Walking!

Ever since my post a month or so ago, Hunter has just been taking a step or two on his own terms. We tried to encourage him but he was never in the mood to walk - he would just bend his back and refuse to stand every time we tried. So, we decided to just let him do his own thing and when he decided he wanted to walk, we would help him.

On Friday, January 8th, we were over at our friend's (the Lamb's) house. We were eating dinner and since Hunter had already eaten, he was playing with the kitchen cabinets. I was talking to my friend when out of the corner of my eye, I saw Hunter moving towards me but he wasn't crawling... he was walking! I looked over at him and he had made it halfway across the kitchen! As soon as he saw me looking at him, he immediately dropped to the floor and crawled the rest of the way to me. It was so awesome! We tried to encourage him to walk between me and Josh the rest of the night but he had no desire to.

The next day after church, Hunter was playing in my room. He was opening a drawer that has hats in it and he decided he wanted me to wear one of the hats he found. So, he WALKED halfway across the room to put it on my head! I tried to encourage it again and this time he cooperated! I stood him up at the footboard of my bed (so he could grab something to get his balance) and he would walk from the end of my bed to me! It was like 2 - 3 feet of space!

When Josh got home (he is the ward clerk so he does tithing after church), I told him what had happened, so he wanted to see for himself. I stood Hunter up and had him walk to his dad! It was like a scene out of a movie or something - it was adorable! Both of them were very happy!

In the past week and a half, Hunter has gotten very good at walking. At first he would just walk if I encouraged him to but with every day that comes and goes, he is crawling less and less. In fact, today is the first day that he has been walking around more than he has crawled around! It's so amazing how far he's come in such a short amount of time! He is even walking around with stuff in his hands! That's one of his favorite things to do now... he picks up an object then walks it to me to show me what he found! He also walks around with his arms straight in front of him for balance. He looks like a little Frankenstein walking around the house! It's so cute!

So, without further ado, here is a video of him walking! I "jimmy-rigged" my camera in his high chair so I could record this without Josh being home... pretty crafty, eh? This video also includes a couple of other things too... him doing a weird dance and him laying down next to me when I lay down (he does it EVERY time I lay down - it's one of my favorites). Enjoy! :)