Big Steps

Charlotte started pulling up on furniture at the end of January -- at 8 months.  Most of the babies that I knew weren't pulling up at this stage so I expected her to pull up for a while, move to cruising, and be walking fairly early.  I apparently walked at 10 months and Jason walked around 11 months so we were expecting somewhere around that timeframe.  However, Charlotte wasn't really interested in starting to walk.  She continued to pull up on things and would cruise but there was next to no interest in taking steps by herself.  That was great with me (it's much easier to chase a crawler than a walker!) just different from what I expected.  I guess I should have learned by now that that last sentence basically describes motherhood as a whole -- it's great, but different from what I was expecting!

Charlotte started standing unassisted pretty well in early May.  At that point she started taking steps from Jason to me and vice versa but wouldn't branch out on her own -- we had to stand her up and entice her to walk back and forth.  The Thursday after her birthday (May 27th) Charlotte first took off from the ottoman to me unprompted.  I consider those to be her first steps since they were the first ones she took because she made up her mind to take them!  Cut to now, almost a month later, and Charlotte is just not starting to take off on her own.  Last Thursday she left the kitchen cabinets to just walk around the kitchen until she fell down and this has continued with her going farther and farther each time. 

While I'm excited to enter this next stage it's also bittersweet because once she starts walking she won't need to be held as much anymore and will really be a "big girl" instead of a little baby.  Also, just to be honest here, it's going to take a much closer eye from me to make sure she's not getting in to trouble! :)  So last night when I was talking on the phone to my Mom and telling Charlotte "good girl!" while she walked around the kitchen clapping for herself while she walked Mom asked me to take some video.  Hey, there's an idea Jennifer, let's record these precious first steps! So I dutifully got out the video camera and got some video of C walking.  This will probably only interest the grandparents (it is about 5 minutes long) but for anyone else, enjoy watching some of Charlotte's first steps!


Charlotte June 28, 2010 from Talesofa Peanut on Vimeo.