Bree’s First Steps

Bree took her first steps today. She is 14 months and 14 days old.

Adrianna was at her little table taking a test for school and Bree was over there trying to be in on the action. This is a normal event during our school day. Adrianna needed to concentrate, so I called Bree over to where I was sitting, across the room at my desk. Bree sat down, turned around and began to crawl over to me like normal.

As Bree began to make her way over to me, I asked her, “Bree, can you walk? Can you walk to Mommy?”

Bree stopped in the middle of the floor, pushed herself up to a standing position without holding on to anything (another first!*) and stood there for a moment. Then she got nervous and plopped back down onto her bottom and continued her crawl toward me.

By this time, Adrianna and I were excited and I quickly said to Bree, “Good job, Bree! Can you walk to Mommy?”

Bree pulled herself up again, this time using a nearby stand-up toy, and proceeded to take two or three steps toward me. Her bravado in doing so was as if this wasn’t a new thing. But she sure was proud of herself when she reached my open arms and pressed her little face in a big cuddle against me.

A few minutes later, she was standing nearby and I asked her again if she wanted to walk. She, once again, took two or three steps toward me.

Ever since she realized she could stand up in the middle of the room without holding onto anything for balance, she has tried that out several more times this evening.

We have long suspected that Bree could walk if she just decided she wanted to. She has been pushing her mail-cart toy and walking holding onto our hands for at least a month or two, but it has always been something we initiated with her. I guess we just needed to actually ask her to walk, as she apparently was just waiting on an invitation. Silly girl.

(*Note: Bree had stood alone without support one other time, several weeks ago. It was quite by accident and hadn’t reoccurred until today. Today’s events were very much on purpose.)

Unfortunately, we don’t have any pictures or video of Bree’s first steps. Greg was on a conference call when it happened and Adrianna and I were too busy cheering Bree on. Hopefully we will get some pictures soon.