We have a walker!

Ruby took her official first steps tonight! I say official because she's taken one or two steps in the last couple days, but more like leaning or falling. Tonight was 6 or 7 steps, back and forth between Mom and Dad. Added bonus was that we were on a video call with my Mom so she got to see some of Ruby's very first steps in live time.

She's been getting more bold and willing to transfer from furniture to people to objects, and in the last few days she had been standing for prolonged periods of time, and preferring to walk with one hand instead of holding two.

Both of my other girls didn't walk until close to 14 months. All three were early crawlers so I assumed they'd all walk "early" too, but the older two didn't. Ruby has been watching her sisters and chasing them for a while, so this isn't a huge surprise.

When I came home from Oregon in November I packed this walker that had been at my Mom's. Ruby has been loving pushing it around and getting more comfortable on her own two feet.

It's bittersweet to have these last "firsts." Our last "first steps" with our baby. But in some ways I'm ready for her to be off the dirty floors. We get a lot of funny looks because we put Ruby on the floor just about everywhere we go: at church, in buildings, outside. It seems like that is not very common here. People hold their babies, or put them in harnesses. Or put them on their backs and carry them. It's not common to see crawling babies given free reign, and we definitely get looks of shock or surprise when we let Ruby crawl around. "She's building her immune system," I like to say.

Soon enough, no more dirty knees.

Her birthday is in 9 days. She might be running by then.