She’s walking!
About a week and a half before her first birthday Mara started taking her first independent steps! We were in Prince George, B.C., and she walked towards James (I wasn’t in the room!). James got her to recreate this for me a few moments later. So for about a week she would take 2-3 steps now and then until two days before her birthday when she fully walked 14 steps without stopping. Now she knows she can walk, but it still only seems to happen when she is fairly distracted. The first couple of times were when she had food in her hands and didn’t seem to realize she was walking on her own.
It’s a pretty exciting new skill to have! For the most part, though, Mara seems to still like crawling around in her old manner, just for the sheer speed it allows her.
We have to thank Uncle Harry for the walking tutorial he gave Mara the morning of her first steps. It seemed to do the trick!