It's Official: Griffin is a Walker!

Yes folks, he's done it!  Alert the press...  Just 3 days shy of turning 15 months old, Griffin Hendrix is now officially a walker.  (Holy S@#&!  That's crazy.)

For the past 3 months, I've been asked several times by various people (neighbors, coworkers, relatives, strange old ladies at Market Basket), "Is he walking yet?", and I always have to give my long-winded spiel (babble/excuses/justification for why it's ok that my toddler aged son is not yet toddling) of "Well, almost, I mean, he cruises and stands, and likes walking while holding my fingers, but he's cautious, like he doesn't want to do it on his own until he's perfected his skills which is totally how I am..  yeah, and all of his friends are walking and he's the last one, but he will soon.. any day now.."  Now, I'm finally able to confidently just say "yes", as if Griff's a total veteran, like he's flawlessly walks miles and miles, but let's be real, the kid has taken a total of 5 steps in a row (as of this morning at Aryn's house), just before an almost face plant/stumble.

The progression from "Total Amateur/Never Taken A Step Ever" until "Slightly More Natural 5 Step Walker" went something like this:

3/20/11: Our last morning in Hawaii, I held Griff by the shoulders while he stood up (so he couldn't grab my hands) and Tom coaxed him to walk toward him... Griffin took 2-3 steps.  We celebrated and cheered.  He did another 2 steps from Tom to me, with a lot of encouragement.  (All of this was caught on video too!)

(and click HERE for video #2..)

3/21/11-4/2/11: Not much action at all, other than some random sleep disturbances, and a few times where Griff maybe took 1 or 2 steps (with active encouragement) before reverting back to the crawl.. and who can blame him, as it's so much more efficient.

4/3/11:  Griff took 4 steps at our neighbor Annika's house with a slight bit of coaxing.  I'm convinced it was because he was wearing his new magical walking shoes.  

4/6/11: When I picked Griff up from daycare yesterday, he was standing up a few feet away from me.  I held out my hands and said, "Come to Momma", and he just casually took the 2 steps to me, like it was no big deal.  (FYI: In all of the prior instances Griffin would take some steps, and then have this proud smile on this face that says "I'm the shiz, you should be clapping your butt off for what I just did."

4/7/11:  Today I called it official.  I tested Griff's walking skills this morning just to make sure his few casual steps at daycare weren't just a fluke.  Sure enough, he walked some more this morning, and walked his 5-step marathon at Aryn's...  

Great job Griffin!  Mom and Dad are so proud of you, and we love you so much.