It's official - Hank can walk

Hank has been taking steps for about a month now but I've been holding off on declaring him "walking" because he was only walking if we stood him up or if he pulled himself up on/against something.  I felt like if he couldn't walk somewhere without some sort of crutch to start him off then he wasn't really a walker.

While in Texas, my Grandma (who has raised 8 kids of her own and 100's of babies at the daycare she used to have) said if he can stand up on his own and walk then you can call him a walker.  Well over the past week he has learned how to do just that.  So, we're ready to make it official:  Hank can walk!!

When he started crawling I used to marvel at how he would just all the sudden start going places and I would turn around and see him going after a toy or the dog.  Now, we are experiencing the same thing, only he's doing it standing up!  We catch him walking from the hallway to the kitchen and turning the corner to come see us!  I am always amazed when he starts walking without us coaxing him into it.  It's like we have a little person just walking around and hanging out with us.  The fun part is watching him get stronger and better every day.  He used to only walk in a straight line and now he walks around (or over!) toys and he can even stop and go a different direction.  We encourage him to walk a lot but he still spends a lot of time crawling.  Sometimes when he is walking he decides to just drop down and book it on his knees.  He is much faster on his knees than on his feet! 

In this video he is stressing a little because he really wanted me to pick him up but I was making him chase me...hence the "please pick me up" look on his face the entire time!

-a