Sixteen Months!

I don’t suppose there is anything particularly special about being 16 months old, but she has now hit a very important milestone: walking!!!!

 

Ellyson actually danced before she walked. The first video I have of her getting up on her own two feet without holding onto anything is as she plays with her Baby Shark book that plays six or eight different songs. Shelovesmusic and she loves to dance, so she’s pulls herself up and starts moving back and forth to the music. When it’s done, she very carefully leans over, pushes one of the buttons, and dances again. She did this nearly two weeks before she walked.

 

The last time we saw my sister Abby, she kept telling Ellyson to walk. “I know you can do it – you just won’t. So walk.” Ellyson can be like Abby in many ways, so simply telling her to do it wouldn’t work. In fact, it would make her even more unlikely to do it. And, in some ways, it got to that point. You can see as she stood in the middle of the room that she knew she could step in one direction or another. She just wouldn’t. Then, one day, she did. It was only a few steps at first, then a laugh as she’d get down and crawl off. When Emry and Ethan tried to practice with her by sitting on the living room floor and calling her name, she would choose to walk to Emry, laugh if Ethan beckoned her, and then walk awayfrom him.

 

Yes, she has his number.

 

Gradually, it just became more and more steps. When she figured out she could carry things when walking, that seemed to be the deciding factor on using her newly acquired skill over crawling. It allows her to leave a much bigger trail all over the house. She’s been consistently walking for days now, but it’s still a bit of a surprise to turn and see her toddling into the room – always in search of something she can get into!