The Banks Family: First Steps and Now Walking

Yes, Claudia is walking! On Sunday May 16th, at almost exactly 13 months old, Claudia took her first steps. She was practicing standing on her own and all of a sudden she just took a couple steps into my arms. Glen & I were so excited that we spent the next hour getting her to walk between us and she took up to 4 steps at a time. Now, a week later she's doing even better. I counted 10 steps in a row yesterday. She is quite steady, but she gets so excited that she starts trying to run and then falls, or she breaks her walk by leaping into our arms. The look on her face is precious.

At daycare, Claudia has been in the toddler room for 2 weeks now. Her first week was a little rough, but she's doing great now. I actually think she's napping better in her new room because the whole classroom goes down for a nap at the same time, so she sometimes goes for 2-1/2 hours. They have a great outdoor space for the toddlers that has a rubber floor and lots of tunnels and other toys for climbing on. She has become more adventurous lately and is a wild woman in the evenings playing with toy after toy. We are seeing an emerging preference for her right hand. She eats and throws a ball right-handed. She also loves to shake her head "no" and knows what "all done" means.

Glen was out of town last week at a gene therapy conference in Washington D.C. and he also took the train to Baltimore one day to do a seminar. Claudia & I fared well except the first night he was gone when we had an incident involving diarrhea, the bathtub, and several soiled items. Not the best time for our washing machine to be broken. The rest of the week was better, but we were both very happy to have Glen back in town.

Over the weekend Claudia & I went up to Bellingham to visit my friends the Hindermans and their new baby Jada who is two months old. Jada is a very sweet good natured baby and I enjoyed cuddling with her. Normally Claudia would be very jealous of this, but Auntie Gina came over (remember she lives in Bellingham too), so Claudia tolerated it because she had her Auntie. Unlike when she was a little baby, she does not let anyone hold her except us, her favorite teachers, grandpa and grandma, and her aunties. While this is normal, not all kids have such a strong "stranger danger".

The pool at our condo complex opened for the season, so Claudia & I went for a swim. She wanted me to hold her the whole time, but she did good and we bobbed around for about 30 minutes. I couldn't get a photo while in the pool, but this is her swimsuit before we went out.