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!

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Push the mommy

Hank likes to push things. I have posted about this many times. I have not however, described one of his new favorite push techniques. It's called "push the mommy." It goes like this: Hank crawls up to mommy, climbs up the back of her legs, grabs her pants and starts to push her around. If I don't walk then he gets annoyed. If I'm wearing my jammies, sometimes my pants come down when he falls while still clenching my pants. Maybe that's TMI but I just wanted to make sure everyone gets a visual of how "push the mommy" works.

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Baby steps part 2

Hank is taking more and more steps each day.  Here's some footage from yesterday which shows his progress.  He has worked his way up to 8 or 9 steps now!

Most of his steps are still between the couches and coffee table or between the legs on the kitchen table.  Yesterday he was standing at the coffee table and he started walking to me over near the TV.  That was exciting because it was the first time he walked away from the couches and the table.  It was even more exciting because he did it on his own when I wasn't prompting him to come to me.  Today I stood Hank up to try to get him to walk over to Brett.  Instead, he did a 180 and walked to me instead.  I was quite thrilled to witness Hank's first spin move!

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Baby steps part 1

Last week we started practicing "baby steps" with Hank.  He had been standing for a couple of seconds without holding on to anything so we decided to help him out and stand him up away from the couch and see if he would walk to the couch.  Here's the result of our first standing/walking teaching session!

This was on my birthday last week!  I think this little session was all he needed to build his confidence.  Since then, he has been standing and walking in between the couches more and more each day. 

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Everywhere a chair chair

Here a chair, there a chair, everywhere a chair chair.

This is the little rhyme I have been saying in my head for the past week. Henry is pushing anything that moves and his number one target are the dining chairs. He moves them down the hall, he moves them back to the table, he moves them into the living room and all the way to the back door. They make this awful dragging noise along the floor but there isn't much I can do about it. He is so happy when he's moving those chairs - or anything that moves!

Most items end up at the back door when he's done moving them. We've started calling this area of our living room the graveyard. It's where all of the things that have lost his interest end up. As I'm typing this, the laundry basket, bench, and play table are all there. Ellie has gotten used to navigating her way through the rubble in order to make it out the backdoor. I move everything back to its proper place several times a day only to have the little mover come through and move it to where he wants it to be.

Trying to push the bench out the back door.

Pouting when the bench has been moved as far as it can go.

Really putting some oomph into moving his play table. Notice the chair in the graveyard behind him.

A desperate attempt to move SOMETHING - ANYTHING!

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Basket baby

We're headed to SC for a week long vacation tomorrow. Today, I was busy around the house doing laundry and getting packed. When I had my back turned in my bedroom, I heard Henry grunting and then I heard something shuffling along the floor. I looked out into the hallway to see that Henry had discovered that the laundry basket would move along the floor if he pushed it. He pushed the laundry basket up and down the hallway all afternoon. He was so good at it. When he got to a dead end (either the end of the hallway or a wall) he would turn the basket and go back the other way. I was so overwhelmed at how cool this was. This little pint-sized person was using his little noggin in such an advanced way. I don't mean to brag, but seriously, he was really doing a good job with his problem solving skills. I just can't get over how much he is growing and developing.

I took so much video of this but to save everyone from being bored I edited it down and combined the good parts (or at least they are good to me!) and it ends with a little funny bad momma moment. (After the BMM I put some heavy books in there so he could push without it tipping over.)

I might post some while we are on vacation...but I can't make any promises. :) We're off to see a bunch of family and friends, as well as have a few days of alone time for just the three of us. We're also celebrating our anniversary. See you when we get back!

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Walking skills

Hank loves to shuffle along the couch so we have been letting him try to walk with a baby walker we received from a friend whose kids had outgrown it. (Yes, I mourned that another big plastic toy was entering our tiny house.)

It is such a riot to watch him walk with this thing. Brett likes to set him up on one end of the room and let him cruise across the room. Hank does his huffing and puffing thing when he gets going and it cracks us up.

Sometimes he stops mid way and just decides to snack on the red handle.

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