At our 12-month checkup last month, Dr. Rose expressed some concern that Elise was standing and Stella was not. She casually mentioned that if Stella wasn’t up on her feet we might want to consider some physical therapy. Enter Mommy panic mode.

But after thinking about Stella and her general physical milestone attainment, John and I thought it best to wait it out. Stella is on her own schedule. She loves to be held, picked up, and is not very motivated to try new things unless she initiates it. We find she does hit gross motor milestones about a month to six weeks after Elise does. And when she hits them she masters them fairly quickly.

So the other morning when Stella was just yelling her head off and we went to her room to investigate we shouldn’t have been surprised to see her standing in her crib complaining she couldn’t get down. That’s so Stella.

And yesterday she pulled right up on our friends ottoman and just beamed with pride. And this morning she finally took to the kitchen step stool I keep out just so the girls can play on it, grabbing hold and lifting herself on to her feet with no fuss. Until she tried to get down and just, you know, let go. The dismount learning will be quicker than the pull-up learning was, I imagine.

Welcome to the vertical world Stella dear. We are so glad to see you.