We have been 'cruising' for weeks and only crawl when there is no furniture to hold onto when trying to walk. Stella (above) and Fiona have been doing a quick walking half-step and turn (without hanging onto anything) since Brant's birthday last week. I realized that many of these milestones (walking, talking, crawling) are very subjective. Anyway I digress....
I walked in the nursery to get the girls up from their afternoon nap. As usual, they were all awake and just playing in their cribs. Fiona was standing up in her crib poking at the wall through the backside. Just as I begin to greet everyone, Fiona turns around and smiles facing the center of the room and walks (yes, walks!) across the short width of her crib, a good two steps on a springy mattress. I immediately toss her in the air and cheer her on for this huge accomplishment. Then I call Brant to determine if we will declare this quick two-step official walking. We decided that it has to be at least three steps so while Fiona's accomplishment was fantastic, we decided not to declare her walking.
Then while the girls are playing around in their bedroom (no more than ten minutes later) I see Stella hanging onto the side of Daphne's crib. All the sudden she lets go of the crib and walks to the middle of the room. A good three or four steps. I couldn't believe it. What did I feed these girls for lunch? Repeat routine from above of cheering and tossing baby into the air. I called Brant again and yes, this time we declare that Stella is officially walking. Now who knows if she will continue walking or take her time and just try a little each day. I am not going to pretend that there are any marathons in her future, but you have to start somewhere.
After eating our snack and playing a bit before our walk, we went to go and pick up Brant per our nightly routine. Upon returning home, feeding the girls and bringing them all upstairs for bed ANOTHER exciting thing happened. The girls have recently begun displaying a burst of energy before bedtime. Daphne jumps like crazy, Stella and Fiona cruise around and try to avoid finishing their bottles - perhaps realizing that it is almost bedtime. During this procrastination, Brant and I were cheering Fiona on, trying to get her to walk. and....she did. She took a good three steps. Most adorably, she would try to walk to us and then fall down and get up to 'restart' at the ottoman and try again. That girl has persistence!
So what started off as a normal day with our big adventure to the botanic gardens, turned into a very exciting day with both Stella and Fiona officially walking! For now, Daphne seems to have no interest in walking. She is way more interested in jumping, cruising and super-speed crawling when necessary. I don't know how she has SO much energy, but she can bounce in the jumper for a good fifteen minutes at an intense rhythm. We have joked about sending a video of her jumping to the manufacturer. 'If your jumper can survive our child, it can survive any!'
