Steps???

Josh and I are doing what most new parents do and what most experienced parents say we are going to regret... trying to get James to walk! James can get up and cruise around quite well at this point. If you hold onto his hands or if he is holding onto a walker, he can walk to the mailbox and back. He can also let go with both hands and stand for a few seconds (though this doesn't usually last long because he doesn't stay still very long!) He has also recently discovered the exercise ball (which lives under the ping pong table so it takes some adventure to find) which is just about the coolest thing ever invented!!! He loves to stand with the ball and use it as a walker to walk across the room. This is quite a challenge and so much fun to watch because the ball is not very stable at all but James has gotten quite skilled at it. That's when we got mean... James would stand by himself so we would move the ball a foot or two away from him and he would take 2-4 steps without holding onto anything to try to get the ball. Then collapse onto the ball! It was so cute to watch and we even got a few steps on the video camera! I don't reallly count these as his first real steps but....

Today at daycare, James stood up by pulling on my pants then let go and stood next to me. I took a large step back to allow him to stand by himself and he took two steps over to me... and fell down! It was so cute to see him take 2 steps on his own again! He even did it one more time when we got home tonight!!!

Experienced mommies tell me that I should be pushing him over and holding him down because once he is walking, he will be running, and I will constantly be trying to catch up with him. But, it's so darn cute and so wonderful that I just can't do that! Please remind me of all this in a month or two when I am complaining about everything that he is getting into and that he is moving non-stop!

Okay, off to bed for me. I am a little on the tired side and could use some sleep considering that I didn't go to bed until 11:30 last night and James was up crying at 4:45 this morning because he is sick/teething. (I never really know until the teeth appear or don't appear!) Love to all!!!