GRACIE'S WALKING!!!!!

She has been "cruising the walls", using the walls for support as she walks around the room. She also has perfected standing up straight by herself with no support, even drinking her juice and playing with toys while she's standing, without losing her balance. In the last week, she's been taking a couple of steps away from whatever she is holding onto, but then dropping to her knees to crawl the rest of the way. The last two days she has actually attempted up to four steps toward something before she drops and crawls, which was very exciting. Well TODAY, just like any other afternoon, I am at her school to pick her up and when I walked through the door to her classroom, she is standing up holding onto the wall, about 20 feet directly across the room from me. She sees me walk through the door, smiles a huge smile, and then takes a couple of steps away from the wall. I pause inside the door, waiting for her to drop down and crawl the rest of the way to me as she usually does.... but she WALKS ALL THE WAY ACROSS THE ROOM INTO MY ARMS! My jaw dropped; I was amazed! I scooped her up and kissed her all over, and she just giggled non-stop. She was so proud of herself! Her teachers said she had been taking several steps at a time all day, but they wanted me to see it for myself and be surprised (they're so cool). I got her home and set her down and she walked all over the place. We clapped and cheered her whenever she did; now she claps at herself while she's walking! Haha it's so cute. I'm pretty sure we wore her out; she's passed out like a rock now, hehe.

I wasn't expecting how this would make me feel. I knew I would be proud and excited, but I didn't realize how strong those emotions would be. I remember how my heart swelled up so fast the very first moment I saw her face when she was born, and hadn't expected to feel that again so soon. Well, when she launched herself into my arms today, the feeling was pretty close! It's such a huge separation from BABY to LITTLE GIRL. She grew up right in front of my eyes today, and my heart swelled up again with that overwhelming pride and joy. She is truly my greatest happiness. But now I no longer have a little bitty baby... we need to get to work on fixing that. (;-P)

I did take a bunch of video clips of her walking tonight, but I can't figure out how to get them off of this video camera we have. I will post them here when I am able to get them.

So yay for walking! It's amazing how she took to it so quickly. I remember her crawling pretty much overnight, too. Gracie's just full of surprises! Now we just have to get her more shoes! =)