Walking

Our  darling little girl is 17 months old now and still prefers a bottle to solid foods, gets me up at least once a night most nights, and prefers scooting around on her bum as opposed to other modes of transportation. If she doesn't want to do something it is very difficult to talk her into it. Tonight, however, we made a huge leap forward. In the last couple of weeks Liza has consented to let us take her hand and help her to walk around the house. She has also taken up furniture walking as a casual hobby. Earlier this week at play group Liza actually wanted me to hold her hands and walk around the playground, a surprising first. Also this afternoon we were at a different park and she let Jack help her walk around most of the time. Then this evening we were all in the living room and as I watched Eliza pulled herself up and lean her back against the ottoman, which is not unusual. However  after a few seconds she takes a huge leap forward all on her own. She didn't get very far before she lost her balance, but I got all excited and did the typical parental "ya!! complete with higher voice and clapping hands. Eliza got excited too. She crawled back to the ottoman,  pulled herself  back up and got in ready position. I got in front of her and held my arms out and she did several toddler steps forward. Jack had caught on by now and we all yelled ya and clapped hands. For the next half hour or so we enjoyed this new game together. Jack and I tried sitting a few feet apart from each other so we could help Liza stand up  and find her balance before we let her go to walk to the other person. She humored us for a few runs but then she crawled back to the ottoman and pulled herself up and got in ready position.  Liza still wanted to walk towards us and enjoyed all of the hugs and attention but she wanted to do it by herself, and on her own terms. I have no idea where she could have picked up that particular character trait.