Daycare is over the horizon

Knowing that it is ok for a child to walk up until the are 18 months I have been relaxed and not worried. She is doing a great job this summer and doing exactly what we thought she would do as a healthy baby and catch up on some of her milestones. Thank goodness for that. While we were visiting our family she took a step. Since it could have been a fluke we did not count that as her first steps. We figured she needs to take several for that to be the case. Her next major accomplishment came on Thursday when we were caught off guard by her when she went from all fours to standing with no warning at all. I was in the middle of a sentence with Laura and I stopped, sat forward and dropped my jaw. It clicked with Laura what had just happened. Unfortunately, Jason is yet to see this. I figure it will happen again when we least expect it. That leads me to my next thing. Although she is not walking yet I know that it is not far. She is starting to balance and stand for very short amounts of time and furniture surfing like crazy. She enjoys taking risks and exploring things while holding on with only a few fingers. My little girl climbs on all the furniture and loves to climb the stairs.

All of that leads me to this. With day care only a few weeks away I have started to become very sad. I so badly want her to take her first steps here with Jason and I, not at day care. This is such a major milestone and I know that this is a huge accomplishment. Considering everything we have been through I know this is silly. It will happen when she is good and ready. She must have felt this need because after I changed her and stood her up to play she did it. As both Jason and I sat there she took her first "official" steps. She took 3 to 4 good steps to get to the table. Wow! Thank you! We did it a few more times with her and were able to get her to take a few steps each time. We figured out the trick is to have something in her hands to distract her. Thanks for the tip Laura! As long as she does not have time to think about it she can take a few steps before freaking out and sitting down. Knowing her this may be the first and only time for awhile that she walks. She likes to do something and then hold off on doing it again for awhile. That is fine. She could go to daycare the first day and start walking as if she had been walking for months and I would not care. I just wanted to have the joy of being there for the first time. Thank you baby girl. I feel so blessed to have been with you for this. You amaze me more and more every day.