Ellowyn is a walker!

Ellowyn's first steps were actually over a month ago.  But I wouldn't have called her a walker until just this past week.

I remember when Mira started walking, it was nothing, nothing, nothing and then all of a sudden she was walking laps around the island in the kitchen.  Ellowyn has been very different: she's learned to walk very gradually, just a little bit of progress at a time.  First it was walking while holding my hands, then while pushing a toy, then while holding just one hand, then she'd take the two steps to cross the gap between the couch and the coffee table, then she'd walk 3-5 steps back and forth between Brian and I, etc...

Anyway, this past week she has really decided that walking is where it's at.  She will initiate walking on her own (this is new; previously, I would get her started and then let her go) and she now does almost as much walking as she does crawling.  She's still pretty wobbly, but when she falls she gets back up again and tries some more.

I'm SO ready to be done with the crawling phase.  Walking makes so many things WAY easier.  Running errands, I don't always have to carry/wear her.  Going into public bathrooms, I don't have to worry that she'll put her hands all over the floor.  She can carry things across the room, which makes her happy.  When I pick her up now, she will stand to meet me making it easier for me to get a good hold on her.  AND OH the parks!  Parks with a crawler are just nowhere near as fun as parks with a walker.  

Ok enough words.  Here's the goods:

This one is a bit long, but I thought it was cute... maybe I'm the only one.