Pitter Patter Pitter Patter Walking Feet

At 22 months old, Ellie is 31-1/2 inches tall and 24 pounds. She is 1/4 potty trained, and she has learned to walk!!!

In June, Ellie started climbing up onto the furniture. She started spontaneously pushing a push toy around the house earlier this month. Next she made a game out of standing up on her own in the middle of the room. Then she started rushing down the hall independently at school with a reverse walker. Finally, on Monday night, she walked two steps from her LeapFrog play table to where Daddy was lying on the floor. We were both stunned. Wednesday at school she was walking independently for up to 7 steps at a time. Wow. Just, wow.

I should explain now that the only TV Ellie watches is Dora the Explorer. She is not interested in any other TV (for more than about a minute) but man does she love that Dora. Her PT likes it because Ellie stands to watch the show. Her speech therapist likes it because Ellie (sometimes) follows the prompts aloud. I like it because there are no commercials and it features a brave, adventurous heroine. For toddler TV, it's not so evil. Months ago, Ellie and I were at Target when she saw Dora's backpack, cleverly named Backpack.

At that point, she had a Dora book and had seen the show a couple of times, but Ellie wanted that backpack. I thought that a backpack for a 1-year-old who couldn't even walk around wouldn't be too useful, so I told her that I'd buy it for her as a present when she learned to walk. I had no idea that she heard and understood me, but I mentioned it to my mom on the phone this morning, and Ellie wouldn't go down for her afternoon nap until we'd gone to Target to get Backpack. And it was worth the wait. She is smitten. As am I, of course.