One step at a time

I'm not sure what I expected when I thought about Brooke learning to walk but I know it hasn't quite been what I thought.  I guess I always imagined the mom and the dad sitting on the floor and the baby walking between them.  We tried this with Brooke and it simply doesn't work, at least not yet. She does much better when we aren't paying her any attention and she isn't thinking too hard about what she is doing.

As of right now I would not say Brooke is walking.  She is taking steps (literally and figuratively) towards getting there... and I'm not sure at what point I'll consider her to be a full blown walker... but I wanted to document some of her progress so far. 

Back in the beginning of June (9 months) she started cruising around on the furniture and her little toy play table.  She quickly mastered the side-step but struggled walking forward even if we were holding her hands. Lots of walking on her toes and dragging her feet. At the end of June we took our trip to Oregon and being at the different grandparent's homes opened up all new opportunities to walk around and explore. 

She learned how to push apart the ottoman in Baker and loved walking around and thru it.  This helped her become more comfortable walking in a forward motion.
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I would say that she took her "first step" while in Baker.  It was a half step between the ottoman and the couch but it was all on her own without holding on to anything. 

In Oregon we practiced with this walking toy but she would get so excited and walk too fast and lean too far.
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She would still step between furniture but only if she wasn't thinking about it. If we ever tried to make her she would just lean and fall or get too scared.
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Once back in Texas she has really improved.  She now takes multiple steps between her toys and the furniture.  She still gets ahead of herself and often falls face forward into the floor/couch. Or she her legs will wobble underneath her and she fall hard on her bum. But not even the little bruise on her head has stopped her from practicing.
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With every passing day she gets more control and is better able to walk with a purpose. Stop and stand when she needs to and then take a few more steps.   She also has gotten much better with her walking toy and has better control.  Smarty pants even realized that when she "dead-ends" all she has to do is walk around the toy and push it back the way she came.
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It sure has been fun watching her learn new skills but I'm not sure I'm ready for her to be fully mobile!