Walking and Talking

Lucy was so proud of herself Sunday when she was taking independent steps all over our living room. She's tentative on the hardwood floors and that is FINE BY ME. Let's let her fall on the soft carpet before we go into head bonking territory.

Our living room is void of most of the things that make walking a challenge, like toys and furniture. We had our carpets cleaned Monday, so Sunday afternoon the family room was perfect for a new walker who needs lots of space.

The amazing thing is that not only was she getting up on her own to walk, but she felt the need to carry her water with her too. I would think that mastering the art of walking would be easier if your weren't carrying something, but this is yet another lesson in the fact that Lucy is her own person.

This little video only shows a few steps (and only for the last few seconds of the movie) but it's a fun one.

Super cool right!

We have already noticed that she is very aware of all the spaces in the house. She loves to go upstairs - mostly it is fun to get up the stairs and close the gate at the top. Once we're up there it is kind of lame in that there are fewer toys. She loves to "carry" things for me. This is usually an envelope or a sock, but getting up the stairs and ensuring that the important item gets there too is a lot of fun. More often than not she has to stop at the landing halfway up the stairs and take a little rest, but then she motors on her way.

On the tooth front, she's up to nine now. One of the bottom molars is IN. We haven't seen the counterpart on the left side of her mouth, but her cranky attitude tells me it is coming. My usually sunny girl has taken a turn towards the pissy from time to time. Her lack of words must be frustrating, and I bet she'll be happier when she can tell us what she thinks she MUST HAVE. That list often includes things that she may not have like the remote, knives, fire, blow torches and acid. Lucy will simply have to learn from these disappointments. Although, this morning she did get one of the magical items, no not the blow torch, the remote. The joke was on her because the first button she touched made the magic box turn off. We are violating the recommended advice and letting her watch the Baby channel in the morning as we get dressed. She's learning terrible things like the american sign language sign for "socks" and "play".

At school, Lucy has fully transitioned into the Toddler Room and even received a diploma for graduating from the Infant Room. She seems happy with the older kids and the issue of naps has been (forgive the pun) put to rest. When they entire class lays down and is quiet she does the same thing. They play harder in the Toddler room and have direct access to the outside and Lucy is in heaven. She is keeping up with the master walkers and it is my guess that words will becoming very soon. I expect to hear "mine" and "no!" in short order. However, I am told that Lucy does a very nice job of sharing. She's also empathetic to others. One of her last acts in the Infant Room was to come to the aid of one of the babies who had lost her pacifier and was crying. Lucy zipped over there, picked it up and put it in the babies mouth. WOW.

Speaking of pacifiers, we have made our downstairs a pacifier free zone and are limiting use to naps and bed time. This isn't to say we're perfect - she sat with us in church Sunday and we did use it as a silencer during the sermon. Soon we'll simply leave her in the nursery and enjoy an hour of Jason and Terri time. She loves the music so much that it is fun to see her get her "axle rose" on when the band plays, but keeping her happy makes it hard to focus on the talking, and we are there to hear the talking.