off she goes!

Looks like we have two walking toddlers now!!!!
Yup yup!
Natalie took her official first steps (unassisted) at around 5:15pm today. We are so completely overjoyed. This has been a long time in the making that's for sure! She always has a sweet face..smiling.. talking so much now and so playful, but there was something an even sweeter face on her while she was taking those first steps. She was so proud of herself. She was so happy and you could see her confidence just overflow. She walked sideways..little sideways steps and then started forwards and went for 5 feet!!!! We've joked for the longest time about her first steps being running steps but this really took the cake.
Natalie has been receiving bi-weekly therapy treatments for her walking for a long while now. And for the past..oh I dunno..3 or 4 times now Ms.Fran has been scratching her head at the situation and laughing because as she puts it, "Natalie is just fine. She's just stubborn."
It's so true.
I probably explained this before but I'll type it out again.
A child who tries to walk at 10 or 11 months (even a tad older) walks because it's something they want to do. There's no intense fear of it..but they just want to learn to do it. In Natalie's case, she wanted to, but was so afraid to do it. A child her age, 20 months, has already developed these healthy fears and it's actually normal for development (wow I sound like Dr.Sears). So as the time passed for Natalie to walk at a "normal" age, she was already developing a fear of it- the fear of the unknown. And also, maybe because she was old enough to just not want to do it and wanted to just be a baby.
So, more months passed, she continued her therapy of working out her leg muscles and control (think of this- having her stand unassisted, and her having to stack blocks being held out for her..and slowly we would take a few inches away from her and help her to walk to us and the blocks..keeping those legs standing for as long as they could..it was tough because it had to be an activity interesting to her..which can be tricky). And then here we are today...
We had some good friends come by with their 16 month old walking toddler and I noticed Natalie checking out her walking skills for a while. And then right before they were ready to leave, Natalie got up in the middle of us, and walked.
How's that for an unexpected, but yet awesome event???