Super Proud Mommy Post

Well it is official....we have a walker!!! I need to mark my calendar that on March 31, 2011 at 14 1/2, almost 15 months old our sweet baby girl became an official walker!

It is so funny because just yesterday in my post I mentioned that Rach still wasn't walking full-time but the amount of steps and the distances were becoming noticeably longer and then when I got home last night Matt mentioned that she had been practicing a ton yesterday, but still pretty short distances, no more than about 5 or 6 steps. Then, bam! Something happened last night and it was like this little light bulb went off in Rach's head like "why do I keep crawling?!?".

Matt and Rach were hanging out in the living room and I was making dinner in the kitchen. Matt said that one minute she was just standing by the coffee table and then the next she was walking away! Matt had called out to me and said "your daughter is on her way to see you." So I look around the corner (fully expecting to see a crawling Rachel) and there she is, walking and smiling on her way to see Mommy! Rach was so cute and proud of herself! She was smiling and giggling like crazy! Of course Matt and I were super excited and proud too!

Once that little switch was turned on, it was on! She just wanted to keep walking all over the house. She would start in the kitchen then go through the dining room then into the living room then turn around and go back...repeating this the entire time I was making dinner and while Matt and I ate dinner. She did take a break to eat her own dinner, but when she was done, right back to walking laps around the house. She took another short break to get a bath, but then, yep you guessed it...the walking laps continued upstairs. She would stand up in her room, walk through the hall, into our room, turn around, and then back again.

I thought that for sure she would tire herself out and we would have a good night's sleep, but she was so excited and charged up it took far longer than usual to get her to calm down and fall asleep! Then she woke up a good half hour/45 minutes early this morning and couldn't wait to get her cute little feet back on the ground again! Fingers crossed her excitement for this new found "trick" will tire her out good today!

I know some (uninformed) people might think that almost 15 months is "late" for a walker, however any doctor and/or resource will tell you that the normal range for walking is 8 - 18 months. That is a huge range and we were still more than 3 months away from the high end of it. Not to mention that kids all develop at their own pace. Sure, Rach just started walking however she is super verbal and can talk laps (ha, pun intended!) around the little girl at daycare whose annoying mom thinks its so awesome that she started walking at 10 months.

Rather selfishly I am happy/hopeful that this should now calm down some of the ridiculous competitiveness of some mommys and the annoying comments/"concerns" of others that just don't know any better. Not only was Rach's pediatrician never concerned (she stated that taller babies tended to walk later) but I'm also fairly certain that the age a child hits certain milestones at has zero effect on how successful, happy, smart, etc they will be later in life. Let's be honest, I know a few kids that started walking before or at their first birthdays and their greatest accomplishments in life will probably be if they secure a job that isn't at Walmart and stay out of jail! Heck, my cousin started walking at 15 months and is now a doctor! I'm willing to bet that 17 years from now there will not be a box to fill out stating "at what age did you start walking?" when Rach is filling out her college application for the University of Notre Dame! **Rachel Bear, you are absolutely perfect and wonderful. Do not let anyone ever tell you othewise.**

Okay, enough of my protective mama bear venting! I will say that it is true what I have heard/read that babies that walk later tend to do it faster than the earlier walkers. Its like they have been thinking about it and waiting until they could do it and get it perfect. Rach pretty much went from 0 to 60 in a matter of minutes/hours. There really were no tentative first steps, slowly learning (I guess we could say that's what she has been practicing for the past 2 months!) she was up and going, fast! A few times Matt and I looked at each other like, "is she trying to run already?!?", that's how quickly those little feet were going!

I have to admit that I am not only proud of my angel but also so happy about how/when this amazing milestone happened. It wasn't at daycare, it was at home. And not only was it at home but it was a night that both Matt and I were there and Matt had his video camera nearby, perfect! I really couldn't have arranged it or planned it better myself! I am so thankful that both Matt and I got to witness this milestone and all 3 of us got to share in it as a family!

(I know that most of our friends/family were unable to open the videos we sent last night. Matt is working on the formatting and we will hopefully have them sent back to you this weekend so you can see our Little Bear in action!)