  In more precise terms, she took her first step. But it's still amazing. And because it happened yesterday, it's going down in the books as she took her first step at 10 1/2 months (she turned 11 months today). I'm really happy for her accomplishment. To be honest, I've been thinking a lot lately how Aidan was walking (well) by Christmas and we're almost to Christmas and she hadn't even taken a step. I don't want to push her to be good at the things her brother is good at, she's brilliant in her own myriad of ways.
But it was nagging at me just a tiny bit. Aidan took his first step amazingly early at 9 1/2 months, he continued to walk only sporadically until I began sharing a nanny with my neighbors in November of his first year, and their daughter, 6 months older than Aidan, was just the peer pressure he needed to take off on foot. Ellie's been so good at crawling. She's been able to scramble up the big slide at our park for three months now. At one time I worried she wouldn't excel at crawling before moving on to walking because she wanted to be like Aidan so much. Kids who skip crawling or never really master it can sometimes be less coordinated athletically later because their brain didn't really get into that cross-action synapse firing. I knew how very athletic Aidan already is, so I didn't want Ellie to be less capable. She won't be! I've been wondering about our excitement at this event. It's really more than we felt when she spoke momom, dadad, or Aidan the first times.
Maybe it's because we're with family here to get excited alongside us. I think every parent has a few favorite excelling abilities of their children that they like to boast. We've always been especially proud of the kids' early athletic ability. I think that's the biggest reason her first steps are such a big deal to us. We learned early on with Aidan, our first, that each trip we took would mean a significant development for him.
It's still true today. The very different experiences, along with the increased attention and interaction with people, and probably the increased attention from John and me all team up to give the kids giant developmental boosts. The kids have prospered in this way so much from this trip already. Their verbal and physical skills alike are blooming. 
