In early November (about 3 weeks before Caroline turned 1 year old), Caroline took her very first unassisted steps. We were outside doing some exploring. She loved holding onto my hands and walking, so I decided to bring out her walker. She pushed it along the sidewalk and was having a blast. Suddenly, she stopped and walked around her walker. She took a couple of steps without holding on, and we were both so excited that she fell into my arms!
That day she repeated taking a few steps at a time. She was thrilled and so was I! Daddy was on a trip, unfortunately, but we got on Skype that evening and showed off her new abilities to Daddy, her grandparents and auntie.
By her 1st birthday she was taking about 15-20 steps at once.
About 2 weeks later she was wanting to walk instead of crawl and was doing a fantastic job!
She taught herself how to stand up in the middle of the floor. Once that happened, she was off and running!
We are now 3 weeks out from her 1st birthday. She walks everywhere. She falls on occasion, but simply stands back up and gets back to walking. She is a pro!
As soon as she started walking, a switch seemed to flip. She was a toddler, and acting like one! Of course, multiple things were and are still happening in these weeks. She learned how to walk, how to stand, she is getting her very first tooth, and she is in the year 1 wonder week (leap 8), and learning lots of language skills. She is tired due to all of the extra energy she is exerting while walking. She is tired due to her body dealing with teething, and she has been in pain on some days from teething as well. She is learning so much during this leap.
As a result of all of the above, she is not only on 2 naps every single day, those nap times have been pushed up to accommodate her new tiredness and crankiness 🙂 She naps now at 9:30 instead of 10, and at 1:30 instead of 2:30/3. She is also going to bed at 6:30 instead of 7/7:30! Once we adjusted her schedule, she was a much happier toddler!
It has been amazing to see Caroline learning so much in the last few weeks. I love that she can walk and go explore on her own. One of our favorite things to do is simply to go outside and walk down the sidewalk together. She finds squirrels, trees, leaves, etc. She points at cars and watches people. We walk down to the swings and swing. She is growing up so fast!
In all of this growing up, she is actually giving me more snuggles than ever. She is so tired and exhausted all of the time, that she loves being held and loves giving hugs and kisses right now. I was even able to take her in to mama and daddy’s bed for a 10 minute cuddle session! YAY! Best part of my day!