Emmaline has been on the verge of walking for over a month. She loved to hold onto both our hands (both was key! If we took one away, she plopped down and refused to get back up until we offered both again) which was hard for us to bend over that long but we were hopeful she would be on her own soon.
Graduating from two hands to one was HUGE! We saw Emmaline’s confidence increase immensely and saw a light at the end of the tunnel – she would be walking on her own soon!
Leaving the girls for a week to go to Seattle, we were almost confident she would begin walking while we were gone. We were bummed at the thought of missing her first steps, but excited as well because we were getting tired of carrying her all the time 😛
But Michelle told us she was not walking yet when we got back on Saturday (5.25.19). So it took us by surprise when Aaron and I were reading books with the girls in their bedroom, Rylie sitting on Aaron’s lap in the rocking chair and Emmaline holding onto my leg and suddenly she just let go of my leg and walked out of the room.
Neither of us said anything . We just stared as we watched her walk out of the room and turn to go down the hall. Once she was out of sight, we looked at each other, mouth’s open but smiles clearly forming and stood up as fast as we could to watch.
She was walking with so much confidence we were sure she had been practicing with the tribe while we were gone. After some conversations later, we were assured that those were truly her first solo-steps and everyone was so proud of her for reaching this new milestone. And we are so excited and thankful that we got to witness it live.
A couple weeks later, Emmaline is walking up a storm and you will literally think she’s been walking way longer than she actually has been. Her confidence has skyrocketed, she is absolutely loving her new form of mobility and Rylie is loving her little sister being mobile.
