Maya is 15 months old today. She does a lot of really wonderful things that I’m happy to talk about. The first question people ask though is inevitably, “Is she walking yet?” The answer is no, but that doesn’t keep her from getting around in style.
Her Lolli and Pop got her a YBike Pewi for Christmas. Maya was a little wobbly at first but in a few short weeks had mastered walking, running, turning, backing up, and skidding to a stop by lightly dragging her feet. She’s to the point now where she can get on and off the YBike by herself too, which is interesting to watch because it has castors instead of fixed wheels, so it rolls very freely and in any direction.

It’s so much fun to watch her ride that thing. She can run all over the house, often for 20-30 minutes at a time. We don’t generally let her play with her toys while she’s on it, so she’ll ride back to her room, hop off her bike and play with her books for a while. Then she’ll hop back on, cruise around for a while, eventually stopping in her play room to work on her toys. Sometimes she even trucks it into the kitchen to her high chair and pats her chest to say “please”. I think she’s really enjoying her new degree of independence.

Wind chimes!

We take the YBike outside to play too. Maya is especially fond of riding it in the back yard (where we barely *have* a yard) so she can occasionally walk over and ding the wind chimes. She’s endlessly obsessed with leaves and sticks, so there are lots of stops to examine those things as well.

Leaves!

Since Maya had gotten so strong on the YBike, nanny Anna tried her out on the little alligator push toy that she had received as a hand-me-down from friends of ours. Where it would get away from her before, she’s mastered it now. It’s a little too heavy for her to turn on her own, but in a straight line, she’s solid, clacking down the hall, often at speed. Sometimes she even whips out a combination move: riding her YBike while pushing her alligators.

The alligators clack – you can hear her coming

When she’s not on her bike or walking her alligators, her little sponge-brain is working things out. She knows several signs (please, thank you, book, ball), can point to many of her body parts when asked about them (including her butt – HA!), pick a specific book or toy out of a pile on request, and gently pet the cats (each of whom she knows by name). She relates the photos on the wall to real people and relates the pictures in books to real objects. She has even recently been putting things away a little bit instead of working to remove every toy from every bin everywhere in the house. She is free with her affection and has a fantastic sense of humor.

No, Maya isn’t walking yet, but she learns so many things so quickly that we’re not worried. She’ll do it once she decides she wants to.