It's her 9 month birthday...

and she'll take her first (official) steps if she wants too!!!!!!

Please read her 9 month birthday post to catch yourself up to speed with her walking but tonight, she took 5 steps, twice, and it was all her idea.

The first time she was hanging on to the ottoman and Tom's feet as he was sitting on the couch snuggling with Donovan. I was sitting on the floor about 3-4 feet away from her and she was reaching for me, doing that "come here" thing she does with her hand that she does when she wants you or wants something. So I held out my arms and said, "Ok come here" not thinking she would and just like that, she let go, and took 5 steps all the way to me! We were shocked! She did it without us having to give her the idea first (ie pull our fingers out of her hands). Then, just like that she did it again. Then she tried to do it about 50 more times but this was 7:15pm and she was obviously happy and tired and excited all at the same time so after the first two, the rest were pretty good tries, but pretty sloppy. She was just speed walking/diving all over the place. But still, the first two tries really counted and she was great! And she really knows how to take a licking and keep ticking. She just wipes out and gets back up and tries again. Falling does not phase her. We will try to get some video of it soon. We got some tonight but it was after her better tries and it is really long and we are too tired to crop it right now. Exciting non-the-less!