She's got a new way to walk...

Much to Karina's relief, since this means that she no longer has to push along her protege, Hallie is now officially a walker. Over the past week or so, we've been working with Hallie on taking independent steps. We would sit in one place and have Hallie stop and stand a few feet away from us. We did this by having her clap, which deflected her attention away from the fact that she was in the middle of the room standing up and not holding onto anything for support. Then we'd ask her to walk over to our open, outstretched arms. Thus we managed to turn what must have seemed to Hallie to be totally frightening at first into a game. Hallie took her first two, then four, then six steps that way last weekend. Then Sharon got the brilliant and inspired idea that she should start scooting backwards, which would have the effect of forcing Hallie to traverse longer distances---ten steps, twelve steps, etc. Finally, yesterday Sharon coaxed Hallie to walk *away* from her and over to the couch. This we captured on video, since by the time I got home from work last night Hallie was doing it over, and over, and over very predictably and with quite a lot of stability:



Last night, Hallie even walked from one piece of furniture to another without holding on (and without getting down into a crawl position). She did this unprompted by us. So she really does seem to have mastered this skill.

We should be frightened about all of the stuff she can now do (like learn to run), but we're too busy being proud of our little girl. She's officially a toddler.

Now if only that old tale about reflux disappearing once kids start walking were only true...