Natalie is definitely a walker now and hardly bothers to crawl. She falls down frequently but immediately gets herself back up on her feet. She handily crawls up stairs and just today managed to crawl down 3 stairs all by herself. We have been trying to show her but she hadn't really seemed to get it. Maybe she finally does.
Natalie zooms all over the place and can happily walk back and forth for what seems like hours. She also likes to take things out of boxes, off shelves, etc. She grips a crayon like she wants to draw but doesn't quite know how to push down consistently to actually get color on the paper. But she happily tries - and then walks around with the crayon until something grabs her attention and it gets dropped right there. We are finding things all over the place that aren't in the place that they belong.
It is so much fun to see her moving around and exploring. You can picture the wheels in her brain turning. Wherever we go out in public, people are admiring her and seem to love watching her toddle around. Children can so easily bring joy to others - regardless of whether they have children themselves or not.
Natalie did manage to fall today and somehow cut the inside of her gum. I didn't notice until I pulled her head away from my shoulder after she had mostly settled down and Lexi exclaimed that there was something on my shirt. She also cut her finger in a separate incident and didn't like having the bandaid on it so that was rather traumatic,too.
At snack time, I was getting things out of the fridge when Natalie saw the clear small container of leftover over macaroni and peas. It was at her level so she grabbed it and then took it to the table by her highchair. She knew she needed to get up there to be able to eat. It's amazing how kids learn these things. Of course, once she seemed to be done eating and I took the container and spoon away from her (she was playing with it), she had a major tantrum and just would not calm down. I finally just put her in her bed and left her for a while.
