Amazing!

Two amazing things happened today.

First, Ellie took the longest nap of her life - 3 hours! I didn't believe it while it was happening and I still have a hard time believing it now. She is the queen of the 45 minute nap and her long naps are usually under 1.5 hours. But for no good reason at all she slept from 9am-noon this morning. Quite a feat!

Her extra long nap precluded us from attending our weekly playgroup. So to make up for the lost play, I decided to take her to a nearby mall (Tysons Corner) to the inside kiddie play yard. This is a wonderful play area with soft carpet and soft things like oversized blocks, books, and mushrooms to climb on. In the past, Ellie has loved this place and I was hoping that she would work on her walking skills while we were there. She has been walking a lot lately while holding my hand or using her toy walker*, but she has been reluctant to let go and walk by herself. (Until today she had done it only two or three times). Amazingly, she figured it out today. I don't know if it had to do with watching all of the other little kids walking around or whether she was just ready, but after a few minutes of walking with her - I pulled my finger from her and she set off. She is still hesitant, of course, but she began to realize that she could go by herself. It was so cool to watch her go. I'm so excited. We are on our way. And it's just in time to show Grandma and Grandpa in person for Christmas. Yippie!
For those parents out there who mock my overwhelming desire for my baby to walk, please know that my sweetie weighs 25lbs at 13 months and gets into everything by crawling anyway. The advantage of her walking is that I don't have to pick her up all of the time. Over the past couple of weeks, I have been letting her walk with me on lots of errands. Yes it takes a little longer as she's not very fast, but I'm saving my back and arms a lot of work. It's been wonderful! I wish she had learned months ago.

*She's made it to the nearby park and back several times, which considering the distance from our house and the incline of our street is no small feat.