’s a video Amy and I put together showing her walking progress over the last few months:
Since we made this video her walking skills have been accelerating exponentially. She’s now much more independent and pushes us away when we try to hold her hand while walking.
That made me cry! I can’t believe she is old enough to walk. She is the cutest little kid I have ever met.
That is hilarious. I love the “false starts.” She’s very persistent. I’m sure we’ll be there soon.