Houston, we have liftoff!

Well, last night he did it. Just this week I was saying to a friend that I have always assumed that Luke would walk before his 2nd birthday, but now that is only a couple of weeks away and it hasn't seemed to be getting any closer to happening.

Luke has pretty good tone generally, but his core strength (more the lack of!) has always been his weakness. So he can spider crawl as fast as Spiderman himself, and his mum has to run to catch him at times. He can do a 'traditional' crawl too, usually to show off, if he feels like it. He can also bum shuffle, so he can carry stuff. Luke can also climb onto the couch, bounce himself on the tramp, play in the toilet, fish things out of the dishwasher, open and close the microwave, get himself outside into the garden and head for the sand pit. He doesn't see what the big deal is about walking.

Well last night, as Neil was putting Ben to bed, I had Luke propped up against the couch. Standing up. And I was trying to encourage him to take that step. The first one. Again.

So, he did. Not just one, but two. And lots more times. Neil could hear me go supersonic through the wall. I haven't felt so very proud in a while. He got up to 4 steps. He's a star.

This morning he tried out his new trick for Ben. I don't think there is a prouder big brother in New Zealand today.

He would not, however, walk to Emily. Call that karma for all the times she drags him around like he is her personal assistant, and won't put him down, even if he grizzles. She is not too happy about that!

Now I need to think about when to move him to a proper bed from the cot. Any suggestions?