Fourteen months.

Just in time for this blog post, Ingrid figured out walking. On Sunday she suddenly started walking – instead of lurching a few steps she happily toddled all the way across the room. Yesterday we were out and she didn’t get much chance to practice, but today in nursery she must have spent all day walking because this evening she was doing it quite confidently, even while holding things in both hands. And she’s now standing so confidently that she can bend her knees to pick things up from the floor, to turn and look over her shoulder, and to stretch up both arms to cheer.

Instantly, when she stands up and walks instead of crawling, she looks a lot older. A toddler, not a baby.

Something has also “clicked” for Ingrid about language. She makes a lot of very varied noises, but doesn’t say anything that I can understand, apart from the aitäh and heja she could do earlier. But it’s clear that she understands some things we say. More interestingly she now also wants to know what things are called. She points at things and says “tääh?” which seems to mean “what is that?”. Sometimes she points all the way across the street so that I have no idea what she might be pointing at, but she seems to like bushes, large bright lamps, and trains. She also points and talks while reading her books, and likes us to tell her the name of what she’s pointing at – it’s not just about turning pages any more.

Pointing in general is a new skill, and a very useful one. Meals are more pleasant for everyone when, instead of just screaming, she can point at what she wants. (Mostly she wants fruit. I think she must be a fruitarian. She never seems to tire of mandarins or grapes.)

She’s learned to make new funny noises with her mouth and hands – saying “aaaa” while patting her mouth with her hand so it goes “waaw-waaw-waaw” for example. Or saying “www” while moving a finger up and down across her lips so they vibrate. Current favourite toy: the long cardboard tube from a roll of wrapping paper. She puts it in her mouth and “talks” into it and listens to the booming noise that comes out at the other end.

We’re also making a fresh effort with baby signing. We’re starting with “more”, “eat” and “nurse” because those should be most useful for all of us. Hmm, maybe we should add something for “train”, so we have something that’s fun and not just useful?