Frankenstein in a Sun Hat

Marin started walking, what, a week ago. That video of her up, down and all around was the start of it. She hasn't quit. She walks slower than she crawls, but if she wants to get somewhere, she puts in the effort - rolls onto her feet, sticks her butt up in the air and springs to attention. She's a walker now. Still a drunken walker, but a walker nonetheless. Actually, the "drunken sailor" image doesn't quite do it justice. She's a Frankenstein walker. Straight legs, stiff knees, swaying side-to-side. But she's proud of what she's doing ... Oh so proud! And she's still doing laps. Practicing, as we call it.

Tonight I was playing around with Marin and Silje trying to get them to wear a hat of Ailey's. Hat on ... hat off. Hat on ... hat off. That's how it goes with babies, right? Then Marin decided wearing the hat was what she wanted to do. Forget sharing with her sister, or even her mom. Wear the hat, walk laps. Sheesh. What's cuter than a baby in a too-big hat?!

And a video of it, of course:

If At First She Don't Succeed ...

... Marin will Try and Try Again! Holy Cow, this girl is hilarious. Today Marin decided, in the space of about 60 seconds, that she could stand up and walk. Since Christmas Day she has "officially" been taking steps. ("Cruising" has been going on for a long time.) After a few days of obligingly walking when we would stand her up and let go, she lost interest and would usually just fall to her knees and crawl where ever. However, today something clicked and now she can't get enough of her new skill - or skills - stand up, walk, fall down, stand up, walk, fall down, stand up ... over and over and over....

I was doing my usual torture of standing her up and trying to coax her into taking those few steps. She was having fun with it, then we both all of a sudden realized she had just stood up on her own, i.e. not using furniture or a person to push up on. She was very proud, as she always is when she stands-no-hands, and she continued for about the next 15 minutes to "practice" standing up, then walking. She did this obsessive thing when she first learned to sit herself up. I think I have a video of that comedy too - sit-up, hands-and-knees, sit-up, hands-and-knees, over and over and over....

This latest Marin comedy had Ailey and me cracking up - imagine the "drunken sailor" and you'll get the picture. Better yet, watch the video: (a 3 minute video, but how better to see how repetitive and obsessive it was!)

Even funnier was at the end of those 15 mintues of "practice", when she was so tired out all she could do was stand up, fall down, stand up, fall down. After a bit of rest and some dinner she was able to perform for Andy when he got home. Good girl!

And not to leave Silje out, she is a super-fast crawler so we were expecting her to keep doing that for a while longer. But maybe Marin has inspired her, or maybe it's just her time too, because the past couple days she has been taking a few steps of her own: (a short 5 second video)