Toddling

Madeline is officially a toddler now. Yesterday, for the first time, for real, Madeline started walking. I'm not talking about taking a few unaided steps before tumbling into someone's waiting arms (or onto the floor).

I'm talking about standing next to one piece of furniture and walking across the room to another piece of furniture, without diving at the end. I'm talking about confident steps, stopping midway to survey the situation while standing unaided and then continuing to the destination. I'm talking about arriving at the endpoint and still standing, even turning in a new direction and walking again.

It started small - an out-of-the-blue stroll from the rocking chair to the coffee table almost five feet away. Then back to the chair. Then from the chair to the television cabinet - also about five feet. And today it continued with several confident walks from the coffee table to the front entryway, about 7 feet. And she could easily go farther, if there were no obstructions.

We also played a fun game with Cheerios - I put a pile on her Exersaucer a few feet away from where I was sitting. She would walk to the Exersaucer, grab a handful of Cheerios and, without using her hands to steady herself, turn around and walk back to me.

There's no doubt about the fact that she's walking now. And you can tell from the grin on her face while she's toddling around that she loves it!