Guess who's walking?

Out little boy is all growed up. For the past week or so, he's been playing this game where he stands up against the wall by his electric keyboard, back to the wall, then tries to walk to one of us. Once we knew the game, we'd go sit just a few feet away. He'd take a few steps and then fall into our arms.

Yesterday, when Jan the PT was here, I told her about it and she wanted to see. So I tried putting him against a wall in the living room where we were working. And he walked to me. At least 5 steps. She was very impressed with him. And she was glad because at 18 months, he is at the outer limits of what is considered normal for learning to walk. She admitted she'd been getting worried. I hadn't been worried since he's shown so much progress and I didn't even realize she was worried.

After she left, we took the video below. I couldn't back up fast enough to see how far he could walk. He was so proud of himself and wanted to do it over and over.

So of course now all he wants to do is walk. Yesterday, after his nap we went out to run some errands. We went to the bank where he very reluctantly rode in his stroller. The next stop was to see Kim at Starbucks (where she also works) and to get a snack there. He really, really did not want to ride in the stroller, so I carried him across the parking lot (he wasn't too happy about that, either) and then let him walk with me. It's hard to stand in line with a baby that wants to constantly move. Three nice women offered to let him stand at their table with them while I got my coffee, but he just wanted to keep walking.

It's definitely a challenge now since he isn't just content to walk - he also wants to chart our course. Which is often counter to where we need to go. After Starbucks, we went to the library and when he wasn't going in the direction we needed to go, he screamed when I picked him up. That gets some stares - especially when you are in the library. I see a lot of that in our future. I've seen that mother with the child throwing a tantrum in public and now I am her.

This morning, Aaron wanted to practice his new skill. Over and over and over. He crawls over the the spot by the keyboard, uses the black cube to stand up, gets his balance against the wall, and then goes for it. And he tends to laugh most of the way.

He's getting very good at it, although he still wants one of us to hold his hand and walk around the house with him. My mom says now I'll wonder why I was in such a hurry for him to walk. But I really wasn't. I didn't mind that he wasn't walking when he was younger, but since the professionals told me he needed some encouragement, I did what I thought was in his best interests. And really, considering he is approaching 19 months, we've had a lot longer than most parents to enjoy the non-walking part of his life.