The forty-sixth week

Madeline has been taking lots of her own steps this week. Always eager to walk, she'll crawl up to us and deliberately grab our forefingers, swing around and begin to walk forward. If we happen to be sitting when this happens, Madeline gets agitated and begins to fuss. She wants to walk.

So she's starting to learn that she can do it without help. If I walk her to within about three or four feet of her destination (such as a chair or table to stand against), she'll unlatch her grip on my fingers and walk the interim distance. Or, when she's standing against a table and I'm sitting close by, she'll take steps in my direction before tumbling into my arms.

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When Lacey and I are both home, we sit several feet apart and encourage Madeline to walk between us, usually with good results. But Madeline also thinks it's lots of fun to fall into her parents' arms, so she sometimes starts to fall and laugh as we catch her, instead of trying to walk the entire distance.

Another trick we've tried is to give her something else to grip as she walks, such as the drumsticks that came with her noisemaking Christmas gift. Then, we she's not suspecting, we can let go of the drumsticks and she'll walk alone for a few steps.

At most she's taken four or five consecutive, unaided steps at a time. But her balance is improving quickly - as evidenced by how well she can stand on her own, especially when playing with a toy or drinking from her sippy cup - and she's learning some basic footwork, such as stepping up on stairs and kicking things that are in her way (or that are just fun to kick). It will be interesting to see what she can do by the time her first birthday rolls around (or I should say when she's a year old - her first birthday is still three years away!).