Where to begin....Maddie walking

Photo of Maddie in February before walking.

Lets see here, where to begin? Well I havent written since November so I am going to back track a little bit but not that far. I am going to begin in the new year. Over the past 7 months a few things have happened in our little family. One of the biggest and long awaited events(at least for my aching back) was Maddie learning to walk.
I am going to be honest, there were a few moments when I doubted that Madeline was ever going to walk. It was like she loved crawling, I dont blame her it seemed like an excellent mode of transportation, very solid and safe. The only problem really with crawling was she couldn't carry things around and of course the park/playground wasnt as fun as it could be. She was an excellent crawler, climber, she could stand completely up with no support and turn around without falling, she climbed stairs, she even could take a step or two by herself but she always went down on her knees to get around. It didnt really bother me that she didnt walk, although I really wanted her to for her 18 month doctors appointment, I had read that if children didnt walk by their 18 month check up some doctors suggest physical therapy for the child and I really didnt want that. So we did all that we could to get her to join the world of the bipeds. We bribed her with food, toys, puppies, kittens, you name it, all a no go. We would try to hold her hands and guide her like they show on TV, happy parents teaching their happy children to walk, no way, as soon as she realized what we were trying to do she would start crying and flop out on the ground in protest. It was like she knew we wanted her to walk but she was going to do on her own time. She would not walk for Daniel and I but she would walk for was my two young nieces. So while I went to work temporarily in late MArch/early April, Maddie learned to walk at my mom's house with her two nieces helping her. So I am not really certain when exactly she walked more than three steps and I didnt get any pictures of it but at least she was walking by eighteen months of age. So here are a few pics of my little nonwalker.

Above is a photo of her at the park, as a crawler she started walking on the back of her hands so that she could carry stuff, here she has a rock in each hand (she loves rocks). She even learned to tuck things under her neck to help her carry things and crawl at the same time.

Above is a photo of Maddie in her favorite hiding spot, under the island in the kitchen.

Here she is with the pink batman tee shirt her daddy bought her.

Here is my little crawler showing just how great she was at standing and reaching. She is trying to show me what she wants for lunch.

Here she is looking sheepish on the stairs.

And last but not least, this is the first photo of her that we have where she is actually walking, this was taken March 21, 2011.