Walking ... Almost :)

McKinley has come a long way in the last three weeks with her walking. She's still not there yet, but we're getting close. When we first started working with her, we played the No Hands game where we stand her up, count to three and let go while saying "no hands!" She thought this game was very funny and consequently has treated walking more like a game than something she's actually supposed to do! But learning while playing is the best approach anyway, and she's gotten better and better at walking between us! Every time she takes steps, Madison claps and says "Yay, she's walking now!" Such a good cheerleader :)

She took her first step on May 25, the day before her birthday, and will now take several on her own when prodded. Today she actually went from sitting to standing completely on her own and took three steps without any prodding - totally her idea. McKinley really likes to stand on her own now, and every time she does I can just see the wheels turning as she thinks about walking. It's coming soon!

Here are a few videos that show her progression over the last couple weeks ...

This one was taken right after she took her first steps, at the Collierville Splash Park toward Kelsie (5/25). Of course, she wouldn't do it again for the camera!

This was on her birthday (5/26). As you can see, she obviously still preferred crawling :)  That's been another big change the last few weeks - before whenever we would try to hold her hands and walk with her, she was always trying to squirm away so she could crawl. Now she wants to walk with us all the time.

May 30. This is a good example of her playing. She would take a couple steps and then just laugh and fall. Silly girl :)

This was taken on Sunday. She's definitely improving!!