Walking... but only with cheering.

Luke took his first two steps on October 18th, when he was almost 11 months old. It was at a ward party when he was standing beside his little friend and without thinking just took the two steps to be closer to her. Yep, a ladies man. Chris was so proud.

The next day, with the whole family watching, we practiced. (pictures above) With each step the kids clapped and cheered and Lukey could feel the excitement. He's learned that his actions could elicite such a response, but this was something else. He beamed as he took 9 steps. Whenever he lost his balance and landed on his padded bum the kids exploded with cheers, and Lukey, unable to contain his own excitement clapped for himself. It was adorable.

Since then Luke has been working on beating his record. Just yesterday Lukey made it34 steps. Why keep counting? Because there are a few in this family anxious to keep and beat records (big brother Ryan)... and because Luke still prefers crawling. He walks the four steps from the table to the chair and a few steps here and there but mostly he likes to fall down and clap for himself or just get where he's going faster... by crawling.

He is definitely a walker... he just saves it for big audiences and lots of cheering.

oh, the thing in his mouth? We gave him a toy to hold to distract him. He put it right in his mouth like a dog. What a boy.