One small step for babykind...

So, not to step on mom's entry below, but I thought I'd make a quick note about Stella's adventures (and misadventures) with walking. She's approaching 15 months and up until tonight hasn't really taken her first official step. It's odd, because she nearly runs when she is pushing her lion toy down in the basement. But she won't do anything close to that if she's not holding on to something. Jen & I have recently tried sitting a few feet apart from each other and passing Stella back and forth. The goal is for her to stand up as one of us holds her and then help her start walking towards the other. She's done pretty well with it but once we let go she basically crumbles to the ground. Tonight we had a breakthrough which was really exciting! We did the usual and after a few minutes of struggling to get her to stand up I sensed that she was really standing upright well. We had her toddle between us but as has happened in the past she was collapsing to the ground as soon as we let go. But after a few more times she was managing to go a step or two before falling into our arms. It was really cute because she would fall into us and we'd give her a big hug and she'd have a big smile on her face. Anyway, this seemed to be just the incentive she needed (which is so odd because she is not cuddly), because after a few more tries she was doing 3-4 steps on her own no problem--and then collapsing into our arms. It was really sweet and she had the biggest smile on her face when we were hugging her. It's amazing how she seemed to know that she had just done something really cool. Anyway, I think this is the start of her walking independently...!