Oh. My. Goodness..

Oh my goodness Oh my goodness Oh my goodness...

The day is here. The day I've been waiting so very very VERY impatiently for. 

The day 28 months and 23 days in the making.. (But who's keeping track, really??)

Just an ordinary day turned extraordinary.

Ella is walking.

Did you hear me???

I can barely type this I am so excited.

Ella is WALKING!!!

Let me back up a little.. Ella has been doing SO good lately walking between things, walking backwards, stopping on her own, turning around, spinning circles, climbing bunkbed ladders..

basically everything but walking on her own. The past few days I've thought, "Wow! She is SO close.." but I didn't want to say anything because well.. I feel like I'm always saying that. "She's so close guys! She really is! No seriously, this time I mean it.. Any day now!" 

Last night she was walking all around the living room and JJ and I were talking about when we could officially declare her 'walking'. I mean.. it's been such a gradual process. Her first steps over 6 months ago, walking between people, walking to an inanimate object, letting go of an object to walk to a person, walking between objects, stopping and starting on her own, and now walking in circles around a room. I still didn't feel like she was truly "walking" though. I told him I thought I could declare it when she started walking from room to room on her own, something she was still timid about last night.

Well, the time has come. This morning as I fished a nerf gun bullet out of the toilet, 3 magnets out of the trash can, and chased Ella through the house to change her diaper, I realized that it's official.

Ella is WALKING!

For something I've thought about and dreamed about for so long and wondered how I'd feel and what I'd say, I am finding myself totally speechless and taken aback. I'm sure I'll have more to say in the coming days as I figure out what this means and how this changes my life. But for now? For now I am going to sit back and enjoy this day and relish every single moment of watching my girl run around the house-no matter what I have to fish out of the toilet.