Walking...ish.

What some people would call taking a couple of steps, stumbling and falling over, we're considering a triumph.

Holly has begun to take independent steps, which can only mean proper "walking" is on it's way. By proper steps, I mean she puts one foot in front of the other without being aided to stand and then (if we're lucky) we get the second foot moving in a walking motion followed (if we're REALLY lucky) by a third footstep. Then, there's the invariable wobble and drop.

When I picked her up from nursery today they were so excited to tell me of this. Apparently Holly was quite self congratulatory as well (in that hiccup laugh that she does so well).

The downside of this (if there is one) is that she's getting quite impatient with people carrying her. She's squirms out of your arms (if you're not lucky) and wants to walk with you holding her arms.

She is hands down the most determined small child I have ever come across (and a number of her key workers have said the same thing).

Rather curious how the flight to Australia is going to pan out later this month.

Free reign

On our trip to In The Night Garden Live yesterday we had a simple choice - take the pushchair or leave it?

Recently Emily has become a lot more confident in her walking in public and on longer jaunts than just around the garden or to the car. She's also a lot more receptive to commands - like holding her hand across the street, etc. Even when we go shopping, she'll obey if we say, "this way Emily." So obviously we were confident in our choice of leaving the pushchair at home.

Thankfully, our decision paid off.

We gave her free reign to wander where she wanted to, within reason, and except for the odd moment -  like trying to wander up and town the train car, she was good as gold.

She got  a bit ratty toward the end of the evening, but I can imagine that all the walking/running, combined with no afternoon sleep and the excitement of seeing In The Night Garden Live would have made her quite exhausted.

18 months old!

Today Emily is officially 18 months old. There's a lot to expect from a child at this age, the least of which is walking. Thankfully, she's able to walk unassisted and it's really just come on in the last month or so.

She's becoming her own little person more every day now, but she's still a joy to have around - even if her increased mobility has led to increased inquisitiveness (i.e. pulling things off shelves).

"You take the good, you take the bad..."

A quote from The Smiths seems to sum up the last year and a half - "18 months hard labour seems... fair enough". Just hoping the next 18 months are a little easier.

Toddler lethargy

With Emily walking unaided almost all the time, a side-effect has set in - tiredness. I think now she's exerting a lot more energy walking and balancing, it's really taking it out of her energy-wise.

Where before she'd go to bed around 8ish, she'd wake around 6.30am. Now she's going to bed at the same time and we're having to wake her around 7ish - teenager like.

I'm not sure where to go on this one. We either feed her more to get her calories / energy up; get her to go to bed earlier, which won't be easy; or just deal with it.

I'm hoping this is common amongst toddlers who start to get more active and doesn't point to something more sinister like toddler anemia or thyroid issues.

Walking - almost there

Sue and I have really been pushing Emily to walk. Every little trip that we could carry her or let her crawl we've been pushing her to walk.

This weekend, she's actually started to show a lot of the fruits of the labour. She's started walking further and further. Previously, it would be a few zombie steps between mummy and daddy (with arms held out, zombie fashion, obviously for balance). Now, she's wandering off, oblivious to the fact that she's walking. She's also dropping down on her bum mid-walk, but then standing back up, without needing to use anything for help or balance.

They say that by 18 months children are usually walking, and given how indifferent she was we really had no hope of achieving that. However, with the progress of the last few days, I'm placing good money on the "before 18 months" scenario.