Climbing Stairs

So last night Jessica decided she would finally start trying to climb stairs "normally"...normally for a kid that is. Up until now, she'd stand at the foot of the stairs and, without holding on to anything, keep lifting her left leg, as if she was trying to just walk up the steps like an adult would!

Mommy said she was trying to teach her how to crawl up them, but Jessica still added her own twist to it...literally, by twisting towards her left as she'd go up the stairs. Each step she mounted would turn her body towards the left, because she'd lift her left leg to the step, and then her right let would follow suit, but try and squeeze in right behind her left leg, which would cause her bum to move to the left, and since her hands remained planted where they were, it would turn her body perpendicular to the stairs. After a small struggle at each step to get both feet on, since barely her toes of the left foot were on to begin with, and then her right foot was fighting fl the same tiny real estate as those left foot toes, she would keep going in that fashion until she was so twisted (thankfully at the landings usually!) that she'd stand straight up and try to right herself to proceed straight, only to begin her twisting crawl up the steps once again.

Hand Over Hand

Jessica's been obsessed with some helium balloons Baba bout her and Matthew, and she got to the point where she would walk around holding the string and swinging her arm downward to make the balloon come downward. Today, while eating breakfast, she wanted the balloon. After handing her the string, she did a few pulls on it, and then began reeling in the balloon hand-over-hand like a grownup!

Right There!

We were at Vaughan Winterfest on Sunday and there was a Max and Ruby stage show going on, and Max was "hiding" from Ruby. Whe I asked Jessie where Max was she said "righ dere!"

Today Nonna and Nonno brought Matthew home from work and when Nonno came in her picked up Jessica and we looked out the door at Nonna and Matthew and asked "who's that Jessie?" and she said "dere dadewe" for Matthew, and even said "Nonna"!

Tigger

Putting Jessica to bed tonight, she didn't zonk after her bottle, so in her darkened room she looked up at the Tigger painting on her wall. I said to her "Tigger" and she looked at me, then back at Tigger and said "Tih" in her breathy whisper. I tried a few more times, and each time she answered with "Tih."

Walking!

I said Jessica would be walking by December, mommy said she'd walk by Christmas, and sure enough within days of the 25th she was taking a few steps. She got to the point where she'd crawl a little, stand and take 3 or 4 steps, and then drop to crawling again. She spent a week or so incredibly excited with herself for being able to just stand, and started doing squats, as if she was working her quads for the upcoming walking!

On Christmas Eve she surprised my parents with a few steps in the morning, and shocked both me and my dad when she crawled towards the door to leave their family room, stood up and walked a bunch of steps over the threshold, and then dropped to her knees again in the hallway to crawl towards the living room.

Hand in hand with her new found freedom, she's become more clingy, wanting to be in our arms or walking holding our fingers at almost all times now.