There are mile stone markers that make a parent proud. The first proper smile, the first noises, followed by the first word, the rollover, the sit up, honestly this list is endless. One of the real "steps" towards the next stage of development is the first time one foot follows the other is perfect harmony and your little one goes from baby to toddler.
Isabella got to what we called couch surfing around 7 months in. She would happily stand up with two hands firmly planted on the seat of the couch and follow this all the way round to the TV stand. There would then be a leap of faith with her little pinkies to latch onto safety once more. When she reached the end of this haven, it was time to repeat the whole process in reverse.
Her confidence away from the couch and TV stand was miles away from this. She refused to take more than one step without at least a parental finger to grasp with all her might.
After her 1st birthday, her confidence had grown but the steps towards actually walking seemed to be a pipe dream. What could only be described as a controlled fall was her best effort, 3 steps before falling to a heap on the floor. It was still great to see this, but we could see that she did not really want to continue much further than that. Isabella is the fastest crawler on the planet!
It all happened all of a sudden.
One day she was couch surfing and the next we would find her stood still in the middle of the kitchen with nothing around her. How had she got here? Her bum would then quickly hit the floor as if to say, "you didn't see that!".
Within days Isabella has gone from 3 or 4 steps to traversing the whole house, backwards and forwards, room to room with very little bum bumps. With this, her confidence seems to have grown even further and she hurtles around the garden, hurtles around the house and grandparents are struggling to keep up with her now.
My little baby girl is now a toddler.
