She Walks (and Talks)

Thursday.

Last night I watched R walk around most of the house without a push toy. She would start out with uneven steps, get into a good stride, and end with a tumble. Then she'd get back up and do it again. Our baby is finally a toddler.

Watching R grow has included a lot of waiting; she's been behind in most every milestone due to her prematurity. Wait for her to roll, wait for her to sit up, wait up for her to crawl, wait for her to walk. She walks now. Yippeeee! She feels more confident when Mommy or Daddy hold her hand and walk with her, and she still zips around with her push toys, but she takes steps on her own, too. She takes steps on her own. I am so happy. The waiting for her to walk is finally over.

One sign of growth she hasn't made me wait for is speaking sentences. Just a couple of months ago I was worried that she didn't speak too many words, but she knew a key sentence, "What is that/it?" She points and asks what everything is, and she must be cataloging our answers. She won't repeat the word after we say it, but the next time it's relevant, she just may pipe in. Senpai taught her the color red, and she says up and down more frequently. Going back to sentences, every morning I ask her, "Did you sleep well?" Sometimes she'll reply, "yes" or "good." This morning, before I had a chance to ask, she exclaimed, "I didn't sleep well!" I was surprised. Was she trying to parrot my usual question? Is that what I heard her do? But no, she didn't say you, the did had two syllables that ended with n, and she started the sentence with I. More than repeating what she hears me say, she had created her own (correct!) sentence. True to form, R surprises us with first sentences as opposed to first words.

The last way she has grown since last blog post is that Senpai turned her carseat to face forward. We went to the zoo yesterday. R's rear-facing carseat was behind my passenger seat as Senpai drove. I couldn't take a nap. I was super exhausted, having fallen asleep at 2 am the previous night, and I really really wanted to sleep on the drive down to the zoo but it was impossible. The carseat interrupted where the headrest could go, which isn't a problem when you're sitting up, but when you're trying to lay your head back, man, it sucks. And my seat was pushed all the way forward, so there was no room for me to scootch down in the seat because my knees hit the dashboard. I was not a happy passenger. I told Senpai, no more. R faces forward. He changed the carseat in my car as well, and when I drove with R to the craft store today it was odd to look back and see her staring at me. We'll get used to it, though. Aside from the nap frustration yesterday, I've been thinking for awhile that I needed to change her carseat position, as she had gotten too big to easily fit in the space between the carseat and the doorframe in my car. Putting her in the seat involved much contortion on my part. The nap was just the last straw.

I love watching her grow.