GO! Damn, false start. All Alli wants to do these days is walk. She can't quite do it on her own 100% yet, but she's taking lots of steps on her own before she plops down or falls over. Each day she manages to add another step on her own and is getting better at balancing herself without assistance. She's getting sooo close, it's not even funny.
I spent my entire Sunday with Alli while Mommy B was at work, and I think she's finally figured out that walking is much better than crawling. The funny part about is that she doesn't get up and walk somewhere because she's necessarily trying to reach a specific destination like she does when she crawls. You can tell that when she crawls, she's just trying to get to something or someone. Walking is so new to her that she just wants to explore... and walking gets her there faster than crawling.
All day long, she would stand up on her own and kind of hold her hands out to me as she began leaning forward. I would let her take her first few steps on her own and right as she was about to fall down, I would grab her arms and keep her upright. With this added security, off she would go... not even walking, almost running. Round and round we went - from the couch to the back door, around the dining room table, through the kitchen, around the corner to the back door again. Lap after lap we'd go - not trying to get somewhere, just walking to walk.
Finally, I took her outside to romp around in the open yard. And boy did she have fun! Now that the obstacles were out of her way, she was able to wander aimlessly without hesitation. As I've mentioned before, our backyard slants down away from the house, so gravity has helped out as well. I would just offer my two index fingers to hang on to, and off we'd go down the yard all the way to the fence at the back at what felt like a full sprint... giggling all the way. Not sure if it was Alli giggling or me, but either way it was entertaining to say the least. She then turned and headed back up the yard towards her swing like she'd been doing it for months. I have to say, it was a pretty fun afternoon - even though my back didn't agree later that evening.
Mommy B got to spend the entire day with her yesterday, and took things to the next level. Again, all Alli wanted to do was walk all day long. So, Mommy B would let her take as many steps as she could on her own, then grab her right before impact. Only this time, she would only offer one hand/finger for Alli to hang onto if needed. When I got home from work, I realized that we hadn't recorded any of Alli's "walking" yet, so I busted out the video camera and we took Alli to the backyard to show of her moves. I had to be light on my feet because the little girl just wanted to go, go, go!
I know these are the moments we're going to cherish when she gets older, so I wanted to make sure we got it on film. Ok, no one uses film anymore, but you get the point. When we came back inside, she walked a good six to eight steps in between Mommy B and I. At this rate, it could literally be any day now that she let's go of our hands and walks on her own for good. Quite the metaphor for things to come...
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